Three elements have come together – one planned, one unpredictable and one unforeseen – to create a perfect storm of Bassmaster Elite Series drama at Lake Fork Nov. 5-8. From Bassmaster Angler of the Year to Rookie of the Year to a handful of Bassmaster Classic berths, a fascinating number of scenarios will be in play at the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Let’s begin with what was planned when the 2020 schedule was announced. It didn’t include a season-ending Angler of the Year Championship, which since 2014 had included only the top 50 anglers in AOY points. That top 50 format was, inadvertently, a drama-killer. It eliminated the volatility in points that occurs in all the other full-field events.
In regular season full-field events, first-place is worth 100 points and each place down the standings is worth one point less. With the current 85-man field, last place is worth 16 points, provided the angler catches at least one bass over two days. No bass, no points.
Here’s an example of how the possibilities are limited when only 50 anglers compete. Clark Wendlandt left Santee Cooper Lakes on Oct. 11 with a total of 587 AOY points. He had a 47-point lead over third-place David Mullins. If the following week’s Chickamauga Lake event had included only 50 anglers, Wendlandt could have finished last and earned 51 points. If Mullins finished 18th, worth 83 points, as he did at Chickamauga, Wendlandt would still have had a 15-point lead over Mullins. However, Wendlandt finished 81st, earned only 20 points, and Mullins has 16-point lead over Wendlandt, who is now third in the AOY standings.
As for the unpredictable, In most years there’s no way to know whether one angler will have a near insurmountable lead in AOY points before the season-ending event. It has happened in the past. But that’s not the case this year. Mullins has merely a five-point lead over Elite Series rookie Austin Felix, and the top five anglers – Mullins (623), Felix (618), Wendlandt (607), Jake Whitaker (594) and Kyle Welcher (592) – are separated by only 31 points. So, yeah, plenty of drama.
As for the Rookie of the Year race, Felix leads Welcher by 26 points. Taku Ito is third, 63 points behind Welcher.
Finally, there’s the unforeseen, namely the COVID-19 pandemic. It forced the Elite Series schedule to be completely reshuffled after the Bassmaster Classic at Lake Guntersville on March 6-8. The season-ending event in the original schedule was at Lake St. Clair on Aug. 20-23. The Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest was scheduled June 5-9, as the sixth in a nine-tournament slate.
Texas Fest has always included some bonuses bigger than the other regular season events. First place is worth $125,000 instead of $100,000, and the angler with the biggest bass of the tournament receives a Toyota Tundra. But what can be the biggest prize for the winner, depending upon his AOY rank to that point, is an automatic berth in the 2021 Bassmaster Classic. It seems fitting that in this crazy year, there would be a single automatic Classic berth available to every angler, no matter how far down the list he is in AOY points, in this final Elite Series event of the 2020.
You can’t overestimate what it means for these guys to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic. Qualifying for the Classic signals a successful season for the angler, his family, his sponsors and his future in the sport. The top 39 anglers in the final AOY points list qualify for the 2021 Classic. However, that number grows each season by a varying amount based on double-qualifiers.
For instance, as the 2020 Classic champion, Hank Cherry is automatically qualified for the 2021 Classic. Cherry is currently 43rd in AOY points. If he moves inside the top 39 Classic cut at Lake Fork, it would move the AOY list down another spot to 40.
If an angler wins Texas Fest at Lake Fork who is inside the AOY Classic cut, it would move the Classic qualifiers list down another spot to 41.
The Classic double-qualifiers grow also from Bassmaster Opens winners. A Classic berth is awarded to each of the eight Opens winners. Elite Series angler Patrick Walters won the Eastern Open on Lake Hartwell in September. He currently ranks 11th in AOY points. A prerequisite for Classic qualification for an Opens winner is that he competes in all four tournaments of the division, whether Eastern or Central. Walters won’t officially be double-qualified until he competes in the other two Eastern Opens remaining on the schedule, but that’s a given. So the AOY Classic cut mark starts at 39, has moved to 40, if you count Walters it could be 42 after Texas Fest, depending on Cherry’s AOY finish and whether the tournament winner is Classic qualified via AOY.
There is still one Eastern Open on the revised schedule – Dec. 3-5 at Alabama’s Lay Lake. There is one Central Open tournament remaining – Nov. 19-21 at Texas’ Lewisville Lake.
So no matter what happens at Lake Fork, the automatic qualifiers from the final AOY points standings won’t be known until that final Eastern Open at December at Lay Lake.
But, again, with this full-field format in the final event, there will likely be several ups and downs in the AOY points around that 40th place-mark. The following are some examples that occurred between Santee Cooper and Chickamauga:
- Chad Pipkens finished seventh at Chickamauga and moved from 51st to 42nd in AOY points.
- Ed Loughran III finished ninth and moved from 50th to 41st.
- Bill Lowen finished 11th and moved from 46th to 40th.
- Gerald Swindle finished 12th and moved from 54th to 47th.
There are infinite scenarios around the Classic cut line when only 55 points separate 35th place and 50th place, as they do now.
Yes, this all gets a bit wonky. But in summation, there’s this: Thanks to a perfect storm of events, there will be more drama in an Elite Series final tournament of the year than there has ever been before.