After impressive participation in its first two years of existence, the Yamaha Rightwaters Bassmaster Kayak Series, powered by TourneyX will feature a brand new title for the 2022 season.
The first ever Old Town Bassmaster Kayak Series Angler of the Year title will award $5,000 as well as a brand new Old Town kayak to the angler who accumulates the most points over the course of the five event season, starting at Lake Fork Feb. 5-6.
“Old Town was a partner of ours last year and wanted bring more attention to the Kayak Series,” Kayak Series tournament director Jon Stewart said. “They wanted to figure out a way to help us grow the series, and we talked about how our other series had an AOY or Team of the Year and we wanted to add that incentive.”
While the Kayak Series has had impressive participation in its short history so far, Stewart said he is excited to see how many additional anglers will participate with an AOY title on the line.
“We already had a few anglers who fished all of the tournaments the first couple of seasons,” Stewart said. “I think it is going to be interesting to see how many more anglers fish all five or four of the five. That’s what I’m looking forward to seeing.”
While the series features a mixture of one- and two-day events, the points system for each event will remain the same. Anglers are not required to fish all five events to be in contention for the AOY title and will be allowed to drop their worst finish of the season.
“No matter what the field size is, first-place will be worth 250 points, and we will go down a single point per angler until we exhaust the points,” Stewart said. “If an angler fishes three and does really well in three, there is a chance they could be the Angler of the Year.”
Along with the top 10% of competitors at the five regional events, the top 25 finishers in points will claim a spot in the 2023 Kayak Series National Championship to be held in conjunction with the Bassmaster Classic, details of which will be announced at a later date.
If an angler double qualifies for the championship in a regional event and the Angler of the Year standings, tournament officials will work down the Angler of the Year standings to determine the next eligible qualifier.
“There’s a good chance that you can fish three tournaments and still qualify for the championship,” Stewart added.
With the Lake Fork event rapidly approaching, Stewart said he is interested to see how the anglers will tackle a lake that has been drawn down due to dam repairs.
“It is early spring, so I think we’ll have an opportunity to see some really big fish,” he said. “They are going to be prespawn and staging and ready to come up. A lot of the ramps have been closed a while because the water is low. The lake hasn’t been getting as much pressure as normal. If the water doesn’t come up to where the boat ramps are fully open, there won’t be as many other fishermen as there normally are and that will be interesting to see how that plays out.”
Following the Fork event, the 2022 regular season will head to the Harris Chain in Florida March 19 before heading to Grand Lake April 16 and Lewis Smith Lake on May 21. The season will wrap up with a two-day event on Pickwick Lake Oct. 8-9.
Fans can follow the Kayak Series all season long on Bassmaster.com.