Summer turned to fall recently with the passing of Labor Day, and things are about wrapped up for the 2015 professional tournament season. The lone exception, of course, is the upcoming Bassmaster AOY Championship at Sturgeon Bay.
Obviously, the original purpose of the event was to add suspense while determining the Bassmaster Angler of the Year, hence the name. Aaron Martens, however, deflated any hopes of drama in that department by winning the title early through a miraculous fishing season. Such a feat deserves closer inspection.
Martens completed the most dominant performance in Elite Series history, racking up two regular season wins and seven Top-15 finishes. Only his 66th-place bomb at Guntersville kept Martens from accruing a point total that may never again be matched in the Elite Series. Or perhaps it’s just the start of something more.
Remember Edwin Evers? Yeah, he also won twice this year, nearly won a third event at Havasu, and placed 5th in AOY standings. Many pros fish their entire career and never win, or do so once or twice over a period of decades. Evers did it twice in one summer and never really threatened to win the AOY title.
As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, such performances are truly inspiring, and a sign that we’re witnessing a transition in pro fishing.
Long ago, we heard from the visionaries of the game about unlimited human potential, taking the sport to the next level,and use of the phrase “no limits”. Without question, we witnessed examples of that this season. Such dominating performances and milestone victories destroy doubt from the minds of the hungriest competitors, and reassure them that anything’s possible.
Sure, Evers went back-to-back. Logically, the next step will be three wins in a season; possibly three-in-a-row. And I think it’s just a matter of time before we see more repeat Classic winners, or watch VanDam take down a fifth. Anything’s possible.
I remember an interview with KVD a few years back in which he referred to the competition on the Elite Series getting better and better, and how it motivated him to perform at a higher level. It was a major driving force, he said, in his success. We’re seeing that compounded now.
Heading in to the AOY Championship isn’t without some sort of drama, however. Lots of Classic spots will be determined, with the bottom half of the field still in limbo. Every competitor earns at least 50 points, and rightfully so to prevent any major upheaval and continue to reward consistency, but we’ll likely see some movement.
The fishermen near the bottom of the field, like Ish Monroe or Jeff Kriet, will need miracles in the form of a win to have a real shot at making the Classic. But anything’s possible; we’ve seen examples of this before, like when Iaconelli won an Open after the Elite season was over, sneaking into the big show.
Those anglers in the “meat of the hunt”, like 25th through around 40th place currently, will certainly receive the most attention. Some big names find themselves there: guys like Brett Hite, Gerald Swindle and Todd Faircloth. Without question, many are simply trying to focus on consistency and catching respectable bags each day one last time.
The chosen venue should help their cause. Sturgeon Bay will, undoubtedly, be a limit-factory. While the fishery slightly lacks the numbers of some other smallmouth venues, like St. Clair or Champlain, it’s still loaded with fish. I would guess 95 percent of the field will weigh limits.
And, by now, we’ve all heard about the size of the fish recently caught at Sturgeon Bay. Each spring, a local tournament brings in monsters surpassing 6 pounds, and often 7. While this occurs during the prime, cold-water big-fish period, it’s still proof that Sturgeon Bay may currently be the best trophy smallmouth water in America.
I doubt we’ll see any 7-pound fish come across the stage this time of year, but we’ll certainly see a bunch of 20-pound bags. Such sacks would certainly cause a stir in the standings at most fisheries, however, here on a big-water smallmouth venue, we’ll likely see less impact. The reason lies in the overall large size of even mediocre fish. Competitors here will have a hard time catching a limit weighing any less than 15 pounds. Sturgeon Bay grows some chunks.
In any case, the final derby will be fun to watch. I’ll be secretly rooting for a few friends, hoping their Classic dreams are fulfilled. It will also be fun to see if a leviathan bronzeback can be pulled from the depths.
But A-Mart ruined the real drama; his inspiring performance ending hopes for an AOY nail-biter. Truthfully, I’m glad he did.
(Joe Balog is the often-outspoken owner of Millennium Promotions, Inc., an agency operating in the fishing and hunting industries. A former Bassmaster Open and EverStart Championship winner, he's best known for his big-water innovations and hardcore fishing style. He's a popular seminar speaker, product designer and author, and is considered one of the most influential smallmouth fishermen of modern times.)
