DeFoe enters Stage Six atop Bally Bet AOY standings, but Ebare, Becker, Jones lurking

Bally Bet AOY leader Ott DeFoe enters Stage Six with a 28-point lead on Dakota Ebare and a pack pursuing. Anglers: Ott DeFoe, Dakota Ebare, Matt Becker, Alton Jones Jr..

June 22, 2023 • Joel Shangle • Bass Pro Tour

As the Bass Pro Tour enters the final two laps of the 2023 season in the Natural State – Michigan’s Lake St. Clair and Saginaw Bay for Stages Six and Seven, respectively – the Bally Bet Angler of the Year Race appears to be destined to run deep into the final week of the seven-tournament season.

AOY leader Ott DeFoe (360 points) carries a marginally comfortable lead into General Tire Stage Six Presented by John Deere Utility Vehicles, on a familiar St. Clair fishery with a not-too-familiar pursuer – Dakota Ebare (332 points) – on his heels and a handful of others trailing.

DeFoe is DeOne to beat – 360 points

Team Mercury pro Ott DeFoe find himself in familiar territory – atop the AOY standings – heading into Stage Six. Photo by Joel Shangle

DeFoe is the sport’s most contemporary example of “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride” in the context of Angler of the Year awards. The Mercury pro finished second in the BPT AOY race in consecutive years – trailing Jordan Lee by 19 points in 2020 and losing out to Jacob Wheeler by 34 points in 2021 – and has earned seven AOY Top 10s in 12 years since bursting onto the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2011.

Without editorializing too much, it seems that DeFoe’s AOY time is coming, fast.

DeFoe isn’t a Top 10 regular in fisheries dominated by smallmouth – which St. Clair is sure to be – but he’s no slouch, either, usually finishing in the top third of the standings and occasionally popping a Top 10. He’s also a bit of a magician with his ability to conjure up patterns and spots on the fly, as most recently proven during an 18-pound flurry in the final 40 minutes of his second qualifying day at Lake Guntersville, which helped propel him from the bottom 10 in his group and over the Toro Cut Line.

DeFoe would eventually fish his way into the Championship Round of that event, earning 71 AOY points vs. the 13 to 15 he would’ve earned if he hadn’t engineered that 18-pound explosion.

Ebare lurks in second – 332 points

Dakota Ebare’s stellar season has him in second place in the AOY race heading into the final two events. Photo by Tyler Brinks

If there’s one angler a leader would least like to see lurking in his rearview mirror as the race surges north, it’s Ebare. The Texas pro is not only enjoying a sensational 2023 season (two wins, multiple top fives, approaching $400,000 in winnings), but he’s a handful whenever brown fish enter the picture. Ebare is 4-for-4 earning Top 10s in the smallmouth fisheries the Bass Pro Tour has visited in his two years on the circuit, and notched a couple of additional second-place finishes in smallie country while fishing the Pro Circuit.

Ebare gained 20 points on DeFoe at Cayuga Lake, finishing third to DeFoe’s 23^rd, and seems “all in” on finishing out the 2023 Bass Pro Tour schedule with a flourish – he skipped Tackle Warehouse Invitational Stop 5 on the Potomac River last week to pre-practice on Saginaw Bay. And while he’s never fished a derby out of St. Clair, Ebare was one of a small handful of anglers who ran all the way to St. Clair during the 2022 Pro Circuit Super Tournament out of Sandusky, Ohio, and has spent a few days driving around the lake in previous years.

“I don’t know it know it, but I have a little bit of knowledge to start with,” Ebare said of St. Clair. “These northern fisheries just suit me, and it doesn’t matter if it’s smallmouth or largemouth. I just like to fish for fish that bite.”

Becker continues steady climb – 316.5 points

Matt Becker has enjoyed a steady climb into the upper echelon of the AOY race. Photo by Garrick Dixon

The breakout success story of the 2023 BPT rookie class to date, Tennessee pro Matt Becker started the season with a middle-of-the-pack finish at the Kissimmee Chain (47^th) in February but hasn’t finished worse than 23^rd since. His climb up the AOY standings has been unwavering since the start of the year, surging from 47^th to 14^th from Stage One to Stage Three, and from 14^th to third from Stage Three to Stage Five while socking away three top fives.

Becker likes the brown fish in Great Lakes fisheries, too. He’s fished the Northern Division of the Toyota Series for seven years, collecting a handful of Top 10s on places like Lake Erie, the 1,000 Islands and the Detroit River.

Jones Jr. is on a roll at the right time – 311.5 points

Alton Jones Jr.’s recent roll should continue at smallmouth-loaded Lake St. Clair. Photo by Garrick Dixon

One could make the case that Alton Jones Jr. is the hottest angler on the Bass Pro Tour roster right now. In his last four tournaments, Jones finished 11^th at both Lake Murray and Lake Guntersville, fifth at Cayuga and won Heavy Hitters by 59 pounds on Bussey Brake. The Mercury pro’s average finish in that time is seventh.

If not for a middle-of-the-pack finish at Cherokee/Douglas lakes at Stage Two (43^rd), “Junior” would be creeping up on Ebare for second place in the AOY race.

Jones is also a wizard with forward-facing sonar and a top-shelf smallmouth angler with a literal lifetime of experience fishing for brown fish on the Great Lakes. He fished as a co-angler with his dad for three years in an annual Skeeter Owner’s Tournament out Lake Erie and remembers catching smallmouth in Bris Bay and the Detroit River when he was 9 or 10 years old.

“I can remember having some amazing day on those fisheries, but it’s still intimidating to think about the challenge that St. Clair fishery presents,” Jones said. “I’ve had success in the past by being good at forward-facing sonar – the fish tend to roam and can be hard to pinpoint, so it’s really a feast or famine place. I’m excited to compete up here, it fits my strengths, but it’s still intimidating to think about the potential of what it takes to really do well on St. Clair.”

Other AOY notables

Edwin Evers has hovered in the top five for most of the 2023 season. Photo by Tyler Brinks

Edwin Evers (310 points) enters Stage Six in fourth place in Angler of the Year standings, the highest ranking the Oklahoma pro has held this late in the season since he claimed the Bass Pro Tour’s inaugural AOY title in 2019. It doesn’t sound quite right to call 2023 a “bounceback” for the Mercury pro, but he’s definitely fishing consistently better than he did in 2022, when his average finish over the last four tournaments of the year was 57th. Evers’ success on Great Lakes smallmouth fisheries has come in flurries, too, so don’t be surprised if he accelerates to finish the season; he pulled down three Top 20s (including a win) in less than two months on St. Clair, the St. Lawrence River and Sturgeon Bay in 2016, he’s capable of stacking up points in stages Six and Seven.
There’s no more fascinating AOY case than that of two-time defending Angler of the Year Jacob Wheeler, who enters Stage Six in fifth place with 305.5 points and on the outside looking in for the chance at a third consecutive trophy. Wheeler had one bomb (75^th at Stage Three Lake Murray), but has finished 11^th, eighth, first and fourth in the other four BPT events and was also fourth at REDCREST and 13^th at Heavy Hitters. The Tennessee pro is mathematically still in the hunt, and based on his finishes in the final two regular-season BPT tournaments of the 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons (11^th, second, fifth, first, 17^th, ninth, seventh, first), Wheeler’s performance trend says that he’ll rack up another 148 points by the end of the season. That would mean 453.5 AOY points – good enough for second and third in the two seasons the BPT competed in seven events.