From local club events to the Bass Pro Tour, if you fish tournaments, the goal is the same – to win the Angler of the Year award. It’s the ultimate measuring stick for who performed the best across the course of a full season.
Thanks to a partnership with Ten Square Games – the creator of the popular mobile game Fishing Clash – those who win Angler of the Year titles on all of Major League Fishing’s circuits in 2025 will not only earn bragging rights, but a cash prize as well.
The Fishing Clash Angler of the Year program is back for the 2025 season, offering payouts to the AOY winner on the Bass Pro Tour, the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, each of the six Toyota Series divisions and all 24 divisions of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League. The Bass Pro Tour points winner will take home $100,000, while the top angler on the Invitationals circuit will earn $50,000 (plus a spot in REDCREST 2026). Each Toyota Series division champ will receive $5,000, and the AOY in every BFL division will earn $1,000.
“To me, Angler of the Year is the hardest to win title in the sport,” three-time BPT Angler of the Year winner Jacob Wheeler said. “To do it multiple times is definitely at the top of my list of accomplishments. … I’m glad to have Fishing Clash back on board this year to reward that.”
Wheeler gunning for historic fourth title
There’s no question who’s the favorite to claim the Angler of the Year trophy and $100,000 prize on the Bass Pro Tour. Wheeler has had a stranglehold on the circuit, winning AOY in three of the past four years, including 2024. The lone year he didn’t win, he finished second.
Wheeler’s run has put him among elite historical company. If he’s able to defend his AOY crown, he would be just the fifth angler ever to win four national-tour points titles and the third to win four in a five-year span, joining Kevin VanDam and Roland Martin.
Obviously, the rest of the BPT roster will have its work cut out to dethrone Wheeler. He’s off to a solid start, having finished fifth at Stage 1 on Lake Conroe. But there’s several other anglers to keep an eye on.
Edwin Evers, who won Angler of the Year during the inaugural Bass Pro Tour season in 2019, and Matt Becker, who edged out Wheeler in 2023, are both in the field. Plus, the schedule should force Wheeler to spend a lot of time chasing shallow largemouth – something he’s certainly shown an ability to do, but where he might not have quite the same edge over the rest of the field. Wheeler predicted it’s going to come down to consistency – not just how high contenders’ good finishes are, but also their ability to avoid a bomb.
“It’s going to be a year-long battle,” he said. “It takes a lot of strategy. It might sound simple to be like just finish in the Top 10 every event, but there’s a lot more that goes into it than that. It starts out with just going fishing, but then as the season progresses, you start making decisions with (AOY) in mind. You’re not always on the winning fish, so sometimes you have to punt on that and look for like how can I salvage as good an event as possible.”
In addition to Evers and Becker, don’t discount Ott DeFoe. DeFoe has finished among the top four in five different seasons while never winning AOY. Given his prowess around the bank, this could be his year. Alton Jones Jr., too, has been knocking on the door. He’s finished among the top five in the points standings each of the past two seasons, and he started the year by finishing fourth at Conroe. Other anglers who have multiple Top-10 AOY finishes over the past three years are Justin Lucas, Michael Neal, Jeff Sprague and Jesse Wiggins.
A wide-open race in the Invitationals
The battle for the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals title looks like the complete opposite: Instead of one clear favorite, this race should be anyone’s to win. Only one of the top-five finishers in the points from 2024 (Marshall Hughes) is currently signed up to fish all six regular-season Invitationals events in 2025.
So, by definition, if there is a favorite, it would be either Hughes or Andrew Nordbye. Nordbye broke through with his first national win on Kentucky Lake last year and went on to finish sixth in the points. Jacob Walker, Brody Campbell, Kyle Cortiana and Chad Mrazek are also intriguing options.
You can download Fishing Clash for free in the App Store and on Google Play, or log on to www.fishingclash.game for more information. For complete details and updated standings on the Angler of the Year races, stay tuned to MajorLeagueFishing.com.