ay Yelas currently leads the FLW Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) race. All he needs is a finish of 26th or higher next week at the Detroit River to lock up the title.

What's notable is that the venue – which includes the Detroit River, plus Lakes St. Clair and Erie – was in fact the very place where he lost an AOY title 13 years ago.

That year was 1994, and Yelas was fishing the Bassmaster Top 100s. St. Clair was the first event of the season. Yelas tanked with just 20 pounds and an 81st. In the following five events of that season, he finished 31st, 11th, 6th, 18th, and 12th.

He spent that '94 tournament making the long run to Erie

Jand battling major swells. In hindsight, if he'd never even went on plane and just caught an easy limit each day around the launch, he'd have won AOY.

It was 9 long years until he eventually won the BASS AOY, which came 1 year after he clinched an FLW AOY title.

But with another AOY title on the line at Detroit, Yelas said he's looking for a little bit of redemption at the Motor City. He remembers what happened 13 years ago, and plans to fish "smarter" this time.

Looking Back

"It's a pretty good opportunity, and I'm pretty fired up," Yelas said of his chance to clinch. "I think about it a lot, and I'm anxious to get up there and start practicing. I'm going to give it an extra day compared to what I've typically practiced this year. I've been practicing for 4 1/2 days, but I'll give this one 5 1/2 days, just because AOY's on the line."

Since that fateful day in 1994, he's been much better at the fishery – 21st in 2001 and 34th in 1999. But the memory of the 82nd still lingers.

"It was the first tournament we ever had up there on St. Clair, and I ran all the way to Erie every day," he noted. "When the year was all said and done, if I'd just finished in the Top 50, I'd have won AOY.

"All I had to do was stay right around takeoff and I'd have won AOY – just put the trolling motor down and throw a spinnerbait all day. Instead I ran 50 miles out on Lake Erie in 8- and 10-foot waves. It was a nightmare experience."

So for this go-round, "it would be nice to be able to get redemption" and make good on "a little personal vendetta against that fishery."

Stay Smart

Yelas isn't quite sure what to expect in terms of a bite, and he doesn't have a scripted practice plan, except that he'll check out the river and both big lakes.

"I'll definitely keep St. Clair in the back of my mind," he said. "If it's windy, I'm certainly not going to kill myself in Erie when I know I've got St. Clair. I want to fish smart – not necessarily conservative, but smart.

"I feel that if I can put a 30th-place finish in the boat, then the other guys need to finish in the Top 4 to beat me. I'm not going to do something stupid, like go out and go for 25-pound limits then get blown out by heavy winds.

"I'll try to put 17 pounds a day on the board," he added. "If I can do that, I think I'll have a high enough finish to win the title."

One factor that'll influence his practice, though, is the changed bite on the big water. Tubes remain the go-to smallmouth bait throughout the Erie basin, but the influx of round gobies, and the exportation of Western techniques, means an expanded technique repertoire in the area.

Yelas, who recently moved back out West, plans to explore the dropshot and swimbait bite throughout practice. He's thrown the swimbait more this season, and it was all he threw en route to his 2nd-place finish at Beaver Lake earlier this year.

"I'll try a lot of different baits – you bet," he noted. "The bread and butter has always been the tube, and it'll be tied on every day of course. But I've got a lot of the new Berkley Gulp gobies – they're getting strikes on those, and (the goby's) really been a strong bait up there the last few years.

"I'll be dropshotting that goby, and trying swimbaits definitely. I've never tried swimbaits up there, but I don't know why they wouldn't bite them. And I'll maybe throw a jerkbait a little, and some topwater."

The Chasers

Yelas, of course, is a strong closer. He's won three of the four major titles in fishing – both AOYs and the Bassmaster Classic. But the two anglers immediately behind him in the points are no slouches either.

First there's former FLW AOY Shinichi Fukae, followed by Mark Davis, whose credits include three BASS AOYs and a Bassmaster Classic win.

Yelas is currently ranked 8th in the BassFan World Rankings presented by Tru-Tungsten, while Fukae's ranked 5th and Davis is ranked 20th (although at one time he was ranked No. 1).

"They're both having a great year," Yelas said. "And they've both won national AOY titles in the past. I know Mark would love to win his first AOY title, and Shin would love to win his second. They're going to catch them. I just need to make sure I do my job and have a good, high finish.

"It really doesn't matter who's following," he added. "My main deal is I don't even need to think about who's following me. I just need to stay focused on 26th or better and I'll be good to go."

Notable

> Canadian fishing regulations, as currently written, prohibit culling more than once in Canadian waters. Yelas noted he hasn't heard news from FLW Outdoors about culling restrictions in Canadian waters. BASS has informed its pros fishing the Erie Bassmaster Elite Series out of Buffalo that culling restrictions will apply to Canadian waters.

> He's finished 2nd in two of his last three FLW Tour events. With an AOY title on the line, and the Forrest Wood Cup right around the corner, "it's a good time to get hot," he said.