By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Two of the greatest anglers this sport has ever seen were set up to do big things on Sunday at Saginaw Bay in Michigan. Matt Becker laid waste to the plans for both of those parties.
Becker, in his first year on the Bass Pro Tour, snatched what would've been a storybook victory from Kevin VanDam in the final regular-season tour-level event of KVD's brilliant career (in his home state, no less) and denied Jacob Wheeler a third consecutive Angler of the Year (AOY) crown by claiming that title for himself. The 31-year-old Pennsylvania native who now resides in Tennessee put together a huge second period to vault from 10th place to the top of the standings and piled on more weight with two big brown fish in the final 2 1/2-hour stanza to prevail with a two-day total of 40-09.
The double victory garnered him a $200,000 payday. His 22-11 haul in the Championship Round, the biggest of the tournament, consisted of smallmouth that weighed 5-05, 4-14, 4-06, 4-02 and 4-00, with the former netting him an additional $1,000 as the big bass of the day.
Becker, apparently somewhat unfathomably to him, joins a trio of the sport's biggest names – Wheeler, Edwin Evers and Jordan Lee – as AOY winners in the BPT's five-year history. He caught most of his fish for the week from the vicinity of Charity Islands employing a dropshot rig with a Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm.
"I can't believe I won the tournament and won the Angler of the Year – are you kidding me?" Becker exclaimed during his postgame interview on the MLF NOW! livestream. "I always wanted to win an Angler of the Year trophy; it means you were the best of seven tournaments all across the country, and that's me this year. Are you kidding me?
Sunday's stormy conditions hindered Kevin VanDam's smallmouth program.
"I'm just a poor kid from Pittsburgh who had a dream to do this, and I did it. It's possible through Christ. If I can do it, anybody can."
Wheeler, who's held the No. 1 slot in the BassFan World Rankings for more than four years, could've claimed yet another points title by finishing 4th or better in the event, but ended up 8th. DeFoe placed 6th in the tournament.
VanDam, meanwhile, was disappointed that he couldn't close out a 27th tour-level win after starting the Championship Round with an advantage of almost 3 pounds. The tournament wasn't actually the end of his unparalleled competitive career, as he's qualified for both REDCREST and Heavy Hitters next year, but when the 2024 season gets under way, he won't be a touring pro for the first time since the late 1980s. He'll focus his post-retirment efforts on sponsorship work, video content creation and the like.
Sunday's stormy weather played havoc with his offshore smallmouth locales and he weighed a 14-pound stringer after registering 21-08 in Saturday's Knockout Round. He beat everyone except Becker, but his 35-08 total trailed the winner by 5 pounds.
"I'm not exactly sure how to feel right at this moment," he said in his postgame interview. "I really wanted to win this thing and I was in position to do it, but the conditions and Mother Nature took it away. That's part of it.
"I didn't let the wind and rain bother me and I fished my strengths trying to give myself a chance to win, but she just wouldn't let it happen and I didn't have a lot of other options. I feel like I made good decisions and I'm comfortable with it.
"I've had a great time for 33 years," he concluded. "It's been special and it's been phenomenal. I'm ending one chapter and starting a new one and I wanted to go out on my own terms, but Mother Nature took me out. It would've been a fairytake to win this, but it wasn't to be."
Championship Round
(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish of the day)
1. Matt Becker -- 17-14 (5) -- 22-11 (5) -- 40-09 (10) -- 5-05 -- $100,000
2. Kevin VanDam -- 21-08 (5) -- 14-00 (5) -- 35-08 (10) -- 3-05 -- $45,000
3. Jesse Wiggins -- 17-00 (5) -- 17-07 (5) -- 34-07 (10) -- 4-15 -- $38,000
4. Todd Faircloth -- 17-12 (5) -- 14-13 (5) -- 32-09 (10) -- 3-06 -- $32,000
5. Dakota Ebare -- 18-11 (5) -- 13-14 (5) -- 32-09 (10) -- 4-01 -- $30,000
6. Ott DeFoe -- 17-14 (5) -- 14-00 (5) -- 31-14 (10) -- 4-02 -- $26,000
7. Mark Daniels Jr. -- 16-11 (5) -- 14-14 (5) -- 31-09 (10) -- 3-07 -- $23,000
8. Jacob Wheeler -- 17-15 (5) -- 13-09 (5) -- 31-08 (10) -- 2-15 -- $21,000
9. Bryan Thrift -- 16-14 (5) -- 13-11 (5) -- 30-09 (10) -- 3-09 -- $19,000
10. Cody Meyer -- 16-07 (5) -- 12-14 (5) -- 29-05 (10) -- 3-04 -- $16,000
