By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

It'd be easy to look at Ott DeFoe's 2023 tournament ledger and surmise that his showing in late June at Lake St. Clair cost him the Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) title. He was 59th in that derby – his worst finish of the campaign by a whopping 37 places.

However, the veteran from Tennessee said he looks upon the mid-May tournament at Lake Guntersville as just as much of a culprit. He was in 2nd place after the Knockout Round there, but failed to catch a keeper in the Championship Round and ended up in 10th.

He and Jacob Wheeler, the winner at Guntersville, tied for 2nd in the final AOY standings with 457.5 points. Matt Becker captured the crown with 461.5, so even a 5th-place finish in that tournament would've covered that gap.

"St. Clair was the obvious one, but when it came down to just a few points, I look at Guntersville as being equally important," he said.

He pointed out that he was fortunate to have even gotten into the Knockout Round. He weighed just four fish for 10-12 on his initial competition day and then scrapped everything and went looking for offshore fish when he got back on the water two days later.

He came across a school of big 'uns during the final 2 1/2-hour period and racked up 25 pounds to climb from 38th to 10th in his 40-angler Qualifying Round. He hammered them for another 24 1/2 in the Knockout Round and trailed only Wheeler – albeit by 5 pounds – with one day remaining.

It all fell apart in the Championship Round – likely a combination of altered environmental conditions and the pressure he'd applied to the school.

"The wind changed, the water muddied up and there was floating eelgrass everywhere, and those fish had been hammered for two days," he said. "It had kind of started on the second day – my weight was good by I only caught seven or eight keepers.

"After that, I just didn't make the right adjustment. I went and tried to find some other stuff, but my moves were in the wrong direction that day."

Of the eight tournaments he fished this year (seven regular-season events and REDCREST), he finished among the Top 10 on six occasions. And anytime you compile the same number of points as Wheeler over the course of a seasons, you've had a good year.

It's the fourth time he's finished behind just one other competitor in a tour-level points race. He badly wants to win an AOY and may make some changes to his offseason routine in order to facilitate another run at it in 2024

"Once we get the schedule for next year, I'm going to take a look at some places to pre-practice," he said. "It's something that I traditionally haven't done much of, although I do go and look at Saginaw Bay on one of my off days for St. Clair.

"If we've got some new venues, I feel like I'm at a point in my career where I actually might be able to make it work. When I did it before, I'd go and fish too much instead of just trying to learn a body of water. It's important to have the knowledge of what's around the next bend."

Notable

> DeFoe is looking forward to the Sept. 1 dove opener hosted by fellow Tennessean and Bassmaster Elite Series competitor David Mullins. He doesn't expect to be among the top shooters. "Last year, I think our group of five (DeFoe, son Parker, two of Parker's friends and the father of one of those kids) were the only people out of 29 who didn't get our 15-bird limits," he said. "But we shot a lot of shells and had a great time."