(Editor's note: This is the last BassFan story of 2005. The BassFan staff is taking the week between Christmas and New Year's Day off, though FeedBack will continue to be updated during that time. And should a critical issue arise, it will be covered. We wish all BassFans a happy and relaxing holiday, and a great start to 2006. Also, this story originally ran with just three nominees, but further research revealed that Jeff Kriet should have been among the candidates. His qualifications have been added.)
BassFans had seven anglers to choose from in last year's Comeback of the Year (COY) poll. This year, there are slightly more than half that number.
After all the statistics were crunched, four guys stood head-and-shoulders above the rest in terms of having an excellent 2005 season on the heels of a poor 2004 campaign. Sure, many others had the best years of their careers or continued steady upward progressions in the various statistical categories, but those feats don't count here.
The BassFan COY winner has to be somebody who was among the best in the game prior to 2004 and then, for whatever reason, fell off the charts. Then he had to roar back with a vengeance and rip some serious lips in '05.
Nominees were selected using the State Farm World Rankings and the tour points (Bassmaster and FLW). Votes from BassFans and input from the BassFan staff will determine the winner. So, without further adieu, here are the 2005 COY nominees.
George Cochran
Although he won the Guntersville Bassmaster, 2004 was an off-year for Cochran, the 26-year veteran and two-time Bassmaster Classic winner. He finished 48th in the Bassmaster points and was a dismal 110th in the FLW chase.
He improved 30 places to 18th in this year's Bassmaster points and jumped 94 spots to 16th on the FLW side. He caught fire under the summer sun and finished 7th at the Potomac River FLW to conclude the regular season, then won the Forrest L. Wood Championship literally in his back yard at Arkansas' Lake Hamilton.
But he wasn't done yet. He finished 4th in his 20th Classic and 3rd a couple of weeks later at the inaugural Cabela's Top Gun Championship. He ended the season ranked 17th in the world, up 73 places from where he started the year.
Comeback comment: Many might have assumed that his 2004 Guntersville Bassmaster win was the 55-year-old's last hurrah, but he proved them wrong in a big way.
Toshinari Namiki rebounded from a horrible 2004 season to post four Top 5 finishes, including a win, in 2005.
Toshinari Namiki
Namiki didn't do anything spectacular on the FLW Tour in 2003, but he was solid throughout and finished 36th in the points to make the FLW Championship. Then he got off to a bad start in 2004 with a 108th at Okeechobee, and two 150th-or-worse tank jobs followed. The 31st he posted at Kentucky Lake was his best of the year – by far – en route to a 94th-place finish in the points.
This year was an entirely different story. He improved his performance at Okeechobee by 104 spots (to 4th) and then won the next time out at the Ouachita River. He also had two 5ths in regular-season events (Wheeler, Potomac River) and would have won Angler of the Year (AOY) if not for a 104th at Toho. He was edged out by Greg Hackney for the award on the final day.
He topped off the year with a runner-up finish to Brent Chapman at Top Gun. Over the course of 8 months, he jumped an incredible 115 spots (135th to 20th) in the World Rankings.
Comeback comment: Huge leap in rankings and the number of Top 5 finishes are tough to discount.
J.T. Kenney
J.T. Kenney made a name for himself outside Okeechobee this year.
J.T. Kenney is a powerhouse on Lake Okeechobee, but until this year hadn't done much outside that lake, last year in particular. In 2004, he stunk it up on two tours: He was 146th in the FLW points and 157th on the Bassmaster side.
He fished only the FLW Tour this year and made a dramatic turnaround. He led the points going into the final event at the Potomac River and ended up 8th in the AOY race.
The Maryland pro's best finish on either tour last year was 79th. His only finish at that level or below this year was the 114th-place disaster at the Potomac, his home water, which cost him the AOY title.
But he opened the season with a 4th and a 14th in Florida and fished solidly over the next three events, with nothing worse than a 69th. He wrapped things up with a 7th at the Forrest L. Wood Championship.
Comeback comment: His candidacy would be extremely strong if not for the Potomac plunge.
A newfound willingness to look for other options if his primary pattern was ineffective paid big dividends for Jeff Kriet.
Jeff Kriet
Kriet has done a major yo-yo act over the past 3 seasons. The Oklahoman finished 18th in the 2003 Bassmaster points, but nosedived to 109th the following year. He made it all the way back and then some this year – clear up to 6th – as he learned to be less stubborn about patterns and developed a willingness to adjust his strategy day by day.
He didn't have a finish inside the Top 50 in '04, but had five straight in the Top 40 to close out this year. Those included Top 10s at Toho and Clarks Hill. If not for a 100th at the Harris Chain, he'd have done no worse than 56th.
His jump in the World Rankings (60th to 23rd) was moderate, but that's because he was still on the remnants of the big wave he rode in '03 when the season began.
Comeback comment: A major turnaround in the right direction in terms of points and money, and new outlook might mean his first win since 1998 isn't far off.
The Second Tier
Here are other anglers who made big moves in one or more of the statistical categories in 2005, but didn't make the final nominee list:
> Gary Yamamoto – Improved his World Rank by 107 places by going from 151st to 36th in the Bassmaster points and 88th to 7th on the FLW list.
> Mike Reynolds – Won the Clarks Hill Bassmaster and had five Top 40s after four straight bombs of 100th or worse to conclude 2004.
> Chip Harrison, Jr. – Moved up 92 spots to 33rd in the World Rankings, but actually began his turnaround midway through the 2004 season.
Notable
> Mark Tucker (101st to 12th) and Scott Rook (113th to 26th) made monster jumps into the upper echelon of the World Rankings, but their poor years were in 2003. The rankings are based on a 2-year scale, which accounts for their low standing at the start of this year.
> Namiki and Kenney were FLW-only pros this year and Cochran will fish only the FLW Tour in 2006. All of last year's final nominees were either two-tour or Bassmaster-only sticks. Both situations occurred purely by chance.
> The minimum criteria were not set in stone, but it had to include a move from a position of the 100s into the Top 30 in either AOY points or World Rankings. Of course, the nominee had to have been very successful at one point, followed by a notable downturn, to engineer a comeback.
> The BassFan COY Award was the first of its kind in the sport, and debuted in 2002 when Davy Hite won it. Zell Rowland and Dan Morehead tied in 2003 and Hite won for a second time last year.
> When you vote in the BassFan Poll (left column of the BassFan.com homepage), bear in mind that this is not a popularity contest. If you were a tour angler who achieved something great this year, wouldn't you want to be recognized for it? Put yourself in their shoes and vote.
