By BassFan Staff
David Dudley enjoys achieving milestones that have never been reached before. He scaled one such hill on Saturday when he won his second consecutive FLW Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) award – a feat that had never been accomplished in the circuit's 17-year history.
"If there's a record out there, I want to break it," he said. "Records are made to be broken. Angler of the Year and Forrest Wood Cup champion in the same year – I want to do that. If we can invent a record, I want to have it.
"I want to try to make records or break them. Winning is what I like to do."
He already holds one other significant milestone – he's FLW's all-time leading money-winner with nearly $3 million on his ledger. He's sat atop the BassFan World Rankings since late May.
His third AOY campaign in the past 5 years got off to a pretty mediocre start as he finished 24th at Hartwell and followed that up with a 59th at Table Rock. He caught fire after that, though, as he won at Beaver, took 3rd at the Potomac River and logged a 14th at Kentucky Lake.
He came into Champlain with a 1-point lead in the chase and then figuratively stepped on the necks of his closest pursuers by catching a tournament-best 24-00 bag on day 1. Jacob Powroznik, his close pal, managed to keep air in his windpipe the longest, but he succumbed Saturday when Dudley assured himself of a placement higher than 20th (it'll be much higher) at the final Major of the year.
"I'm going to say this is probably the best season I've ever had because I'm at a level now that I've never been at before," he said. "As an athlete, you kind of know where you're at skill-wise, and like I mentioned on stage, in '08 I was nowhere near where I'm at now.
"I was at a pretty high level then, but I'm at a higher level now."
His third points title tied Clark Wendlandt for the most ever. He said each of his three crowns carry an equal amount of significance for him.
"Each one is special and I can't weigh one heavier than the others. It's like having three children and asking which one you like better than the other ones. Every one of them is special and they're each the best in their own way.
"Clark is a great fisherman, and to tie with Clark is a great thing."
He has no interest in measuring himself against Kevin VanDam, who's won four straight Bassmaster AOYs (seven in all). It was VanDam who he supplanted at the top of the World Rankings 6 weeks ago to claim the No. 1 position for the first time in his career.
"To me, you've all done a great job at it, but it's hard to come up with a true world ranking that involves two tours. None of it really matters until we all come together as one."
