By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
Stetson Blaylock did his part. So did Cory Johnston. Chris Zaldain tried to make magic happen again.
None of it mattered, though, because Scott Canterbury did what needed to be done at Lake St. Clair.
The Alabama native capped off his first season as a member of the Bassmaster Elite Series with another strong finish to capture the Angler of the Year championship and win the $100,000 bonus that goes with it, becoming the 24th different angler in B.A.S.S. history to win the coveted title.
Canterbury, who made his name during an 11-year run on the FLW Tour, started the day with a four-point lead over Zaldain, a six-point cushion on Blaylock and an eight-point edge on Johnston. Any misstep on Canterbury’s part could have proven devastating, but he navigated the day without incident and brought in a 19-12 stringer to finish 14th with 59-04 in the three-day AOY derby.
Canterbury’s 14th-place finish meant only Zaldain had a chance to overtake him for the AOY crown, but he slipped four places to 15th today despite catching an 18-14 stringer that included a 6-08 kicker.
Nothing Canterbury does is flashy, even going back to his days on the FLW Tour, and while other anglers put together monster seasons – Brandon Cobb and Jamie Hartman both with two wins apiece, Zaldain with a trio of runner-up finishes to name a few – his consistency was unrivaled. Aside from a 49th-place finish at Lake Fork (Texas Fest), Canterbury had an average finish of 12.77 in the other nine events, including three top-10s.
“I don’t even know what to say. It’s unbelievable,” an emotional Canterbury said on stage immediately after weighing in. “Dreams come true. It’s been a great year. When I felt like they weren’t going to, things went right this year. It happened again today. I had two fish at 12:30 and pulled up on a little rock pile and caught 20 pounds. When it’s meant to be you can’t stop it.”
There was no stopping Seth Feider this week at St. Clair either. Feider put on a virtuoso performance for a third straight day to claim the tournament win and $25,000 prize. He hauled in 26-06 (his second 26-pound bag of the event) and closed with 77-15 to win the AOY Championship tournament for the second time in his career. The average weight of the 15 fish he weighed in was a shade over 5-03, an incredible mark that some are anxious to see challenged next August when the Elite Series returns to St. Clair for a full field, four-day event.
Blaylock cracked 22-04 and finished second in the tournament with 71-07. He also wound up second in the final points race, edging Johnston on a tiebreaker, which ranked the anglers based on total weight caught during full-field competition days during the season.
Zaldain finished fourth in points, capping a magnificent season with a fourth straight top-15 finish.
Clark Wendlandt caught 23-14 today and wound up third in the tournament with 66-10. Cliff Prince saw his weight go up for the third straight day and his 22-13 gave him 66-00 in fourth.
While settling the AOY title garnered the most attention at St. Clair, anglers hovering around the Classic qualification line had plenty at stake, too. Paul Mueller came into the event 42nd in points – the last man in – and he cemented a Classic berth with a fifth-place finish. Skylar Hamilton sewed up an invite, too, with an 11th-place finish that moved him to 40th (from 45th) in points.
The last Classic berth via points had to be settled via tiebreaker with 2018 Rookie of the Year Jake Whitaker edging Garrett Paquette. Whitaker finished 24th at St. Clair while Paquette wound up a disappointing 48th at his home lake. That combination of finishes gave both anglers 611 points, forcing B.A.S.S. to employ the same tiebreaker it used to settle the Blaylock-Johnston deadlock.
Paquette, who was 38th in points prior to this week, held a one-ounce advantage over Whitaker in that category prior to the AOY event, but Whitaker’s 56-02 dwarfed Paquette’s 29-10 and thus earned him a trip to Lake Guntersville next March.
Aside from Paquette, fellow rookie Tyler Rivet also slipped out beneath the Classic cut line after experiencing a bilge pump failure on day 1 at St. Clair.
Air temperatures soared into the 80s today, but it took a while for things to heat up for Canterbury. He caught a 3 1/2-pounder at his first stop, then added a two-pounder about an hour later. From there, it was a drag.
“Next thing I know it’s 11 and then it’s 12 and I’ve moved around to two or three places and I’ve got two fish for 5 1/2 pounds at noon,” he said.
He moved again, this time to an area with a vein of rock on it that had kicked out a couple keepers for him Monday. He caught a couple there today, but not the size he was seeking. They were so small, “it was like not even catching one on this lake,” he joked.
Figuring the larger group of fish hadn’t completely vacated the area, he moved out about 40 yards and hooked up with a 3 3/4-pounder right away. After engaging the SpotLock on his trolling motor, he hauled in nine keepers over the next 50 minutes, all between 3 1/2 and 4 pounds. Before hitting the flurry, he said doubt was starting to creep into his mind.
“I could hear the voices in the back of my head telling me I’m blowing it and that everything is going wrong,” he said. “It was like day 1 when my graphs went out. There I am in the middle of Lake St. Clair with no front electronics, but I grinded and caught what I needed to survive. I had to work through a lot of adversity and that makes it that much sweeter.”
Feider came into the tournament eighth in points with no mathematical shot to win AOY, so he took a laid-back approach to the event. If he caught nearly 78 pounds in three days with a laid-back mindset, it’s hard to fathom what he might’ve caught had it been a four-day derby with something on the line. Either way, he’s happy to go home with a blue trophy and some extra cash.
“It feels real good,” he said. “It’s a nice way to end the year.”
He caught a 5-pounder on his second cast this morning and spent much of the rest of the day hauling in bass like he’s never done before.
“I really think I caught a fish on 75 percent of my casts today,” he said. “I feel like I only made 30 casts today without a bite. Those days are pretty rare. It was pretty insane.”
For the third straight day, a crankbait was his best offering when combing the 11- to 12-foot depths where some rock mixed with sand. Additional details of Feider’s and the other top finishers’ patterns will be published later this week.
> This article will be updated with additional details.
Final Results
> Editor’s note: Dollar amounts listed are bonus winnings based on where an angler finished in the Angler of the Year points.
1. Seth Feider -- New Market, MN -- 15, 77-15 -- 100 -- $61,500
Day 1: 5, 26-12 -- Day 2: 5, 24-13 -- Day 3: 5, 26-06
2. Stetson Blaylock -- Benton, AR -- 15, 71-07 -- 99 -- $55,000
Day 1: 5, 24-12 -- Day 2: 5, 24-07 -- Day 3: 5, 22-04
3. Clark Wendlandt -- Leander, TX -- 15, 66-10 -- 98 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 18-14 -- Day 2: 5, 23-14 -- Day 3: 5, 23-14
4. Cliff Prince -- Palatka, FL -- 15, 66-00 -- 97 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 21-03 -- Day 2: 5, 22-00 -- Day 3: 5, 22-13
5. Paul Mueller -- Naugatuck, CT -- 15, 65-11 -- 96 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 22-06 -- Day 2: 5, 23-02 -- Day 3: 5, 20-03
6. Shane Lehew -- Catawba, NC -- 15, 64-14 -- 95 -- $28,000
Day 1: 5, 22-00 -- Day 2: 5, 21-11 -- Day 3: 5, 21-03
7. Mike Huff -- Corbin, KY -- 15, 64-06 -- 94 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 18-01 -- Day 2: 5, 23-05 -- Day 3: 5, 23-00
8. Cory Johnston – Cavan, Ontario -- 15, 63-02 -- 93 -- $45,000
Day 1: 5, 19-07 -- Day 2: 5, 21-00 -- Day 3: 5, 22-11
9. Hunter Shryock -- Newcomerstown, OH -- 15, 62-14 -- 92 -- $20,000
Day 1: 5, 21-08 -- Day 2: 5, 18-09 -- Day 3: 5, 22-13
10. Matt Arey -- Shelby, NC -- 15, 62-12 -- 91 -- $26,000
Day 1: 5, 19-07 -- Day 2: 5, 22-13 -- Day 3: 5, 20-08
11. Skylar Hamilton -- Dandridge, TN -- 15, 62-12 -- 90 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 21-13 -- Day 2: 5, 18-06 -- Day 3: 5, 22-09
12. Micah Frazier -- Newnan, GA -- 15, 61-09 -- 89 -- $22,000
Day 1: 5, 20-06 -- Day 2: 5, 19-13 -- Day 3: 5, 21-06
13. Jeff Gustafson – Keewatin, Ontario – 15, 59-08 -- 88 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 16-04 -- Day 2: 5, 19-14 -- Day 3: 5, 23-06
14. Scott Canterbury -- Odenville, AL -- 15, 59-04 – 87 -- $100,000
Day 1: 5, 17-11 -- Day 2: 5, 21-13 -- Day 3: 5, 19-12
15. Chris Zaldain -- Fort Worth, TX -- 15, 59-04 -- 86 -- $40,000
Day 1: 5, 20-12 -- Day 2: 5, 19-10 -- Day 3: 5, 18-14
16. Brandon Lester -- Fayetteville, TN -- 15, 59-04 -- 85 -- $30,000
Day 1: 5, 20-08 -- Day 2: 5, 20-10 -- Day 3: 5, 18-02
17. Caleb Sumrall -- New Iberia, LA -- 15, 59-01 -- 84 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 20-08 -- Day 2: 5, 19-10 -- Day 3: 5, 18-15
18. Jason Williamson -- Wagener, SC -- 15, 58-14 -- 83 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 17-13 -- Day 2: 5, 20-05 -- Day 3: 5, 20-12
19. Keith Combs -- Huntington, TX -- 15, 58-13 -- 82 -- $24,000
Day 1: 5, 18-04 -- Day 2: 5, 19-09 -- Day 3: 5, 21-00
20. David Mullins -- Mt Carmel, TN -- 15, 58-00 -- 81 -- $20,000
Day 1: 5, 16-00 -- Day 2: 5, 18-07 -- Day 3: 5, 23-09
21. Ed Loughran III -- Richmond, VA -- 15, 57-06 -- 80 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 18-00 -- Day 2: 5, 18-14 -- Day 3: 5, 20-08
22. Mark Menendez -- Paducah, KY -- 15, 57-04 -- 79 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 18-00 -- Day 2: 5, 19-10 -- Day 3: 5, 19-10
23. Todd Auten -- Lake Wylie, SC -- 15, 56-11 -- 78 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 20-14 -- Day 2: 5, 18-07 -- Day 3: 5, 17-06
24. Jake Whitaker -- Fairview, NC -- 15, 56-02 -- 77 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 21-08 -- Day 2: 5, 15-12 -- Day 3: 5, 18-14
25. Jamie Hartman -- Newport, NY -- 15, 53-15 -- 76 -- $20,000
Day 1: 5, 12-09 -- Day 2: 5, 24-01 -- Day 3: 5, 17-05
26. Chad Morgenthaler -- Reeds Spring, MO -- 15, 52-13 -- 75 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 12-01 -- Day 2: 5, 21-06 -- Day 3: 5, 19-06
27. Lee Livesay -- Gladewater, TX -- 15, 52-00 -- 74 -- $21,000
Day 1: 5, 16-15 -- Day 2: 5, 18-00 -- Day 3: 5, 17-01
28. Clent Davis -- Montevallo, AL -- 15, 51-02 -- 73 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 13-12 -- Day 2: 5, 14-02 -- Day 3: 5, 23-04
29. Luke Palmer -- Coalgate, OK -- 13, 50-11 -- 72 -- $11,000
Day 1: 3, 14-05 -- Day 2: 5, 19-03 -- Day 3: 5, 17-03
30. Kelley Jaye -- Dadeville, AL -- 14, 50-07 -- 71 -- $11,000
Day 1: 4, 10-01 -- Day 2: 5, 21-01 -- Day 3: 5, 19-05
31. Patrick Walters -- Summerville, SC -- 15, 50-04 -- 70 -- $20,000
Day 1: 5, 15-05 -- Day 2: 5, 20-09 -- Day 3: 5, 14-06
32. Jay Yelas -- Lincoln City, OR -- 15, 50-03 -- 69 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 15-04 -- Day 2: 5, 19-08 -- Day 3: 5, 15-07
33. Drew Benton -- Panama City, FL -- 15, 49-13 -- 68 -- $27,000
Day 1: 5, 13-13 -- Day 2: 5, 20-00 -- Day 3: 5, 16-00
34. Brandon Cobb -- Greenwood, SC -- 15, 49-02 -- 67 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 15-09 -- Day 2: 5, 15-09 -- Day 3: 5, 18-00
35. Hank Cherry Jr -- Lincolnton, NC -- 13, 48-08 -- 66 -- $11,000
Day 1: 3, 11-03 -- Day 2: 5, 20-11 -- Day 3: 5, 16-10
36. Drew Cook -- Midway, FL -- 12, 46-14 -- 65 -- $39,000
Day 1: 2, 07-10 -- Day 2: 5, 19-04 -- Day 3: 5, 20-00
37. Chad Pipkens -- Lansing, MI -- 13, 46-14 -- 64 -- $11,000
Day 1: 3, 11-12 -- Day 2: 5, 20-00 -- Day 3: 5, 15-02
38. Chris Johnston -- Peterborough Ontario – 15, 46-08 -- 63 -- $23,000
Day 1: 5, 11-07 -- Day 2: 5, 20-03 -- Day 3: 5, 14-14
39. Clifford Pirch -- Payson, AZ -- 12, 45-07 -- 62 -- $11,000
Day 1: 2, 05-13 -- Day 2: 5, 19-05 -- Day 3: 5, 20-05
40. Derek Hudnall -- Baton Rouge, LA -- 12, 43-11 -- 61 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 24-12 -- Day 2: 3, 10-08 -- Day 3: 4, 08-07
41. Matt Herren -- Ashville, AL -- 11, 43-08 -- 60 -- $20,000
Day 1: 1, 04-02 -- Day 2: 5, 19-08 -- Day 3: 5, 19-14
42. Brock Mosley -- Collinsville, MS -- 15, 43-04 -- 59 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 15-04 -- Day 2: 5, 13-14 -- Day 3: 5, 14-02
43. John Crews Jr -- Salem, VA -- 15, 42-07 -- 58 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 12-04 -- Day 2: 5, 13-10 -- Day 3: 5, 16-09
44. Tyler Rivet -- Raceland, LA -- 13, 41-05 -- 57 -- $11,000
Day 1: 3, 09-12 -- Day 2: 5, 16-06 -- Day 3: 5, 15-03
45. Brandon Card -- Knoxville, TN -- 12, 39-09 -- 56 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 18-06 -- Day 2: 5, 16-11 -- Day 3: 2, 04-08
46. Bill Lowen -- Brookville, IN -- 12, 35-10 -- 55 -- $25,000
Day 1: 2, 04-02 -- Day 2: 5, 18-15 -- Day 3: 5, 12-09
47. Brian Snowden -- Reeds Spring, MO -- 12, 34-12 -- 54 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 11-04 -- Day 2: 5, 17-04 -- Day 3: 2, 06-04
48. Garrett Paquette -- Canton, MI -- 8, 29-10 -- 53 -- $11,000
Day 1: 3, 09-11 -- Day 2: 2, 09-07 -- Day 3: 3, 10-08
49. Greg DiPalma -- Millville, NJ -- 8, 29-07 -- 52 -- $11,000
Day 1: 0, 00-00 -- Day 2: 5, 17-14 -- Day 3: 3, 11-09
50. Ray Hanselman Jr -- Del Rio, TX -- 7, 20-09 -- 51 -- $11,000
Day 1: 1, 01-14 -- Day 2: 3, 10-00 -- Day 3: 3, 08-11
