2015 Toyota Angler of the Year Championship on Sturgeon Bay Day 2: Greg Hackney Leads as Anglers Stress.

Making the Bassmaster Classic is Everything!

By Steve Wright

bass press releaseSE

DOOR COUNTY, Wis. — The lack of drama in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race is more than compensated for at the other end of this Sturgeon Bay measuring stick.

Hackney leads event but eyes on Classic spots.
(Photo: BASS)

All the theatrics center on the final berths for the 2016 GEICO Bassmaster Classic from the AOY point standings. And it’s quite the spectacle.

Mike Iaconelli is the perfect example of how treacherous the footing can be around the 40th-place Classic cutoff mark. He felt horrible when he came off the water with only four bass weighing 11 pounds, 7 ounces Thursday, after experiencing a two-hour loss of fishing time due to mechanical problems.

Iaconelli entered the tournament 45th in AOY points, so anything less than a stellar day would drop him even lower, right? As Iaconelli boated to the service yard for further work on a balky oil pressure system, he got a text message from his wife, Becky, telling him that he was 27th in the tournament and had moved up to 38th in the unofficial AOY standings.

“I’m like, ‘That’s not possible. Are you sure?’” Iaconelli recalled.

2015 Toyota Angler of the Year Championship on Sturgeon Bay Day 1: Greg Hackney with 21-7lbs!

Classic spots secured by some, being sweated out by others

By Thomas Allen

bass press release

STURGEON BAY, Wis. — One million dollars is on the line for the Top 50 Bassmaster Elite Series anglers at the 2015 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year championship on Sturgeon Bay, Wis.

As Bassmaster emcee Dave Mercer put it today: “These are the final days of a year-long tournament.”

Having already secured the points title, Aaron Martens is wrapping up one of the most dominating seasons in Bassmaster history.

Hack Attack works also works on smallies.
(Photo: BASS)

“I’m fishing for fun, but I’m making sure I don’t catch fish that another anglers need to improve their standings in the AOY race,” Martens said. “There’s no pressure for me to perform here, and I kind of like that.”

By finishing sixth at the final regular-season tournament on Lake St. Clair out of Detroit, Martens earned enough points to become untouchable and clinched his third AOY title.

The story on Sturgeon Bay is the anglers battling for the required points to qualify for the 2016 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro on Grand Lake, Okla.

The Top 24 anglers in the points only had to catch one fish Thursday to secure their Classic berth, and each of them did. The proverbial bubble exists within a few places either side of 40^th, which is the Classic cutoff.