Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
There’s just one tournament left in the 2024 National Professional Fishing League season, and that means we’re down to the wire for the Progressive Angler of the Year award and for berths in the 2025 NPFL Championship next fall on South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell.
When it comes to AOY, a tournament season is a battle of attrition. What started as a field of 125 anglers, all with hopes and dreams of glory — of winning AOY, of winning an event, of qualifying for the Championship — has winnowed its way down to just a pair of anglers with a meaningful chance at AOY and 20 or so others vying for the handful of spots still up for grabs in the Championship field.
Let’s save the battle for berths in the Championship for another edition of “A Closer Look” and focus our attentions on the two pros with a reasonable shot at AOY — Georgia’s Drew Cook and Alabama’s Kyle Welcher.
I say there are just two anglers left in the chase for AOY because Cook and Welcher have created some separation between them and the rest of the field. Cook has 1,213 AOY points, and Welcher has 1,211. NPFL AOY points work like this: The winner of an NPFL event earns 250 points, second place gets 249, third place gets 248, etc.
Welcher’s lead over third place (Isaac Peavyhouse) is 29 points. For someone other than Cook or Welcher to win AOY, not only would both of them need to finish 30th or worse, but Peavyhouse would need to finish at least as many places ahead of them. For everyone trailing Peavyhouse, it’s even tougher.
Given the talent of Cook and Welcher and their performances so far this year, that’s extremely unlikely.
So, who’s going to win?
Cook and Welcher have a lot in common. They’re both young; Cook is 30, Welcher is 31. They’re both from the Deep South. They’re both NPFL rookies and also fish the Bassmaster Elite Series. And though they are atop the AOY standings for 2024, neither has won an NPFL event this season … though both have come close.
Both have three top 10 finishes this season, and neither has finished outside the top 20. Cook’s worst finish is 14th and Welcher’s is 18th — both at Saginaw Bay. Both are adept with forward-facing sonar, but their strengths are fishing without it.
One of them is going to win Angler of the Year. Who has the edge?
All we can do is speculate. We can look at their histories — this year with the NPFL and on Lake Murray with B.A.S.S. And we can look at other AOY races in other leagues.
Right out of the gate it’s easy — and correct — to say that Cook has an edge. After all, he leads by two points. It’s a tiny cushion, but if he wins at Lake Murray, there’s nothing Welcher can do to pass him. Cook “controls his own destiny” as they like to say in the stick-and-ball sports world. Advantage: Cook.
Second, Cook has a better track record on Lake Murray … at least in Elite Series competition. The Elites have been to Murray twice since Cook and Welcher entered that circuit. In April of 2023, Cook finished 7th and Welcher was 18th. A year later in May, Cook was 42nd and Welcher 69th. Advantage: Cook.
Cook has limited 14 consecutive competition days this year — all but the very first day on Logan Martin Lake in Alabama. He also leads the NPFL in heaviest average bass this year at 3.23 pounds. Welcher is not far behind at 3.09. Advantage: Cook.
Welcher has been the best angler in the field on Day 1 this year —73% better than the average angler. Cook ranks fourth; he’s 55% better. The Day 1 advantage goes to Welcher, but….
Cook is a monster on Day 3 — 117% better than the average angler! He is not the man you want to have chasing you down from a few ounces back. The footsteps you hear in the final round belong to Drew Cook! Advantage: Cook.
Finally, we can look to other AOY races … in the Elite Series. Welcher earned Bassmaster AOY honors in 2023 but has only finished in the top 20 one other time. Cook has never won AOY on a major circuit but has finished in the top 20 of Bassmaster AOY five times, including top 10 finishes in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Advantage: I have no idea.
They’ve both had remarkable and remarkably consistent seasons on the NPFL trail. Whoever wins, we know a couple of things right now.
First, it will be the third time in four seasons that an NPFL rookie has won AOY. In 2021 when Keith Carson won AOY, everyone was a rookie, and Gary Adkins was a rookie when he won in 2022. Only Todd Goade — fishing his second season with the NPFL in 2023 — was not an NPFL rookie when he won AOY.
Second, the NPFL will have its youngest AOY to date. Carson was 34 in 2021. Adkins was 56 and Goade was 55 when they won in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
This year’s AOY race will go down to the final day on Lake Murray, December 11-13, 2024.
