Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
One of my favorite sports quotes came from legendary NFL coach Bill Parcells. He said, “You are what your record says you are,” and in a business where performance matters, who can argue with that?
Tournament bass fishing success is more than just on-the-water performance. The ability to work with sponsors and help them sell is far more important than an angler’s competition record, but since we don’t have access to sales data, we’ll just have to go with what we’ve got … and luckily, we have quite a lot of data from four and a half seasons of the NPFL.
I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing NPFL tournament numbers to effectively quantify pro angler success—not just in the League, but on any competitive circuit. I’m always looking for ways to evaluate angler performance that digs deeper and looks further than merely pounds and ounces.
Here are a few ways we can evaluate tournament performance. All have their merits.
1. Progressive Angler of the Year points
Progressive Angler of the Year points are just exactly what NPFL pros should be using to measure their success. Well … that and prize money, which we’ll get to in a moment.
If anglers are targeting points, they’re on the best path. Points can get you the AOY title and qualify you for the 2026 Championship. Nothing else does that.
Here’s a link to the NPFL’s Progressive Angler of the Year standings.
2. Prize money
Of course, you can’t eat or pay the bills with points alone. You need money for that, and if you’re a pro angler, prize money is the bottom line. It’s expensive to compete on the tournament trail. There are entry fees, travel expenses, tackle, a boat, a tow vehicle. The list goes on and on.
Here’s a list of the NPFL’s top money winners for 2025:
Greg Hackney $120,800
Scott Canterbury $110,000
Jason Christie $110,000
Kyle Welcher $45,000
Caleb Kuphall $38,500
Ten anglers have finished in the money at all three events this year. Kyle Welcher and Drew Cook have been in-the-money in each of the last nine events. They’re closing in on Todd Goade’s league record of 11 straight cashes.
Prize money is a very important benchmark!
3. Pounds weighed in this season
Pounds weighed in during the season translate into points and prize money, and some leagues—in the past—have based their rankings entirely upon weight. Of course, that’s not fair. If you go strictly on weight, a poor finish at Santee Cooper is better than a win at Douglas Lake.
Here’s a list of the anglers who have brought the most weight to the scales so far this season:
Kyle Welcher 157-12
Patrick Walters 155-01
Jason Christie 153-02
Greg Hackney 152-14
Caleb Kuphall 151-08
4. AAA
Let’s get a little more nuanced. I call this next stat “Angler Against Average” or “AAA.”
AAA evaluates angler performance and reduces it to a single number. What I like about it is that it can be used to assess performance over a single day, an event, a season or a career. It scores an angler against the rest of his competition during the selected period. To calculate AAA, just divide an angler’s catch by the average catch of that period. A score of 1.00 is average. If an angler’s AAA score is 1.25, he is 25% better than the average angler. If the score is 0.75, he is 25% below average, etc.
Over the course of a competition day or season, AAA will closely follow the tournament or Angler of the Year standings, but it more accurately reflects performance because it reflects the actual separation between angler weights. If first place is 25 pounds better than second place, AAA reflects that. AOY points do not.
Lost yet? Don’t worry. I think AAA will grow on you.
Here a list of the top NPFL anglers for 2025 using AAA:
Kyle Welcher 1.51
Patrick Walters 1.47
Greg Hackney 1.45
Caleb Kuphall 1.42
Jason Christie 1.42
5. Average Finish
Sports fans—like you and me—value consistency. Doing well once is nice. It gets you a pat on the back and a hearty “Congrats,” but you can’t be truly great unless you’re near the top … a lot.
Here’s a list of the consistent top performers this year and their average percentile finish:
Kyle Welcher 96.00
Patrick Walters 94.18
Greg Hackney 92.11
Caleb Kuphall 91.95
Bill Lowen 87.29
And here’s a list of the top performers for the entire history of the NPFL (2021-2025). For the sake of fairness, I only included those anglers who have competed in 9 or more events—a season and a half.
Kyle Welcher 94.66
Drew Cook 90.29
Taylor Watkins 83.97
Bryant Smith 83.64
John Soukup 80.96
There’s more than one way to skin a cat … or to quantify angler performance. I keep looking for a better way.
More to come.
