He almost let it get away, but Bradley Roy has the 2010 Bassmaster Rookie of the Year trophy firmly in his grasp.
Going into the season finale last week in Oklahoma, Roy trailed fellow rookie Cliff Crochet by 51 points.
“I knew I had a lot of ground to make up,” Roy said after he won top rookie honors. “I knew I had to finish ahead of him by at least 25 or 26 spots. I knew that would be hard to do. I was worried about it.”
But Roy pulled it off by taking 34th place at the AutoZone Sooner Run to Crochet’s 90th place, ultimately topping Crochet by 61 points in the rookie race.
Roy is the 19-year-old from Lancaster, Ky., who gained fame as the youngest Elite angler ever when he qualified last fall at age 18. His rookie year was all he could have realistically hoped for: he attracted several solid sponsors, won some Elite prize money, and built his fan base through a video blog at Bassmaster.com.
He ended up in the overall Elite points standings in 40th place. It’s a very respectable finish for a rookie, but it was just shy of qualifying for his first Bassmaster Classic in 2011.
“I am a little disappointed about the Classic,” he said. “I look back over the season and can pick any one of several mistakes that could have been the one that cost me. That’s how tight the competition is in the Elite Series.”
No Classic berth, and no wins, but his rookie season was peppered with triumphs. One of the first was the validation of his decision to play at the top level. That confirmation came when he finished 8th at Clear Lake in the second event of the season.
“That was my turning point,” he said. “It gave me the courage and confidence to keep on.”
Also memorable was the Pickwick Lake event, where he finished 34th. It almost wasn’t so: His first-day catch left him floundering in the 60s in the daily standings.
“I did a one-eighty and brought in almost 16 pounds the next day that put me into the cut. I turned what could have been a bad tournament into a good one,” Roy said.
His least favorite rookie experience was at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. He said he made a bad call when he decided to conserve his fish for Day Two, thinking 12 pounds was enough to get him going. It wasn’t, and he ended in 78th place.
He said he could benefit from doing more research on Elite fisheries. He said next season he will go all-out to pre-fish unfamiliar lakes as well as hit the books and Internet to learn all he can before game time.
That’s one type of homework he’ll be doing over the coming months. His other homework will be more traditional: he plans to take a few more courses toward a college degree; major undecided, he’s earned enough credits to be a sophomore.
Exactly like his Elite career.
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