It wasn’t just Joey Cifuentes III who demonstrated the strength of the 2023 Bassmaster Elite Series rookie class at Lake St. Clair. Cifuentes, of course, was the headliner with his second victory of the season. Two other rookies were competing in the Top 10 the final day at St. Clair. Cooper Gallant finished fourth and Kyoya Fujita was seventh.
Cifuentes, 34, of Clinton, Ark., leads the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year race with 516 points. Fujita, 27, of Minamitsuru, Japan, is second, only 25 points behind Cifuentes. Will Davis Jr., 30, of Sylacauga, Ala., is third, 56 points back.
“It’s so hard to get one (Elite Series win),” Cifuentes said. “But I had a lot of confidence coming into this year. I told some people I was going to win one.”
But not two.
“To get two is unbelievable,” he said. “That (Lake Seminole) win was really a bonus. I felt like my first win would probably be on smallmouth because I’ve had success on smallmouth. I really don’t know why.”
In a tournament where every Elite Series angler caught a five-bass limit every day of competition, Cifuentes topped the standings with 91 pounds, 8 ounces. In retrospect, he thought the key to victory was practice, especially the final day of practice, and patience during the tournament.
“Finding that one area,” he said of the place on Lake St. Clair where he concentrated all four days. “It wasn’t easy. They were scattered. But I wasn’t looking for multiple fish. I was looking for five bites a day. Having the patience to do that was the key.”
Cifuentes hasn’t locked up the ROY title by any means. But he likes where he stands.
“I have Rookie of the Year as a goal,” he said. “You only get one chance at it.”
He will have to finish strong at Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River in order to win the title in this talented field of first-year anglers.
Consider these highlights from the 11-angler rookie class:
- Rookies have won three of the seven tournaments this season — Cifuentes twice and Davis once.
- Seven rookies have advanced to compete in the Top 10 on Championship Sunday at least once. Fujita has done it three times (second at Seminole, third at Murray, seventh at St. Clair) and Cifuentes has done it twice. The list includes Davis (first at Lay Lake), Bryant Smith (seventh at Santee Cooper), Cooper Gallant (fourth at St. Clair), Logan Latuso (fourth at Okeechobee) and Alex Wetherell (eighth at the Sabine River).
- Qualification for the 2024 Bassmaster Classic includes the top 40 finishers in the final Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year points standings. It will extend deeper than 40 when double-qualifiers are considered at season’s end. Currently, six rookies are within the qualifying standard: Cifuentes is sixth in AOY points. The others are as follows: Fujita (15th), Davis (18th), Smith (20th), Gallant (25th) and David Gaston (33rd).
