Finishing in the Top 10 of the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings is nothing new to Jay Przekurat. Winning it would be.
The 26-year-old, who has been among the Top 10 in each of his first three Elite seasons, leads the season-long race going into the final two events. While enjoying that position, Przekurat acknowledges he’s in a dogfight as two pursuers are within 13 points.
“I told myself if I was in the top three in points going into the last two Northern tournaments, I thought I’d have a really good chance to get it done,” he said. “Sure enough, we’re sitting on top. I’m not going to lie, it feels pretty good.”
With three Top 10s in seven tournaments, Przekurat has accumulated 599 points. Hot on his tail is last year’s AOY, Chris Johnston, just three points back.
“Yeah, that’s a scary sight to see behind you,” Przekurat said. “I feel he’s going to be fishing really free, just because he’s rolling off an AOY win. He’s already got that under his belt … not like he has to really worry about winning another one.
“That’s scary, especially with the smallmouth tournament coming up. Not saying I’m not going to catch them as well, but he’s definitely not going to stumble there.”
Last year, Johnston rallied in the season finale on his home waters of the St. Lawrence River to take AOY with 758 points. Trey McKinney finished 24 points back, and he’s again in the mix, 13 behind Przekurat.
“He’s got a legit shot too,” Przekurat said. “I think whoever is going to win, someone is going to really have to catch them.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to get away with any 30th- or 40th-place finishes. I think I’ll need two top 20s. It’s going to be a shootout.”
Przekurat’s season started in a shootout at the St. Johns River, where Bill Lowen edged him by 4 ounces. Przekurat closed a fruitful Florida Swing with a 30th at Lake Okeechobee, then continued his hot hand with a 15th at the Pasquotank River.
The belief he might have a legitimate shot at AOY sunk in with a fifth at Lake Hartwell, which put Przekurat atop the standings for the first time. His lead grew from 28 to 45 points after his ninth at Lake Fork, and a 25th at Sabine sent him into Lake Tenkiller 42 points ahead of Johnston.
“The Tenkiller tournament, I still think about it. It is what it is,” said Przekurat, who fell on Day 2 from 15th to outside the Top 50 cut. “I didn’t lose a fish that cost me. There’s nothing you can do when you don’t even hook the fish that would do anything. I felt like I made all the moves I wanted to make, and I just never connected on that second day.
“Regardless, it’s not a terrible finish, like mid-pack. You have one of those a year, it’s fine. Just let that one be my worst finish.”
It stung a bit, he said, because the last angler to weigh in, Brad Whatley, knocked Przekurat to 51st and out of Day 3, when he might have salvaged some points.
“That was interesting,” Przekurat said. “I’ve been on the other side of that, though. It’s going to happen to you at some point. But by an ounce and with everything I have on the line, it definitely hurt a bit more.”
Przekurat actually lost the AOY lead after Day 2, but Johnston fell six places on Semifinal Saturday to hand it back. Subsequently, Logan Latuso’s disqualification from Tenkiller gave Przekurat credit for a 50th-place finish and moved Johnston to 11th. It didn’t affect McKinney’s sixth-place finish.
Like Johnston, Przekurat excels on northern fisheries, where the Elites close the schedule.
In his first Elite season, Przekurat made a name for himself by winning at the St. Lawrence. With 13th at Oahe and 12th at La Crosse, Przekurat climbed 26 spots in the final three events to finish 10th in points, securing the Dakota Lithium Rookie of the Year title. He improved in 2023 by taking sixth in AOY and last year was seventh with an outside chance in the final event.
This year, Przekurat has led AOY the past four events, earning the Progressive $1,000 big-check bonus each time. More important will be staying there to cash the $100,000 prize and add a major title to his four Bassmaster victories.
The final two events are on Lake St. Clair, Aug. 7-10, and the Mississippi River out of La Crosse, Wis., Aug. 21-24.
“I’m hoping I can get about a 40-point lead at St. Clair and then make a top 40 at La Crosse and get it over with,” Przekurat said.
Lake St. Clair is nine hours from Przekurat’s home in Plover, Wis., but he’s posted an “awesome track record” there in three events. He and his father, a walleye pro, took fifth in a team event. In the 2023 Elite, Przekurat finished 11th, and last year he won the three-day St. Croix Open with 75 pounds, 5 ounces.
“I didn’t even think going into that tournament I had a shot to win, just because there were 200-some boats,” he said. “That was the craziest experience I ever had. It’s random and then you put 200 boats in a similar area, it makes it pretty difficult.”
His two-hour proximity and history at La Crosse might be helpful, but he said it doesn’t necessarily give him home-field advantage — Johnston was runner-up there in the 2022 Elite.
“La Crosse is a very interesting body of water,” he said. “You can do as much research and history and practice as you want, but the truth about La Crosse, it’s a day-of-the-deal kind of place.
“If you’re not finding fish the week of the tournament, or even that day, you’re probably not going to do very well. It’s just because those fish don’t like to hunker down in the same areas. That’s the X factor of La Crosse.”
It is, however, where he began cutting his teeth. As a 20-year-old co-angler, Przekurat took 58th in the 2019 La Crosse Open. Two years later, he finished seventh in a B.A.S.S. Nation Regional there. After his stellar Elite finish, he did bomb in last year’s Open, finishing 162nd because of mechanical issues.
“I would have had a decent finish,” he said with 16-8 on Day 2. “I just didn’t make it in Day 1.”
With a tight three-man sprint, Przekurat knows there can be no hiccups if he hopes to become the 29th angler to win in the AOY’s 56th year.
“AOY, that’s No. 1 on my list, next to the Classic,” he said. “And especially to do it on La Crosse. I’m going to have so many people there that support me and cheer for me.
“If I were to win Angler of the Year at La Crosse, three years after winning Rookie of the Year there, you can’t even make that up how special that would be.”
