Wolak, 28, who only fished the Bassmaster Tour this year, ended up winning the ROY race by 17 points. That's a big margin, and although it's not as huge as Shinichi Fukae's runaway 33-point ROY-winning margin last year, only one ROY point separates Wolak's and Fukae's year-end scores. Maybe that's because the competition was better this year.
Maybe? More like absolutely. Lakeland, Fla. FLW Tour rookie Bobby Lane put on a show early on, with a 7th, 3rd and 9th at the first three FLW Tour stops: Lake Okeechobee, Lake Toho and the Ouachita River. That put him 25 ROY points ahead of Wolak, who was in 2nd.
But at the halfway point, Wolak was having a good season too: 24th at Toho, 82nd at the Harris Chain and 39th at Guntersville. He was 29th in the Bassmaster Tour points – respectable, but Lane led the FLW Tour points.
But from then on, it was all Wolak.
He finished the season with a 13th at Clarks Hill, a 12th at Norman and a 10th at Table Rock, while Lane tanked with a 96th, 97th and 159th. Wolak finished 4th in the BASS points – thus qualifying for two Bassmaster Classics (the Top 10 in the Bassmaster Tour points qualified for the 2005 and 2006 Classics).
How does he feel about winning BassFan ROY? "This means more to me than just winning the BASS rookie of the year," Wolak said. "Honestly it does because it spans two different tours, so just doing the math, that's more people.
"I'm extremely happy about it. I watched (the BassFan race) all year."
He credited his wife Jessica for his success this year. "I couldn't have done this without her. Not only the financial aspect of it – that's part of it – but she didn't put any pressure on me. She said, 'Go out and do what feels right.' I think for a lot of rookies, the financial burden and stress of doing well actually hinders their performance. Her saying 'no pressure' helped me a lot."
He added: "We have no children, and that gave me the opportunity to really focus on fishing."
Three Top 20 finishes (one a Top 10), 4th in the Bassmaster Tour points, qualified for the Elite 50s and two Classics, and two ROY awards. Did he have any clue he'd have a year like that?
"No," Wolak said. "Let's be realistic. It was my rookie year, and realistically I didn't think I'd be 4th in (the points) with the caliber of fishermen I was fishing against. These are guys I've watched on TV and idolized my whole life.
"But what I had going for me was that I really like fishing in the spring. The fish are very virgin – meaning you don't have 85 tournaments before you get there, if you know what I mean. Something's always there to clue you in in a 3-day practice. The fish are on the move. So I felt like I had as equal a chance as anyone else considering the pre-spawn (Tour) schedule.
"But did I think I was going to do as well as I did? No."
Rookie of the year standings list >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
