It was a hard-fought battle between Bruce Levy and Ken Wood in this year’s Angler of the Year race, which came down to the final tournament of the regular season.
Bruce Levy started the year strong, taking first place in the season opener. Ken Wood did the same in the second tournament of the year.
Bruce would go on to win two more regular-season events, plus he would place third three times, fourth one time, and fifth four times. He also took the lunker largemouth crown one time with a massive 23-inch, 8-pound bass (the biggest of the season), and a second time tying with Ken Wood for lunker smallmouth.
Besides tying with Bruce for lunker smallmouth, Ken won only a single tournament in 2017, but he placed second five times during the regular season, third and fourth once, and fifth twice.
In the end, the Angler of the Year margin of victory was razor thin, but ultimately Bruce Levy bested the field, with just two points separating him and the nearest competitor, Ken Wood.
(Fittingly, Bruce and Ken place first and second, respectively, in the the one post-season tournament of the year.)
A very big congratulations to Bruce Levy! Well deserved.
Here are the final 2017 Angler of the Year standings.
| PLACE | ANGLER | TOTAL FISH | BIG FISH | TOP 25 FISH | TOP 5 BONUS | AOY TOTAL |
| 1 | Bruce Levy | 55 | 23.00 | 424.25 | 29 | 453.25 |
| 2 | Ken Wood | 62 | 20.00 | 419.25 | 32 | 451.25 |
| 3 | Donald Davis | 41 | 20.00 | 403.50 | 20 | 423.50 |
| 4 | Chris Diranian | 44 | 19.75 | 394.75 | 9 | 403.75 |
| 5 | Valber Santos | 28 | 20.75 | 382.25 | 13 | 395.25 |
| 6 | Mike Elrick | 28 | 20.50 | 369.00 | 7 | 376.00 |
| 7 | Stephen Scott | 28 | 20.00 | 370.25 | 5 | 375.25 |
| 8 | Mark Johnson | 24 | 21.50 | 355.25 | 8 | 363.25 |
| 9 | Peter Arruda | 28 | 21.75 | 350.75 | 1 | 351.75 |
| 10 | Allan Seniuk | 22 | 18.50 | 316.00 | 5 | 321.00 |
| 11 | Chris LaCourse | 21 | 19.25 | 289.25 | 0 | 289.25 |
| 12 | Jesse Brady | 20 | 20.00 | 285.25 | 1 | 286.25 |
| 13 | Domenic Eno | 17 | 20.50 | 256.75 | 7 | 263.75 |
| 14 | Shawn Renes | 15 | 21.50 | 224.25 | 13 | 237.25 |
| 15 | Jacob Schur | 16 | 19.00 | 230.50 | 3 | 233.50 |
| 16 | Mike Curreri | 13 | 18.50 | 192.25 | 4 | 196.25 |
| 17 | Lee Kennon | 12 | 20.75 | 186.25 | 4 | 190.25 |
| 18 | Hunter Leger | 12 | 20.25 | 182.75 | 6 | 188.75 |
| 19 | Troy Brown | 13 | 18.50 | 173.25 | 0 | 173.25 |
| 20 | Mike Andreasen | 11 | 19.50 | 162.00 | 0 | 162.00 |
| 21 | Kevin Amaral Jr. | 10 | 18.50 | 145.50 | 0 | 145.50 |
| 22 | Derek Collins | 11 | 16.50 | 141.00 | 2 | 143.00 |
| 23 | Kevin Amaral | 9 | 17.25 | 128.25 | 4 | 132.25 |
| 24 | Hector Colon | 7 | 16.25 | 102.00 | 0 | 102.00 |
| 25 | Edmar Nogeueira | 5 | 19.00 | 89.50 | 5 | 94.50 |
| 26 | Brett Krill | 7 | 15.75 | 90.75 | 0 | 90.75 |
| 27 | Julio Lopes | 6 | 16.00 | 83.50 | 0 | 83.50 |
| 28 | Craig Page | 6 | 15.00 | 78.50 | 5 | 83.50 |
| 29 | Jay Wilcoxson | 7 | 14.50 | 79.75 | 2 | 81.75 |
| 30 | Ari Stonehill | 5 | 18.50 | 77.00 | 3 | 80.00 |
| 31 | Kyle Dudley | 6 | 15.00 | 78.75 | 0 | 78.75 |
| 32 | Jay Paez | 5 | 19.00 | 76.75 | 0 | 76.75 |
| 33 | Anthony Tempesta | 5 | 16.25 | 71.00 | 4 | 75.00 |
| 34 | Chris Hartford | 5 | 16.00 | 72.00 | 0 | 72.00 |
| 35 | Jeremy Robitaille | 5 | 20.00 | 66.50 | 0 | 66.50 |
| 35 | Jesse Phipps | 4 | 21.25 | 59.25 | 0 | 59.25 |
| 36 | Ernani Paganini | 4 | 18.00 | 55.25 | 0 | 59.25 |
| 37 | Benjamin Koha | 4 | 16.50 | 54.75 | 0 | 54.75 |
| 38 | Anthony Murzi | 5 | 16.50 | 50.50 | 1 | 51.50 |
| 39 | Trevor Lewis | 5 | 10.75 | 51.50 | 0 | 51.50 |
| 40 | Dan McCarthy | 5 | 12.00 | 49.75 | 0 | 49.75 |
| 41 | Evan McCarthy | 3 | 18.00 | 48.25 | 0 | 48.25 |
| 42 | William Ridgley | 3 | 14.50 | 42.00 | 0 | 42.00 |
| 43 | Joseph Benoit | 3 | 15.75 | 40.00 | 0 | 40.00 |
| 44 | Thomas Mee | 3 | 15.50 | 40.00 | 0 | 40.00 |
| 45 | Brian Pimental | 3 | 15.00 | 40.00 | 0 | 40.00 |
| 46 | Jonathan Songer | 3 | 15.50 | 39.25 | 0 | 39.25 |
| 47 | Shawn Nuckolls | 2 | 16.50 | 32.25 | 0 | 32.25 |
| 49 | Brian Limeburner | 1 | 13.50 | 13.50 | 0 | 13.50 |
| 50 | RJ Alves | 1 | 12.75 | 12.75 | 0 | 12.75 |
| 51 | Robert Pickering | 1 | 11.00 | 11.00 | 0 | 11.00 |
| 52 | Dave Bibo | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 52 | Kevin Fraser | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 52 | Noah Schur | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 52 | Paul Reed | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |