PLOVER—Jay Przekurat of Plover is one of the top anglers in the world, with career winnings racking in at $786,250, and he recently competed to win $1.25 million.
Przekurat competed against the top 60 anglers in the world in the World Bass Enterprises: The Champions, in Nashville, Tennessee on Old Hickory Lake. Accompanying the elite anglers were two “average Joes,” who were selected from a pool of applicants. Only one could walk away with the $1.25 million, but a total of $3.25 million were up for grabs amongst competitors.
No stranger to competition, Przekurat has competed over 70 times, with four first place finishes, three second place finishes, and twenty top ten finishes. Throughout his nearly six years as a professional angler, he has caught 3006 pounds and five ounces. Przekurat won the 2022 Bassmaster Elite Series Rookie of the Year, in addition to becoming the youngest angler to win an Elite Series tournament.
Fishing has always been in Przekurat’s DNA. He learned how to fish at just two-years-old from his father, Jason, who is also a professional angler. Jason won two Angler of the Year titles in addition to two National Walleye Tour Championship victories.
Speaking on his dad, Jason, Przekurat said, “He’s the one that taught me everything I know.”
While his father taught him the skills of fishing, the Portage County area is what shaped Przekurat to be the angler he is today.
“The Portage County area started it all for me. The Wisconsin River is a very tough place to fish, there’s a lot of different ways to catch bass, and we also have a lot of small lakes that taught me a lot.” Przekurat said. “We have the best of both worlds, having the river and the lakes. It has just made me a better well-rounded angler, especially when I started to fish south of Wisconsin.”
A total of $3.25 million was up for grabs, something Przekurat said could change his life being newly married, but what he really hoped to earn from this competition was experience.
“I just want to get the experience from this competition, being around all these guys and the camaraderie it brings.” Przekurat said.
At the end of the first day of competition, Przekurat was ranked in seventh place amongst the field of 60 competitors. By day two, only the top fifteen anglers would move forward to the championship day. Przekurat narrowly missed the cut, placing in seventeenth and only two ounces short of competing in the championship.
Matt Robertson, of Kuttawa, Kentucky, ultimately took home the grand prize of $1.25 million.
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