It was not a good week for most of the FLW Tour pros in the top 20.
Between a 2010 Lake Norman event dropping off and a tough Table Rock tournament over the weekend, eight of the 13 FLW pros in the Majors World Ranking top 20 saw their averages dip in the latest update. Brett Hite fell the farthest of them, slipping from sixth to 13th after finishing 129th over the weekend, while Mark Rose, only a few weeks removed from holding the No. 1 spot, continues to go in the wrong direction, falling outside the top 10 for the first time since Bass Rankings launched.
As for some notable moves up the rankings, let’s start with the guy who finished 27th in Branson: Travis Fox. Did you know that in the last year – as in the last 365 days from today – Fox has a better average finish than Kevin VanDam? In fact, he has a better average than anyone in the sport, with an 818.805. Those are the kind of trends that can only be uncovered on this site with our one-year Majors World Ranking. As for his ranking, Fox jumped from 62nd to 45th this week. That’s a far cry from where he was a year ago, wallowing in 169th.
Brent Long is another who is climbing. By winning his second FLW Tour event, it’s safe to say his first win was no fluke. Which means neither is his rise from 134th to 113th.
Spencer Shuffield may have finished second, but it’s his dad, the ageless wonder, Ron Shuffield, who is now only two spots away from the top 20. Stacy King also seems to have found the fountain of youth, finishing fifth at Table Rock and moving up six spots to 26th.
No surprise, the rest of the guys who made the top 10 at Table Rock moved up as well, though Troy Morrow (39th to 33rd), Clint Brownlee (124th to 105th), Anthony Gagliardi (105th to 89th) and Chris Baumgardner (61st to 50th) all made far larger jumps than Jason Christie (15th to 14th). Them’s the breaks when you’re that high in the rankings.
Some other notable jumps up the ranking include Dan Morehead (44th to 32nd), Terry Bolton (59th to 43rd) and Clark Wendlandt (56th to 44th).
Minors: Fitzgerald back at No. 1
If you thought the weekend was tough to some Major anglers, that was nothing compared to the Minors.
Michael Tuck finished 73rd at the FLW EverStart at the California Delta, destroying his average by nine points and dropping him from first to 10th in the Minors-only World Ranking. That allowed the idle Trevor Fitzgerald to reclaim his spot at No. 1.
Joe Uribe and Richard Dobyns also took hits to their averages, yet they moved in different directions in the rankings. Dobyns fell to seventh, while Uribe’s slight dip actually allowed him to move to third since Dobyns and Tuck fell.
Sandwiched between Uribe and Fitzgerald is former FLW Tour angler Roy Hawk, who has again found success in the Minors with a pair of top 20s to start the season and a No. 2 ranking.
Other notable moves include Jeff Michels inching closer to the top 10 (16th to 11th) and Charley Almassey getting into the top 20 (23rd to 15th) after finishing fourth.
