Watch out Ott DeFoe. It seems Brent Ehrler wants the No. 1 spot back.
The Redlands, Calif., pro has fished two Major events this year. He finished second at Okeechobee (a place he normally struggles) and just won the FLW Tour event at Lewis Smith wire-to-wire. This weekend’s result jumped the former No. 1-ranked angler back into the top 10, where he now resides in eighth with a 730.467. So, to recap, Ehrler has climbed eight places since the start of the season, and his next Major event will be on Beaver Lake, where he’s had some success.
Also climbing in the top 10 are Andy Morgan, who leap-frogged David Dudley to reach No. 3, and Jacob Wheeler, who climbed another two spots and is now in fifth. Oh, and with Ehrler busting into the top 10, that meant someone had to be bumped out, and that someone was Mark Rose, who slipped to No. 12.
Fresh off his second-place finish at Lewis Smith, Jacob Powroznik rose five spots to No. 14, and Jay Yelas is back in the top 20 at No. 19. At the same time there were some notable slides, with Tom Monsoor slipping six spots to 24th; Stacy King falling even more, dropping 10 spots from 20th to 30th; and Todd Auten falling 15 spots from No. 21 to No. 36.
Meanwhile, there were some notable moves in the top 50 after this weekend in the Shuffield family, alone. Spencer Shuffield continues to steadily moving out of his dad’s shadow as he jumped 22 spots and no resides in 22nd after finishing 12th at Lewis Smith. His father, Ron Shuffield, struggled and dropped from 25th to 43rd, marking the first time Spencer has been ranked ahead of his dad.
If you want to see something weird, look at JT Kenney, who actually finished 109th at Lewis Smith and CLIMBED. How? Because a 2011 FLW Tour event at Beaver Lake also dropped off in the last week, and he finished 157th there. So 109th was actually a marked improvement average-wise.
Other notable moves in the top 50 include Kyle Mabrey (34th to 27th), Jim Moynagh (49th to 39th), Brett Hite (35th to 42nd), Koby Kreiger (54th to 46th), Steve Kennedy (40th to 48th), Matt Arey (41st to 52nd) and Shad Shenck (46th to 60th).
Women’s Ranking
Pam Martin-Wells has broken the streak.
After finishing 2011 with three straight victories, Martin-Wells went all of 2012 without a victory. That slump (if you can call it that, seeing as her worst finish in 2012 was sixth) is over after she won at Neely Henry. That only increased her lead in the Women’s Ranking.
Check back Tuesday for an update on the Regional and College rankings, and Wednesday we’ll have a Data Overload breaking down the favorites for the Elite Series event on the Sabine River.
