It may have been created in Alabama, but the Alabama Rig sure catches fish in the Ozarks.
Nearly every top 10 angler at the FLW Tour event on Beaver Lake relied on it, including winner Jason Christie. But the Alabama Rig wasn’t the only thing to tinker with the Majors Ranking, as a 2011 BASS Elite Series event on Pickwick also dropped off last week. The two have anglers rising and falling all throughout. Let’s look at the moves.
The top 10 has many of the same names but almost all of them are in different spots from a week ago with Andy Morgan (third), Jacob Wheeler (eighth) and Bryan Thrift (ninth) all slipping, Mark Rose climbing (sixth) and Todd Faircloth leaping seven spots into seventh thanks to the Pickwick event dropping off.
The theme of FLW pros slipping in the rankings was a big one this week as nearly all the top pros struggled at Beaver. Christie moving up with his win, now residing in 15th, and Adrian Avena debuting in 16th were really the only two other positives in the top 20 for FLW pros this week. Brent Chapman again resides in the top 20 after moving up four spots to 17th.
Then there is Ish Monroe. Not only did he drop a mediocre Pickwick event, but he also added a top 20 at Beaver to rocket him up from 37th to 26th. Keith Combs is making a push to be back in the top 20, now 23rd. Bill Lowen is also now in the top 30 in 27th, as is Tom Monsoor in 25th. And Stacy King’s first top 10 in a year jumped him from 39th to 29th.
At the same time, plenty more big names slipped, with Gerald Swindle (30th), Shinichi Fukae (32nd), Greg Hackney (35th) and Chad Grigsby (41st) all falling out of the top 30.
A pair of Scotts — Canterbury and Suggs — had two of the larger leaps in the remainder of the top 50, with both using top 20s to jump eight spots (Canterbury, now in 34th) and 14 spots (Suggs, no 36th).
The rest of the top 50 seemed more negative than positive, unfortunately. For every Aaron Martens (43rd to 37th), Koby Kreiger (58th to 40th) and Matt Arey (49th to 42nd) there were far more fallers. The list of damages includes Glenn Browne (34th to 50th), Terry Scroggins (35th to 47th), Bobby Lane (36th to 46th), Michael Iaconelli (38th to 48th), Clent Davis (44th to 59th) and Justin Lucas (47th to 55th).
Check back Wednesday for the Regional and College updates.
