The White River stretch of the season is officially in the books for the Majors, and it certainly shook up the Majors Ranking in a number of ways.
Only, there’s been one angler that hasn’t changed — Kevin VanDam at No. 1.
Last year, the No. 1 spot was a game of musical chairs where every tournament seemed to send a new contender to the top. This year, it’s been KVD firmly planted there, and his average actually increased in the last week thanks to his 19th at Bull Shoals and the dropping off of a 33rd at Toledo Bend from 2011.
However, Edwin Evers also raised his average in similar fashion and now resides in second. The only problem is he’ll have to fish remarkably well to stay there, as his next three Major events to drop off are all top 15s.
Todd Faircloth had been climbing the rankings this year, working his way up to No. 7 last week. His 47th at Bull Shoals took care of that, though, as he dropped to 13th.
The 2011 FLW Tour on Lake Chickamauga also dropped last week, which provided a nice boost to a couple anglers, such as Cody Meyer. If the young California pro hadn’t finished 118th at Okeechobee to start the season, he could be contending for the top spot right now. Still, he climbed back into the top 10 in eighth. And Jason Christie rests one spot out of the top 10 in 11th after the last two weeks.
The next notable move in the ranking is courtesy of Dean Rojas, and it’s not a good one. He lost his win at Toledo Bend, and when combined with his 82nd at Bull Shoals, he dropped 15 spots this week to 36th. Meanwhile, Greg Hackney is the yin to Rojas’ yang this week, as Hackney ditched his 90th at Toledo Bend and replaced it with an 11th to climb 13 spots to 22nd.
Other notable moves this week include Ron Shuffield (43rd to 29th), Tom Monsoor (25th to 31st), Koby Kreiger (40th to 32nd), Matt Arey (42nd to 33rd), Terry Scroggins (47th to 34th), Glenn Browne (50th to 35th), JT Kenney (33rd to 41st), Scott Canterbury (34th to 44th), Skeet Reese finally getting back into the top 50 (80th to 42nd), Robbie Dodson (31st to 45th), Chad Grigsby (41st to 53rd), Randy Howell (44th to 56th), Brandon Card (45th to 52nd) and Russ Lane getting back into the top 50 (52nd to 48th).
Minors
A couple top 10s at the FLW EverStart on Lake Texoma over the weekend produced the only real news in the Minors-Only Ranking this week.
Chris McCall took fourth in his home state to debut in fifth in the ranking. Not too shabby.
Also impressive was Troy Lindner of California taking third to help him debut in 41st.
Check back Wednesday for the Regional and College updates.
