There were eight regional events this weekend — ABA Weekend Series on the Potomac River, Lake Jordan, Ouachita and Kentucky Lake, and FLW BFLs on Rend Lake, Lake Eufaula, Stockton Lake, Lake Hartwell and Guntersville — and Brooke Morrison didn’t fish in any of them. So when one of his tournaments dropped off last week, so did the No. 1-ranked angler in the Regional Ranking.
That means we have a new No. 1 in Johnny Patterson, and he’s not going anywhere with how he’s been fishing. He took 11th over the weekend at Guntersville to solidify his place at No. 1.
That wasn’t the only noteworthy move in the top 10 this week. Brock Taylor finished 13th at Lake Hartwell, which just so happened to be his fourth event. That allowed him to debut at No. 3. It was also Doug Workman’s fourth event, and his third-place finish allowed him to debut at No. 11.
While Hartwell was one to remember for the above two anglers, Jerry Kotal would probably just assume forget it. It’s not that he had a bad tournament, finishing 18th, but he dropped eight spots to 25th because of it. Tough break.
Time to talk about another tournament, this one on Lake Stockton. Joseph Brantley finished 20th there, allowing him to debut at No. 20 in the rankings.
At the Potomac, Robert Grike finished 73rd, killing his average by five percentage points and dropping him from 22nd to 60th. Bob Noble had an equally forgettable tournament at Eufaula, finishing 49th and falling from 29th to 78th in the rankings.
Other notable moves in the top 50 include David Gnewikow slipping from 34th to 50th, Michael Smith debuting in 39th, William (Bill) Kramer falling from 40th to 66th, Thomas Helton dropping an event and catapulting fro 108th to 40th, Matt Stanely moving up from 56th to 42nd, Dick Shaffer following suit in moving from 58th to 44th and Matthew Armand jumping from 77th to 49th.
