Kelly Jordon Is The New No. 1
After last week's Smith Lake Bassmaster Tour event, Kelly Jordon becomes the first angler to knock Kevin VanDam out of the No. 1 slot in the State Farm-BassFan World Rankings.
VanDam, a perennial fishing powerhouse, had been the No. 1 angler in the world since the World Rankings debuted, in August 2001. He started out the 2004 season 12 points ahead of Jordon, but then things heated up:
> VanDam sat out the Okeechobee FLW, and Jordon finished a respectable 33rd. But 3rd-ranked Alton Jones finished 12th at that event and edged into the No. 2 spot by a few thousandths of a point.
> At the next event, the Harris Chain Bassmaster, VanDam had his worst finish in recent memory (101st), while Jones finished 7th and Jordon finished 19th. After that event, both Jones and Jordon were within striking distance of VanDam.
> At last week's Smith Lake Bassmaster, Jordon finished 15th, VanDam finished 48th and Jones finished 130th. They are now 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the world.
> Since the State Farm-BassFan World Rankings use a 2-year rolling average, all of these anglers were also dropping events as they were adding new finishes. That played in to their points and subsequent rank, the details of which are too much to explain here.
The question is how long Jordon can hang on to the No. 1 slot. He and Jones are fishing this week at the Atchafalaya Basin FLW, but VanDam is not.
Also note that since the beginning of the 2003 season, Jordon has finished in the Top 20 nine times in 20 events. That's an amazing 45 percent of the time. Also, as an indicator of how he's been fishing, last year he and VanDam were the only two-tour pros who qualified for both tour championships via the tours.
Other notable movement:
> Thanks in part to a 7th-place finish at Smith Lake, Louisiana's Greg Hackney cracks the Top 10 for the first time, in 7th.
> Tommy Biffle is back in the Top 10 at 8th.
> Skeet Reese also cracks the Top 10, in 9th.
> Zell Rowland drops to 10th.
See list of top 200 pros >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
