Fishing News - 1/28/04
- Following are
the State Farm-BassFan.com World Rankings as updated after last week's
Okeechobee FLW Tour event. To see how anglers have moved vs. the
previous edition of the rankings, please click here: www.bassfan.com/rankings.asp
Kevin VanDam still is the No. 1-ranked angler in the world following last week's Okeechobee FLW. But in part because he didn't fish that event, his 12-point margin over the No. 2 angler in the world, now Alton Jones, has shrunk by a third, to a little less than 8 points. But VanDam is fishing the Harris Chain Bassmaster this week, as are all the anglers in the Top 10 in the world except David Dudley.
Jones retakes the 2nd slot from Kelly Jordon, but not by much (0.006 points) partly due to his 12th-place finish at Okeechobee vs. Jordon's 33rd.
David Dudley continues to fish well, and moves up three spots to 5th in the world after finishing 3rd at Okeechobee.
Some jumping around in the rankings occurs as a result of Bassmaster-only or two-tour pros dropping finishes from late 2001, back when the first part of the Bassmaster Tour season was in the fall. Some examples:
> Zell Rowland jumps up from 11th to 5th in the world even though he didn't fish last week (he doesn't fish the FLW Tour) because he had two semi-bad finishes in late 2001. Losing those two finishes pops him up in the rankings, and indicates how strong his performance was last year.
- > Jay Yelas
drops to 9th because he lost two Top 10 finishes: one at the end of 2001 (9th
at the Red River Bassmaster) and one at the beginning of 2002 (3rd at the
Okeechobee FLW). He also didn't fish last week, so this week will be the first
chance he has at replacing one of those Top 10s.
> Tim Horton drops to 11th in part because he lost his win at Lake Toho in December 2001.
> Larry Nixon (29th) stays exactly where he was even though he finished 9th at Okeechobee, in part because he dropped a 2nd-place finish at the December 2001 Toho Bassmaster.
Other notable items:
> Mike Wurm (18th) continues to drop because he didn't fish as well at the end of 2003 vs. 2002.
> Dean Rojas (32nd) drops 7 spots even though he finished high at Okeechobee (7th), in large part because of a lack of any championship points in 2003.
> Bear in mind that with the exception of 1st and 2nd, the point spread is very tight within the rankings so small losses or gains can result in movements of several places.
> Also bear in mind that some movement is delayed because this is a 2-year ranking (if it was more than 2 years, movement would be delayed even more).
- > As always, angler movement will likely become less pronounced as the tour seasons progress.
From BassFan.com
