The beauty about the Regional Ranking is that, with as many tournaments that happen throughout the year, the action never stops. Plus, there is usually one tournament that really messes with the rankings. If you look at the most recent rankings, it’s not hard to figure out which one it was this week.
There were seven regional events this weekend — ABA Weekend Series on Lake of the Ozarks, Cedar Creek Reservoir and Okeechobee, and FLW BFLs on Douglas Lake, Smith Mountain Lake, Fort Gibson Lake and Mississippi River — and one didn’t have to look long at the ranking to find some movement.
Marcus Sykora finished middle of the pack at the Lake of the Ozarks event, dropping him from seventh to 15th. It just so happens that’s also where the ranking gets that much more interesting.
First, Richard Cobb dropped off the ranking. Then Gabriel Scott dropped out of the top 20 … and almost out of the top 200. Scott, who was ranked No. 16 a week ago, finished 104th at Smith Mountain, tanking his average and dropping him all the way down to 189th.
Stephen Dyer dropped off to kick off the 20s, with Mike Bruggen moving up o No. 20 to take his spot after a top 10 at the Mississippi River. Jeff Ritter also fished that event on the Big Muddy, finishing 15th, but that’s not why he made the insane leap from 221st to 27th. Nope, that was because he dropped the BFL All-American from a year ago. We won’t mention how he finished in that event, but you can probably guess by his average jumping nine points without it.
We’re not done with that Mississippi River event. Troy Anderson finished fifth and jumped from 53rd to 33rd this week because of it. Meanwhile, Kyle Schauf, Brian Fitzpatrick and Chris Aswegan all finished far outside the top 10. Schauf dropped from 38th to 95th, while Fitzpatrick landed a little softer, falling from 39th to 66th. Aswegan went from 46th to 93rd.
Other notable moves in the top 50 this week include Dick Shaffer (40th to 52nd), Scott Dean (58th to 42nd) and Bryan Schmitt debuting in 48th.
