WORLD RANKINGS

Hackney Falls, Stone New No. 1

For the third time this year, there's a new No. 1 angler in the world. This time it's Marty Stone, who narrowly missed winning this year's Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.

Stone no longer fishes the FLW Tour, but former No. 1 angler Greg Hackney does, and Hackney finished 46th at last week's Beaver Lake FLW, aka the Wal-Mart Open. That finish drops him down to 2nd in the world, though he's only 2.2 points behind Stone.

That's the double-edged sword of being a two-tour pro when it comes to the World Rankings. If you're fishing well on both tours – which basically means more events – you can climb higher than someone fishing fewer events (i.e., one tour). But if not, you can fall, as Hackney did this week.

And while a 46th isn't terrible, there's no room even for hiccups at the top.

Other notable Top 10 movement:

Skeet Reese and Kevin VanDam each move up one spot to 3rd and 4th in the world, respectively, but both are still double-digit points behind Stone and Hackney.

An 83rd at Beaver helps Aaron Martens fall two spots to 5th in the world.

David Walker finished below 100th at Beaver, but still holds onto his 6th World Rankings. However, he lost 13 points vs. the last edition of the rankings, and there also might be a slight lag in him falling.

A few BASS-only anglers move up, including Stacey King, who moves up four slots into 9th.

Brent Chapman finished 11th at Beaver, but doesn't move from 10th.

Other Notable Movement:

Dean Rojas falls from 9th to 14th after a 71st at Beaver.

FLW Tour angler Matt Herren, who is fishing well this year and is now 2nd in the FLW Tour points, climbs one spot to 19th.

A 3rd at Beaver helps Alton Jones stop his downward slide, and he moves up four spots to 23rd.

Beaver got the better of Dave Lefebre again, and that helps him fall 14 slots from 14th into 28th.

Note: Only the remaining two FLW Tour regular-season events, the Bassmaster Classic and the FLW Tour Championship remain as World Rankings-counted events before the inaugural Cabela's Top Gun Championship in August. Only the Top 25 in the world plus the two tour Anglers of the Year, if not already in that 25, will qualify.

Please click on this link (http://www.bassfan.com/rankings.asp) to see the full State Farm World Rankings standings.

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ROOKIE RACE

Wolak Takes Over

A 96th-place finish for Florida's Bobby Lane at last week's Beaver Lake FLW Tour event isn't terrible considering that it was his first non-Top 10 finish all season. But it does drop him to 2nd in the BassFan Rookie of the Year (ROY) Race points.

The new ROY Race leader (and Bassmaster rookie race winner) is Pennsylvania's Dave Wolak, who now has a 7 1/2-point lead over Lane. But Lane has two more shots to win while all Wolak can do is sit on the sidelines and watch.

Other FLW and Bassmaster tour rookies moved up and down as a result of last week's tournament, but notable movement includes:

California's Stephen Tosh Jr. jumped up eight spots into 10th after a 16th at Beaver, his best finish of the year so far.

Kentucky's Ramie Colson Jr. went the other way. He dropped seven spots to 11th after a 174th at Beaver, by far his worst finish yet this season.

Two westerners, Arizona's Cliff Pirch and California's Brent Ehrler improved in the ROY Race standings after good finishes at Beaver. Pirch moved up eight spots into 15th after a 4th at Beaver, and Ehrler moved up five spots into 16th after finishing 22nd.

Please click on this link (http://www.bassfan.com/rookie.asp) to see the full BassFan Rookie of the Year Race standings.

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