July 07, 2004

Japan's Shinichi "Shin" Fukae blew away the rest of the rookies in this year's cross-tour BassFan.com Rookie of the Year Race. His 24th-place finish at last week's Lake Champlain FLW Tour event sealed his FLW Angler of the Year (AOY) win, and was all he needed to win the Rookie Race by a hefty 32.3-point margin over fellow FLW rookie Ray Scheide (Arkansas).

In fact, that 24th-place finish was Fukae's second-worst finish all season. Aside from his 71st at Old Hickory, he had a 4th, 5th, 6th and 11th – pretty amazing for a rookie, even if this rookie only qualifies as one because he's never fished a U.S. tour before. He's in fact a very accomplished angler in his home country, where he won AOY last year.

The next six anglers in the final rookie race standings are all also from the FLW Tour. That might not be surprising since that tour had more rookies this year due to expanding its field from 175 to 200, and also since Bassmaster Tour rookies are handicapped in that they (and all anglers on that tour) are allowed only 3 days of practice while the FLW Tour has no limit on the pre-event practice period.

Two of the FLW Tour anglers in the end-of-season Top 10 moved up in the last event. Virginia's Jacob Powroznik moved up to 4th, trading slots with Ohio's Dennis Magoto. And Florida's David Givens jumped up seven slots into 6th.

The best Bassmaster Tour rookies this year were Florida's Mark Shepard, Texas' Jason Reyes and Alabama's Jimmy Mason, who finished 8th, 9th and 10th respectively in the BassFan Rookie Race points.

Congratulations to Shinichi Fukae and all the rookies who took the plunge this year.

_____

BassFan.com Rookie of the Year Race

[all fields separated by 5 spaces]

Place Prior Angler City State Tour Points

1 1 Shinichi Fukae Osaka FLW 175.792

2 2 Ray Scheide Russellville AR FLW 142.483

3 3 Glenn Browne Ocala FL FLW 131.833

4 5 Jacob Powroznik Prince George VA FLW 123.342

5 4 Dennis Magoto Waynesville OH FLW 121.175

6 13 David Givens Hernando FL FLW 118.483

7 7 Ron Wolfarth Locust NC FLW 117.958

8 8 Mark Shepard LaBelle FL BASS 117.500

9 9 Jason Reyes Humble TX BASS 115.500

10 10 Jimmy Mason Rogersville AL BASS 113.333

11 11 RJ Bennett Roseville CA BASS 112.833

12 12 Jackie Davis Willard MO FLW 110.250

13 6 Bill McDonald Indianapolis IN FLW 109.667

14 17 Tony Defilippo Lake Ann MI FLW 105.867

15 19 Rusty Salewske Alpine CA FLW 99.592

16 20 Dan Mansky Youngstown OH FLW 99.433

17 14 John Tanner Quitman TX FLW 98.008

18 24 Fred Roumbanis Auburn CA FLW 96.950

19 15 Tim Klinger Boulder City NV FLW 90.342

20 16 Jason Abram Chuckey TN FLW 87.608

21 21 Scott Nielsen Salt Lake City UT BASS 84.667

22 22 Thomas O'Bryant Drummonds TN BASS 84.500

23 18 John Kitchens Atlanta GA FLW 84.233

24 29 Jerry Green Justiceburg TX FLW 78.375

25 27 Karen Savik St. Louis Park MN FLW 73.783

26 31 Glenn Miller Newborn GA FLW 71.567

27 25 Luke Foli Granger IN FLW 70.458

28 23 Ricky Scott Van Buren AR FLW 68.558

29 26 Gary Paris Emory TX FLW 65.867

30 28 Steve Tosh Waterford CA FLW 65.442

31 30 Jeff Evans Benton KY FLW 58.267

32 32 Troy Eakins Nixa MO FLW 55.150

33 33 Chris Wilkerson Livingston TX FLW 50.192

34 34 Gary Bucciarelli Riverview MI FLW 48.450

35 39 Ron Figueroa Appling GA FLW 46.867

36 36 Michael Black Toledo IL FLW 46.708

37 38 Neil Nix Okeechobee FL FLW 45.442

38 35 Larry Barnes Alba TX FLW 41.483

39 44 Lee Skipper Liberty Hill SC FLW 40.850

40 37 Jeff Carreker Stockbridge GA FLW 38.158

41 40 Chris Cox Appleton WI FLW 36.575

42 41 Emily Shaffer Mount Juliet TN FLW 34.517

42 41 Tommy Williams Shepherdsville KY FLW 34.517

44 43 Tony Christian Hull GA FLW 30.242

45 45 Tomohiro Usui Gifu FLW 22.483

46 46 Ralph Wilson Warner Robins GA FLW 8.392

Look for other articles in our Article Archives