FLW Tour’s midseason report card

Who’s hot, who’s not and which potential Jacobs Cups matchups have fans drooling

With three FLW Tour events already in the books, a few noticeable trends are starting to crystallize at midseason. For starters, Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., is looking more and more like the man to beat in the race for the 2003 FLW Tour Angler-of-the-Year title. With two top-10 finishes at Okeechobee and Lake Murray and a 23rd-place finish at the Atchafalaya Basin, Morehead has served notice to the rest of the field that he has no intention of relinquishing his No. 1 ranking anytime soon.

“This season is going very well for me so far,” said Morehead. “I’m not fishing BASS this year, so I’m more focused. I’m making good decisions at the right time. I’ve got the three toughest tournaments over with, and the next three tournaments really play to my strengths. Everything is falling into place for me this year, and I really think the rest of the field is going to have their work cut for them. I’m going to do everything I possibly can to make the (AOY) title happen.”

However, Morehead is only one part of the intriguing midseason picture. It also appears that some of the tour’s young guns – Dave Lefebre (currently ranked 12th overall), Pat Fisher (13th place) and Andre Moore (16th place) to name just a few of the anglers who have successfully graduated from the ranks of the EverStart Series in recent years – are looking more and more like sure bets to have long and noteworthy careers on the FLW Tour.

“I’m really happy to be in the position I’m in right now and be able to compete at this level,” said Lefebre, a member of Team Yahama who is fishing the FLW Tour for the first time this year and finding considerable success since coming over from the EverStart Northern Division. “I’ve been working for this opportunity for the last 12 to 15 years so it’s like a dream come true. I really want to continue to do well. But I know I have to keep improving.

“I was ranked third after the second tournament of the year and, for the first time, I started thinking about that Angler-of-the-Year title,” Lefebre continued. “But then I slipped a little bit at Lake Murray and realized that I have to stay more focused. But no matter how this season turns out, I’m here to stay.”

Veteran impact

Although the FLW Tour has produced a surprising number of rookie tournament title winners over the past two years (J.T. Kenney, Chris Elliot, Andre Moore and Sam Newby), a host of veteran anglers have been grabbing most of the headlines this season, demonstrating yet again that they are truly the perennial heavyweights of the sport. In addition to top-ranked Morehead, David Dudley (second), Tommy Biffle (third), Darrel Robertson (fourth), Clark Wendlandt (fifth), Andy Morgan (sixth), Larry Nixon (seventh), Paul Elias (eighth), Mickey Bruce (ninth) and Gary Klein (10th) have all dominated the top-10 rankings to date. Not surprisingly, it is this field of anglers that poses the biggest threat to Morehead’s efforts to land the prestigious Angler-of-the-Year title come June.

“I hate to lose,” said Dudley, a veteran of the FLW Tour since 1996. “And to have that opportunity to say that I was the best angler on the FLW Tour this year would be an honor. Now, am I going to start changing strategies because I’m in the running for the Angler-of-the-Year title? No. But I’ll tell you what, I fish for a win at every tournament. And whether I’m in the running for the Angler-of-the-Year title or not, that’s never going to change.”

However, not all big-name FLW Tour pros are experiencing the same success this year as Dudley and Morehead. On the other end of the spectrum are Tahahiro Omori (143rd-place overall), Steve Daniel (120th), 2002 FLW Angler of the Year Jay Yelas (108th), Dion Hibdon (106th) and Dean Rojas (100th) – an intriguing list of veterans with lengthy resumes who have so far struggled during the 2003 season for one reason or another.

Jacobs Cup fever already tangible

Perhaps the biggest unanswered question at the season’s midpoint is the final makeup of the tournament field receiving automatic qualifying berths to the prestigious 2003 Jacobs Cup. Per league rules, only the top 48 anglers in the year-end standings will be invited to this year’s Jacobs Cup – formerly known as the FLW Championship. If the 2003 FLW Tour regular season ended today, bass-fishing enthusiasts would have a host of dream head-to-head matchups to follow during the final and most widely anticipated event of the season.

Specifically, fans would be treated to such slugfests as David Walker vs. Gary Klein, Rick Clunn vs. Tommy Biffle, Mickey Bruce vs. Dwayne Horton, Jimmy Millsaps vs. Ricky Shumpert and Kelly Jordan vs. Greg Hackney. In addition, the current matchups pose a variety of other interesting scenarios with Tom Monsoor and Dave Lefebre squaring off in the battle of former EverStart Northern Division heavyweights as well as an intrasponsor team contest between Fuji pros Wes Thomas and Randy Blaukat.

Unlike the six tournaments that comprise the regular season, the Jacobs Cup provides a unique, match-play format not unlike the rules governing the annual PGA Match Play Championship. During the opening round of Jacobs Cup competition, the top 48 anglers will be paired up with an opponent for a two-day head-to-head matchup. The highest-seeded competitor (earmarked for the top finisher in the year-end standings) will square off against the 48th seed, the second seeded angler against the 47th seed, and so forth. The 24 winners who advance to the third day of competition will again be matched up against another advancing competitor in their bracket for a one-day duel. The 12 winners of those head-to-head contests will then have their total weights zeroed before the start of the finals. The winner, the angler who records the heaviest stringer during the finals, will walk away with a cool $500,000 – one of the largest first-place checks in the history of the sport of professional bass fishing.

“I’m really looking forward to fishing on the James River in the Jacobs Cup,” Morehead said. “Anytime you get to fish for $500,000 in a head-to-head competition, you’ve got to like those odds. It’s going to be really exciting.”

Lefebre agreed.

“The whole reason I wanted to start fishing the FLW Tour in the first place was to compete in the Jacobs Cup,” said Lefebre. “That’s been my main goal all year.”