Angler of the Year Updates – Day 1
Thrift is looking good
First place isn’t the only thing on the line at the FLW Tour presented by Costa Sunglasses on the Potomac. Being the final event of the FLW Tour season, there is a lot of Angler of the Year action to be wrapped up. Though not the closest battle, Bryan Thrift’s pursuit of Angler of the Year is the most important. Behind that, the race for Rookie of the Year and Co-angler of the Year is almost as interesting and quite a bit tighter.
Top five patterns from day one
Thrift may have enough to fend off Morgan
Bryan Thrift came into the final tournament of the season with a 77-point lead over Andy Morgan. Through day one, he’s doing well enough to keep most of that cushion. Weighing 14-9, Bryan Thrift started the tournament in 67th place while Andy Morgan weighed 15-7 and sits in 44th. With another decent bag tomorrow, it looks like Thrift will be able to wrap up his second Angler of the Year title.
Atkins takes over for ROY
It looked like Bradley Dortch had a firm grip on the Rookie of the Year race going into the Potomac, but he quickly let it slip on day one. Weighing just 13-7, Dortch is tied for 91st after the first day of competition. Contrary to Dortch, Justin Atkins caught the fire out of them to the tune of 17-11 and is currently tied for 14th. If the tournament ended now, Justin Atkins would walk away as Rookie of the Year with 1,108 points to Dortch’s 1,086. Suffice it to say, Dortch has some work to do tomorrow.
Haraguchi looking to fend off Larson
Leading the tournament, co-angler David Larson plopped 17-12 on the scale and is looking for wins in both the tournament and for Co-angler of the Year. Gary Haraguchi entered the day in first place with 1090 points, just 51 points ahead of Larson, who started in second with 1039 points. The California co-angler weighed 11-2 and sits in 42nd currently, so he’s still got the lead, but can’t afford to slip on Friday’s final day of co-angler competition.