The 2004 BassFan Rookie of the year Race, which crowns the best rookie in all of tour-level fishing, is on, and Arkansas' Ray Scheide tops the list after the first event. His win of last week's FLW Tour opener on Lake Okeechobee puts him in the lead, but not an especially comfortable one. Japanese champ Shinichi Fukae finished 4th at Okeechobee, and is less than 7 points behind Scheide in the BassFan race.
Ocala, Fla.'s Glenn Browne also had a good start to his tour career, and his 11th-place finish at Okeechobee is good for 3rd in the BassFan Rookie Race. Hernando, Fla.'s David Givens finished 13th at Okeechobee, and the next highest- finishing rookie was Waynesville, Ohio's Dennis Magoto in 30th. They are 4th and 5th in the race, respectively.
Many of the 46 rookies who fished the FLW Tour event had a tough time of it, but they have five more events to make up ground. Bassmaster Tour rookies (only six of them are in the BassFan race) start to accumulate points this week.
Note that the BassFan Rookie of the Year Race is only open to true rookies, meaning those who have never fished the pro (boater) side of a tour event before.
So far Ohio's Frank Scalish (2002) and California's Mike Reynolds (2003) have been the best rookies in pro bass fishing. Who will it be this year?