FLW Tour rookies are four events into their six-event season, Bassmaster Elite Series rookies also are four events in but have seven more to go, and FLW Series rookies are only one event into their five-event season. So who's leading the BassFan Rookie of the Year (ROY) Race to be the best "pure rookie" of 2006?

Georgia FLW Series rookie Tim Farley, of course. He won the FLW Series opener on Georgia's Lake Lanier, and since there's only been one FLW Series event so far, he's got a heck of an average (the ROY calculation is basically an average with a few other factors included).

In fact, the Top 5 rookies in the current ROY standings are all FLW Series rookies. That's partly because there's only been one event, but it's also statistically more likely as there are so many "true rookies" fishing the new FLW Series vs. the FLW Tour and Elite Series.

In fact, thanks to the new FLW Series, which more than makes up for the smaller Bassmaster field size this year, a whopping 95 true rookies are fishing the tour/series-level. Here's how they break down:

• 19 Elite Series rookies (18% of the field)

• 26* FLW Tour rookies (13% of the field)

• 55* FLW Series rookies (28% of the field)

* 5 anglers are rookies on both the FLW Tour and FLW Series, and are designated in the standings by just "FLW" in the "League" field

No rookies are fishing BASS and FLW – fewer non-rookies also are "fishing both" anymore – and only five are fishing more than one trail (FLW Tour and FLW Series).

Back To The Standings

You might also notice that four of the Top 5 anglers aren't just FLW Series anglers, they're also from Georgia – a testament to the fact that local knowledge can matter a lot at unique fisheries like Lanier. It remains to be seen whether those local hot sticks will test their mettle at the rest of the FLW Series stops.

If you disregard the FLW Series rookies because they've only fished one tournament, you see that Ohio resident and Elite Series rookie Bill Lowen, now 6th in the ROY Race, looks like the guy who is having the best rookie season so far. He's finished no worse than 39th, including a 4th at Rayburn. Pretty darn good.

> California Elite Series rookie Jared Lintner, currently 10th, also is having a good rookie season.

> Alabama's Charles Cummings, at 11th, is having the best FLW Tour rookie season so far, with two finishes in the 30s and two in the 60s.

> Pennsylvania's Jason Knapp, in 17th, is having the best rookie season of the five FLW Tour-FLW Series rookies.

Notable

> Pay no attention to the "Prior" column of this edition of the ROY Race standings. The standings haven't been updated in so long that it doesn't apply.

> The BassFan ROY Race only includes "true rookies," meaning anglers who have never fished the boater side of a tour-level event before this year. If you see anyone in the following list who has fished the boater side of a Bassmaster Tour (excluding the Bassmaster Classic) or FLW Tour event prior to this year, please notify us by clicking here.

> Because the FLW Series is new, BassFan will continue to keep an eye on its strength of field relative to the Elite Series and FLW Tour.