At the final Bassmaster Elite Series event of the season, at Missouri's Table Rock Lake, Cincinnati, Ohio rookie Bill Lowen had a heck of a tournament, finishing 4th. That put him 2nd in the BassFan Rookie of the Year (ROY) Race, just 7 points behind Jared Lintner of Arroyo Grande, Calif.
But with no more Elite Series events to fish, that means Lintner is the best true rookie (never fished a tour-level event before) on the Elite Series this year. And it also means he's the guy rookies fishing the remaining two FLW Series events have to knock off in order to take home the title of the best true rookie in bass fishing for 2006.
Paul Driskell of Jefferson, Ga. is the highest FLW Series rookie in the BassFan ROY Race standings, at 5th. But he's a huge 20 points behind Lintner, making his chances of winning pretty slim.
We'll learn more in October and November, when those FLW Series events are fished.
However it shakes out, BassFan salutes all the true rookies who "took the plunge" this year.