The final berths in the Forrest Wood Cup were nailed down last weekend at the Lake Champlain FLW Tour, where David Dudley locked up his second consecutive and third career FLW Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) title by winning the event.
Dudley’s dominance erased just about all of the drama at the top of the AOY standings after he carried a 1-point lead into the final event. Instead, the focus fell on which anglers could make a move up the standings into the mid- or lower-30s or hold on to their spots down near the cut line. Due to four double-qualifiers being among the Top 35 in points (the typical cutoff for the Cup) berths were also awarded to those who finished in 36th through 39th.
Jason Christie, who led the AOY standings after three events, but fell all the way to 55th after Kentucky Lake, used his 11th-place finish at Champlain to move up to 39th and lock up the final points-based berth. Also moving up to grab a spot in the Cup were: Koby Kreiger (49th to 35th), Cody Bird (45th to 33rd), Todd Hollowell (44th to 36th) and J.T. Palmore (44th to 34th).
Falling out of Cup contention at Champlain were: Justin Lucas, Brent Long (Table Rock Lake winner), Brad Knight, Stacey King and Vic Vatalaro.
Mark Rose, whose season got off to a horrendous start, wound up 40th in points, falling 1 point short in his bid to qualify for a sixth straight Cup.
The Forrest Wood Cup is scheduled for Aug. 9-12 at Lake Lanier outside of Atlanta.
Dudley was a triple-qualifier by virtue of his being last year’s AOY, finishing 5th in last year’s Tour Opens points and winning this year’s Tour Major points chase. Other multiple qualifiers included Scott Martin (2011 Cup champ and 18th in Tour Major points), Dan Morehead (2011 EverStart Series champ, 31st in Tour Major points) and Dave Lefebre (No. 2 in 2011 Tour Opens points and 11th in Tour Major points).
Spencer Shuffield finished 56th in points on the pro side this year, but will fish the Cup out of the back of the boat since he was the co-angler of the year in 2011.
Here’s a look at this year’s Cup field and how they qualified (2012 Tour Major points standing in parentheses):
> Scott Martin – 2011 Forrest Wood Cup Champion, 2012 Tour Majors (18th)
> David Dudley – 2011 FLW Tour AOY, 2011 Tour Opens (5th), 2012 Tour AOY
> Dan Morehead – 2011 EverStart Series Champion, 2012 Tour Majors (31st)
> Shin Fukae – 2011 Opens Champion
> Dave Lefebre – 2011 Opens (2nd), 2012 Tour Majors (11th)
> Glenn Browne – 2011 Opens (3rd)
> Scott Suggs – 2011 Opens (4th)
> Thanh Le – 2011 Opens (6th)
> Gilbert Gagner – 2012 TBF National Champion
> Brian Maloney – 2012 BFL All-American Champion
> Ryan Patterson – 2012 FLW College Fishing Champion
> Jacob Powroznik – 2012 Tour Majors (2nd)
> Ron Shuffield – 2012 Tour Majors (3rd)
> Jim Moynagh – 2012 Tour Majors (4th)
> Cody Meyer – 2012 Tour Majors (5th)
> Luke Clausen – 2012 Tour Majors (6th)
> Bryan Thrift – 2012 Tour Majors (7th)
> J.T. Kenney – 2012 Tour Majors (8th)
> Matt Arey – 2012 Tour Majors (9th)
> Andy Morgan – 2012 Tour Majors (10th)
> Clifford Pirch – 2012 Tour Majors (12th)
> Wesley Strader – 2012 Tour Majors (13th)
> Clent Davis – 2012 Tour Majors (14th)
> Jim Tutt – 2012 Tour Majors (15th)
> Jay Yelas – 2012 Tour Majors (16th)
> Chris Baumgardner – 2012 Tour Majors (17th)
> Gary Yamamoto – 2012 Tour Majors (19th)
> Randall Tharp – 2012 Tour Majors (20th)
> Stetson Blaylock – 2012 Tour Majors (21st)
> Craig Dowling – 2012 Tour Majors (22nd)
> Adrian Avena – 2012 Tour Majors (23rd)
> Scott Canterbury – 2012 Tour Majors (24th)
> Blake Nick – 2012 Tour Majors (25th)
> Terry Bolton – 2012 Tour Majors (26th)
> Anthony Gagliardi – 2012 Tour Majors (27th)
> Micah Frazier – 2012 Tour Majors (28th)
> Troy Morrow – 2012 Tour Majors (29th)
> Jacob Wheeler – 2012 Tour Majors (30th)
> Brent Ehrler – 2012 Tour Majors (32nd)
> Cody Bird – 2012 Tour Majors (33rd)
> J.T. Palmore – 2012 Tour Majors (34th)
> Koby Kreiger – 2012 Tour Majors (35th)
> Todd Hollowell – 2012 Tour Majors (36th)
> Clark Wendlandt – 2012 Tour Majors (37th)
> Dion Hibdon – 2012 Tour Majors (38th)
> Jason Christie – 2012 Tour Majors (39th)
