Photo: FLW Outdoors/Jennifer Simmons Shinichi Fukae (above) and Jay Yelas have collectively fished six complete FLW Tour seasons and collected three Angler of the Year titles.

There are several popular ways to attack that argument. There's the Angler of the Year race. There's lifetime earnings. There's recent earnings. There's average finish, or Top 10s, or wins, or championship wins.

But the fastest way to settle any "best angler" argument is to take a quick glance at the BassFan World Rankings presented by Tru-Tungsten. The World Rankings are the benchmark statistical measure in the sport today, because they measure 2-year rolling performance across both major tours.

But there are many statistics the World Rankings don't directly measure – notably, performance over a time beyond the 2-year mark. For those BassFans who want to look around the edges of the World Rankings, and peer deeper back into careers, other statistics are critical.

What follows is a comparison, under several statistical categories, of four key anglers.

FLW Upsurge

What's particularly interesting about this year's World Rankings is the upsurge of FLW Tour powerhouses. Shinichi Fukae, David Dudley, Jay Yelas, and Andy Morgan finished the year ranked 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th in the world, respectively.

In fact, the FLW Tour's representation inside the Top 10 is quite strong – eight of the current Top 10 in the world are, or were at one time, FLW Tour pros.

In addition to Fukae, Dudley, Yelas and Morgan, there's 3rd-ranked Steve Kennedy, who began with BASS in 2006 and fished BASS exclusively in 2007, but was an FLW Tour-only pro from 2002 to 2005. All of his 2006 FLW Tour finishes still affect his rank.

Aaron Martens, ranked 4th, is also of note. He's got 6 years of the FLW Tour under his belt, and like Kennedy, his 2006 finishes still affect his rank.

Then there's 10th-ranked Peter Thliveros, who quit the FLW Tour in 2005 after nine seasons, six Tour Championships, and one Angler of the Year (AOY) title.

No. 1-ranked Kevin VanDam also did a stint on the FLW Tour – from 1999 to 2003 – and was the AOY there in 2001.

Another way to slice it is to say that six of the Top 10-ranked anglers in the world fished the FLW Tour quite recently. But of those six, only four are active on the FLW Tour now, and will be next year (active meaning committed to a full season).

The Current Crop

As described above, here's a brief statistical examination of the four active FLW Tour pros in the Top 10 in the world.

Complete FLW Tour seasons
> Fukae: 4
> Dudley: 11
> Yelas: 3 (plus 1 near-complete)
> Morgan: 11
> Notes: – Yelas, of course, is a 20-year pro who spent most of his career with BASS.

FLW Tour Championships Fished (Won)
> Fukae: 3 (0)
> Dudley: 10 (1)
> Yelas: 4 (0)
> Morgan: 10 (0)
> Notes: Dudley's the lone Championship winner among the four. Notable too is that he and Morgan have both missed the Championship just once during their 11 complete seasons.

Career FLW Tour/Championship Earnings
> Fukae: $550,000
> Dudley: $1.1 million
> Yelas: $350,000
> Morgan: $550,000
> Notes: The money figures are interesting for a few reasons. One is the comparison of Fukae and Morgan, who've both won the same amount. But Fukae did it in three seasons, while it took Morgan 11. Yelas' total breaks down to an average of about $115,000 across his three complete seasons. Dudley's mint comes half from his Championship win, and half from straight Tour winnings. He's never won a regular-season Tour event, but did pocket $100,000 back in 2001 for placing 2nd at the Forrest Wood (St. Clair) Open.

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell David Dudley's average Angler of the Year finish on the 200-boat FLW Tour is astonishing.

In Summary

There is no absolute way to judge who's the better (or best) angler amongst a group. A sport like pro fishing simply offers too many variables. However, statistics like those above can help BassFans better frame their debates.

Of the four pros, one could make the case that Dudley's performance over time – his average AOY rank, number of Top 10s, and Championship title – move him to the top of the group.

But note too the above stats don't include the years Yelas spent with BASS – years that include an AOY title, a Bassmaster Classic win, 52 Top 10s, five wins, and $1.3 million in BASS winnings.

Add his two FLW AOY titles in three complete seasons, and that's one heck of a record sheet.

In fact, in today's dual-league environment, there's likely no balanced way to compare angler performance inside a single tour. Probably the only balance comes from a multi-league perspective.