Three Carolina anglers in top 10
Greenwood, SC’s Brandon Cobb leads the 2017 FLW Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Murray. He jumped into the lead with a sack of five keepers that weighed over 19 pounds, his second bag in a row that weighed just shy of 20 pounds. His total weight going into day three is 39 pounds.
Cobb said he only caught 7 keepers on Saturday, but they were all good fish. He also lost a four pounder, but he said that’s all a part of fishing. Cobb was surprised at the scales. He said he didn’t think his bag of fish was quite that heavy, and he was expecting to go into day three in third place.
“It’s pretty crazy. I had no idea I had that much weight today. I knew Justin had 15-ish and I thought I’d still be in third. I didn’t think I’d be ahead,” said Cobb, who caught most of his fish today on three different topwater lures and a Zoom Fluke.
The leader from day one, Justin Atkins of Florence, Alabama dropped to second place with a two-day total of 37-3.
Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, SC is in third. His total so far is 36-1, and he is attempting to become the only FLW angler to win the Cup twice. Gagliardi won the event on this same lake in 2014, and is highly skilled at fishing around schooling herring, which is the key to many of the big bags in this tournament so far, including Cobb’s.
Bryan Thrift said the Palmetto State isn’t the only Carolina in this show. The Shelby, NC angler sits in fifth place with 33-13 going into Championship Sunday.
While Cobb was the most consistent angler over the first two days of the Cup, another South Carolina angler, Bradford Beavers, was one of the most improved from one day to the next.
Fishing in his first Forrest Wood Cup, Beavers ended day one in thirtieth place after catching only four fish. But Beavers came out strong on day two, catching the second largest bag of the day at 16-9, which propelled him into eleventh place with a total weight of 26 pounds, and just outside of the coveted top 10 list of anglers who will compete for $300,000 on Sunday.
Like Cobb, Matt Arey of Shelby, NC had very consistent days, but his weights were just too light. He caught 12-3 on day one, and 12-13 on day two, finishing in fourteenth place.
Catawba, NC’s Shane Lehew fell to nineteenth place after a tough day today.Lehew was in tenth place after day one, but only managed to catch three keepers today for 5-12. He ends the Cup with a total weight of 21-3.
Joel Richardson of Kernersville, NC had a rough day two, bringing only three fish to the scale that weighed 6-7, giving him a total weight of 17-6. Richardson ended in twenty-ninth place.
Day three of the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup begins tomorrow at 7 a.m. with the top 10 anglers leaving out of Dreher Island State Park on Lake Murray, and the final weigh in will take place at 5 p.m.
Click on the video to watch Cobb describe his day, and for more coverage of the FLW 2017 Forrest Wood Cup, click here.
