Five of the seven Arkansas anglers competing at the Forrest Wood Cup made the cut Friday following the second round of the FLW Tour’s championship tournament being fished on the Red River near Shreveport.
Larry Nixon of Bee Branch led the Arkansas contingent for a second consecutive day, bringing in five fish that weighed 14 pounds, 5 ounces. That pushed his two-day total to 27-09, good for third place overall behind leader Randall Tharp (29-11) of Port Saint Joe, Fla., and Bryan Thrift (29-07) of Shelby, N.C.
“My hope was to just come out here and catch 12 pounds a day,” Nixon told wired2fish.com. “I’m ahead of my schedule. I’m putting it together, and it’s starting to come together for me each day.”
Nixon said he caught a break when he managed to boat a 4½-pound bass that was hung up.
“The fish got me hung up really bad for about five minutes,” he said. “I was about to break my line because I didn’t want to mess up my area, and right then the fish swam out of there.”
Ray Scheide of Dover is fourth after weighing in a 12-12 stringer for a two-day total of 25-03.
Schiede said his second-day haul could have been much heavier, estimating that he could have brought in 20 pounds or more if he had landed all the fish he hooked Friday.
“I’m frogging and flipping the absolute thickest stuff I can find in the backwater areas,” Schiede said. “I’m on freaking giants, and it’s going to get better every day for me. I’ve got to figure out how to keep them on in that thick cover.”
Mark Rose of West Memphis weighed in 11-14 and is fifth at 24-13. He said his goal going into Friday was to weigh in 12 pounds, and he said he feels pretty good about his chances if he can make it to Sunday’s final round.
“I’m waiting for something very specific to happen with the river, and I need to survive until Sunday for that to happen,” Rose said. “It will be a whole different ball game if I can make it to Sunday and that river does what I need it to do.”
Robbie Dodson of Harrison is eighth after weighing in 12-08 for a total of 23-07, and Kerry Milner of Bono rounded out the Arkansas anglers who survived the cut by weighing in 12-04 on Friday for a total of 21-03, which left him 15th heading into today’s third round.
Two Arkansas anglers failed to make the top-20 cut.
Spencer Shuffield of Bismarck weighed in 7-03 for a total of 19-11, which left him just short of the cut at No. 21. Shuffield was sixth after Thursday’s opening round, when he caught 12-08. Stetson Blaylock of Benton finished 30th at 17-04 after weighing in 10-06 on Friday.
Both anglers earned $12,500.
Tharp, who has led both days, said he got off to a fast start Friday but things slowed down around midmorning. He said he caught only nine keeper bass.
“I started out today in a different area that I didn’t fish in yesterday,” Tharp said. “I caught two decent fish right away and it really settled me down. It wasn’t fast and furious, but I had my limit today by 9:15 a.m., and it was pretty close to what I weighed in today.”
Theo Corcoran of Kansas City, Mo., won the co-angler division, weighing in an 11-13 stringer Friday that gave him 26-10 for the two-day event. Corcoran, who also led the first day, earned $50,000 for his victory.
Frank Divis of Fayetteville finished 23rd in the co-angler standings, weighing in 5-08 for a two-day total of 12-11 and earned $2,500. Keeton Blaylock of Benton finished 28th, bringing in a 7-14 stringer for a total of 11-12. He also earned $2,500.
The field will be cut again following today’s round. The top 10 pros with the heaviest cumulative weights from the first three rounds will advance to the final round Sunday. The winner will be determined by the heaviest cumulative weight from all four rounds.
Sports, Pages 23 on 08/17/2013