Like traffic on Central Avenue after a racing day at Oaklawn Park, weights in the Forrest Wood Cup are stacked.
All but one of the 54 contestants caught a fish Friday on Lake Ouachita, 33 recording a five-bass limit, but take their word for it: It didn't come easy.
"It was brutal, brutally tough," said Texan Clark Wendlandt, the lone angler with an empty bag, "but I'm sure a lot of the other guys had a tough day, too." Supplying perspective, Wendlandt is a three-time Fishing League Worldwide Tour Angler of the Year, rewarding consistency in a series of tournaments that determines most Cup qualifiers.
Not that everyone left disappointed: Nine anglers weighed in least 10 pounds and defending champion Justin Atkins, at 9-4, completed the top 10.
Thirteen proved a lucky number with leader Alex Davis at 13 pounds, 10 ounces, Nick Lebrun second at 13-6 and Zack Birge at 13-1. Davis (Albertville, Ala.) and Lebrun (Bossier City, La.) are Cup rookies, Lebrun trying to parlay his All-American championship as a weekend angler into the FLW Tour's biggest prize.
They all return to Lake Ouachita today for a 7 p.m. launch from Brady Mountain Resort & Marina, the 5 p.m. weigh-in at Bank OZK Arena revealing the top 10 finishers for what the tour calls Championship Sunday. The winner Sunday, following a free Justin Moore concert at 4 p.m., receives $300,000.
Many anglers spoke of a "grinding" experience on the water on a typically warm August day in Arkansas. North Carolina's Bryan Thrift, a perennial Cup favorite although a non-winner in 11 appearances, was 15th with 9 pounds and said "one or two bites can go a long way" in determining the champion. Another factor, he said, is that the 2018 Cup is two weeks earlier than when Ouachita last hosted the event in 2015.
"The fish then were heading into a fall pattern," Thrift said. "I think we're a little ahead of the fish."
Both Arkansans in the field require comebacks to make the cut, Wynne's Mark Rose 32nd with a limit weighing 7-2 and Bentonville's Greg Bohannan 51st with a single catch of 1-4.
With his fans in the audience hoisting signs reading "Faith Leads Winners," Rose repeated a truism that applies to any major sporting event of more than one round: "You can't win the Forrest Wood Cup on the first day but you can lose it on the first day."
Occupying the spotlight in his 12th Cup appearance, fishing in his home state as 2018 Pennzoil Tour Angler of the Year, Rose said he planned no significant changes on Day 2.
"I'll be fishing deep," he said, "and if the fish get schooled up, you can get some 3-pounders."
South Carolina angler Bradford Beavers sacrificed quantity for quality with a three-fish stringer weighing 11-6. The 7-pound, 5-ounce kicker Beavers pulled first from his bag drew oohs and aahs from the audience, vaulting him to seventh place.
Completing the top five were Canadian Cory Johnston (12-8) and Texan James Niggemeyer (12-2) with Alabama's Wes Logan (11-9), Florida's John Cox (11-6) and Tennessee's John Cox (11-3) sixth through eighth. Tennessee contestant Jason Lambert, an FLW Tour winner this year on Kentucky Lake with 101 pounds, 9 ounces, was ninth at 10 pounds, reminding himself that when conditions toughened "just to put my head down and go fishing."
Virginia veteran David Dudley, a perennial Cup favorite, took a philosophical approach after checking in 14th with 9 pounds, 3 ounces. "A good start to the tournament," he called it, "but I've got a lot of catching up to do."
Sports on 08/11/2018