We’re halfway into cut day, as 50 anglers will advance to tomorrow and the rest of the field will be eliminated from competition. Matt Robertson has maintained his lead through the morning, expanding it even. He has the biggest bag of the 103 anglers on the water (18-0) and has stretched his lead to 10 pounds and an ounce. Robertson is fishing a topwater and a swimbait over a shallow flat of scattered eel grass.
Paul Mueller might have been the closest to chasing down Robertson, had he not lost a 7-pounder close to the boat roughly an hour ago. The bass bit his Neko rig, but the bait doubled over and the hook never penetrated the plastic. The fish simply came up and spit it right in front of him. He has three for 8-12 and sits in fourth currently. Brandon Cobb has the Phoenix Boats Big Bass lead, with a 7-pounder. He sits in second with four for 15 pounds. Luke Palmer is in third, Jocumsen in fifth, both with around 14 pounds.
It’s hard to predict what the cut weight will be to get into tomorrow, likely harder than ever. The normal method of doubling the Day 1 weight and adding a pound or two seems overly optimistic, with several fish being caught off bed yesterday and far fewer expected to be on bed today. Seth Feider sat in 50th on Day 1 with 14-7. The current cutline on BassTrakk is has Tyler Rivet with 20-1. I’ll take a wild guess and throw out 27 pounds, 2 ounces to make it to Day 3, predicting an unusual drop in weights for the Elites.
