There are differences, and similarities today at the Forrest Wood Cup. There's 24-year-old Michael Bennett, who in 3 short years rose from relative California obscurity to become the 15th-ranked angler in the world.
He's narrowed down what started as a junk-fishing pattern at South Carolina's Lake Murray, and seems dialed in. He's weighed back-to-back 15-plus-pound bags when most of the field struggled to even catch a limit. And with his 16-01 sack today, he leads the Forrest Wood Cup by a 2-13 margin with 1 day left to fish.
Then there's 37-year-old Dave Lefebre, a 5-year pro who also rose rapidly from relative obscurity. However, Lefebre's been dialed into his pattern since the first day of practice, and it's kicked out steady bags all 3 days of competition.
Lefebre's pattern has yet to kick out better than about 13 pounds though. At the same time, he's catching more fish than Bennett, who caught six to Lefebre's 13 today.
So the setup for the Top 2 is:
> Bennett's catching better fish than Lefebre, but Lefebre's catching twice as many fish.
> Bennett's fished new water the past 2 days, but he's out, and will have to fish used water tomorrow. Lefebre's got some stuff he hasn't touched yet.
> Bennett formalized his pattern today. Lefebre dialed his in the first day of practice.
In 3rd, and 5-02 behind Bennett, is Terry Bolton, who's fishing up the river with about four of the other Top-10 boats. The river bite was strong enough to make the Top 10, but it might be dwindling with the pressure.
The 4th-place spot currently belongs to Chris Baumgardner, who sacked a 5-pounder on a topwater, but suffered the same fate of many – his 10-09 bag today was a fish short.
And the overall demise of a topwater bite was a surprise, since today's conditions were largely cloudy and overcast – typically the time when topwaters shine.