Professional Cody Meyer of Grass Valley, Calif., crossed the stage with a five-bass limit weight of 13 pounds, 3 ounces to take the lead of the on Day 2 of the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier.

Meyer now holds a 1 pound, 4 ounce lead over Larry Nixon of Bee Branch, Ark., whose five-bass weight on Day 2 was 13 pounds, 8 ounces, giving him a two-day, 10-bass total of 26 pounds, 2 ounces.

“Today I started off and caught two pretty quick,” Meyer said. “I fished the same water I fished yesterday.
“I ran a bunch of water and wasn’t catching them,” Meyer added. “Yesterday I caught them mostly all suspended over the top of brush and today it seemed like I couldn’t find them doing that, so actually I just dropped it into the brush.”

Meyer said he caught only five keepers throughout the course of the day, with his last coming at 2:45 p.m.

“I’m going to fish a lot of new water tomorrow, so maybe that will produce,” Meyer said of his low catch numbers. “The bites that I’m getting are all really good ones, fortunately. It could be really good or I could have only a couple of fish.”

Gainesville professional Jason Meninger moved from sixth to a tie for third place on Day 2 with a five bass weight of 11 pounds, 14 ounces, bringing his two-day total to 25 pounds, 1 ounce.

Day 1’s leader, pro Kevin Hawk of Ramona, Calif., saw a drop in his total weight during Day 2, pulling in 10 pounds, 3 ounces Friday after netting 14 pounds, 12 ounces on Day 1. Hawk fell from first to fifth going into the third day of the tournament.

Nixon made a big move Friday, pulling in 13 pounds, 8 ounces to move from sixth to second place with a two-day total of 26 pounds, 2 ounces.

Jason Christie currently sits in third place. The Park Hill, Okla. native netted 10 pounds, 9 ounces of bass Friday, giving him a total of 25 pounds, 1 ounce.

The second day of competition marks the cut to the top-30 professionals and co-anglers. Professionals are competing for the title of Forrest Wood Cup champion, the most prestigious award in professional bass fishing, and a top cash award of up to $600,000, which is the sport’s biggest award.

Dereal Rodgers, of Camden, S.C., leads the Co-angler Division with a 10-bass weight of 18 pounds, followed by Frank Divis, Sr. of Fayetteville, Ark.

Divis, Sr. had a seven-bass weight of 17 pounds, four ounces.

Co-anglers are fishing for a top award of $60,000.

Daily takeoff ceremonies will be held from 6:30-7 a.m. Saturday at Laurel Park. Weigh-ins are scheduled to being at 5 p.m. at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth.