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Ron Hobbs Jr.climbs to 7th on Day 2 of Forrest Wood Cup
2010 FORREST WOOD CUP: Hobbs hanging hopes on largemouth spot
POSTED Aug. 5, 2010 / 8:40 p.m.

David Johnson WildBlog GAINESVILLE, Georgia - Of the 30 remaining anglers who made it past the Day 2 cut at the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup in Gainesville, Georgia, you can almost bet that 29 of them will be focused on Lake Lanier’s spotted bass on Saturday. And for good reason: chunky spots started to show up with more frequency for leader Cody Meyer (27-6), Larry Nixon (26-2) and the rest of the top 10 in the “world championship of bass fishing”.

That 30th oddball angler, though, will be on a largemouth mission.

Ron Hobbs, Jr., who weighed in 13-5 on Day 2 to climb from 12th place to 7th (24-3), will go right back to the same “magic tree” where he’s caught his three biggest fish of the tournament (all largemouth), and continue to chip away at a location where he’s convinced several tournament-winning-quality fish live.

“They’re there,” Hobbs says simply. “I’ve seen ‘em. I just have to catch them.”

So far, he’s done a pretty darn good job of it. Hobbs broke off three good-sized fish – likely 3-plus-pound largemouth – on the first day before weighing in a pair of buckemouths that boosted his bag to 10-14. He only weighed in one largemouth on Friday, but had chances at a handful more.

The Forrest Wood Cup And, it seems like he’s deciphering the spotted bass bite a little better each day, too. Hobbs upgraded the quality of his spots enough to easily be the biggest “mover” in the top 10 with an improvement of over 3 pounds from his Day 1 weight.

“I got some better-quality spots today, so I think I’m figuring that out a little,” Hobbs says.

Despite that, Hobbs’ on-stage chat with FLW Outdoors president Charlie Evans was all about largemouth, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by some members of the bass-fishing media.

“You’re the only guy in this whole arena talking about largemouth,” FLW color commentator Hank Parker told Hobbs shortly after the Orting native stepped off the stage at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth.

And, chances are, he’ll be talking about them after weighing in on Day 3, too. Hobbs’ plan for Saturday includes a continued assault on a large submerged oak that straddles a narrow channel in the back of one of Lanier’s many small feeder creeks. The tree is situated in such a way that all but 3 to 5 feet of the 10-foot channel is blocked by, as Hobbs describes it, “the meat of the tree”, which creates a small pocket where bait gets served up buffet style to waiting largemouth.

“It’s like a bass highway on that tree,” Hobbs says. “There’s that one little pocket where everything funnels through, but it’s no bigger than a garbage can. There’s really nowhere else for the bait to go. They either have to go through that one little spot, or they have to swim through the tree.”
-JS

8FOLLOW THE 2010 FORREST WOOD CUP HERE and stay logged in to FLW Live throughout the course of the day for exclusive videos and updates from the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup.

8CLICK ON THE NWWC BASS REPORT regularly for exclusive on-site updates as NWWC host Joel Shangle heads to Atlanta to cover the "world championship of bass fishing".

-JS