Group B at the 2026 MLF Heavy Hitters on Orange Lake has a new leader after Cole Floyd boxed a 53-13 bag of 15 scorable bass to leapfrog day one pacesetter Mark Davis and head into the knockout round with 85-1 on 26 bass, with Shin Fukae the last man through by a six-and-a-half-ounce margin.
Davis had led after day one with 53-12, the bag overshadowed only by Michael Neal's $10,000 11-pound Berkley Big Bass winner. By the second day's weigh-in Davis had been overhauled, with Floyd's grind-it-out cull moving from second place to first.
"Cole Floyd didn't have to go big to not go home," MLF reported in its day two post-game summary, "but he came out swinging and didn't stop until he moved up from second place to first with 53 pounds, 13 ounces on 15 scorable bass for a two-day total of 85-1 on 26 scorable bass."
The Heavy Hitters scoring format weighs every fish above the two-pound length minimum and rewards big-bass cash for the heaviest single fish of the round, but the qualifying round still rewards anglers who can keep the cull active. Floyd's day two bag averaged just over three and a half pounds per scorable fish, an indication that the pad-edge and offshore-grass game on Orange Lake was holding together even if no one matched Neal's day one giant.
The back-half drama belonged to the bubble fight. With one spot left in the Knockout Round, Japanese veteran Shin Fukae found just enough at the death.
"A battle was brewing for the eighth and final spot in tomorrow's Knockout Round and Shin Fukae made the cut by a 6-8 margin with 55 pounds even on 20 scorable bass," MLF wrote in its summary.
In the MLF day two highlight reel, Bobby Lane stood out for the volume and quality of pad-edge fish. The Florida pro ran a string of mid-fives topped by a 5-pound, 12-ounce kicker and added a 4-13, 5-9, 5-5 and 5-13 to push the leaderboard. "We're going to the knockout round, boys," Lane said after one landing, guiding a fish through matted greenery and onto the carpet of his Bass Cat.
The topwater bite ran hot elsewhere on the lake. "We have had some absolute killer topwater bites here this afternoon," one of the MLFNOW! commentators said as post-spawn fish began chasing frogs and buzzbaits across the shallow flats. A 6-pound, 15-ounce buzzbait fish prompted the line of the day: "Welcome to Florida."
Davis did not so much surrender the lead as see it eroded. The Arkansas pro had set the early pace with a clinical day one cull, but a sleeper Cole Floyd day put a 31-4 swing on the leaderboard. The Heavy Hitters score resets at zero for the Knockout Round so the qualifying-round leaderboard becomes purely a seeding exercise, but Floyd's surge does carry momentum into the one-day cut against Group A's top finishers.
Group A had completed its qualifying earlier in the week with Terry Scroggins on top at 78-10 and Ott DeFoe banking a $10,000 10-1 big bass bonus. The Knockout Round, which begins at 7:30 a.m. ET on the MLFNOW! live stream, will pit the top eight from each group against each other in a one-day cut. Only the top 10 advance from there to the championship round.