By MLF Communications Staff

RICHMOND, Va. – After two days, the MLF Invitational stop on the James River has turned out to be a fantastic tournament. Though the river definitely tightened up a little on Day 2, the top performers still caught good bags, and some anglers rallied up the leaderboard in a big way. At the top, things remain relatively similar to Day 1 – though there’s certainly potential for shakeup on Sunday.

Keeping the lead after boxing 16 pounds, 2 ounces on Day 2, Keith Poche is up to a 40-1 total. Just 3-1 behind him, Cal Lane caught 16-5 to stay in 2nd with an even 37 pounds, and Banks Shaw moved up from 5th to 3rd with 16-15 for a 36-1 total. In 4th and very much in the running, Blake Hall caught 17-7 on Day 2, which moved him up from 6th and brought his total to 35-15.

While Poche didn’t come close to matching his 23-15 bag from Day 1, he didn’t need to. The way the James is fishing this week, that sort of weight is a huge outlier. It could also be the key to an eventual win, as he’s playing with a solid cushion heading into Sunday's final round.

On Saturday, Poche mined the same area he did on Day 1, though he branched out as the day went on.

“It's not a big area. I mean, I'm about to touch both sides of the bank,” Poche said. “It’s really a small deal. And there's only so many that live in these places, and so many that are going to be active and aggressive. So, I caught the aggressive ones first. And now today, I had to finesse them a little bit, throw my shaky-head with The General and work in there. I was very fortunate to get a 4 1/2-pound bite pretty early on.”

That fish buoyed Poche’s bag and kept the rest of the field from making up much ground on him.

With some of his other options getting fished by competitors or eliminated due to the projected tide, Poche is a little unsure of his status for Day 3. Still, he’s ready to sweat it out in 95-degree heat on a river he loves.

“This is my favorite place to fish; this whole shallow, tidal deal, I love it,” he said. “I’m thinking I need another 15 pounds. That's what I think, and then whoever's closest to me is going to have to bust 18 or 20 again.”

Each of the top three pros have fished away from the Chickahominy, and this week, they’re making the James River proper look really good – in fact, there’s no need to leave Richmond. Fishing hard cover, flowing water and some hard-to-reach places, Lane stayed right on pace on Day 2.

“Two good days in a row is not very common on the James River, I don't believe,” Lane said. “So, I'm super thankful for it. I think that I could go out there and catch 10 pounds very easily. You always want more, but I was thankful for it for sure.”

Lane said he spent the day “junk-fishing” and figures he has about seven or eight places to rotate through, though he’s sharing a few of them with other anglers. If things come together Sunday, he said he’d be thrilled to get the win.

“I've really tried to develop a pattern, and I just can't figure one out at all,” said Lane. “So, it's more a couple of little spots. To win would be incredible. It'd be a dream come true for sure. And if it's meant to be, it's meant to be, and I'm just going to go out and have fun.”

Probably the hottest angler this side of Jacob Wheeler, Shaw has basically locked up Rookie of the Year and Angler of the Year with his performance this week. He’ll head north to the St. Lawrence with a solid lead in the points, and it looks like he’s going to be hard to handle next year on the Bass Pro Tour.

But before all that, he’s got a tournament at the James to wrap up, and he has a legit chance to go back-to-back after winning on Pickwick.

“I think I'm around the right fish,” said Shaw who has not burned much gas on the week. “I'm definitely in the right area. It's kind of getting reloaded right now as we speak. I have a lot of places, I feel like, that are a little different compared to what most people have. Like, most people just have one little area or little backwater they're in. And I have one area, but it's all main river.

“There's a lot of fish moving around, moving in and out, and I've definitely noticed some places reloading and changing throughout the week. So, there's really no telling what could happen.”

Shaw got dialed on the main-river bite early in practice, and the conservative approach has him in the hunt to win.

“The first day of practice, I was like, ‘I'm leading AOY, I want to play it safe. If I can stay up here and catch them, that's what I'm gonna do.’ First day of practice, the first hour or two, I caught 14 pounds up there by the ramp, and I was like, ‘Alright. that's pretty good.’”

From there, Shaw explored the rest of the system.

“I didn't really know how good it actually was,” he said. “And then the next two days of practice, I ran around and didn't really catch anything. I went to the Chick for a half a day and fished the barge pits for a lot. And then the last day, I went back up there and just dialed it in. And then I realized what was really going on in that area, how many fish were in it that last day of practice. And I knew I was definitely on to something.”

Shaw has fished incredibly well this year – he’s on pace to do even better than Alec Morrison did in his AOY season last year. But even he doesn’t have words for the possibility of going back-to-back.

“That'd be crazy,” he said. “I mean, I haven't even really been thinking about that. Coming into this tournament, I didn't think about winning at all. I just wanted to do good here. And now, to be in this position, I mean, it's definitely an unreal feeling. It doesn't even really feel normal. I don't even really know what to say about it, honestly.”

Here are the totals for the 30 anglers who'll compete on the final day:

1st: Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., 10 bass, 40-1
2nd: Cal Lane, Grant, Ala., 10 bass, 37-0
3rd: Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 10 bass, 36-1
4th: Blake Hall, Rogersville, Ala., 10 bass, 35-15
5th: Mitch Crane, Columbus, Miss., 10 bass, 34-9
6th: Britt Myers Jr., Lake Wylie, S.C., 10 bass, 32-3
7th: Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, 10 bass, 31-7
8th: Dustin Smith, Trussville, Ala., 10 bass, 31-7
9th: Blake Smith, Lakeland, Fla., 10 bass, 30-12
10th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 10 bass, 30-4
11th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 10 bass, 30-2
12th: Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., 10 bass, 29-3
13th: Matt Baty, Bainbridge, Ga., 10 bass, 29-1
14th: Chaz Carrington, Suffolk, Va., 10 bass, 28-13
15th: Colby Schrumpf, Highland, Ill., 10 bass, 28-10
16th: Cole Breeden, Lebanon, Mo., 10 bass, 28-9
17th: Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., eight bass, 28-3
18th: Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 10 bass, 28-0
19th: Kyle Goldstein, Paso Robles, Calif., 10 bass, 27-12
20th: Cody Petit, Arundel, Maine, 10 bass, 27-9
21st: Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., 10 bass, 27-2
22nd: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 10 bass, 27-2
23rd: Jimmy Washam, Stantonville, Tenn., 10 bass, 27-0
24th: Ken Thompson, Roaring Springs, Pa., 10 bass, 26-13
25th: Alex Davis, Albertville, Ala., 10 bass, 26-11
26th: Robby Lefere, Jackson, Mich., 10 bass, 26-11
27th: Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, 10 bass, 26-11
28th: Kyle Cortiana, Broken Arrow, Okla., 10 bass, 26-4
29th: Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 26-3
30th: Christian Greico, New Bern, N.C., 10 bass, 26-0

Complete results for the entire field can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Cody Petit of Arundel, Maine, earned the Day 2 Berkley Big Bass award of $1,000 after bringing a fish that weighed 6-13 to the scale.

Anglers will launch at 6:30 a.m. ET on Sunday from Osborne Landing, located at 9530 Osborne Turnpike in Richmond. Weigh-in will be held at the landing and will begin at 2:30 p.m.