A dead-fish penalty on day 3 at the recent Grand Lake FLW Tour cost Travis Fox his first Top-10 cut in 4 years. Despite finishing 11th, the Rogers, Ark., pro still notched his best result since a 5th-place finish at Kentucky Lake in 2009.
His raw weight on Saturday was 16-05, but he was assessed a 4-ounce penalty for an expired fish. That knocked his total weight down to 50-10, which left him 3 ounces behind J.T. Kenney for 10th place.
"I probably had 30 or so keepers (Saturday)," he said. "I kept catching fish that were just under 3 1/2 pounds. I caught so many of them and it took so long to cull, pulling them out of the water to look at them. I couldn't tell which ones were bigger on the balance beam. I ended up killing one. It was a good problem to have, but that part stinks."
He said he was concerned the lake wouldn't show off its quality prior to the water coming up. When it did, "it made it where a lot of people could catch them easier," he said.
He said he caught half of his fish flipping a green-pumpkin beaver-type bait and the other half on a white and chartreuse spinnerbait.
"I had some stretches where I'd fished before with high water that traditionally held fish," he said. "If it was too thick throw a spinnerbait, I'd flip it. If it was more open, I'd throw a spinnerbait.
"It was a special tournament me. I had three of my aunts there and my mom, who only gets one week of vacation every year. She took last week off to come watch me fish. It's cool to fish close home and be on my family's farm and stay in their lakehouse where I used to sit on shore and dream about being a bass fisherman."
The Big Bite Lookback, which focuses on the angler who's first out of the final cut at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great folks at Big Bite Baits.
