By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
John Cox will miss all three days of official practice for the 2018 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell due to an overlap in the schedule with the Lake Lanier FLW Tour. If you're familiar with him at all, you'll understand that such a "trivial" matter doesn't faze the seemingly unflappable former Forrest Wood Cup winner a bit.
"I'm all right with it," the Floridian said this week. "There's so many scenarios that can change between that practice and when the tournament starts. It's not like a normal practice."
Official Classic practice takes place on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday prior to the event, which kicks off the following Friday (March 16). Competitors get one final day on the water on Wednesday prior to media day festivities on the eve of the launch.
"So much changes so quickly at that time of year," he said. "Fish are going to show up in different places than where they were a week earlier.
"I've got a good feeling about where I want to start going into that tournament, and if they're not there in practice I won't have to worry about it because I'm not going to be there, anyways. I might not start out real strong, but hopefully I'll finish strong."
Lots to Go On
Cox's recent history at Hartwell is stellar – he won the Tour event there two years ago (which took place during the same calendar week that the Classic is slated for) and logged a 5th-place finish in early March of 2014.
He also put in a lot of pre-practice time this winter.
"The water was down and I did a lot of looking at banks and rock transitions," said Cox, who gained his Classic berth by winning the Southern Open at Lake Chickamauga last April. "I focused on places that I felt like would get some of the pre-spawn push and I marked a lot of that. Some of the other holes, the fish are only in there for a short period of time – either moving through to the beds or coming back through after they've spawned. I hope some of those places will produce."
Hartwell has become a venue that he feels a sort of kinship with.
"I don't really know why – maybe in a past life I fished there all the time – but when I get out there, I'm just so comfortable. I really enjoy fishing there. Don't get me wrong, I love fishing places like Okeechobee, but a lot of times there I don't have a club about even which side I should start on.
"With Hartwell, maybe there's been some luck involved. In practice I might only catch a couple of 12-inchers, but I know they're going to make a push into an area and I'll pull in and slay them during the tournament."
A Different Sort of Pre-Fish
Cox hopes to go into the Classic riding the momentum of a strong finish at Lanier. That's a lake he's never competed on, so he made a pre-practice visit last summer.
He didn't have a single rod or reel on board with him.
"I took my kids and drug them around on tubes," he said. "I looked at the whole lake and every time I saw something that I thought looked good, I'd waypoint it. I was in one creek arm and saw a bunch of 3- to 5-pounders schooling on (blueback herring). I can't tell you how bad I wanted to make a cast, but I couldn't. It was so frustrating that I ended up just dragging the kids right through them.
"I'm really hoping that tournament goes well. The way it looks, it's so similar to Hartwell. I understand there's a lot of (spotted bass) there, but there's so much good largemouth water, too. Maybe the spots will end up being in some of the largemouth areas."
