By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
The way John Cox has been fishing, his second tour-level victory was bound to come sooner rather than later. Perhaps it occurred because he's stopped thinking about winning all the time.
"I used to do that," the 31-year-old Floridian said. "I'd go into every practice trying to figure out how I was going to win this thing. Now I know there's going to be some tougher days when you've got to just try to survive."
That mentality allowed him to develop the backup strategy he employed on the final day to win last week's derby at Lake Hartwell. He sight-fished his way to a 2nd-place standing after 3 days, then turned to a creek arm that he knew was capable of producing at least a decent sack once his bed-based program had run its course.
"It's just a place I've fished every time I've been here," he said. "It's a place just to get a check and move on to the next tournament – I never could've made the cut out of it."
His goal for the gray, windy and cool final day was 17 pounds, and he came up about a pound short of that. However, it turned out to be about half a pound more than he needed to overtake Clark Wendlandt and capture the trophy and the accompanying six-figure check with a 67-06 total.
Here's how he did it.
Practice
Cox arrived in Anderson, S.C. with a notion that the area on Hartwell that had propelled him to a 5th-place finish in 2014 would be fruitful again. It was a drain in a pocket where he'd repeatedly made the same cast to the same piece of structure with a crankbait or a spinnerbait.
"I honestly though the spot where I caught them last time was going to be on fire," he said. "But then I got out there and it was no good. I'm guessing it was because the water was higher and the undergrowth was gone – it had all rotted away."
He began to see spawning fish wherever he went, so visible quarry became his focus. He figured that his acumen at that technique could carry him to his sixth Top-20 showing over the past seven regular-season tournaments.
"I still kept trying to figure out other things. I'd go throw at docks and stuff and mark some beds while I was doing it. I was still trying to find the same kind of creek-channel thing because that's how I thought it would be won, but I never found anything close to that."
He'd marked about 30 bed-fish in excess of 3 pounds each by the time the 3-day practice period had concluded.
"I thought I had enough to at least get me through the first and second day."
Competition
> Day 1: 5, 16-11
> Day 2: 5, 20-05
> Day 3: 5, 14-03
> Day 4: 5, 16-02
> Total = 20, 67-06
Cox's opening-day bag, which landed him in 14th place in the 167-angler field, was a bit disappointing.
"I thought I'd have a lot more that day," he said. "I caught three good ones in the morning that I had marked and I started checking all the others I had, but they weren't there.
"I started running all new pockets and caught the rest (of his stringer) by noon, and then I looked for the rest of the day trying to find fish for the next day."
He catapulted into the lead on day 2 with a stringer that was second-best of the derby, topped only by Darrel Robertson's day-1 haul. It was topped by a 6-11 bruiser that he didn't look at before he caught – it was sitting on the corner of a dock, about 10 feet from a marked bed that contained a 3-pounder.
Cox got the same 5-pound fish to bite twice on the final day.
"I thought the day before I'd seen a big one take off from that bed, but I wasn't sure," he said. "I went to the bed first thing when it was still kind of dark and I just flung (the bait) over by the edge of the dock, and she ate it."
He again spent considerable time in the afternoon searching for additional bed-fish to catch on day 3. He came across a couple of giants that he would've fished for immediately, but time was too short.
"I had two in the 6-range and a couple of 4s marked, so I was really excited about day 3. Then we had a front roll through and it got cold really quick for awhile, and those fish just left. There were a couple that stayed about 20 feet off the bed, but I couldn't make anything happen with them."
He was eventually able to find and catch a limit of 2 1/2- to 3-pounders, but it was an arduous process.
"It was awful how long it took me to catch most of them," he said. "I had 30 boats following me when I started fishing for the first one, and by the time I had the second one only two of the boats were left."
He knew he'd have to go to his reserve hole on day 4 and fish much dirtier water for specimens he couldn't see.
"It's pretty much an entire creek arm that's maybe the size of two football fields. I fished around the whole thing and I fished really slow. I hit every piece of wood and rock and every little ditch I came to. I picked it apart to make sure I didn't miss any."
He started the day with a jig and hooked a 5-pounder almost immediately, but it straightened the hook and got free. That prompted him to switch to a bladed jig.
He fished for an hour after that without a bite, then went back and made the same cast where he'd connected with the big one, and lo and behold, the fish bit again. He capitalized on that second opportunity and put it in the boat.
He eventually added a quartet of 2-pound-plus fish from various pieces of cover to complete his sack. He didn't think he had quite enough to win, so he left himself 10 minutes at the end of the day to try for a previously spooky bed-fish.
"When I got to where it was, it wasn't even there," he said.
Pattern Notes
Cox said there was no pattern to where the bed-fish he caught were located.
"There were four or five boats running the same pockets that I was, so I started bouncing around to random pockets that didn't look good," he said. "Sometimes there'd be one there, and I'd catch it and go on to the next pocket.
"I never caught two fish out of the same pocket. I might find a creek arm and there'd be two in the entire arm – one on the point and one all the way in the back. Usually at this time of year they're all in the back, but it wasn't like that at all."
Winning Gear Notes
> Sight-fishing gear: 7' medium-action MHX SJ842 spinning rod, Abu Garcia Revo MGX spinning reel, unnamed 10-pound braided line (main line), unnamed 10-pound fluorocarbon (leader), 1/0 unnamed round-bend hook, 5" Yamamoto Senko (watermelon/purple).
> Pitching gear: 7'6" medium-heavy MHX MB903 rod, Lew's Tournament Pro G casting reel (6.2:1 ratio), unnamed 20-pound monofilament line, 1/4-ounce tungsten bullet weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu SuperLine Offset EWG hook, 5" Yamamoto Senko or various creature-type baits.
> Bladed jig gear: 7'2" medium-fast MHX BTS86 rod,
Lew's Tournament Pro G casting reel, unnamed 15-pound fluorocarbon line, 1/4-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait or Strike King Pure Poison (black/blue), Strike King Menace trailer (black/blue).
The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – "The main thing was I felt comfortable on the lake. I could fish water that was really clean, kind of stained or pretty muddy. I knew there was so much variety that I wouldn't be stuck doing one thing. I could move around and change at any time during the day."
> Performance edge – "Probably my Crestliner PT20 boat. It's an aluminum boat with a 200 (horsepower) Mercury and I was able to go around docks real quick and weave in and out of anywhere I needed to go."
Much of the tackle referenced above is available at the BassFan Store. To browse the selection, click here..
