George Cochran put together the best weight of his tournament life last week, and he made it look ridiculously easy. In some ways it was, since once he narrowed down a few factors, he stuck with a bigger-bite pattern and rode it all the way up to 99-10 and his first-ever Bassmaster Tour win.
Here's what his tournament looked like:
> Day 1: 5, 20-12
> Day 2: 5, 25-05
> Day 3: 5, 23-10
> Day 4: 5, 29-15 (Total: 20, 99-10)
Not a Great Practice
"The first day of practice I caught two fish," he said. "The second day I caught three fish, and the last day it was cold, rainy and miserable. My wife, said, 'You're not going out there are you?' I said I knew a lot of fish would be needed to win the tournament, and I wasn't confident I'd found anything yet."
On the first two practice days he fished a Strike King Series 3 crankbait (crawdad), and he did it again on day 3. "I went down about a mile down a grassline, and had 14-15 pounds on little crankbaits," he said. He was happy with that, but in the back of the mind had a tip that Larry Nixon had given him.
"I talked to Larry and he told me to fish a jerkbait. He and I share information, but usually it's him sharing more than me because he's one of the best I know at figuring out how to catch fish."
Tournament Time
On day 1 of competition, another day of bad weather, Cochran ran 3 miles out to his grass and in the first couple of passes caught the 14-15 pounds he expected to catch. "I was tickled to death," he said. He figured he couldn't improve his limit with the crankbait, so he decided to tie on a jerkbait.
Before he made a cast, he remembered a fishing experience with an unnamed old man. "That old man told me that when (the water is) cold, around 45-46, you have to let it sit there 5-6 seconds. I fished with him one time and saw that technique, so I slowed the jerkbait down and let it sit there about 5 seconds." He caught an 8-13, culled one of 3-pounders and weighed in 20-12.
On day 2 he did the same thing, but had better luck with the jerkbait. He switched to that bait – a Strike King Wild Shiner – at 11:00 and proceeded to cull every fish he had.
"I had 25 pounds that day, so I said, 'Forget about that little crankbait,'" he said. On day 3 he threw only the jerkbait and boated 23-10. He had 69-11, but it bas barely enough. "I knew I was only leading by 1 pound and that Stacey (King) was throwing a jerkbait too," Cochran said. "The only way I could win was to catch 24-25 pounds. I didn't think anyone could touch me with that, though one day Stacey had 28 pounds."
He went out and fished the jerkbait slowly, even with the warming water, all day. He said: "After I started throwing 5-pounders back, I didn't think anyone could beat me, and I was right."
The Pattern
"My best place was about a 1/4-mile stretch of weeds (milfoil) that had a channel running next to it," Cochran said. "It was close to the back of a big bay where all these bass were going to move up to spawn, and they were all just bunched up along that bank.
"It was 3-4 feet by the bank and came out slowly. At 30-40 yards it started tapering out to about 10 feet. I was holding the boat in 10-12 feet and throwing to the grass at about 5 feet. Most of them hit from about 5 to 8 feet deep."
Most anglers counted on the morning bite, but he was catching fish all day and his biggest ones came in the afternoon. "I caught all my big fish from 1:00 until 2:00," he said. "I was catching limits of fish early, but they were small. In the mornings, the big fish were down in the grass, but as the day warmed up they would suspend in the grass.
"I'd fish the jerkbait over the 5-8 foot grass, pause it and let it sit there a long time. A lot of people were presenting a lure right over (the big fish), but it was moving so fast the fish wouldn't hit it. Every one of (his big fish) hit it when it was dead still."
His winning bait was the Strike King Wild Shiner (winning color not pictured).
Notable
> Gear – He fished the Kevin VanDam-designed Strike King Wild Shiner (bone/green back) with a 7' Light and Tough Daiwa cranking rod, Daiwa Millionaire reel (left-handed) and 10-pound P-Line. He changed the stock trebles out for round-bend Eagle Claws, and put new hooks on every day. "After catching all those big fish (each day), it seemed like the hooks were bending out," he said.
> Main factor in his success – "I never gave up on the area I was fishing. I knew big fish were in that area. At 11:30 (on day 4), 4 hours after I started fishing, the big ones started biting. I caught them real good between 11:30 and 2:00."
