By Sean Ostruszka
Special to BassFan

Why he hadn’t remembered them until the end of the final day he doesn’t know, but John Cox was sure glad he recalled his two favorite trees on Lake Chickamauga.

After finally catching a fish off a bed he’d been working for four days, Cox suddenly remembered he had a stretch of trees he hadn’t hit yet.

“I was like, ‘How did you forget about those,''' Cox said. “I’d fished them in the past, and they were like my two favorite trees. I’ve caught some big fish off them.”

It required a risky run and he had only 10 minutes to fish them, but those 10 minutes produced a pair of 4-pounders to boost his final-day’s bag to 21-00; enough to give him the victory over local favorite Buddy Gross with a four-day weight of 83-09. Gross weighed in 19-12 today and 81-14 overall to finish as the runner-up.

Day-3 leader Ron Nelson’s feast-or-famine week continued when he failed to get any big bites today like he did on day 2, as he brought in 15-05 to slip to 3rd with 80-05. Meanwhile, Matt Greenblatt’s tiny backwater nearly produced the win, but he lost a double-digit fish that would’ve majorly helped his 15-14 bag he weighed in today. He finished 4th with 80-00.

David Dudley switched gears and did some offshore cranking to catch the majority of his 18-05 bag that held him in 5th with 78-09 total, while Ramie Colson Jr. jumped up to 6th on the heels of a 19-07 bag that got him to 76-07.

Alex Davis (16-10 today, 74-12 total), Jared McMillan (19-09, 74-12), David Williams (15-07, 69-09) and Austin Felix (11-05, 66-10) rounded out the top 10.

While many predicted fireworks and the potential of a 30-pound bag on day 4, it simply never materialized. That said, many pros did predicted Cox would win this event based on how it was setting up shallow. Yet, for the majority of day 4, he felt that prediction wouldn’t come true.

He caught 4- and 3 1/2-pounders pretty early, but after that he simply couldn’t get a quality bite, as he admittedly was trying too hard to make his swim-jig pattern go.

“I probably caught 50 fish today, but most were rats,” said Cox, who fished close to 25 backwater areas today, all in less than 2 feet of water. “I really wanted to catch them on that jig, but in the afternoon I finally decided to fish the conditions like you’re supposed to.”

That meant going to that 4 1/4-pounder he’d spent 4 hours throughout the previous three days trying to get bite. Today, she finally bit, but Cox missed her twice before finally corralling her on the third try.

That’s when he decided to make the time-crunched run back up the river to fish the two cypress trees.

“My first cast to the first tree with that wacky rig, my line jumped and took off, but I lost that fish,” says Cox, who also moved into the lead in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race with the victory. “I thought it was over then. So I go over to the other tree and immediately catch a 4-pounder. So then I hop on pad back to the first tree, and I caught that second 4-pounder with 3 minutes left. It was unreal.

“I’m not going to lie, I’m running back and tears are coming out. I felt something. It felt better than any other tournament any time I’ve won before. It was overwhelming. I’m getting chills thinking about it. I’ve never felt like that before.”

Gross was hoping for some magic to happen on his offshore places, as he made the conscious decision to only fish places he felt he could get quality bites.

Unfortunately, those bites just never came. His area where he lit them up on the morning of day 3 produced only three fish. Frustrated, he even made a move shallow to try and get a shad-spawn bite going. He finally went back out deep and finished out his limit around 11 a.m., but he never was able to cull up much more after that.

As for Nelson and Greenblatt, today was all about the big fish they didn’t get in the boat. While Greenblatt lost his giant kicker, Nelson found a pair of 10-pounders and a 6-pounder on beds, but he never got them to bite.

“The sun never came out to really lock them on and make them aggressive,” Nelson said. “The 6-pounder and other 10-pounder, they got so close they could probably taste my bait. They just never opened their mouths. Just the way it goes sometimes.”

Notable

> Day 4 stats – 10 anglers, 10 limits.



Day 4 (Final) Standings

1. John Cox -- Debary, Fl -- 24-11 (5) -- 17-15 (5) -- 19-15 (5) -- 21-0 (5) -- 83-9 (20) -- $102,700

2. Buddy Gross -- Chickamauga, Ga -- 17-12 (5) -- 20-10 (5) -- 23-12 (5) -- 19-12 (5) -- 81-14 (20) -- $30,100

3. Ron Nelson -- Berrien Springs, Mi -- 24-6 (5) -- 14-11 (5) -- 25-15 (5) -- 15-5 (5) -- 80-5 (20) -- $25,000

4. Matt Greenblatt -- Port St Lucie, Fl -- 23-5 (5) -- 19-13 (5) -- 21-0 (5) -- 15-14 (5) -- 80-0 (20) -- $20,000

5. David Dudley -- Lynchburg, Va -- 22-2 (5) -- 20-1 (5) -- 18-1 (5) -- 18-5 (5) -- 78-9 (20) -- $19,000

6. Ramie Colson Jr -- Cadiz, Ky -- 23-2 (5) -- 15-8 (5) -- 18-6 (5) -- 19-7 (5) -- 76-7 (20) -- $18,000

7. Alex Davis -- Albertville, Al -- 18-1 (5) -- 16-12 (5) -- 23-5 (5) -- 16-10 (5) -- 74-12 (20) -- $17,000

8. Jared McMillan -- Belle Glade, Fl -- 20-9 (5) -- 18-8 (5) -- 16-2 (5) -- 19-9 (5) -- 74-12 (20) -- $16,000

9. David Williams -- Maiden, NC -- 17-3 (5) -- 17-8 (5) -- 19-7 (5) -- 15-7 (5) -- 69-9 (20) -- $15,000

10. Austin Felix -- Eden Prairie, Mn -- 21-0 (5) -- 17-15 (5) -- 16-6 (5) -- 11-5 (5) -- 66-10 (20) -- $14,000