8
JOHN COX | 24 LB 7 OZ (13)
NO SECOND OPTION
C
By Curtis Niedermier
PHOTO BY ROB MATSUURA
ox showed up at Ouachita expecting to fish topped-out grass, but there
was none. With no transducer on his boat (he broke it off earlier in the
year), his only option was to run the bank, fish shallow and cover a ton
of water.
The 2016 Cup champ targeted points and secondary pockets where he
located cruising wolf packs of bass. His primary tactic was bombing a Berkley
J-Walker topwater, but he also used a Berkley Choppo topwater whenever he
saw feeding activity.
Making long casts was key to catching the shallow fish. When he got close
enough to see bass, Cox found that they were nearly uncatchable, which ulti-
mately cost him dearly. The stubborn cruisers were reluctant to bite finesse
offerings, and Cox never figured out how to fool them into the boat.
50
Cloud cover and storms
the final day of practice keyed
Cox into the best topwater
pattern window. His biggest
mistake was not having an
option for when the sun
shone and the window closed.
“I just wasted hours of the
tournament throwing it [top-
water]. I knew I wasn’t going
to catch much on it until that
right window came,” he says.
“I just threw it because I
didn’t know anything else to
do. It would’ve been nice to
have a little bit of off-the-
bank stuff.”
FlWFISHING.COm I Fall 2018