Bait and Switch
When sampling creeks and backwa-
ters during practice, Cox takes an inter-
esting approach to his fishing. During
practice he intentionally fishes with a
different set of lures than the ones he
plans to throw in the tournament.
This was the case at the Cup on
Wheeler.
“During practice, all I am looking to
do is cover water and get a couple
bites,” Cox says. “I just want fish to
show themselves. At the Cup, I found
those fish [in Cotaco] on a spinner-
bait. I caught one on it, then rolled my
hook over and had a couple of more
good ones boil on it. That’s all I need-
ed to see.”
Other search lures Cox employs
during practice include heavily-
weighted pitching plastics that sink
fast, and topwater walking baits.
Once he returns in the tourna-
ment, Cox brings his shallow-water
A-team, including swim jigs, buzzbaits,
ChatterBaits, buzzing toads, floating
frogs, lighter pitching plastics and a
wacky-rigged Yamamoto Senko.
His winning lure at the Cup ended
up being a Jackall Iobee frog in
bluegill or black, which he tied to 50-
pound-test braid on his own custom-
built frog rod – a 7-foot, 4-inch, fast-
action, heavy-power rod built on an
FP885-MHX blank. He also mixed in a
white 1/4-ounce buzzbait for a few
other keepers during the week.
“That duckweed is really what
forced me to commit to those surface
lures,” Cox says. “I caught a couple
other tiny keepers in another creek
on other stuff, but the frog was the
deal for the bigger fish in that scum.”