ROUNDING OUT THE TITLE TOP 10
BRADFORD BEAVERS
2 .
Summerville , SC Championship Round weight : 48-3
By Justin Onslow
PHOTO BY JODY WHITE
It ’ s easy to second-guess an angler ’ s decision knowing everything that ’ s going on around them , so when Bradford Beavers decided to abandon smallmouth in favor of finding a largemouth in more protected waters in the waning minutes of the Championship Round – as Rusty Salewske caught the winning smallies – it seemed like an odd choice . After all , no one in the TITLE field was targeting largemouth on Sturgeon Bay ( only 12 were caught throughout the event ).
But Beavers understood his areas well enough to know what his chances were of catching the smallmouth he needed . He ’ d only caught six fish in the afternoon , and high winds were making fishing in open water nearly impossible for most pros in the field . Salewske trusted his instincts and stayed put . Beavers trusted his and made the move he thought was the right one at the time . Neither was wrong . One decision just worked out better .
For his part , Beavers had an incredible event ( losing the lead with 12 minutes to fish notwithstanding ). The 34-year-old rising star caught more fish for more total weight than anyone in Group B during their second day of Qualifying Round action . He then went on to catch 64-11 in the Knockout Round , which was good for fourth place , before coming within one scorable bass of winning the biggest tournament of his life .
PHOTO BY ROB MATSUURA
3 .
JOHN COX
DeBary , FL Championship Round weight : 36-14
It ’ s almost comical how good John Cox is at bass fishing . The former Forrest Wood Cup champion with almost $ 1.5 million in FLW earnings to his name came straight from Lake St . Clair and a Bassmaster Elite Series event ( in which he placed third ) to fish the TITLE , never spending a minute of practice time on Sturgeon Bay before launching with Group B on day two of the tournament . All he did that day was catch 18 scorable bass for 66-5 to grab the lead .
Cox spent his next day on the water “ practicing ,” poking around in search of new water from which to catch some Knockout Round fish the following day . He searched some skinny backwaters and managed to catch more than enough to make the top-20 cut . The following day , Cox struggled by his standards , but he eked into the Championship Round in 10th place nonetheless .
The magic of John Cox is in his ability to always keep a level head , so when the final day of competition didn ’ t play out quite as he expected , it came as no surprise when he hit his stride in the early afternoon , landing seven scorables between 12:14 and 1:50 p . m .
Unfortunately , Cox managed to catch just one more good one between 1:50 and the end of competition , leaving him with a third-place finish . Ho-hum , indeed , for one of the best bass anglers on the planet .
4 .
KURT MITCHELL
Milford , DE Championship Round weight : 22-8
Kurt Mitchell ’ s rise to smallmouth-catching superstardom seemingly happened overnight , and it ’ s one of the most under-the-radar storylines of the entire 2020 Pro Circuit season .
Mitchell , like Cox , had a short turnaround before the TITLE . He was busy winning the Toyota Series event on Lake Erie just a week prior , after cashing a check on Erie in the final Pro Circuit Super Tournament of the season ( Mitchell also had a top 5 at Champlain last season and took fourth at a Toyota Series event at the Thousand
Islands back in 2017 ). In other words , the fifth-year pro is pretty good at catching smallmouth , and now everyone knows it . So , when Mitchell weighed 119 pounds , 10 ounces of scorable bass on day one – the only 100-plus-pound showing of the tournament – people took notice . He cruised through day three in search of new schools of fish before weighing in another 58- 8 in the Knockout Round , setting up his eventual fourth-place finish .
What ultimately probably hurt Mitchell most was not having his area in the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal ( that was producing for everyone fishing there ) to himself for very long during the event . Once more competitors started poking around in the canal , it became the worst-kept secret of the week .
Still , being the only pro to eclipse the century mark and walking away with $ 25,500 is a nice consolation prize for not winning back-to-back smallmouth derbies .
PHOTO BY ROB MATSUURA
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | FLWFISHING . COM 31