by Curtis Niedermier
FLW PRESS RELEASE
Cox sight fishing bedding bass to the lead. (Photo: FLW) |
While Cox
didn’t need a big bag to stay on top, he’ll definitely need to step it up over
the weekend if he wants to hold off young guns such as Aaron Britt (second
place), who cracked 24-2 today, Braxton Setzer (third), who weighed 23-5, and a
heap of other mega-hammers who are lined up in the standings behind him.
The
main difference in Cox’s performance today compared to yesterday is that his
best areas have been worked over, and he didn’t spy any more quality bass on
beds to tempt with sight-fishing tactics.
“[Yesterday]
I didn’t see any fish to go to for today, so I just went and started trolling
and looking in all different areas,” Cox says. “I never saw anything that would
help me. I saw some small keepers and ended up around 10 o’clock really, really
scrambling because I had nothing. I mean, I might’ve had two
pound-and-a-halfers. Then I went around, and I caught a couple other pound-and-a-halfers.
I just went and pulled them off beds, but still never saw any good ones.”
Cox
adapted and “fished out” midday with a Berkley PowerBait Wind Up, which is
the same thing he did yesterday.
“I
just chunked it,” he says. “I was reeling it fast, and they’d come up behind
it, and I just killed it and they ate it.”
At
around 1, he caught a 5-pounder and then one that was close to 4. By sticking
with the Wind Up he was able to cull out his smaller fish and get up to 17-plus
pounds.
It
was a mental and physical grind for Cox, who’s been a bit run down and under
the weather this week.
“I fished miles to catch that,” he adds. “I can’t go fish through it all again. I mean, I could go fish through it all, but I’m not sure if I can make it. I’m burnt.”
Cox’s
strategy for Saturday is to change up everything. He’s been saving a secondary
area with different water clarity, located a long way from where he’s fished
the last two days, where he can use entirely different tactics in what is
forecast to be a vastly different day of weather. Cox says the wind and clouds
in the forecast are perfect for what he wants to do, and the conditions overall
the last few days should be setting up this particular spot to turn on
tomorrow.
It’s
not totally un-Cox-like for him to scrap everything and do something off the
wall, and the move makes sense. It’s a place he’s caught fish before, and most
of his action has come after 1 p.m. Cox could always come back and try to
replicate what he’s done the last two afternoons if Plan B doesn’t work out.
“Right
now the game plan is to go there,” Cox says. “If something in the morning
changes I might decide to stay. I feel like it’s my best chance. Here it’s all
about catching two big ones. That’s what it’s all about. If they’re there, I’ll
catch in the 20s. If they’re not, I’ll turn around and come back.”
2. Aaron Britt – Yuba City,
Calif. – 45-4 (10)
Fate,
instinct, luck – something is working in Aaron Britt’s favor this week at Lake
Toho.
On
day one, Britt planned to run down to Kissimmee to bounce around some areas he
found in practice. While waiting for the lock, he pulled up on a spot in Toho
and hammered them so well that he wound up staying for about four hours. He
eventually went to Kissimmee, came back and culled a few fish on the spot
again. His day-one catch of 21 pounds, 2 ounces included a fish that weighed
nearly 8 1/2 pounds.
Today,
Britt caught a 4-pounder and two squeakers on that spot in the morning and
nearly pulled the plug to go back to Kissimmee.
“It
was about 9 o’clock, and I had three fish,” he says. “I knew I needed about 13
pounds to go fishing on Saturday, so I was debating going to catch a couple
more fish in Kissimmee. I made a cast, bent over, turned that Lowrance on
standby, started winding and a big one ate it. That basically solidified that I
needed to stop messing around. Then I circled around and made a couple more
casts, and about 10 casts later caught an 8 [pounder].”
Britt
added 24 pounds, 2 ounces to his catch today for a two-day total of 45-4.
He
says he’s sharing his water with a few pros, but the only other one who was
really dialed in like him was Larry Nixon, who missed the cut. It’s an offshore
spot with a mix of grasses requiring very precise casts. Britt is using both
moving baits and some slower presentations with plastics.
Should
the Toho spot not pan out for Britt, he does have Kissimmee as a back-up plan.
“I
think I can go and catch 12 1/2 or 13 pounds there. I got one big bite there in
practice, and I went there yesterday and caught eight fish or so. They were all
1 1/2- and 2-pounders.”
We’ll
find out on FLW Live tomorrow whether or not Britt needs those Kissimmee fish,
but it sure seems like he’s found the magic spot. He’s only caught 19 fish from
it in two days, meaning there’s probably some more to be had – if not more
coming. Maybe enough to get Britt his first FLW Tour victory.
3. Braxton Setzer – Montgomery, Ala. –
42-12 (10)
Braxton Setzer is optimistic
about his chances of bringing in another quality catch on Saturday because his
best area is steadily reloading. He’s weighed in limits of 19-7 and 23-5.
“I
was catching prespawn fish pulling into this place. Today, some postspawn fish
showed up,” Setzer says. “I caught some fish that looked a little worse for
wear. I did get more bites, which was encouraging.”
Setzer
has been fishing as slow as possible the last two days. The one exception was a
brief period this afternoon when the wind picked up and created a ripple on the
surface. He was able to finally get bit with a moving bait. Tomorrow’s forecast
is for more wind, giving Setzer some hope that he might be able to pick up his
pace and close the gap behind Cox.
“If
I have more coming to me it’s going to go really well. If not, I’m going to go
down with the ship.”
4. Scott Martin – Clewiston, Fla.
– 42-11 (10)
Yesterday,
Scott Martin got into the hunt on Lake Toho. Today, he scrapped everything and
ran to Kissimmee to catch 17-15.
“It’s
hard to explain, but I’m having a hard time seeing four-day potential on Toho,”
he says. “I don’t think you can stretch it.”
The
small fish in Martin’s best waters at Kissimmee weigh a healthy 2 1/2 to 3
pounds. He’s not struggling to catch five of those as a solid base. As long as
he can keep finding a big kicker or two each day, Martin thinks Kissimmee is
his ticket to the top 10.
Also,
on Kissimmee, Martin is fishing off the bank, and he’s using moving baits. That
plays perfectly with the weekend forecast.
“That’s
why I went,” he adds. “I’m sort of dialing it in.”
5. Buddy Gross – Chickamauga, Ga.
– 42-4 (10)
Buddy
Gross is also fishing off the bank and has now hauled in back-to-back 20-plus
limits despite failing to get one of the really big bites that he enjoyed on a
daily basis during practice.
The
only issue Gross sees that might keep him from doing it again on day three is
that he has some company in the areas he’s fishing
“There’s
some prespawn and postspawn fish,” he says. “I think there’s a bunch there.
“I’ve
got bit on about three places now, and I think the wind is supposed to blow. I
think that’ll help me.”
NEWS AND NOTES
Flip-floppingIt’s been
an up-and-down tournament for many pros. Of the nine pros who caught more than
20 pounds on day one, only two reached the milestone again today. Nine pros who
did not catch 20 on day one managed to do so today.
Rex Huff was the biggest
flip-flopper, going from 2-12 to 21-1. Jim Jones dropped from 19-10 to 2-15.
You can scan the results to see several others who went from single-digit
weights to mid-teens, and vice versa.
You
can blame most of the changes on the fickle nature of spawning Florida-strain
bass and the fact that no one really seems to understand where these fish are
headed right now.
Goat ropes and chains
Jay
Kendrick caught all his fish this week on a topwater bait. Unfortunately, a
two-day weight of 28-5 wasn’t enough to make the cut. Losing some key fish
might’ve cost him, but Kendrick wasn’t too down on himself about it. Maybe he
just needed some different “tackle” anyway.
“I
was fishing some really heavy pads today, and, man, you about gotta have a goat
rope and chains to get them out of there,” he joked.
Horton hammers a pair of hawgs
Catching only 9-14 on day one
didn’t keep Jamie Horton out of the cut. The Alabama pro caught 25-8 today to
vault into 11th place.
Most
of his limit weight today came in the form of a pair of giants Horton plucked
off beds. One weighed 9 pounds, and the other was a 10-pound, 5-ounce bruiser
that’s the second biggest bass of the tournament behind the 10-9 John Cox
caught the first day.
“I
don’t make but, like, one Instagram post a month, but I made sure to make one
today,” Horton joked on stage.
Scanlon weighs big bag of the day
by swapping line
Casey
Scanlon also made a big move today, adding 28 pounds (the day’s biggest limit)
to 12-10 from the first day. He’s in seventh place.
Scanlon
is very confident in what’s found. He’s blind-fishing for spawning fish, and
although he’s sharing water with others who made the cut, Scanlon says he has a
couple little spots to himself. More importantly, the fish – big ones – are
replenishing. Today, his limit included a 10-4 and a bass that was probably
around 8 pounds. He also dumped a near-8-pounder.
Yesterday,
Scanlon might’ve done a lot better, but he lost a couple good ones then, too.
He
says he was fishing with braid, and he thinks the lack of stretch in his line
was causing the hook to puncture too big of a hole on the hookset. Using
fluorocarbon today, he had much better results on the real giants.
Top 10 pros
1. John Cox – DeBary, Fla. –
48-13 (10)
2.
Aaron Britt – Yuba City, Calif. – 45-4 (10)
3.
Braxton Setzer – Montgomery, Ala. – 42-12 (10)
4.
Scott Martin – Clewiston, Fla. – 42-11 (10)
5.
Buddy Gross – Chickamauga, Ga. – 42-4 (10)
6.
Josh Douglas – Isle, Minn. – 42-3 (10)
7.
Casey Scanlon – Lake Ozark, Mo. – 40-10 (10)
8.
Tyler Woolcott – Port Orange, Fla. – 39-5 (10)
9.
Terry Bolton – Benton, Ky. – 35-12 (10)
10.
John Voyles – Petersburg, Ind. – 35-7 (10)
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