John Cox Wins the 2020 FLW Tour San Rayburn Event with 65-15lbs!

Crankbait, Chatterbait and Swimjig key to big win!
By Sean Ostruszka
FLW PRESS RELEASE

Living shallow key to Cox win.
(Photo: FLW)

There’s no other way to say it: John Cox is clutch. 

There were times he made it look easy during the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit opener on Sam Rayburn, and there were times he was in full-blown scramble mode. But when he needed it most, Cox once again made the right call late on the final day to go wire-to-wire for the fifth Pro Circuit victory of his career.

“That call I made at the end of the day today, it just felt right,” says Cox. 

The call was to make a 20-minute run further up the lake to near the 103 bridge, where Cox had a pair of trees he felt might produce one solid keeper. It was already noon when the idea hit, and he was already short on gas after an entire morning of junk-fishing his way up the lake. To go up the lake further for one fish meant risking at least an hour boat ride back and running out of gas. 

Yet, Cox decided to go for it.

“I chugged a Red Bull and ran,” says Cox, who did a similar thing last year when he won at Lake Chickamauga, making a late run that produced two fish to cement his win.

The decision turned into the winning one pretty quickly. The two trees didn’t just produce one fish. They produced three 2 3/4-pounders, all three on a black-and-blue Z-Man ChatterBait with a Berkley PowerBait Grass Pig trailer. He threw it on a 7-foot, 3-inch Abu Garcia Fantasista Premier rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier reel and 20-pound-test Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line.

That capped what turned out to be a near-perfectly executed four days of fishing for Cox.

He took the lead on day one when he found a special one-cast spot right near the 147 bridge – a 3-foot high spot with little bit of sand and rock with hydrilla all around it right at the mouth of one of the best-known spawning creeks on Sam Rayburn. 

Yet, what made the spot so unique for Cox was how he fished it – with a crankbait. A No. 5 Berkley Frittside crankbait in the lone ranger color in the morning and ghost morning dawn when the sun came up, to be more specific. He threw both on a 7-foot, 6-inch Abu Garcia Veritas Winch rod, Abu Garcia Revo EXD reel and 15-pound-test Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line. 

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2020 Bassmaster Eastern Open Kissimmee Chain Day 2: John Hunter Take Lead with 37-03lbs!

Pre-spawn bite the best 
By David A. Brown
BASS Press Release

Hunter on key spot that is refilling with pre-spawn bass.
(Photo: BASS)

Consistency was in John Hunter’s favor, as the Simpsonville, Ky., pro added 18 pounds, 13 ounces to the 18-6 he weighed on Wednesday to total 37-3 and take the Day 2 lead at the Basspro.com Bassmaster Eastern Open on Florida’s Kissimmee Chain.

Hunter attributed his success to one special spot he described as a thinner area within a large, dense grassbed in 6 to 7 feet. The spot produced his weight both days, but Hunter said the Day 2 mood was significantly different from that of Day 1.

“Yesterday, it was just average; I only caught a couple of good ones there in the morning and I went back later and caught a couple of good ones,” he said. “This morning, it was absolute chaos.

“My first two fish were 4 1/2-pounders and then I lost two 5-pounders right after that, which was heartbreaking. But they stayed fired up and I was able to catch the rest of my weight in the next 20 minutes.”

A mix of reaction baits and dragging-style baits produced Hunter’s catch, but the former carried most of the weight.

Noting that most of the fish he was catching in practice were prespawner bass, Hunter said Day 1 delivered a mix of prespawn fish and some that were thin for their size — likely postspawners. His Day 2 catch was mostly postspawners.

“That’s what I like about this spot — I have a chance of catching a fat prespawner coming in, and it’s a good stopping place for a postspawner to gang up,” he said. “This is a good place for them to set up, feel safe and feed before they go in and out (of the spawning flat)."

Hunter said he’s cautiously optimistic about returning to the magical spot on Day 3. He said he leaned on the spot hard today, but seeing it reload significantly from Day 1 was encouraging.

2017 Walmart FLW Tour Lake Guntersville Day 2: Mark Rose Leads with 42-08lbs

Cory Johnston #18, Gussy #22, Chris Johnston #42 & Richardson #114
by Rob Newell 

FLW PRESS RELESE
Over the last few years Lake Guntersville’s fishing trends have included a lot of bridges and the burgeoning crop of eelgrass that has taken root throughout the lake. Bass behavior in the lake determines these trends, but sometimes the old tried-and-true patterns are hard to beat.
Just ask Mark Rose, who has been the only pro in the field to compile two 20-pound-plus limits through two days of the FLW Tour event presented by Lowrance at Lake Guntersville. Rose took the lead on Friday with a total of 42 pounds, 8 ounces.
Day-one leader Jay Kendrick lit off some fireworks with a big bridge catch of more than 25 pounds on Thursday, but he caught just one bass today, leaving the lead spot wide open. Kendrick’s bridges fell flat as he noticed that the bait was not stacked up as much as he would have liked to see it. He finished 26th.

Mark Rose's consistency key to lead. (Photo: FLW)

Rose is well aware of the bridge phenomenon on Guntersville. He has several top-10 finishes in previous FLW competition at Guntersville where he got beat on bridges. Also, the Tennessee River is near and dear to Rose’s heart, so he knows about the new influx of eelgrass, which is what Buddy Gross fished when he won the 2016 Tour event just downstream at Pickwick.