2017 Walmart FLW Tour Harris Chain Day 3: Cox Leads with 54-14lbs!

Sight fishing battle becoming more difficult each day. 
by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE
For two days, John Cox has been the king of the Harris Chain, dominating the FLW Tour event presented by Ranger at the Harris Chain with his favorite sight-fishing technique. But Saturday his sight-fish gave him the slip and now the outliers are moving in on him from all directions.

Local John Cox hunting every secret spot he has for nesting bass.
(Photo: FLW)

Cox posted a 10-pound, 4-ounce catch on day three and as a result his nearly 6-pound lead shrank to just over 2 pounds. He still leads the field with a 54-14 three-day total, but now pros from North Carolina, Texas and Alabama seriously threaten King Cox’s throne atop the leaderboard in his Florida domain.

“Would you like me to sum up the day for you?” Cox asks with a laugh. “Okay, well, I burned a lot of gas and I didn’t catch anything – how’s that?”

Cox’s frustration came from the fact that he ran many, many miles and burned a lot of trolling motor battery for his dismal catch.

“I only caught five keepers all day,” he says. “That’s it.”

Piling onto Cox’s disappointment is the fact that the wave he was hoping would move up with the impending full moon tomorrow doesn’t seem to be materializing.

“The fish were just acting so weird today,” he says. “I found one male that had a 5- or 6-pound female with it. I shook the male off several times, trying to catch her first. Then I went ahead and caught him and when I did, she just swam out to my boat, looked at me, and hit the highway – gone. It’s like she knew what was going on – those are the little signs that tell you it’s not really happening.