Day: May 25, 2019

DAYTON, Tenn. —

Carrying a nearly 8-pound lead into the final round, no doubt, builds confidence, but John Cox readily acknowledged the good fortune that enabled him to slam the door on a wire-to-wire win in the Basspro.com Bassmaster Eastern Open on Lake Chickamauga with a three-day total weight of 66 pounds, 5 ounces.

Cox, who won an FLW Tour event on Chickamauga three weeks ago, took the early lead with a Day 1 limit of 26-11. Adding 21-12 on Day 2 gave the Debary, Fla., pro a 7-pound, 13-ounce lead going into the final round. Today, Cox sealed the deal with a five-bass limit that weighed 17-14 and gave him a winning margin of 4-11.

“It was an amazing week,” Cox said. “So many of my fish catches were so special, and it seemed like luck played into a lot of them.

“Today, I didn’t see one of my key fish — a 5-pounder — until the last second. He didn’t see me, for some reason. I flipped over to the fish and it ate my bait. When I got it into the boat, I realized I was on its blind side; it was missing his eye. If it had been any other direction, I wouldn’t have caught it.”

Cox caught all of his bass in shallow water, including bluegill beds, banks with deeper water adjacent and docks. Although he had planned to fish offshore shellbeds and bars in 8 to 14 feet of water, Cox found his areas too congested with other anglers on Day 1. Snooping around in the shallows quickly convinced him that’s where he needed to remain.

“The first day, I caught a couple good ones out there, but then it got really crowded in those areas,” Cox said. “I didn’t feel comfortable being around all those people, so I said ‘I’m just going to do what I like doing,’ so I got up shallow.

“Once I saw fish swimming around up there, I got sucked into it and I never went back out to those shellbars.”

Cox said his top baits were a 1/2-ounce Dirty Jigs swim jig in the tactical shad color with a white Berkley Max Scent Meaty Chunk trailer, a wacky-rigged 5-inch Berkley Max Scent General (stickbait) in the green pumpkin party color.

For his efforts, Cox won $43,800 and earned a berth in the 2020 Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods. This win, he said, elevated Chickamauga to the top of his personal list.

“I don’t know what to say; this used to be my second-favorite lake, but after this one, it’s definitely my favorite,” Cox said. “I love it when we get to come here, I love all the people and I hope we get to come back.”

Chris Peters of Birchwood, Tenn. finished in second place with 61-10. After tying for 28th place on day one with 14-9, the local fireman who left the weigh ins to start his weekend shift, rose to fourth on Day 2 after catching 20-3. Adding 26-14 today moved him up two notches.

“It took me a little while to get dialed in,” Peters said. “On Day 1, I ran a lot of spots. I had about 30 places I wanted to try. I got them dialed in yesterday and got them dialed in better today. Everywhere I stopped today, it was (catching) one after another.

“I was throwing a big jig, but the deal was the Trixter Custom Tackle Rowdy Craw trailer. It’s a hand-poured plastic so it’s a lot softer and has a lot of action. I think that played a key role today and all week.”

Buddy Gross of Chickamauga, Ga. finished third with 58-10. Gross placed second on Day 1 with 23-8, slipped to third on Day 2 after the lack of current limited him to 15-12 and settled in the No. 3 spot after adding 19-6 in the final round.

Gross caught several of his bass this week on swimbaits and crankbaits, but today, he tempted his biggest fish on a 3/4-ounce green pumpkin Nichols casting jig with a green pumpkin Zoom Super Chunk trailer.

“I was fishing spots with a little grass mixed in with some brush, and the jig seemed to be the deal today for the bigger bites,” Gross said. “I just slowed down. I had been catching smaller bass on a dropshot, so I decided to go with more of a big-fish bait.”

Chad Pipkens of Lansing, Mich., won the Phoenix Boats Big Bass award with his 9-8.

Jon Jezierski of Troy, Mich., won the co-angler division with 32-2. His was an impressive comeback story, as Jezierski placed 84th on Day 1 with 5-7, but roared back a day later with a three-bass limit that weighed 14-3 and pushed him up to fourth. Today, he claimed the win by adding 12-8 — the final round’s only double-digit co-angler bag.

Jezierski caught his fish on wacky-rigged Bass Pro Shops Sticko stickbaits in the sprayed grass and plum/emerald flake colors, a Strike King 8XD crankbait in green gizzard shad, a shaky head with a Zoom Magnum Finesse Worm and a Texas-rigged 10-inch blue fleck Berkley Power Worm.

“Getting on the water with my practice partner, (Elite angler) Garrett Paquette, allowed me to see quite a bit of the lake,” Jezierski said. “I followed his lead whether it was fishing ledges deep or docks shallow, or grass. We put it all together and I took it as each day came.”

John Goul of Philadelphia, Miss. won the Phoenix Boats Big Bass award among co-anglers with a 9-7.

DAYTON, Tenn. —

When crowded waters prevented John Cox from reaching the areas he wanted to fish today, the Debary, Fla., pro turned to a more familiar Plan B and caught a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 12 ounces to extend his lead on Day 2 of the Basspro.com Bassmaster Eastern Open on Lake Chickamauga with a total weight of 48-7.

Cox, whose Day 1 weight of 26-11 led the opening round by 3 pounds, 3 ounces, is the only angler to break 20 pounds both days. His limit today included an 8-pound, 6-ounce kicker that helped widen his lead to 7-13.

Coming off an FLW Tour win on Chickamauga May 5, Cox said Plan B took him back to the shallow zone for which he’s best known. What he found more than made up for what he could not access.

“When I got down to the lower end of the lake, I noticed that there were so many boats on every little spot I had,” Cox said. “I didn’t want to pull right in on the sweet spots, so I decided I’d just go throw at some trees and troll in the clear water.

“I was just throwing around a couple of bluegill beds when I saw that big one out of the corner of my eye. I pitched a Texas-rigged Berkley Max Scent General over to her and she inhaled it. I caught the rest of my limit doing that.”

Sight fishing for cruising bass is addictive to Cox. “My problem is once I see a couple up there swimming, I’m doomed; I’m not going back out,” he said.

Cox made one stop on the way back to check in and fished a similar shoreline scenario that had a cluster of bluegill beds. Here, he threw a swim jig rigged with a white Berkley Max Scent Meaty Chunk and scored back-to-back catches, one of which was his second-largest.

“I lost my Meaty Chunk on that last fish,” Cox Lamented. “I was digging in my box for more, but I didn’t have any left in white. I tried green pumpkin and everything else, but I couldn’t get them to eat anything else.”

Cox said he’s hopeful that Saturday’s smaller field — only the Top 12 boaters and 12 nonboaters fish in the final round — will allow him to fish his mid-depth spots. Fewer boats will likely make the quality fish more likely to move up anyway, he said.

“Those bigger fish aren’t going to set up on that stuff with all the pressure; the small ones do, but not the big ones,” Cox said. “I’m thinking that maybe tomorrow with fewer boats, maybe some of those areas can rest.

“Hopefully, I can leave the trolling and looking because you have to throw a few inches in front of that fish’s face and the bait has to fall without spooking him. There’s a lot of luck involved.”

Chad Pipkens of Lansing, Mich., is in second place with 40-10. Mounting the day’s biggest comeback, the seventh-year Elite angler followed up his disappointing Day 1 catch of four bass for 10-15 with a massive second round limit of 29-11, which propelled him from 93rd place into the No. 2 spot.

“It’s all about timing out here, and I got the timing right a couple of times today,” Pipkens said. “I caught a big one quick and from there, I was catching a fish here and there. I knew I needed to get a couple of keepers in the boat because you can spend a lot of time and get either nothing or a giant.

“I was able to catch a limit by 11 and cull a couple of times. Then, I got on some big ones in the afternoon and caught that giant one — a 9-8 — and lost another that was 10 or 12.”

Pipkens kept mum on his bait selection, but he said the key to his success was paying attention to the feeding windows in which opportunities might arise.

Buddy Gross of Chickamauga, Ga., is in third place with 39-4. After finishing second Thursday with 23-8, he added 15-12 today. Relying mostly on crankbaits and swimbaits, he’s been targeting the 14- to 18-foot depth range and fishing spots off the beaten path.

“I’ve been fishing ‘scab’ places every day, places I don’t typically fish so I can stay away from the crowd and try to get a few quality fish during the day,” Gross said. “Tomorrow, all the community holes will be a little less covered up, so I think I can catch up a little bit.

“If we get lucky and they (the TVA) run water tomorrow, I can give him a run for his money. But if they don’t, it’s going to be a John Cox show.”

Pipkens is in the lead for Phoenix Boats Big Bass honors with his 9-8.

Ross Rhodes of Paw Paw, Mich., leads the co-angler division with 20-1. While his pro partner flipped shallow cover, Rhodes took a different route and fished a 3/16-ounce Owner shaky head with a Strike King Fat Baby Finesse worm in the red bug color.

“I like that this rig covers the bottom structure well, and those fish that just got done spawning are lazy; they’re not going after those moving baits,” he said. “They’re just hunkered down, and you have to put it in front of them. The bite is really light on those things.”

John Goul of Philadelphia, Miss., holds the Phoenix Boats Big Bass lead among co-anglers with a 9-7.

Saturday’s takeoff is scheduled for 6:15 a.m. ET at Dayton Boat Dock. The weigh-in will be held at Bass Pro Shops, 1000 Bass Pro Dr., East Ridge, TN 37412 at 3:15 p.m.

The event is hosted by Fish Dayton.