There was a special feeling around the area John Cox picked to spend Day 2 of the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota. Although heavy thunderstorms moved through overnight, shad were popping the surface throughout the pocket and at least 20 birds lined the mud banks in the very back of the pocket.
The feeling in the air was what any angler hopes to experience when he sets out for a day on the water and Cox took full advantage of the conditions. The Florida native and shallow water master caught 15 pounds, 11 ounces Saturday to back up his 14-4 Day 1 mark and jump into second-place heading into Championship Sunday.
He caught his Day 2 bag in a totally different area than the previous day, but it was an area he has had confidence in since he made his first trip to Fort Loudoun as an Elite angler in 2021.
In fact, Cox used that same creek to finish third during the 2021 Elite Series event. Not only was it the same creek, he was also using the same bait: a Berkley Frittside crankbait. Practice this time around did not yield many bites at all, but Cox always knew in the back of his mind it was a place he wanted to try again.
“I caught them there last time and I thought it was warm enough, so I might as well stop there,” he said. “I was going to give it a little bit and when I got in there I had a couple bumps and missed them. That sucked me in and then I caught two barely keeper bass. Every time I go in there I have a good feeling. Even in practice when I wasn’t getting bit.
That specific creek featured dirty water, tons of bait and wind blowing water through the series of bridges that run over top of the creek. Riprap is the main feature of the area along with bridges that create a funnel effect, but laydowns and isolated wood cover were also key.
“Any pinch points in there (were good),” Cox said. “It took me back to fishing ponds. You go around and around and keep throwing around and find the high percentage areas. They would reload. There would be a log and I would catch two or three under it and then I would come back an hour or two later and catch another one.”
One laydown in particular produced four bites before noon. Those included a nonkeeper, the first one to bite, then one over 3 pounds and one that weighed around 2 ½.
“When I caught the first one, I (thought) maybe this is what they are stopping on. And they did,” he said. “They used it for about two hours until the water fell about five or six inches. Or enough to see the water line. Then they quit using it.”
In practice, Cox said there was little wind, but on Saturday the wind blew hard into the pocket, and into that special laydown, and he thinks that pushed the bait into the area.
Although he is in the same creek using the same bait, Cox said the bass are set up much differently than that February event two seasons ago. For one, the water temperature is much warmer this go round and Cox feels the bass have spawning on their minds.
Instead of the bass being in 4 or 5 feet of water like they were in 2021, the bass are in 1 or 2 feet and a lot of times, they are just swiping at his Frittside. The bigger bass he caught off his magic laydown was hooked in the side of the face and several other bites he had were similar.
He picked up a bladed jig for a short time, had a bass swipe at it, and put it back down in favor of the flat-sided crankbait designed by B.A.S.S. legend David Fritts.
“I thought it would be some of the same casts as last time, but it hasn’t been,” Cox said. “Today, they were shallower and I think they were going to spawn pretty much. The nice one I caught, it had eggs coming out everywhere. She was on a piece of wood in a foot and a half of water.”
If this Classic was a month later, Cox might have considered going to Tellico to sight fish. But with the bass in a prespawn mode, Cox has tried to find dirty water and has successfully done that in this event. Even his Day 1 areas had stained to dirty water conditions.
His favorite creek has dirty water in the back and as you work your way out, it begins to clear slightly.
But it isn’t like Cox has this area to himself. In 2021, Jason Christie and Steve Kennedy both accomplished Top 10s in that same creek. On Day 2, Stetson Blaylock and Keith Poche started there, Cody Huff made a pass through and Brandon Card also fished there mid-morning.
Cox seemed to be the angler who maximized the area. Part of his thoroughness was due to the wind, but it was also because he had confidence they would keep biting.
“I figured the best thing to do was to learn where the fish are setting up in there,” he said. “I feel like, as tough as the fishing is, you have to put yourself in a place where you are okay going for hours without a bite. You have to be okay throwing at the same stuff with the same baits. There were too many random bites to throw anything else and I think that’s why no one else really caught anything else in there.”
Cox has a large hill to climb on Championship Sunday. He will need to put together an impressive bag to catch Jeff Gustafson, who leads the event with 35-11. But the conditions tonight into the morning hours have Cox optimistic.
“The little bit of cooler weather in the morning will actually help it,” Cox said. “It got too warm. I would like it better if it pushed them back.”
