One of the notables from Day 3 was John Cox reporting that he fished all day without his Plano EDGE terminal tackle trays. He basically got his work done with the one 3/0 Berkley Fusion hook he had tied on and one he cut from another rod.
Cox lives an hour and a half from Palatka, so he’s sleeping in his own bed each night. On Championship Saturday, he left home with more tackle than he thought he had.
“I looked everywhere — I looked in my garage and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, I left them on the back of the truck,’” Cox recalled. “I couldn’t find them all last night.
“This morning, I opened up my (boat’s tackle compartment) and they’re right on top — both boxes,” Cox said. “I thought my wife was messing with me or, something.”
Cox sacked up his astounding 31-pound, 15-ounce Day-3 limit by bed fishing with a prototype Berkley craw bait. Reflecting on the tackle mishap, Cox said the perceived limitation may have worked in his favor.
“I looked in there and I did not see them in there,” he said. “I wonder if it was a thing to say: ‘Keep the big rod in your hand, don’t pick up the spinning rod on these fish.”
Cox starts the day 3 pounds, 1 ounce behind John Crews, who has led the event since Day 1. He’s fully equipped for whatever the day may present, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds for him.