Event: 2019 Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Scenario: This May event offered mostly postspawn opportunities, with a few spawning fish still in the picture. Both of these scenarios would play key roles in Cobb’s convincing victory, and despite their differences, they both would demonstrate a foundational point intrinsic to his performance.
“It was getting hot but it hadn’t been hot long,” Cobb said. “There was a heavy shad spawn and because it was pretty hot, the bed fish were leaving by the day.”
Typically, Cobb has seen a sudden onset of warmth make the shad spawn short lived, but this event saw a different unfolding.
“In that week, the shad spawn was not short-lived, but it made it very bite-window dependent,” he said. “I caught a lot of fish late-morning and midday, but it was a window when they would bite.
“I remember multiple mornings of not catching anything and then hitting big flurries; then re-fishing places and not catching any, but then hitting them again and the fish would be there again. It was a matter of fishing places multiple times throughout the day, and you’d have to collide with them.”
Spending all four days about midway up the lake’s western arm, Cobb found most of his shad spawn activity by fishing a jerkbait and a topwater over shellbeds and points. Fork lacks not for fishable habitat, but not everything was in play.
“It was a unique shad spawn; the fish were where they were and they bit good because of the shad spawn, but there were a lot of shad spawns with no fish,” Cobb said. “I had, like 10 places that fish were always on every day, but they were not on them every time I fished them.”
Important to note: Cobb said the shad spawns were less notable as the day wore on, but the fish that were feeding on these baitfish gatherings remained in the areas because the shad stayed there. The bite simply moved deeper later in the day.
The Decision: Whenever you have a hit-or-miss scenario like Cobb faced, the miss part has a way of stealing the show — unless you take steps to manage its impact. At this event, Cobb overcame the risk of spinning out by recognizing the downturns and refusing to waste valuable time waiting and wishing.
“One thing that I did absolutely perfect in that tournament was keeping my day productive though multiple waves,” Cobb said. “The shad spawn was timing-dependent, and when I would fish four or five places and not catch anything, I could tell it was a lull in the shad spawn, so I would fish shallow for bed fish, fry guarders or whatever.
“I would cull by ounces, or cull a fish here and there and even though they weren’t giants, they kept the day productive until I went back to the shad spawn. Basically, I was never going through droughts, which can kill the flow in your day, no matter what you’re doing.”
Taking a sensible approach, Cobb would identify promising areas, or ones where he had already caught fish, and then analyze the surrounding areas to identify time-filling opportunities.
“For instance, I would fish a point and not get a bite, but I’d know they’d be there at some point in the day, so I would go fish the surrounding three pockets,” Cobb said. “I’d fish one pocket, then go back and check the point, fish another pocket, go back and check the point.
“When I’d hit them on a point, then, I’d run all the points until I went through a lull again.”
Essentially, Cobb worked to get his timing right, but he also made every minute count by filling the voids with serious pursuits.
“Never let the day start backpedalling,” he said.
Game Changer: Cobb’s game plan worked effectively and even produced an unexpected bonus.
“While filling one of those voids, I got an 11-pound bed fish that was not part of the game plan,” he said. “I went shallow to catch some 3- to 5-pounders to cull and gain ounces and ran across that fish. That was a prime example of how filling a lull can work out in a big way.
“That place looks easier than it is by weights, but it has so many large fish that school together, you can go from not catching much to the best bag of your life in one place. It’s probably the only place in the country with literal schools of 5- to 10-pound bass.”
Cobb said his highlight reel fish was about a mile from a shad-related area. Settled into a spot in front of shallow, emergent vegetation, Cobb’s big bass ate a Texas-rigged Zoom Z-Craw.
“The spawn was almost over and I was looking for residual males still hanging around and I found one big female that had pulled up,” he said.
Another interesting piece of Cobb’s win was the order of his daily weights. Summarily, he placed second on Day 1 with 31-11, but slipped to sixth with a second-round limit of 14-7. Day 3 saw Cobb retake the lead by weighing a mega sack that went 37-15 before sealing the deal with a final limit of 29-15.
With a four-day total of 114 pounds, Cobb won by a 12-1 margin.
“Day 1, I had a big bag, but Day 2 I had bad timing and I thought I had blown the tournament,” Cobb said. “That reduced the stress level to where I was like, ‘Dang, I can’t win now, but we’re still gonna try to do good.
“I had a ridiculous Day 3 and jumped into the lead with a buffer. That reduced some of the stress on Day 4. It was probably one of the least stressful chances of winning in my life.”
Takeaway: “I think that one was probably was a prime example of how well a good game plan can be useless without appropriate timing,” Cobb said. “That being said, other anglers fished in the same areas I did and they did not do as well.
“It was the most timing-dependent tournament I’ve ever seen. That’s something to keep in mind — you can have the best game plan, but you have to have the best timing.”
