Florida pro Drew Cook is one of the new Bassmaster Elite Series angler that joined the tour for 2019, eventually winning the DICK'S Sporting Goods Rookie of the Year award. Cook earned his spot in the Elites after fishing both the Central and Eastern Opens in 2018. Take a look inside Cook's 2019 Skeeter FX21 boat.
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Cook has a Yamaha 250 SHO powering his Elite Series rig, and the rear of the boat is also home to two 8-foot Power-Pole Blades.
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For optimum performance Cook has a T-H Marine Atlas Jackplate.
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He has a 25-pitch three-blade prop.
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Cook jumps inside to show how he organizes and rigs his boat.
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We dive into his back box where batteries, pumps and more are located.
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He keeps a tray under the lid for any quick tools or motor toter type accessory.
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He has a Minn Kota on-board charger and four 31 AGM batteries.
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He has his livewells at the ready behind his Skeeter cockpit.
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In his rear box on the driver side he keeps a variety of things.
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One is his vest life jacket.
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He keeps his graph covers stowed here during the day.
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He also has a box of boat snacks.
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Not just crackers, but Vienna Sausages too.
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He has culling buoys, tools and dish soap.
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These nuts, bolts and washers are for anything that may need fixing while on the water.
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He has a tacklebox of tools as well - screwdrivers, drill bits and more.
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Also included are fuses. They can be the most important part to keep handy because often problems that happen on the water are a fuse issue can be fixed quickly.
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His dish soap isn't just for cleaning, but also to add to a water bottle for sight fishing.
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He keeps a lure retriever on an old rod and reel for easy deployment and retrieval.
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In his rear passenger box he keeps boxes of soft plastics.
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All are kept with easy-to-read labels for quick access.
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This is his favorite flipping box.
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A box of Big Bite Baits' Yo Mama's.
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At the console he has two Lowrance HDS LIVE 12s.
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He has a Power-Pole switch beside his control panel at the console.
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His T-H Marine Atlas Jackplate gauge is mounted there as well.
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He has trim tabs to control not only the jackplate height but also the trim for his Yamaha SHO.
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He has a T-H Marine Hot Foot installed as well so he can keep both hands on the wheel.
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His graphs are locked in with two DuraSafe E-Locks.
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Beside the driver's seat is his cooler where he has water and other drinks for a day of fishing.
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He also has a coot decoy in the bottom of his boat that travels with him.
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"I found it at the Kissimmee Chain in my first Basspro.com Bassmaster Open. I put it in the boat, got third in the event and never took it out."
It transfers from boat to boat as Cook changes year to year.
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He has a few kinds of pliers and scissors.
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He also has quick cutters tethered to his day box for easy access.
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In his day box he has a few things that he will store there and change out each day. There is a Nichols Lures spinnerbait and a buzzbait.
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He also keeps his dye pens there ...
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... and a unique repair kit.
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In case he breaks an eye or guide on his rod he can make a quick repair on the water.
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He has a bottle of backups and some glue that just needs to be heated up.
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He has a dry box where he keeps things like his wallet, phone and other miscellaneous things.
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He stores his AFTCO gloves here as well, and then in the summer it will change over to strictly face shields and such.
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He also keeps his scale that helps him keep track of fish so he can properly cull.
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As mentioned earlier, he keeps face shields here as well, and some rope if needed.
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Now to the business end of his 2019 Skeeter, the front deck.
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He has his passenger side rod locker open for rods exclusively.
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He put down soft puzzle piece material for his rods to lay on so they don't get beat up while stowed away.
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He uses different models of Dobyns rods. He had a lipless rigged up on this Dobyns Champion 736 CB rod.
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In his center compartment he has boxes of bait and tackle.
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Like in the back, he has these labeled for quick access as well.
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This is most likely his favorite box in the entire boat. It's his swim jig box with a variety of colors of the Nichols Lures Sledgehammer swim jig.
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I told him to pick his two favorites and he chose Bombshell Shad (left) and JT's The Best Color Ever (right).
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This one has some teeth marks around the eye of the head.
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He has multiple boxes for terminal tackle.
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A hook and weight box.
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He has all kinds of hooks - flipping hooks, worm hooks and swimbait hooks.
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Within the hook box he has some accessories like barrel swivels and beads for a Carolina Rig and flipping at times.
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Here is one of his biggest hooks in the box. An Extra Wide Gap offset worm hook.
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His weight box has an assortment of types and sizes as well.
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He keeps some of his tungsten labeled so he knows exactly what weight he is grabbing or using currently.
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He has two different styles and sizes of bobber stops to peg his Texas Rig applications.
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As we jump into the driver side rod locker we find a few things here.
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One is a case containing a few different cylinder containers.
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He keeps treble hooks stowed in sealed containers.
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He labels the lids to denote the size of the trebles in that container.
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He also keeps baggies of split rings of varying sizes. It's important to keep these organized because there are certain sizes he likes for the line tie portion and certain sizes to hold his hooks on correctly.
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His navigational lights are in this box as well.
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He also keeps a tupperware bin here.
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This is the best way he has found to store swimbait clamshells.
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He has Big Bite Baits BB Kicker Swimbaits and Suicide Shads as well.
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Up front he keeps it clean with a Minn Kota Ultrex, one Lowrance HDS LIVE 12 unit and Power-Pole buttons.
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Up is on the left side, down is on the right side.
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"I keep it simple up front because I want to maximize every inch of space so I can go to work."
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There is also a tool rack if he wants to keep any up front with him.
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The Ultrex is something he enjoys having.
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His electronics wires are stored cleanly up front through the Skeeter faceplate.
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He also has a step on the front to make it easier to climb in and out of the boat alone while fishing across the country.
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Thanks for the tour Drew!
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Good luck during the 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series season as you start your Bassmaster career.
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