VIDALIA, Louisiana – For a guy who insists that he knows “hardly anything” about the oxbow lakes of the lower Mississippi River Valley, Major League Fishing Lucas Oil Challenge Cup angler Andy Montgomery sure seems like a guy who’s fishing in his own backyard.

Montgomery, a second-year Cup pro from South Carolina, overcame his lack of familiarity with the geography of a Big Muddy oxbow lake – Cocodrie Lake in the Cocodrie Lake Complex near Monterey, Louisiana – for an Elimination Round win over Louisiana native Greg Hackney.

Throwing a vibrating jig with a Strike King Rage Bug trailer around the cypress-laden shoreline of Cocodrie, Montgomery landed 15 scoreable largemouth for 31 pounds, 8 ounces. That was just enough to hold off Hackney (31-0) and Jason Christie (30-6), and propel Montgomery into the Sudden Death rounds.

“I’ve just never fished these oxbows at all, so this is all new to me,” Montgomery admitted as he unpacked his competition boat. “I guess the part I like best about this, though, is that nobody else has any experience on this part of the Mississippi River, either. I really like knowing that, when I back my boat in the morning, all of us are on the same playing field, and it’s just us against the fish.”

It took Montgomery some time to warm up, though: 12 fish had already been recorded on SCORETRACKER before he got his first largemouth bite, nine more were scored before he caught his second fish, and Montgomery finished Period 1 with just five fish.

Near the end of Period 2, the vibrating jig/Rage Craw started to pay dividends as Montgomery scored three fish in the final 21 minutes of the period for 7 pounds. He carried that momentum into Period 3, landing four fish in the first half-hour of the period to add 7-12 to his ScoreTracker total, and then backed that up with a 3-3 and a 2-6.

Hackney caught three fish in the final 23 minutes of the round to cut Montgomery’s lead to 8 ounces, but it was too little, too late.

“The last thing you want is Greg Hackney chasing you,” Montgomery joked. “I was glad when it was time for lines out.”

Montgomery, Hackney, Jason Christie, Gary Klein, Kelly Jordon and Mike McClelland advanced out of the round, joining Round 1 qualifiers Ish Monroe, Skeet Reese, Jeff Kriet, Takahiro Omori, Aaron Martens and Jacob Wheeler in Sudden Death.