Day 1 Cup Practice with Cox
Cruising with a shallow-water ace on Wheeler Lake
Coming off the second-best season of his career and a seventh-place finish in the points race on the Walmart FLW Tour, John Cox is preparing for his fourth Forrest Wood Cup this week on Wheeler Lake. Cox has done well in his previous Cups, and this tournament appears to be setting up in his favor as well with a decent shallow bite. After a few texts to set up the details, Cox offers to let me hop in his boat to ride along as he explores Wheeler for the first day of practice.
Cox and his younger brother, James, made the long drive from Florida Saturday and got in to town late, so we meet at Ditto Landing (where the tournament will be launching from) at 6 a.m., giving them a little extra time for some much needed rest. Cox has pretty much everything ready to go when he pulls up, so his brother promptly drops him in the lake.
FLW College Fishing champion Hampton Anderson leads the way out of the marina as Cox discusses his game plan. He’s only been to Wheeler Lake a few times and has never seen the upper stretch of the river, so he wants to start at the Guntersville Dam and work down from there.
After taking our time meandering through the thick fog that coats the river we make it up to the dam tailrace and Cox takes some time just watching the water to see if any schooling activity is happening. He sees some fish blow up here and there but decides on a crankbait to start the day.
He fishes for about 200 yards before cranking up the big motor to idle over to the far shoreline. By this time Jeff Sprague has worked up to the dam, and the two share a few words and a joke or two before they both get back to work.
On the other bank Cox notices shad all over the place. With some more fish busting the surface, Cox breaks out a Bull Herring Swimbait to see if he can get a few to commit.
After about 10 minutes of no action it’s moving time again back to the other bank.
A crankbait is back in hand now, and he quickly hooks up with this giant specimen. OK, maybe it isn’t big, and it’s not a bass, but it did attack his crankbait with fury. Cox is pretty proud of it.
Before leaving the dam area Cox decides to slip out into some deeper current seams to drag a worm. He busts out a secret scent that he got from an old-timer back home. He doesn’t know what’s in it, but he says it works. Cox applies liberally, fishes for another 10 minutes or so with one bite, and then we’re off to greener pastures.
One of Cox’s favorite stops in the morning before getting to the lake is Bojangles’ to get a cold drink and a few sandwiches to power him through the day. He enjoys a few gulps before selecting a promising-looking creek on the Lowrance.
Cox starts fishing the mouth of a small creek that looks promising due to the amount of bait, abundance of laydowns and deeper water. He works his way up it for about 100 yards before trying to idle back to a bend that looks interesting on Google Earth.
The creek gets a little shallower than expected, but luckily Cox is an expert at navigating shallow backwaters. With the help of a little gas we get turned around and idle back out to the river and make a run to the next creek.
Cox has a really good feeling about the next creek. There are balls of shad everywhere and plenty of water in it. There’s even a small amount of current.
He fishes his way up it for close to 30 minutes before cranking up the motor and idling ahead to see just how far it goes.
It’s getting hot now, and Cox takes his first water break of the day while idling. Though the sun makes it feel like a million degrees, it’s actually pretty nice in the shade of the trees that line the creek. Cox idles for almost 30 minutes before stopping to fish.
Cox has very few rods on the deck, not because he is dialed in, but because that’s just how he rolls. In fact, there are more rods here than he usually practices with.
He finds some matted vegetation in a big laydown in the creek and pulls out another rod to tie on a flipping bait. After several fruitless flips to the mat, we idle up the creek a little longer before turning around to head back to the ramp.
Though he didn’t catch a bass, Cox is happy with practice so far. He says you need to explore several areas before you find a good one. When he leaves me on the dock, Cox tells me he’s heading to an area that he feels should have some fish. He’s been there before. I joke with him about taking me on a wild goose chase and holding out on me about this other area, and after some laughing and handshakes the Cox brothers are back on the hunt for the fish to earn a $300,000 payday and title of Forrest Wood Cup champion.