John Cox Wins FLW Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Sam Rayburn

There's no other way to say it: John Cox is clutch. There were times he made it look easy during the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit opener on Sam Rayburn, and there were times he was in full-blown scramble mode. But when he needed it most, Cox once again made the right call late on the final day to go wire-to-wire for the fifth Pro Circuit victory of his career. "That call I made at the end of the day today, it just felt right," says Cox. The call was to make a 20-minute run further up the lake to near the 103 bridge, where Cox had a pair of trees he felt might produce one solid keeper. It was already noon when the idea hit, and he was already short on gas after an entire morning of junk-fishing his way up the lake. To go up the lake further for one fish meant risking at least an hour boat ride back and running out of gas. Yet, Cox decided to go for it.

"I chugged a Red Bull and ran," says Cox, who did a similar thing last year when he won at Lake Chickamauga, making a late run that produced two fish to cement his win. The decision turned into the winning one pretty quickly. The two trees didn't just produce one fish. They produced three 2 3/4-pounders, all three on a black-and-blue Z-Man ChatterBait with a Berkley PowerBait Grass Pig trailer. He threw it on a 7-foot, 3-inch Abu Garcia Fantasista Premier rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier reel and 20-pound-test Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line. That capped what turned out to be a near-perfectly executed four days of fishing for Cox. He took the lead on day one when he found a special one-cast spot right near the 147 bridge - a 3-foot high spot with little bit of sand and rock with hydrilla all around it right at the mouth of one of the best-known spawning creeks on Sam Rayburn.

Yet, what made the spot so unique for Cox was how he fished it - with a crankbait. A No. 5 Berkley Frittside crankbait in the lone ranger color in the morning and ghost morning dawn when the sun came up, to be more specific. He threw both on a 7-foot, 6-inch Abu Garcia Veritas Winch rod, Abu Garcia Revo EXD reel and 15-pound-test Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line. The spot was a transition spot, as Cox would make cast after cast feeling nothing. Then, when the school showed up, he'd immediately feel his crankbait hit off what felt like "big logs." Once he felt that, he knew he'd get bit within seconds. Unfortunately, after 11 o'clock Friday, he never caught another fish on the spot, forcing him to scramble and grind the final two days up in the shallows. Over the final two days, Cox figures he hit more than 100 spots, just running around up shallow, fishing anything that "looked good."

"Laydowns, grass, a point coming out or something that looked really fishy, I'd just swing in and burn it quick," explains Cox. "I just had the trolling motor on 100, and no fish came off the same thing. One came off an isolated stick. One came off a laydown. One came off a rock point. One come off a drain in the back of a pocket. I caught two on a prototype Berkley frog." Looking back, even Cox is amazed how he was able to hang on to win when his pattern fell apart. Yet, as he has shown time and again, he seems to always make the right call when the pressure is highest. "I have no idea how the last two days came together," admits Cox. "I didn't know where to go or what to do. Yet, it did. "I don't even know what to say. It's incredible."

FLW Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Sam Rayburn Winning Pattern - FLW 1/27/20 (Sean Ostruszka)

One fish can make or break a tournament. In the case of Tommy Dickerson, it can also cost a sixfigure paycheck. With a final-day game plan of fishing deep and swinging for the fences for big bites later in the day, Dickerson finally got the bite he sought from a 7-pounder. Unfortunately, just as he got her to the boat, she came off, and with it went Dickerson's chance to overtake Cox.

Yet, it was his unique shallow pattern that got him in position for the win in the first place. The Rayburn local has learned over his 20 years of fishing Big Sam that the water in the Devil's Ford Creek area always stays dirty, and because of that, few anglers ever fish it. In an attempt to get away from the rest of the field, that's where Dickerson went to work all week. "It's really cool, because you'd think you're in some bayou in Louisiana," says Dickerson of the three creeks in that area, which are all lined with cypress trees. "I wasn't fishing but 1 to 3 foot, hitting those cypress trees, especially the isolated ones or ones with lily pad stems."

As for baits, Dickerson tossed around a black-and-blue jig with a Reaction Innovations Twerk trailer, but he got his bigger bites on a black Picasso Shock Blade with an orange Lake Fork Live Magic Shad Swimbait. Why orange? "To offset the dirty water," says Dickerson, who also utilized a Strike King Red Eye Shad in crawfish patterns. "The first day I had two 5-pounders grab my tail. I put that orange swimbait on there and didn't miss one since."

FLW Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Sam Rayburn 2-5 Patterns - FLW - 1/27/20 (Sean Ostruszka)

Darold Gleason has dreamed of trying to prove himself as a professional angler for a long time, so when he finally got his shot on a lake only an hour from home, the rookie committed himself to making a good first impression. "I kind of shut life down so I could come over here and try to learn the lake even better," says Gleason. "I probably came over here 30 times from Thanksgiving until off-limits." The end result was a significant number of waypoints, which he eventually whittled down from 30 on day one to four key ones the final day.

Every morning he'd start on an offshore turn in a deep drain just north of the 147 bridge, where he put on a show the first three days, catching fish nearly at will rotating between a tail spinner, a 1-ounce Carolina rig with a V&M Pork Shad 2.0 (Gleason's candy color) and a drop-shot with either a V&M Pork Pin (watermelon bluegill) or a V&M Straight Shooter (morning dawn). Once Gleason had a limit, he'd then start bouncing around between shallow and deep. The shallow spots were particularly key, as he looked for smaller pockets with drains in about 6 feet of water that also had grass. There, he'd throw a 1/2-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait (green pumpkin chartreuse) with either a Yamamoto Zako or a V&M J-Bug trailer, both in green pumpkin. The game plan worked out best the first day, thanks in large part to a pair of kickers - a 6-3 and a 7-2. Yet, those would be the last true giants he'd connect with for the week.

FLW Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Sam Rayburn 2-5 Patterns - FLW 1/27/20 (Sean Ostruszka)

When it was right and he could get on his spot, Corey Neece may have had the best spot on Sam Rayburn. The problem was, he couldn't always get on it, and it wasn't always right. Fishing in Veach Basin, Neece focused on a giant 4-foot grass flat. There was a little depression on top of a hump with a couple stumps on it that he'd pole down and hit repeatedly with one specific cast that accounted for the majority of his fish. And when they bit, it happened quick.

On days one and three, Neece had 20-plus-pound limits within an hour of starting the day. He caught a 7-pounder in the first few minutes on Saturday morning, and most of his damage was done on a BOOYAH Hard Knocker (Rayburn red). "I caught some straight cranking, but I've been Yo-Yoing it a little bit," says Neece. "It seems like they bit better when I Yo-Yoed it. They liked a little bit of action." Unfortunately, he never was able to fish the spot in the morning on day two, as some fellow competitors were fishing it. And on day four, the spot simply gave out. His fish had moved on, and with them, his chances of winning.

FLW Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Sam Rayburn 2-5 Patterns - FLW 1/27/20 (Sean Ostruszka)

If this event were the Bass Pro Tour format, where every fish counts, Ron Nelson would've blown away the field. The reigning Polaris Rookie of the Year found an offshore ledge just south of Cassels-Boykin where he caught fish every cast for hours. As fun as it was, the spot ended up being both a blessing and a curse. "Once you catch 12 pounds, you need a big bite," says Nelson, who actually had a different spot he'd start at each morning to catch a quick limit on a shad-colored Keitech Swing Impact FAT on a 1/4-ounce head. "Guys here say you can catch 2-pounders all day and then catch a 7 or an 11 off the same school. So, I'm like, I'll just keep on having fun and hoping that happens."

Unfortunately, all Nelson got for his efforts was sore hands from all the 2-pounders he caught. Though, it wasn't from lack of trying for kickers, as he cycled through numerous presentations in hopes of coaxing a bigger bite. "You'd throw that Carolina rig out and they'd bite right away," explains Nelson, who put a Zoom Brush Hog or Zoom Double Ringer on his rig. "Every time I caught one, the graph would just light up. There'd be 15 following that fish up. I'd throw a spoon down. They'd all leave. I'd try a big swimbait, but they wouldn't eat that. I'd toss a jig, and they'd barely touch it. But if I threw that rig, it'd be 'there's another one; there's another one.'" When he got tired of catching cookie cutters, he did have a big-bite pattern that he went to each day, which was punching "topped out, floating hyacinth mixed with other floating grass" in the back of pockets with a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver (hematoma). That produced his biggest bites on day one, and he lost a giant on day three doing that.

FLW Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Sam Rayburn 2-5 Patterns - FLW 1/27/20 (Sean Ostruszka)