Elite

Up a creek with Cox

Get a bird's eye view of John Cox early Day 1, quite literally up a creek and doing what he does best.

Posted on
Written by
Craig Lamb
Photography by
Craig Lamb
It’s a calm, clear and sunny morning on Thursday, April 7, the first competition day of the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite on Chickamauga Lake. John Cox is quite literally up a creek, doing what he does best.
At the left is the Tennessee River. Cox is all alone, and that was the intended plan. Behind his boat is a nearby sand bar, so shallow that Cox slipped over it in his lighter-weight aluminum rig.
The draw for Cox is what he believes to be a spawning area. You can see why in the coming slides.
As these photos were taken, Cox was casting up the creek, using soft plastic Berkley baits.
On the river side of the shoreline is the camera boat used by myself and Andy Crawford. We got out, hiked into the marsh and followed Cox. 
I flew the drone, while Andy shot from the shoreline. You’ll see him in slides to come.
The narrow finger coming off the island is the sand bar where Cox accessed the creek.
On the shoreline, at left, you can see Andy compiling a gallery of
Cox. We usually call this an “on-the-water” gallery, as the photos are taken from a camera boat.
You’ve got to get down and dirty, or muddy, sometimes, to get the job done. 

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