It’s game on for roomies Brandon Cobb and Shane LeHew, who’ve found friendship in fishing and online gaming. Both are pleased after hitting the reset button to fish B.A.S.S., and they’ve found some Llama loot.
“When I sat down and decided to fish the Elite Series, I was looking at the year,” Cobb, 29, of Greenwood, S.C., said. “Hartwell, I think I could do well (He won). Then just looking at the tournaments, I think, ‘It’s a good year to make the Classic. I think I can do well in points.’ It’s exceeded expectations is the best way to put it.”
Oh yeah.
With his big Texas Fest win in May, Cobb has two titles within a month’s time. With two more top 20 finishes, he has already earned $247,500 in five Elite events, not including a Toyota Tundra truck for big bass on Lake Fork. That win also qualified him for the 2020 Classic, where he will be awarded a Century Belt for topping 100 pounds.
If not for a clunking 61st at Winyah Bay, he might be leading the Toyota Angler of the Year standings. He stands seventh with 408 points, 24 back of the lead. Cobb’s running mate, LeHew, is 9 points behind him in eighth. LeHew, 30, of Catawba, N.C., has put himself in great position to qualify for the Classic via a consistent route. His best finish was fifth at Hartwell, his worst 37th at Lanier, and the rest were in the low 20s.
“I’m really happy so far with how the year is going,” LeHew said. “I think it was a good switch for us, coming over here. It’s been great so far.
“The Classic is the goal. It’s not something I think about right now. If it happens, it happens.”
It’s a Carolina thing
Things sure are happening for the Carolinians. Part of it might be their similar thought processes in how to approach any body of water. That’s kind of how they met 6 years ago. Only living about 2 ½ hours apart, they first crossed paths on each other’s home waters of Lake Murray and Lake Norman. Friendship ensued, and they’ve been traveling together the past 5 years.
“For some reason, me and Shane fish almost identical,” Cobb said. “On the FLW Tour, we would probably run into each other three times a day in a tournament.”
“It was kind of funny,” LeHew said. “We would just keep running into each other on the lake. I’d fish the same pocket and he’d come in there. Then I’d go to the next pocket and he’d come in. I think we fish a lot of the same things, even in practice now without planning it.”
They plan some things as well. LeHew said they confer after practices, and too many times they found they had fished the same areas. They compared notes at Fork, where again they were fishing in close proximity. Cobb even told LeHew about his winning area, where he had two 8-pounders and a truck-winning 11-1 in Day 3’s monster 37-15 bag.
“The only thing we only thing we ever said we wouldn’t share is if he’s found a specific spot, or if I found one where I know I could win the tournament,” LeHew said. “Like he found at Fork where he caught all those big fish. He gave it to me. I would never go up there, because I knew after practice he was like, ‘I got 7-pounders coming on my topwater.’ So I’m not going there.”
Since he was nearby, LeHew did go there but not to fish it. He said he made the quick run to see how Cobb was doing, and to see if each was doing the right things. Both struggled on Day 2, and LeHew said Cobb’s Day 3 magic didn’t require any words to figure out how he was doing.
“I didn’t have to check on him,” LeHew said. “He rode by me and had three followers. He rode back by me and had about 15 followers. Then he rode back and had about 30. I knew he was crushing them.”
Although he had never before fished Fork, Cobb shook off an iffy first day of practice and went into competition days with an idea of what to do.
“Not that I looked like I could win this tournament, but I felt comfortable,” he said. “I felt like not that I knew exactly what to do, but I liked what I was starting to see. I felt good about it.”
Those good feelings translated to good times, with two bags over 30 pounds — a Championship Monday bag an ounce shy of 30 — for a four-day total of 114 pounds, which blew away the field.
At Winyah Bay, Cobb said he just picked the wrong area. With the huge playing field making switching areas difficult, he just had to ride it out. He said one of his strengths is his versatility and fishing what he sees.
“Ever since my career started, that’s how I’ve fished. I look for what I want to do, but I don’t put too much emphasis on what worked yesterday,” he said. “I try it, but if doesn’t work for 30 minutes, it’s not like I got to do it the rest of the day.”
“Yes, you can have bad tournament if you run around too much, but in the average, that’s the way I do better — not putting too much on anything.”
At Fork, Cobb switched up with a variety of approaches. He caught fish on a topwater, a swimbait, a frog, a jerkbait and a creature bait sight fishing, which enticed his big bass from her bed.
“I would like to say I get scientific and the moon is doing this, etc. But it’s not like that. I think this looks good, let’s go fish it,” Cobb said. “I don’t overthink it. A lot of it is growing up fishing, spending so much time on the water. Might run down the lake and see a bank that looks good. It looks good to me because I caught them five years ago in a place like that.”
Back in the game
Long after the old-timers who played Pong and Space Invaders, Cobb is among the first generation who began the modern era of video game playing. While a touch older than most now playing multiplayer online games, Cobb finds it enjoyable and a way re-connect with friends from college and to clear his mind. With headsets providing instant communication, Cobb and his teammates battled in the early top titles of Call of Duty and Halo.
“I get to hang out with my buddies in college I don’t get to see,” he said. “One of us is on every night and giving each other a hard time.”
About a year ago, Cobb enticed LeHew to join him in the widely popular Fortnite, a third-person shooting game they play a couple nights a week against up to 100 opponents. They enter the Battle Royale, where players seek equipment, supplies and the rare Llama pinatas providing loot. The object is to try to be the last survivor. LeHew’s grandfather even joins them at times.
“We play with random people,” Cobb said. “The first person you play against is a 7-year-old kid, and then next is a 55 year-old. It’s a crazy game.”
“We used to play Call Of Duty a lot,” LeHew said. “He got back into it, and the Fortnite deal took off. I went and bought a PlayStation. It’s pretty fun. We actually win some. I’m not on the level Brandon is, so he kind of carries the team. There’s times when I’m pretty good.”
Cobb said he doesn’t play during tournaments so he can concentrate on his fishing, but it helps to shake off a poor outing.
“It really does,” he said. “When I get home from a bad tournament or something, you sit there and watch TV, you’re still thinking about it, or thinking about the next tournament too much.”
Two for one, and one for all
Both are thinking good things about their inaugural Elite season. LeHew said it’s beneficial to have a running mate, and he enjoys Cobb’s success almost as much as his own.
“We work well together fishing,” he said. “I was fighting off tears when he won at Hartwell. He was choking me up. I was just as happy for him. He’s very good. It’s been a long time coming.”
LeHew said he’s not surprised at Cobb’s Elite success. They enjoyed similar careers on FLW circuits, both fishing over 100 events and each making four FLW Cups in five pro seasons. LeHew has four wins, including college events, to his credit, while Cobb has two BFL wins. Cobb’s earnings of $400,000 top Lehew’s by almost $70,000.
“He’s mentally stronger than I am and probably stronger than a lot of guys,” LeHew said. “Not a lot of things get to him. He doesn’t let things get to him. Instinctually, he’s a very good fisherman.”
Next up on the schedule is this week’s event on Lake Guntersville. Cobb said he’s never fished it this time of year, but everyone’s been there before and its reputation for big bass is well-known.
“I look forward to it,” he said. “As far as the rest goes, I don’t have any experience. Cayuga, I’ve never been. The only tournament I look forward to, but it’s probably not going to a fun tournament necessarily, is the one that got cancelled and moved to September. I actually like it being in September because it’s going to be tough. The Elite Series is awesome to watch, because we don’t have many tough tournaments. We have slugfests, but it will be cool to have kind of a grinder.
“I would have liked to have fished it this week, but I like it being in September. I like August and September fishing. That’s my favorite time of year. It’s tough and I like it being tough.”
Sound like the adage, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. There are battles ahead, but it’s certainly game on for the Carolinians.