Vance McCullough

 

“Hey, you’re gonna get eaten by an alligator there! Get in the boat,” instructs John Cox as we talk on the phone. The warning/instruction isn’t for me, but rather, his daughter whom he is fishing with on the St Johns River, home to grande gators for sure, as well as a bunch of big bass.

Cox is doing what most of our favorite professional anglers are during their quarantine-induced downtime – taking the opportunity to share his love of the sport with his family.

So, what does one of the best pros on Tour throw when there’s no tournament pressure and he just wants to have fun?

Topwaters.

And why not, it’s that time of year across the southern region and beyond. Bass are spawning, guarding fry, terrorizing bream beds and generally just hanging out in warm, shallow water. Big bass especially like to trap a meal on the surface. But sometimes the goal is to jerk on a bunch of fish, regardless of size. Cox has a trio of favorite lures to get the fun going.

“The other day I went to this stocked pond and they were schooling on shad. It was incredible. My three main topwaters were the Berkley Cane Walker – I really like that one when there’s a little bit of a chop on the water because it’s a little bit bigger. That was my one  for when the wind was blowing. In calmer areas I would throw the Berkley J-Walker, just walking the dog with it really fast. In the early morning and in the evening when it started getting cloudy, right before the storm rolled through, I’d go to that Choppo. It was unreal. So much fun.”

Side note: to learn about the lake Cox had so much fun on recently, check out his Instagram @johncox_fishing. Maybe plan yourself a trip there!

Cox favors the Choppo for fishing in 3 feet or less, the J-Walker for deeper water. “I feel like the J-Walker gives them a little bit more time to come up to it so I’m kind of throwing that in three-to-ten-feet of water.”

Cox works the J-Walker at brisk pace but because it doesn’t make a lot of forward progress fish will commit to it from a distance. “I feel like when they see it walking, it’s a little bit more like ‘oh, I can catch that thing’ because it’s back and forth compared to the Choppo on a straight wind. They smoke that Choppo in shallower water, but the J-Walker, they’ll come out of deep water and bust it.”

Cox is excited about the new size of Choppo that Berkley has rolled out. “We only had the 120 and the 90. I really like the 90. Now we have the new one, the 105, and that one has got to be one of my favorites.

“The 120 is awesome when you’re around giant fish, but that 105 is the perfect in-between size. I mean, the 90 is great. Anywhere you go you’ll catch them on it, but when you’re going after a little bit bigger ones and the fish are wolfpacking, I like the 105 because when there are four or five fish coming behind it the smaller ones kind of stay off of it and the better ones get it.”

What if Cox had to be quarantined with a single lure for pond hopping and just having a blast, in general? “Aw man, the 90 is so much fun. That’s what we’ve got tied on now is the 90,” says Cox of his now-gator-safe kids as they ease the boat into the river.

One frequent complaint that shows up in online forums and reviews is that the stock hooks on the Choppo are light. Some people prefer to swap them out for heavier models. In this writer’s experience, they look a lot like the hooks we’ve always used on prop baits and jerkbaits – and landed plenty of big bass on. I’ve had no problem with them and have had to reach for pliers to dig them out of the fish that usually get both sets of trebles buried. Cox likes them just fine.

“I actually like light trebles; I don’t like really heavy trebles. I think the guys that are complaining are the ones that got the Whopper Plopper back in the day, throwing it on 60lb braid and a flipping stick. I throw all my Choppos on the rod I throw the Frittside crankbait on, the 7’6” medium-heavy Veritas Winch, and I throw the 90 on 15lb Big Game (monofilament). I don’t even throw it on braid.

“But yeah, if there’s one bait I’m gonna pond fish with, topwater-wise, that Choppo 90 would be it.”