provided by John Phillips
Brandon Cobb is a 31-year-old Mossy Oak Pro bass fisherman from Greenwood, South Carolina. One of the youngest fishermen to have competed in bass-fishing circuits as a professional, Cobb has made over $650,000 throughout his 6-year career. In early summer, he fished the Bassmaster Elite Lake Eufaula tournament, placing 4th out of 88 contestants and winning a $15,000 check. This tournament was a challenge to fish because of the weather’s drastic changes. During the practice days, there were gray skies and rain and during the tournament days, there were blue skies and hot weather. Like the other anglers, Cobb had to adjust to these conditions.
Why did I leave the ledges where I caught a good number of bass to go fish in the brush piles?
One advantage bass anglers have with good electronics is that we can see under the ledges, and I only stopped when I saw bass. On the third day, I was having a hard time finding any bass holding on the ledges and remembered what I learned from the tournament in 2015: when the bass aren’t on the ledges in the summertime at Eufaula, they are usually in the brush piles.
I also had a ton of bites throughout practice, and the fella that won the tournament, Buddy Gross, started out fishing on the same ledge. We were only about 10-feet apart and were talking to each other, so I believed that I was doing the right thing to win. Though Gross was catching his fish on a jig, I don’t think many of the fishermen were penetrating the brush with their jigs. Buddy finished the tournament with about 84 pounds while I had about 79 pounds.
