bassmaster classic

Cox’s final day of practice at Ray Roberts

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Photography by
Alan McGuckin
After a lifetime of angling, and 14 years as a pro, 39-year old John Cox still does not drink coffee, but he’s bright eyed and ready to begin the final official practice day for the 2025 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Ray Roberts in North Texas.
Strong west winds are already blowing 20 to 30 mph as Cox launches his 21-foot aluminum Vexus, choosing not to have forward-facing sonar on board, and only two sonar units.
He spends the first hour of the day idling in 2 to 7-feet of water, before ever pulling a rod out to make a cast.
And since there’s no rods out to clutter the deck, the always comical Cox takes a minute to show fans how massively wide the front deck of his Vexus AVX 2100 is.
Time to start fishing. No surprise, shallow water staples from Berkley dominate his arsenal.
It doesn’t take long for “The Tin Man” to score! This one weighed close to 5-pounds.
John Cox built a multi-million-dollar fishing career targeting the shallowest visible habitat,  without forward-facing sonar in his aluminum boats, and today on Lake Roberts is no different.
Asked if these ‘skinny water’ areas ever get overcrowded, Cox says not typically, because most of his competitors often seem to think there’s not as many bass living ultra-shallow as what there actually are.
His final practice day is built on short casts in the shallows, and also visually looking for spawning beds.
Speaking of ‘visually looking’ – the last bass of the day is blind in one eye, but savvy enough to smash his Berkley Jack lipless crankbait.

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