Carson Wins Co-Angler Title, $20,000

John Cox of Debary, Fla., caught a five-bass limit weighing 12 pounds, 1 ounce Saturday to maintain his lead at the Walmart FLW Tour on the Red River presented by OFF! and advance to the top 10 as the crucial No. 1 seed. With a three-day catch of 15 bass weighing 40-11, he now holds an 8-pound, 8-ounce lead in the tournament going into the final day of competition.

“It was slow today,” said Cox, who now has led the first three days of competition. “I went to go into the first hole I wanted to go into and there was somebody in there, so I left and started running around. I hit a pond and caught five real quick.”

Cox said he began catching fish at 10 a.m. and had a limit in an hour. He said he put down his Power-Pole and fan cast to hydrilla to catch his limit. Cox said he caught a 3-pounder and culled once and his action was done for the day. He then left to find more fish for the final day of competition.

“Every fish I caught was on something different,” Cox said. “I caught one on a spinnerbait, one on a jig, one on a Fluke and one on a worm.

“Everything was just falling into place throughout the day,” Cox added. “I was just making the right calls.”

Cox fished the first three days of competition from a 17-foot boat powered by a 75-horsepower Mercury outboard with hopes the lighter rig would allow him to access shallow-water areas the other competitors could not. Cox said he made a two-hour run each way to his fishing spot on the first two days but opted not to make the run in case the water level was too low to access the pond that brought him early success in the tournament.

“I almost got gas about 9 o’clock and made the run because I hadn’t had a bite yet,” Cox said. “It was going through my head, but I didn’t. I was glad I just stuck it out.

“Now that I’ve found that other area I feel pretty good about it,” Cox added. “There’s good fish there; they’re just hard to catch. There are 3-pounders in there. As long as I catch a couple of fish … ”

Clint Brownlee of Tifton, Ga., advanced to the final round of 10 pros in the No. 2 spot with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 32-3.

Rounding out the top 10 pros and advancing to the final day of competition are:

                  3^rd:         National Guard pro Mark Rose, Marion, Ark., 14 bass, 30-9
                  4^th:         Castrol pro Darrel Robertson, Jay, Okla., 15 bass, 29-3
                  5^th:         Gary Yamamoto, Palestine, Texas, 15  bass, 27-7
                  6^th:         Christian Romans, Carrollton, Ky., 15  bass, 27-4
                  7^th:         Castrol pro David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 15  bass, 27-4
                  8^th:         National Guard pro Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 14 bass, 26-14
                  9^th:         Mike Reynolds, Modesto, Calif., 14 bass, 26-10
                  10^th:      Jon Strelic, El Cajon, Calif., 14 bass, 26-4

Finishing in 11th through 20th are:

                  11^th:      Diet Mountain Dew pro Jason Christie, Park Hill, Okla., 15 bass, 25-9, $11,553
                  12^th:      Travis Fox, Rogers, Ark., 14 bass, 25-3, $11,553
                  13^th:      M&M’s pro Jim Moynagh, Carver, Minn., 13 bass, 25-1, $12,053
                  14^th:      Glenn Chappelear, Acworth, Ga., 13 bass, 24-12, $11,553
                  15^th:      National Guard pro Scott Martin, Clewiston, Fla., 15 bass, 24-11, $11,553
                  16^th:      Mike Wurm, Hot Springs, Ark., 14 bass, 23-15, $11,086
                  17^th:      Gene Eisenmann, Frisco, Texas, nine bass, 23-1, $11,086
                  18^th:      Koby Kreiger, Okeechobee, Fla., 15 bass, 23-1, $11,086
                  19^th:      Kevin Hawk, Guntersville, Ala., 13 bass, 22-15, $11,086
                  20^th:      OFF! Pro Terry Bolton, Jonesboro, Ark., 11 bass, 20-13, $11,086

Final results for the remaining field can be found at FLWOutdoors.com.

Overall there were 85 bass weighing 143 pounds, 3 ounces caught by pros Saturday. The catch included 12 five-bass limits.