Summertime Bass Fishing with George Cochran
Slow It Down to Win
 Editor’s
Note: George Cochran of Hot Springs, Arkansas, won the
FLW Championship in 2005. In August, 2006, the FLW Championship
will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, on Logan Martin
Lake. Cochran should feel like Brer Rabbit being thrown
in the briar patch because if there’s ever been
a tournament where Cochran’s the odds-on-favorite,
it will be this year’s FLW Championship. When
the Bassmasters Classic was held on the same lake, Cochran
finished 9th, and he also won the Bassmasters Classic
held on nearby Lay Lake in August, 1996, under extremely-hot
weather conditions. The city of Birmingham has been
good to Cochran’s reputation and his bank account
just about every time he’s fished there .
We asked Cochran how he plans to fish the Dog Days of
August during the FLW Championship when the surface
temperatures will reach over 100 degrees.
Question: George, if you only have a few hours left
in the tournament, how will you fish?
Cochran: Most anglers, if they haven’t caught
the size and number of fish they want to catch, and
there’s only an hour or two left in the day, they
start speeding up their fishing. This is a big mistake
because now in the middle of the day until the end of
the day, you have to really fish deliberately.
Question: Where will you fish, and with what are you
going to fish?
Cochran: Now’s the time that I rely on the Strike
Kin g
Series 4S or Series 5 crankbait to get me those bigger
fish that I need so that I can cull some smaller fish.
I’ll be fishing channel drop-offs. Now, the next
question that’s usually asked is where on the
channel drop-offs will I be fishing? You may fish for
miles down the channel drop-offs before you find that
one little sweet spot holding a good school of bass.
But if you find those sweet spots and have them located
before the tournament, you possibly can catch some of
the biggest bass of the day by cranking those spots.
If I’m not mistaken, the classic that I fished
at Logan Martin, David Fritts won that tournament by
deep-cranking those river ledges.
Question: What color crankbait are you going to use?
Cochran: My favorite color is white crankbait with either
a chartreuse or a green back. On cloudy days, I prefer
a bream color crankbait because I believe the fish can
see that crankbait better on da rk
days than it can on clear days.
Question: What kind of retrieve are you going to use
on those crankbaits?
Cochran: I’ll be using a 7-foot Daiwa Cranking
Rod. I try to throw the bait 100 yards if I can because
I really want to make as long a cast as I can make.
When the bait hits the water, I hold my rod straight
down to get the lure down as quickly as I can. As soon
as I feel the bait touch the bottom, I slow down my
retrieve and try to keep my crankbait bumping the bottom
as it returns to the boat. The key place to catch the
fish is where that underwater river bank drops-off into
the river channel. Most of the time, the fish will come
from that 10 to 15 feet of water.
Tomorrow: How to Fish the Magic
Hour
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