By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Now that he's claimed his first tour-level win, Drew Cook is hungry for another one.
"It's so addicting," the 27-year-old Floridian said a couple of days after wrapping up his wire-to-wire victory at the Santee Cooper Bassmaster Elite Series. "It definitely drives me even harder to win another one."
The triumph was his second Top-10 of the season and the eighth in his 3 1/2 years on the tour. It moved him up to 5th place in the Angler of the Year (AOY) standings.
As badly as he wants another win, he craves the points title even more. He was 7th on that list in his rookie campaign in 2019, then 18th in 2020 and 10th last year.
"I want to win the Angler of the Year," he said. "I've been close before and then let it slip through my hands in the last few days of the season. It's truly an accomplishment to be the most consistent (competitor) over the whole year.
"I've still got a lot of work to do the rest of the year, but I've put myself in position to have an opportunity and I'm gonna keep after it."
Looked at 'Em All
Sight-fishing accounted for all of Cook's 105-05 four-day total haul. He weighed his biggest stringer of the event (31-13) on opening day, then added 24-12, 24-03 and 24-09 to maintain his spot at the top of the standings. He finished 2-04 ahead of runner-up Caleb Kuphall, whose chances for his second Elite Series win were torpedoed by a four-fish, 13-pound bag on Day 2.
Cook wasn't locked into looking when he arrived in South Carolina – he fished conventionally in the northern portion of Lake Marion on the first practice day. The following day, he ventured into the pocket in Potato Creek that he that he ended up exploiting on all four competition days.
"Probably after about 10 minutes, I knew there were enough on beds already to do pretty well and I figured they were going to keep coming," he said. "I knew I wouldn't have it to myself, though; I saw a couple of other guys in there in practice and a couple during the tournament as well."
His biggest fish of the event was one that registered just a couple of ounces shy of 8 pounds – it was his final catch of the event and the cull gave him his winning margin. The lightest one he took to the scale checked in at 3-03.
There was on fish he looked at that he was unable to catch – a 5-plus-pound male fry-guarder on the afternoon of the final day. He spent just over an hour trying to entice it, then had a gut feeling that he needed to give up and move on.
He departed and checked another area, but found nothing that would aid his cause. He pulled up stakes again and went to the place where he found the 7-14 bruiser.
"If I'd stayed any longer (on the male), I would've run out of time before I found that big one," he said.
Gear Notes
Cook enticed the bedding fish with 4-inch and 5-inch versions of the Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog, both in the tilapia magic color.
"The 4-inch was my go-to," he said. "If I could see both fish and I knew which one was going to bite, that's what I used. If I had to stay a little farther and I didn't know which one was going to bite, or if the bed was in a pad and I couldn't see everything, I'd flip the bigger bait in there."
He threw both baits on a 7'4" medium-heavy Dobyns Champion Extreme rod with an unnamed high gear-ratio casting reel with 22-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line. He used a 1/4-ounce tungsten weight and a 4/0 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Heavy Cover Worm hook for the smaller bait and a 3/8-ounce weight and a 5/0 Gamakatsu G-Power heavy Flipping hook for the larger version.
He said his Leupold Packout sunglasses with amber mirror lenses were a critical component of his program. "They're the real deal," he said. "Hardcore fishermen will appreciate how light they are. They don't hurt the top of my ears after wearing them all day for four straight days."
