ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608120138
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BIRMINGHAM, ALA.
SOURCE: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
George Cochran bravely went where no other angler dared to go, and his enterprise paid off with a victory Saturday in the 26th annual BASS Masters Classic.
Cochran of Hot Springs, Ark., caught a five-fish limit weighing 9 pounds, 6 ounces on Saturday for a three-day total weight of 31 pounds, 14 ounces, his second Classic title and the $100,000 first prize.
Davy Hite of Prosperity, S.C., caught a limit weighing 10 pounds, 12 ounces to finish second at 30 pounds, 14 ounces. Second-day leader Mickey Bruce caught three fish weighing 3 pounds, 9 ounces on Saturday to finish third, at 26 pounds, 15 ounces.
Hite was the last angler to weigh in, keeping the outcome in doubt and the capacity crowd of 19,000 on edge at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.
Spring Grove's Chris Daves, the only Virginia angler to qualify, finished 32nd after snagging six bass for an 11-pound, 5-ounce total and won $4,000.
Cochran caught most of his fish in a shallow, weedy, stump-filled creek that feeds into Lay Lake, an impoundment of the Coosa River located 40 miles south of Birmingham. He had discovered the area during practice July 15-20 and he had it to himself all three days.
``I was fishing different than everybody else,'' said Cochran, 46, who quit his job as a railroad brakeman to become a full-time bass pro after winning the 1987 Classic on the Ohio River. ``The reason I fished that way is I knew nobody would fish that shallow this time of year. But I knew there's always fish shallow.''
To get into the area, which had 3 to 4 feet of water, Cochran ran his bass boat at 60 mph so it would skim the stumps. A ``normal person,'' said Cochran, would've idled in or used a trolling motor.
The first two days, Cochran caught most of his fish flipping a plastic worm into the weeds. Saturday, using a spinnerbait and 20-pound line, Cochran cast three or four feet beyond a stump, reeled the spinnerbait just under the surface, then let it drop next to the stump. He had 22 strikes Saturday and caught 14 fish, his best numbers of the tournament. He caught six bass Thursday and nine Friday.
``The last couple of days, I'd stay just long enough to catch a limit,'' Cochran said. ``Then I'd slow-roll a spinnerbait through the middle of some timber in 15 feet and catch one or two.''
Cochran caught his limit by 7:43 a.m. Saturday. He then ran to his deeper spot, but saw nothing.
``I said, `Heck, I'm going to go where I know I can catch them.' I ran back and pulled in with 45 minutes to go,'' Cochran said. ``I caught probably four or five just boom-boom-boom and used three of them to cull, and that's what won me the tournament.''
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB