Entry 178-1

What Makes Them Great

Part 1: George Cochran

Editor’s Note: Many of the Strike King Pros have earned $500,000, $1 million and/or even $2 million in tournament bass-fishing winnings. Inquiring minds want to know, “How do they do it?” Each one of these fishermen takes a different approach to the game of tournament bass-fishing. This week, we’ll take a look at what makes them great through the eyes of George Cochran of Hot Springs, Arkansas, who’s won almost $2 million at tournaments.

Question: George, before you look at anyone else and evaluate what makes them great, how about stepping out of the boat, standing on the bank and looking at George Cochran. In your opinion, what attributes have led to your success? If you had to pick two characteristics that define you as one of the country’s all-time best fishermen, what are those two characteristics?

Cochran: Everyone knows that I’m a shallow-water fisherman, which means I’m always looking for bass in 10 feet of water or less. Unlike most of the really-good anglers, I don’t try to be versatile. I know my strong points. I’m really good at fishing a Strike King spinner bait and a Strike King crankbait in shallow water. I’m also good at fishing jigs and worms in shallow water. That’s what I do; those are the techniques I feel I’m best at fishing. Therefore, instead of looking for bass in various water depths and on different patterns, I find water on the lakes that I fish where I can use the tactics and the lures that I’m best at fishing. When I go to a lake, I read the water to find the kind of water (shallow water) that I like to fish.

You may say that I’m hard-headed and need to learn to adapt my fishing to the conditions, the weather and the type of lake I’m fishing like many of the other pros. But I’ve made a very-good living for many years by finding the kind of shallow water holding the type of bass I can catch. I’ve won plenty of major tournaments by only fishing to my strengths. Every day I continue to believe that the way I’m fishing is the right way for George Cochran to fish. I’ve fished in 22 Bassmaster Classics and won two of them, and I’ve made every FLW championship in the years when I’ve competed in FLW.

I don’t consider myself as good a fisherman as Kevin VanDam because he’s a fisherman’s fisherman. Kevin can fish a lot of different tactics, lures and water depths, and he’s really good at any style of fishing he wants to fish. But George Cochran’s just good at a few things, and for me, that’s fishing shallow. I just try and do well at what I can do well.

Question: George, you know you’re good at fishing shallow water, so what’s your other tournament fishing strength?

Cochran: I’m really good at reading water. I can go into an area, look at it and tell if that region has the potential for me to fish it and catch bass from there every day of a tournament.

Question: What allows you to know that?

Cochran: God gave me a gift. I’ve been reading water all my life, and I believe it’s a God-given gift. In the last tournament I fished at the Lake of the Ozarks on the FLW trail, I practiced for three days and only found one bay that was about 10 acres. I knew that this one bay was where I would fish the entire tournament. This area had lay-down logs, stumps, a little creek channel, boat docks and brushpiles, and each day of the tournament, I’d catch two limits of bass there.

Most people would have looked at that little bay and said, “I don’t think I can catch a limit of bass everyday of the tournament.” But I did. I knew that every time I’d go through that bay and catch my two limits of bass, the next day, new bass would migrate to some of those same spots where I’d caught bass the previous day.

Most fishermen, when they’re reading water, will find an area where they believe they can catch bass one day of a tournament, but the second and third day, they have to find new water. I look for places where I can catch limits of bass every day of a three-day tournament. I really can’t explain how I do this, but I certainly do believe it’s a God-given talent.

What Makes Them Great

Part 1: George Cochran

Next: Shaw Grigsby

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