Welcome to Ken Cooks Home Page 

  

  I have spent my whole life studying fish with a special interest in BASS.  I took this interest with me through Oklahoma State University where I attained a B.S. Degree in Zoology.  Then I began a career as fisheries biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. I spent thirteen years in that profession and at the same time nurtured my interest in bass fishing.  I began fishing tournaments on a part time basis in the local area.  So as you can tell, I’ve always had an intense interest in bass and fishing.  I have been fortunate to find and develop this interest into a career that has been a life long dream come true.  During this time, I've learned a good deal about using biological knowledge to develop fish catching patterns.  One of my goals as a professional angler has always been helping others enjoy the sport of fishing so that we can be stronger in our efforts to preserve the fishing environment.

  I want to thank all my fans and sponsors for their continued support.  Without both of them, a career in fishing would not be possible.  I always look forward to speaking at various sport shows and seminars around the country in order to help others enjoy the finest outdoor activity, bass fishing. I've always believed that by helping other anglers become more successful at catching fish, everyone in the fishing industry will benefit.

The link pages are for my fans and sponsors, to allow them to follow my activities along the tournament trails. If you have questions or comments, please forward them to me.  I may answer them on this page in the future. Below you can find my personal biography and a few recent questions and answers.  Check out all my sponsors’ links as well.
      
Biographical Information:

14-time Bass Masters Classic Qualifier 
May 2001 6th place B.A.S.S. Megabucks
May 2000 Third place, Memphis FLW Tour
2000 Top ten Seminole BASS Top 150
1999 Two top five finishes in FLW Tour
Top 20 on BASS Money Winners List
1991 BASS Masters Classic winner, Chesapeake Bay, MD
1991 Anglers Choice Draw Tournament, Lake Eufaula, OK
1987 B.A.S.S.  NY Invitational, 1000 Island, NY
1987 US BASS Dream Tournament, Lake Chickamauga
1987 Missouri Invitational, Lake Truman, MO
1985 US BASS World Championship, Lake Granbury, TX
1984 US Bass Invitational, Lake Texoma, OK
1983 Super Bass 1, St Johns River, FL
1982 BASS FL Invitational, Lake Toho, FL
1980 Grand American World Champion
1980 BASS Chapter Championship, Grand Lake, OK
 
Tournaments Trails Fished:
 
B.A.S.S. Tour
B.A.S.S. Central Open Trail 
Pro Bass Fishing Hall of Fame Championship

Sponsors: 

Triton Boats
Mercury Motors
Pure Fishing
            a. a. Abu Garcia Reels
            b. Berkley Trilene
            c. Berkley Lightning Rods
            d. Berkley Power Baits
Normark Corporation
            a. Storm Lures
            b. Rapala Lures
            c. Blue Fox Lures
Optima Batteries
Bottom Line Electronics
Thunderbullets
Flowmaster Exhaust Systems
Stealth Charging Systems
Solar Bat Sunglasses
Rod Bob
STABOR® Line Locking System 

Tournament Results:

BASS Central Open, Red River, Shreveport, LA, August 22-23, 2002,

Winning Patterns: 

Homer Humphreys won this event with a catch of over 42 pounds.  He spends a tremendous amount of time on the Red River every year, what with guiding there and over the pre fish period he reported spending 84 hours specifically looking for a winning area.   The area he fished near Clark’s Marina is heavily wooded and requires a very slow approach to searching out the key spots where schools of bass could be holding. One of the keys was finding an area that was somewhat protected from some of the tremendous fishing pressure the local areas withstand.  Homer was successful at not only finding such an area, but by maintaining control of the area during the days of the tournament while other anglers fished around him.   

His lures were soft plastics with small sinkers fished Texas style in the thick willow stick ups on a submerged hump in a backwater area that sustained a little bit of flow through.  The flow through is an important part of any reliable pattern on the Red River during the summer months when the water is very hot.   

Congratulations to Homer for winning his second Central Open.   

Cook’s Recipe: 

This tournament proves, once again, that fish are fickle.  I went down to Shreveport and spent four days before the cut-off searching for new places where I could hope to catch enough quality fish to win the tournament.  I found a stretch of stickups along a dropping shelf in a backwater in Pool 5 that was holding bass that ranged from 3 to 5 pounds and were sluggish, but catchable on a 7” Berkley Power Worm with a small Thunderbullet brass sinker.  I used 17 # Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon to get these finicky fish to bite and enable pulling them from their woody cover.  I thought these fish would stay in this place all summer and I could catch at least a couple of them each day to add “kickers” to my bag.   

I also found a series of Jetties and various deep natural banks I could catch a good number of keepers by alternating a shad colored Chug Bug early in the morning with a #5 Shadrap in the mid day times to catch a fairly reliable, but only average sized limit.  I also thought these fish were patterned well enough to present a good opportunity to score a daily limit.  

As the tournament practice unfolded, I found the jetty/rock bank fish to be holding according to plan, but the bigger fish were nowhere, unless they had relocated to the nearby river jetties on the outer river areas near the backwater.  At least, I caught several of the bigger fish on this pattern in practice.  After practice, I felt I had a good plan to catch a good limit every day by following these two patterns and spending a lot of time fishing in Pool 5 and not running down through the locks.    

The tournament field was the largest I had ever encountered.  With approximately 220 boats in the field, I knew that everywhere would be very crowded and an early draw would be helpful in my plans.  Of course, I drew starting position #211.  By the time, I ran upriver to my planned starting spot, there was a boat on every place that looked like a bass ever swam.  I followed my plan as best as I could, but nothing worked that day and I never hooked a bass until five minutes before the weigh-in when a small keeper bit my Jig and came unhooked in time to bounce off my Triton’s gunwale and return to the water. I guess you could say, he was about a foot short.   

As luck would have it, the second day, I drew a local angler, Bert Thompson, who had spent a lot of time on the River during the pre-fish and reported he had a couple of nearby spots where bass had been staying most of the summer. He was in 6^th place after day one on the “amateur” side and asked me to take him to his best spot.  Since my spots were obviously not working, I agreed.  He was right!  I caught four bass that day on my Berkley 7” Power worm that weighed in at 9 lb 10 oz and jumped from the bottom of the standings to 80^th place.  Not enough to make the “cut”, but enough to salvage some of my confidence in my ability to catch those fickle Red River Bass.

Please have a look at my sponsor’s links below.   They provide me with the necessary support and products which make my life on the tournament trail much more efficient. Without them, it would be impossible to compete or teach others the fun of fishing.

Questions, Answers and Comments from my fans;

    

  
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This Page was updated June 11, 2007
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