He’s my favorite

It was but that’s what MLF said was they had the best in the world .

Hasn’t he won on BASS circuit? Not sure how you figure there are 80 automatically better?

He’s in top 5
Thrift
Wheeler
Cox
Evers
Johnston,Zaldain, Hartman

He set himself apart with his style. I'm not sure that he's the best, but he is the most interesting angler to watch right now.

Finding the best angler is hard to quantify. Is it based on tournament winnings alone or does the angler's personality and how he treats fans count for anything?

BassFan severely disagrees, but I disagree with BassFan too.

Lots of great anglers on both sides. This forum seems to hate on MLF. Look at bass before MLF... Those guys are still great and learning new ways to be efficient. OTT, Wheeler, Christie, Ehrler, Evers, Hack, Lee, Thrift, Strader can and will win on any given day... Not to mention KVD and even IKE.

John Cox reminds me of my old fishing partner Robert Hargrove. Robert before he passed away won 11 Angler of the Year titles in the Century Bass Club. He was just an outdoors man who seemed to have instincts us mortals never had. We would be driving to a tournament and Robert would say "Look at those deer." I would look and say "Where?' He would say "Along that treeline." The treeline would be like 500 yards away and I couldn't distinquish anything from that far. He would fish some of the unfishiest looking places you ever saw and would catch fish. He just had a sense of where fish lived and fed. He could care less if he practiced a particular lake because he knew if he just went fishing he was going to catch fish by just putting the trolling motor down and relying on his instincts instead of any type of technology. John Cox seems to be that same type of angler. He could be on a sweet spot like at Sam Rayburn for a couple of days but then when that spot quit producing he just simply went fishing for the last couple of days and still took home the win. He may not be the actual best but I like that he seems to fish using his instincts and he is probably the best at fishing that way and he has my respect.

very well put! Not many guys in today's era can just go put the trolling motor down off instincts and just go fishing and still wear them out!

For me it's not real close. Thrift has proven it. He also never went to the ultrex which I was very surprised.

Don't forget, Cox fished shallow all year one year without electronics and even won an event...that speaks volumes to his level of instinct

John Cox works hard too. The guy will walk a channel to mark it with tomato stakes while pulling his boat so he can run it later. A lot of times he wastes hours in practice accessing places that don't hold fish.

I would have to say:

Wheeler
Evers
Christie
Ehrler
KVD

....Thats just my opinion

Sinkey wrong Cox


I think John Cox will break a lot of records. And he could end up being the best of the current era. Thrift and Andy Morgan are 1 and 2 in my mind as far as just can flat catch em most days right now. I am curious to see how long Morgan stays gone from the 5 fish stringer events and the same for Thrift.

I think with the different types of formats now it will be hard to determine who is "the best" going forward...

Ole' Robert was definitely special !!!!