Davis dominates co-anglers at the Ouachita
Louisiana favorite wins $20,000
MONROE, La. – James Davis Jr. of Ferriday, La., took home the Co-angler Division title and more than doubled his FLW Outdoors career earnings by catching five bass worth 13 pounds, 4 ounces Friday in Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition at the Ouachita River.
Davis, who won $20,000 this week, is a rising star on the Texas Tournament Trail who was called off the waiting list at the last minute to fish this week’s FLW event in his home state.
“Wow,” he said. “All I can say is wow.”
Actually, Davis had more on his mind than that after winning. Fishing with pro Darrel Robertson Friday, Davis caught his limit, which included a kicker bass that weighed more than 5 pounds, throwing a chartreuse-and-white spinnerbait. Unable to catch anything on Robertson’s initial spot Friday morning, the two went looking for a completely new area to fish. When they found some good fish, Davis said Robertson went out if his way to give him a shot at the 5-pounder, and he was grateful.
“We just found some new water that looked like it had fish in it,” Davis said. “The day went pretty well after 11:30.”
His win this week, however fortuitous, was a certain kind of retribution for Davis. In late February he caught more than 45 pounds of fish at the Texas Tournament Trail event at Lake Amistad, but ultimately lost the tournament by 1 ounce. The 34-year-old admitted that his dream is to make the big time in pro fishing, and that Amistad loss haunted him – until today.
“I felt like I had the life sucked out of me when I fished that tournament three weeks ago and lost by 1 ounce,” he said. “This – this feels like it’s revived me.”
Nobody else came close to Davis Friday. Merle Wells Jr. of Hammond, N.Y., however, maintained a strong pace throughout the week and finished second on the co-angler side with four bass weighing 8 pounds, 12 ounces. He earned $10,000.
“I’m happy with that, but this is back-to-back top-10s for me,” said Wells, who finished sixth at Lake Toho. “Now I want to win.”
Todd Lee of Jasper, Ala., finished third for the co-anglers and collected $9,000. He caught three bass weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces.
Day-one leader Roy Altman Jr. of Augusta, Ga., finished fourth with four bass weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces. He won $8,000.
Bruce Dale of Jamestown, Ohio, finished fifth and collected $7,000 with two bass weighing 3 pounds, 11 ounces.
Rounding out the top 10 co-angler finishers at the Ouachita River:
6th: Sondra Rankin of Paducah, Ky., two bass, 3-1, $6,000
7th: Kenta Kimura of Japan, one bass, 1-8, $4,000
8th: Russell Burroughs of Jacksonville, Ala., one bass, 1-3, $3,000
9th: Roger Hester of Walnut Cove, N.C., zero bass, $2,500 (opening-round leader)
10th: Joe Cooper of Smithville, Texas, zero bass, $2,000
This week’s Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on the Ouachita River is presented by 7 UP.
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