Davis’ domination continues in D.C.
Cloudy skies, topwater baits key to opening-day lead
CHARLES COUNTY, Md. – Few anglers are more adept at catching postspawn bass than Yamaha pro Mark Davis. For proof, look no further than his day-one limit at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour event on the Potomac River.
With cooler temperatures and thick cloud cover Thursday, Davis abandoned the widespread grass bite and instead went to work up top. This was a dicey decision as the greater Washington, D.C., area experienced sunny weather for the better part of practice. Without prefishing under cloudy skies, The Mount Ida, Ark., native had to trust his fishing instincts.
His decision paid off to the tune of five bass that weighed 21 pounds, 4 ounces. The grass fish were active too, but they weren’t nearly the size of Davis’ topwater lunkers. Overall, the fishing on opening day was first-class. In fact, the pros notched their heaviest one-day weight total of the year as a group – 2,237 pounds, 6 ounces.
“I figured out I could catch some fish on a topwater bait with the cloud cover and a high tide,” said Davis, who has already qualified for the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup via the 2006 Wal-Mart FLW Series. “It was fast and furious there early, but it slowed down after a while.”
Davis commenced the tournament by throwing topwater frogs. He had his limit in the livewell by 10 a.m. and was done upgrading by 1 p.m. A 20-pound limit is extremely difficult on the Potomac River, a fishery known for numbers, but not necessarily size.
“Once you get up to around 20 pounds, you just continue to catch 3-pound bass, which only hurts you for day two. I did my best not to hurt myself.
“What I did today will not work at all tomorrow. The sun is going to hurt me. But the good thing is that I can have an average day tomorrow and still make the cut.”
Davis already won the second qualifier of the year on the Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes and is currently seventh in the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year race.
“To have the chance to win two events in one year is great. Just getting the opportunity to win one is tough enough. I feel really good about this tournament. If I can catch 10 or 12 pounds tomorrow, I’ll be fine. You always feel good with this format with a lead. This is a tremendous fishery. You have to absolutely catch the fire out of them to stay in contention.”
With sunny skies forecasted for day two, look for Davis to adjust from topwaters to pitching and flipping weighted plastic worms and creature baits.
Wade confident in second
With seven keepers, Knoxville, Tenn., pro Jack Wade caught a lot fewer bass than Davis, but he slid into second place with a weight of 20 pounds, 15 ounces.
“I’m excited; this place is always good to me,” said Wade. “I’ve been catching 18 to 21 pounds a day in practice.”
Wade fished three different places on day one, running both north of Smallwood State Park and south. Within those three spots, he has two patterns. One is flipping grass and the other is flipping wood. On day one, his four big fish came from wood.
While Davis, the pro leader, and others will have to adjust as the weather changes, Wade likes where he’s at.
“It hasn’t been cloudy since I got here, so yeah, I think I can catch them tomorrow.”
Lane third
Want to have a good tournament – maybe even win a tour-level professional bass-fishing event? Start by having a baby, and, presto: Eight or nine months later you’ll start catching fish as your wife nears her due date.
Bobby Lane once again proved this theory to be true. Although he has struggled all year, his wife is due in early July, which means the bass are practically flying in his boat.
Karma and superstition aside, Lane caught 10 keepers in the nearby Mattawoman Creek, which is loaded with grass mats.
“Two years ago when we were here, I never really figured out the tide,” said the Lakeland, Fla., pro. “This year, I figured something out. The tide switched at about 3 p.m., and in the next 45 minutes, I caught a 6-pounder, a 5-pounder and a 3.”
Lane is fishing with a black-and-blue Chigger Craw made by Berkley. He’s fishing the plastic bait with a 1-ounce weight on 50-pound Spiderwire. One of his five keepers came on a topwater frog.
“It was nice to cull and have fun out there fishing.”
Wick rebounds from poor practice
Ken Wick of Star, Idaho, used just about every lure in his tackle box to try to overcome his poor practice. It worked, as Wick weighed in a limit worth 19 pounds, 12 ounces and claimed the fourth spot in the Pro Division.
“I started out by using a wacky rig, and I had a limit in an hour,” said Wick, who caught roughly 25 bass total on the day. “Then I flipped for a while, and then I threw a spinnerbait. Finally I threw a Zoom Horny Toad and a jig.”
Of the five bass that actually made it to the scale, two were caught on the topwater toad, and three were caught on the jig. The jig was 3/4 ounce in weight and was tipped with a Berkley Chigger Craw. Four were caught in the grass, and one was caught off a stump.
“If there is cloud cover tomorrow, I like my chances. I think the cloud cover is key to the way I’m fishing. I’m hoping for 15 or 16 pounds.”
Williams fifth
Jerry Williams, the pro from Conway, Ark., with a penchant for the Potomac River, grabbed the fifth spot with a limit weighing 19 pounds, 10 ounces.
Williams is flipping grass, but he would not say any more about how or where he is fishing. In 2005, he finished third on this body of water. No longer a full-time FLW Tour pro, Williams could be swinging for the fence and the $125,000 first-place purse.
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 pros on day one at the Potomac River:
6th: Shad Schenck of Waynetown, Ind., five bass, 19-8
7th: Thomas LaVictoire of West Rutland, Vt., five bass, 18-13
8th: Chris McCall of Jasper, Texas, five bass, 17-15
9th: Mark Pack of Mineola, Texas, five bass, 17-12
10th: Randy Blaukat of Lamar, Mo., five bass, 17-9
BP pro Shinichi Fukae earned the day’s Snickers Big Bass award of $750 in the Pro Division with a 7-pound, 3-ounce largemouth.
Tross tramples fellow co-anglers
In the Co-angler Division, Donald Tross of Williamsburg, Va., leads the field with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 3 ounces. He fished with pro Chris Baumgardner Thursday.
“I threw a Lunker Lure buzzbait all day,” said the leading co-angler. “This feels great. I’ve led once before at Okeechobee back in 2001. I just prayed all day that the sun stayed behind the clouds, and it did.”
Tross only caught five keepers, but they were the right size.
“I lost three fish that were bigger than anything I weighed today. Plus, I caught that fifth keeper on the second-to-last cast.”
That final bass weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces. Tross knows that if the sun returns, his buzzbait bite will die.
“If the sun comes up, I’ll go to flipping or I’ll throw a ChatterBait.”
Rest of the best
Second place for the co-anglers went to Ken Murphy of Meridian, Miss., for five bass that weighed 16 pounds, 5 ounces. Murphy finished fifth at the season-opening FLW Tour event on Lake Travis and 11th at the National Guard Open on Lake Norman.
Frank Divis Sr. of Fayetteville, Ark., placed third on the co-angler side with five bass weighing 16 pounds, 3 ounces. Divis won the FLW Tour event on Lake Travis in February.
Co-angler Moo Bae of West Friendship, Md., and Bill Gift of Alix, Ark., tied for fourth place with five bass apiece that weighed 14 pounds, 9 ounces.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers on day one at the Potomac River:
6th: David Hudson of Jasper, Ala., five bass, 14-7
6th: Marc Levesque of Waterbury, Conn., five bass, 14-7
8th: Mark Spearly of Bellefonte, Pa., five bass, 14-4
9th: Billy Micciulla of Staten Island, N.Y., five bass, 14-1
10th: Ralph Myhlhousen of Orlando, Fla., five bass, 13-13
The Snickers Big Bass on the co-angler side went to Pete Bridges of Tallapoosa, Ga. His fish weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces and was worth $500.
Day two of FLW Tour competition at the Potomac River begins as the full field of 200 boats takes off from Smallwood State Park at 6:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday for the second half of the opening round. Following tomorrow’s action, both fields will be cut to the top 10 anglers apiece based on two-day total weight.