Delta Don!
California pro Donald Davis pulls out victory at FLW Series event on California Delta
STOCKTON, Calif. – After fishing the California Delta for the past 30 years, Donald Davis of Discovery Bay, Calif., continued to search for his big break. Today, it finally happened. Propelled by a massive four-day catch of 79 pounds, 8 ounces, Davis took home the FLW Series title on the California Delta and walked away with a first-place payday of $46,000.
For Davis, who was almost reduced to tears as soon as the final weights were calculated, the victory couldn’t have been any sweeter.
“It’s awesome. I can’t even describe it,” said Davis, shortly after securing the title. “I’ve been obsessed with this tournament for three weeks now. I’ve been awake almost every night just thinking about it. Man, it feels great. This is the biggest win of my career.”
However, this was not your typical fishing tournament. In fact, Davis’ long road to the title was so unique and compelling that people undoubtedly will be talking about this event for years to come.
The fishing machine
In an effort to fully appreciate Davis’ story, it is compulsory to hear the tale as told by fellow pro and top-five Delta finalist Leon Knight.
“I was prefishing three weeks ago when I ran into (Davis). He started talking about this great spot he’d found five years ago. He said that because of the recent drought, nobody had been able to get back there for years. But he thought the (water levels) finally might be high enough to try it again. It’s funny. We went in there and we realized that both of us could get first and second place if we’d help each other out because I don’t think any one of us could have gotten back in there alone.”
So began the odyssey of the secret fishing hole. Armed with an idea, some tools and equipment, the two set to work figuring out how to rig up the perfect system where both boats could get through an extremely shallow and narrow mile-long entryway.
Using a series of pulleys, ropes and winches, the two rigged up a tree-lined support system that would finally permit entry.
“It was a lot of design work,” said Davis. “Without (Knight), I never could have done it.”
“Don was the brains and I guess I was the brawn,” joked Knight. “He financed most of the materials and he watched me dig a lot of ditches. Basically it was all about getting into a backwater area. We’d have to push-pole to get through and have to (navigate) about two or three beaver dams. It was a lot of work. But once we’d clear (a path), that night the beavers would come back and build everything back up again. It was a constant battle.”
During tournament day, the two would head to their secret location. Knight would get his boat over first and then help pull Don’s boat through. Then the two would go their separate ways until it was time to leave. Each day both anglers would agree upon a pre-planned departure schedule that had to be kept at all costs, otherwise the tides would flow out, leaving them stranded in the backwater oxbow.
Although their plan worked to perfection on the first two days – Knight led the tournament after the first day and Davis led after the second day – the third day they ran into problems.
“We had a totally mechanical failure,” said Davis. “Basically the pulley broke, and it took us about an hour longer to get back into the area than we had planned. We only had two hours to fish that day.”
But although Davis’ day was extremely shortened and he only boated three keepers, he still managed to stay atop the leaderboard with an abbreviated 18-pound catch. Not surprisingly, Knight was right behind him, only 4 pounds off the lead heading into the finals.
Final-day drama
Heading into the finals with a pulley system in shambles, the two weren’t sure if they could get back into their spot on the most crucial day of competition. But then fate intervened.
“Today we’re really worried because the pulley system was broken,” said Knight. “But when we got to the spot, it was like a blessing from God. The water had risen about a foot and a half. We’d never seen that much water there before. Today we got to go fishing for a full six hours. It was a blast.”
“The river came up a 1 1/2 feet overnight, so it was a cakewalk to get in there today,” said Davis.
However, for Davis, his crazy day of fishing had only just begun.
“The first fish I hooked I lost because the hook broke,” he said. “I lost the next three fish, and it just wrecked me. I couldn’t believe this was happening. For the first hour, I didn’t have one fish in the boat. I wound up with 35 bites and only caught eight fish. Coming back to weigh-in, I thought it’d be close. But honestly, I thought I lost it right there.”
But in the end, Davis’ 19-pound, 9-ounce stringer was good enough for victory.
“It’s definitely been a rollercoaster ride,” said Davis. “But (Knight) was a great help. He’s a fine guy and a good friend.”
Knight expressed a similar sentiment shortly after weigh-in.
“You know what, I have no regrets,” said Knight, who finished the tournament in second place with a total catch of 76 pounds, 15 ounces and over $22,000 in prize money. “I fished hard. And if anyone was going to win the tournament instead of me, I’d just as soon have it be Don. I’m very happy for him.”
For the record, Davis threw a combination of 4-inch Stanley Bull Ribbit topwater baits, targeting largemouth bass in grass cover off wind-blown banks to land the majority of his catch. Knight used a Spro Frog topwater bait as well as a Stanley Ribbit bait, targeting grass in shallow water.
Best of the rest
Stephen Tosh Jr. of Modesto, Calif., recorded a total catch of 66 pounds, 11 ounces to leapfrog from fifth place to third in the finals.
“I had the greatest week,” said Tosh, who walked away with over $14,600 in winnings. “I lead a charmed life. I gave it everything I had and fought as hard as I could today. But when you see the television show, you’ll see all of the big fish I missed and just how tough of a day I had.”
Tosh said that he targeted postspawn largemouth hiding out under ultra-dense grass mats. He said the females would go there to recover from the spawn and feed on bluegills. The only problem was that the cover was so dense that it was difficult to capitalize on quality bites.
“If you’d get a bite, you couldn’t just pull the fish out through the mats,” said Tosh, who threw a custom-made “Bub” Paycheck Baits Punch Skirt. “A lot of times you’d have to drive your boat over on top of the mats, reach down into the water and try to pull the fish out by hand. I got a lot of big bites, but I also lost a lot of fish.
“I really went for it today,” he said. “But it just didn’t work out.”
Strelic fails to land the big one
While Jon Strelic of El Cajon, Calif., fished admirably this week, on the final day of competition he said that the big bites that he had capitalized on throughout the tournament never materialized.
“I had a good, high tide today and I thought I was in good shape,” said Strelic, who finished the tournament with a total weight of 63 pounds, 11 ounces. “But the big fish just weren’t around today.”
Strelic, who had been targeting isolated hydrilla throughout the tournament with a series of reaction baits, said that he also lost some key fish during the finals.
“The first three days I caught everything that bit,” he said. “But I lost two big fish today. And that hurt. Overall, I had a great week though.”
For his efforts, Strelic walked away with over $9,200 in prize money.
Rossetti rounds out top-five finishers
Although Lorenzo Rossetti of Stockton, Calif., produced the tournament’s biggest sack in yesterday’s competition – a massive 28-pound, 4-ounce stringer – he ultimately fell flat in the finals, only managing two fish for 2 pounds, 2 ounces.
“Today I just couldn’t get the bites,” said Rossetti, who boated a four-day catch of 56 pounds, 5 ounces. “I only had two bites and I caught two fish. I just couldn’t get them to bite today. That was the whole thing.”
Rossetti said that he targeted fish in deeper water, throwing at tules, weeds and spawning flats. He said he used a combination of top-water frogs, swimbaits, Senkos, Revenge Vibrator baits and flipping techniques to land the majority of his catch.
However, despite the final-day outcome, Rossetti said he was satisfied with his tournament.
“This is my home water and I was just excited to make the cut,” he said. “I had a great tournament. I’m just happy to be here.”
FLW Series action resumes Sept. 22-25 during the final event of the 2010 season on Lake Payson in Roosevelt, Ariz.