Davis’ Fall Recipe for the Coosa
What the Cup champ picks up for some fun fishing
Life has moved pretty fast for Clent Davis since winning the 2018 FLW Cup little more than a month ago. Between filming with sponsors, speaking endlessly about the Cup, running daddy daycare and the usual fall pastimes of hunting and Alabama football, he hasn’t actually picked up a rod much. For Davis, that’s not entirely a bad thing, but when he does get a chance to slip away, he’s headed to a reservoir on the Coosa River, and he knows exactly what he’s going to be doing.
Current targets
The fishing stays decent on Coosa River reservoirs like Mitchell Lake, Jordan Lake and Lay Lake all summer, but the bite really picks up in the fall. Even now, Davis says the fishing isn’t too bad.
“They’re setting up on certain things that I fish right now, and it’s only going to get better the next few weeks as it cools off,” says Davis. “Usually I just fish around points or current breaks. Wood is the number one thing to fish on the Coosa River in the fall.”
Tree tops and laydowns in places with current are great targets, as are docks near or in the flow. Though not necessarily wood, seawalls are also on the hit list for Davis, as are current breaks that fish could ambush prey from. The depth doesn’t really matter to him – it’s more about the presence of current.
Current is so key that Davis will often plan his trips around it.
“Early and late are 100 percent the deal this time of year,” says the Alabama pro. “If you get a cloudy day or a foggy day, that definitely helps too. But you really need some current.
“On Mitchell you need at least two turbines and on the other lakes you need one – just some generation to keep the fish moving. If you don’t have water generation once it gets to be day, it’s a million times tougher. I don’t even hook my boat up to go for fun then.”
The tools of the trade
When he does get to fish around the house in the fall, Davis sticks with four different hard baits. For numbers he goes with a Yo-Zuri 3DS medium diver, and he keeps a Yo-Zuri 3DR Series Pencil and a Duel Hardcore Minnow Flat 110SP handy as well. But, his favorite bait to throw this time of year isn’t a staple – it’s the Duel Hardcore Ninja Twitch’n Glider.
“I do a lot of fun fishing in the fall, and the Ninja Twitch’n Glider is my fun bait,” says Davis. “You’ll catch a lot of 2- to 3-pound spots, and then you’ll catch a 4-pounder, as well as big largemouths.”
Davis throws the glider on an 8-foot, heavy-power, medium-fast-action Phenix M1 Swimbait Casting Rod with a Shimano Curado K reel and 20-pound-test Yo-Zuri Top Knot fluoro. For colors, he likes gizzard shad best and has also used just plain old shad.
How he fishes it back to the boat is the key.
“I fish it like a walking bait. I don’t reel it slow, I twitch it,” says Davis. “If you reel it slow you get a lot of fish that follow it and never touch it. You’re not necessarily twitching it really fast, but you’ve got to give it that twitch. Otherwise you won’t ever get one of these Coosa spots to ever bite.”
Though there are plenty of other distractions in the fall, if you’re around some Alabama spots and some current, you may want to take some advice from Davis. He’s not fishing every day this time of year, so when he does go, he’s there to have fun and catch fish.