Event: Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake, 2023
Scenario: Like many pro anglers, Davis began his fishing journey by joining his father, Will Davis Sr., at an early age. Years spent fishing their home waters not only strengthened their bond but also instilled critical wisdom points that would serve an aspiring Elite during his rookie season.
“Prior to making the Elite Series, me and my dad have been fishing Lay Lake since I was old enough to hold a rod and reel,” Davis said. “In the three years leading up to the Elites, me and Daddy got blessed to win several tournaments on Lay Lake.
“We would always catch ‘em throughout the day; it might be the morning, the middle of the day or right at the last minute. Having the confidence of when to make a move during a four-day tournament was the (linchpin) for the outcome.”
That principle, Davis said, literally defined the performance that allowed him to tally a four-day winning total of 62 pounds, 10 ounces and edge six-time Elite champion Brandon Palaniuk by 2 ounces.
The first three days, Davis caught a few shad spawn fish, but he did most of his work at the Logan Martin tailrace, where he threw a 3/16-ounce Davis Bait Company Little Wills Series Shaky Worm Head with a green pumpkin Davis Bait Company Shaky Worm and a Davis Xswim Fat Minnow on a 1/2-ounce Davis Shaky Fish head.
Davis caught a seventh-place limit of 15-14 on Day 1 and followed with 18-5 in the second round. Anchoring his Day 2 catch with a 5-9, Davis rose to second, just 1 pound and 9 ounces behind Palaniuk, who had maintained his Day 1 lead.
Semifinal Saturday saw Davis weigh 14-7 and slip a spot to third. A Championship Sunday limit of 14-2 gave him just enough to claim his first blue trophy, but as Davis explained, the victory hinged on a critical decision to trust his deeply rooted Lay Lake heritage.
The decision: Davis credits the pretournament rains and the subsequent dam release schedule for stimulating a solid tailrace bite. With accurate casts to the current-break sweet spots, he leveraged the aqua dynamic opportunity — until it dwindled.
“Day 4 (Alabama Power) turned it down to one turbine (from two) and I knew it was going to be a rougher day,” David said. “May on the Coosa River can be tough after the shad spawn, and at 1:15 I pulled the plug on the dam. That was a tough decision because I had caught the bulk of my weight up there.
“My dad and I have been fishing a particular creek up the Coosa River for a long time and, a lot of times, the fish get in there and spawn in May. I knew I needed 13 to 14 pounds to have a shot at winning, but at that time, I only had four fish and one of them was a dink. I knew I had to make it work somewhere else.”
During practice, Davis had checked the creek and found a big fish with a distinctive white film around one of her eyes under a bush. With the tailrace bite happening, Davis opted to forego the creek action in hopes that no one else would find that fish.
During the Day 3 bag line, Davis learned that another angler had found the same fish, but his efforts had been unproductive. Undeterred, Davis made a late-day decision to give that big fish a shot.
“I’ve learned, you need to have a turning point in the day; you have to make a decision,” he said. “Whether it’s good, bad, might work, might not, you have to make that decision. You can’t just die on a spot. The turbine schedule wasn’t going to increase, and I had already hit all the juice that I knew. It was the turning point and I knew I had to make that change.
“I went into that creek and I couldn’t find that fish with the white eye, but I found one that had just pulled up. I flipped for that fish, drop shotted for this fish, but I couldn’t make her bite.”
That’s when Davis recalled one of his dad’s priceless lessons. Several years prior, he watched his father tempt bed fish with a Bomber Long A jerkbait. Finding one in his tackle tray, Davis retrofitted the bait with No. 4 Gamakatsu Magic Eye treble hooks and sent it into action.
“The first cast, she came out after it and I said, ‘Oh-ho!’” Davis recalled. “I threw it back up there and let it sit. She finally comes out and makes a circle. When I popped it, she just t-boned the bait.”
Game changer: Good news — Davis caught the fish. Bad news — he also caught himself. During the process, one of those super sharp trebles ended up in his thumb.
The depth and position rendered the standard braided line removal technique ineffective, so Davis iced his thumb, bit down on a hoody, and forced the barb through his skin. Only problem was he lacked cutters sturdy enough to cut the hook below the barb.
“I had that 4-pounder, but I still had one 12-incher that I had to get rid of,” Davis said. “I thought, ‘Now, my tournament’s over.’ There were fish swimming around in that creek, and I knew I could catch one more with 30 minutes to go.
“So I idled out of the creek to see if I could find somebody with cutters and I was praying to God the whole time. I had this weird feeling of peace that everything was going to be alright. I felt that nothing was gonna stop me from doing good because of prayer.”
Amazingly, Davis found an angler with cutters at the mouth of the creek. A quick snip and he was on his way, after sincere gratitude.
Apparently, that break allowed just enough time for a repositioning.
“I went back into that creek, and that white-eyed fish was sitting there,” Davis said. “I threw that Long A and she bit on the first cast.”
Takeaway: Heading into the final round with two of the sport’s most lethal closers — Palaniuk and Jason Christie — sitting in first and second, respectively, Davis knew he had his work cut out for him. Reflecting on his choices, he said home lake knowledge was only part of the equation.
The biggest piece of the puzzle was the unshakable belief in his decisions.
“That’s something you can’t learn in two or three years; it’s many years of trial and error that led to that point,” Davis said. “It took many years to have the confidence to make those decisions.
“Looking back, it was kind of gutsy to make that move on Day 4, but if you’re gonna beat these guys, you have to have confidence in yourself. And if you don’t have confidence in yourself, what are you doing on the Bassmaster Elite Series?”
