Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508070116
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: GREENSBORO LENGTH: Medium
The 31-year-old Arkansan angler won the BASS Masters Classic on Saturday, the only competitor in the 25-year history of the tournament to be crowned B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year and Classic champion the same season.
His secret? Weight loss and a new lure with the words ``Fat Free'' in its name.
Eighteen months ago, Davis weighed 380 pounds. His girth made him feel like an old man, he said. During a day's fishing, his back would hurt. His knees would ache.
``There were tournament days when I took 20 Advil or ibuprofen just to get through a day's fishing,'' he said.
As his weight ballooned, his fishing success dropped. He had qualified for four Classics during his professional career, but he missed the cut the past two years.
Saturday, Davis came to the Classic weigh-in light-of-foot, a fit 228 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame. About the only extra weight he carried was a 16-pound, 4-ounce string of High Rock bass. That gave him the winning 47-pound, 14-ounce total, good for $50,000 in cash.
Davis told tournament observers that he had lost 152 pounds, which is about what Classic competitor Kevin VanDam weighs.
``It was just like starting all over again,'' said Davis, who had a stomach/intestinal bypass operation.
What's more, the lure that helped him win the Classic was a new creation called the Bomber Fat Free Shad, he told a weigh-in crowd of 20,000 spectators at the Greensboro Coliseum.
``The fish were really hard to catch,'' he said. ``They were suspended. I think a lot of the anglers were fishing under them.''
The game plan Davis used was to search for brush piles and hope to find bass suspended near them.
``I felt like if you could find some cover that would come off the bottom within about 6 to 8 feet of the surface I could catch them. You had to stay there and beat and pound and bang until one would strike.''
Davis was one of a half-dozen Classic contenders who had Bomber's new slimmed-down, fast-diving lure, which is just coming onto the market.
``These fish at High Rock see hundreds and thousands of crankbait patterns, all styles and sizes all the time,'' he said. ``I thought if I could show them something different, a different look or different sound, they would hit.''
Friday's leader, Mark Hardin of Canton, Ga., finished behind Davis when his bass turned off. Hardin's catch Saturday weighed 10 pounds and gave him a 46-pound total.
``I had to struggle for what fish I got today,'' said Hardin, who was casting a spinnerbait. ``The water came up a little bit over night and that hurt. The cloudy weather hurt me also.''
A decline in power generation at High Rock also spoiled the chances of David Fritts and VanDam, both who had a shot at winning the tournament.
``I had a couple of places I really thought I would catch some fish,'' said Fritts, who lives in nearby Lexington. ``I never got bit on them."
VanDam, a 27-year old Michigan angler, helped design the new Bomber lure and was using it with brilliant success Thursday and Friday during power generating periods.
``When they are pulling water, it positions those bass on the points where they are going to feed on shad,'' he said. ``If I had been real smart, I would have gone right up to the dam first thing in the morning and saw that they weren't generating and changed patterns.''
David Dudley of Lynchburg had another tough day Saturday, landing one keeper for a tournament total of 9 pounds, 8 ounces, good for 37th spot in a field of 40.
Dudley said he knew the fish were going to be caught deep, and that's where he pursued them, ``hoping to win, when shallow is my strength.''
``That's all right," Ray Scott, founder and president of B.A.S.S., told the 19-year-old fisherman. ``You have about 40 to 50 more years to fish.''
by CNB