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Davis Goes Wire to Wire
on Tennessee-Tombigbee
 COLUMBUS,
Miss. - Arkansas pro Mark Davis became the first angler to post a
wire-to-wire win at a Bassmaster Elite 50 series event after Saturday's
final round on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Davis brought in a
12-pound, 9-ounce sack
Saturday to claim victory for the second time on the 2004 CITGO Bassmaster
Tournament Trail.
"I've led lots of tournaments, but I've never won (this way)," the former
CITGO Bassmaster Classic champion said. "I've never led wire to wire and won
before."
Davis stuck to a tried-and-true strategy for the final day of the event,
which will
air in two parts on ESPN2, May 29 and June 5 at 10:30 a.m. ET/9:30 a.m. CT.
The
June 5 show will focus on the tournament's final rounds after Thursday's
field cut,
when anglers rotated through a separate, six-hole course.
"I did exactly what I did yesterday, today," Davis said, "but the fish
changed this
afternoon. I'm not quite sure where they went. They may have
gone deeper, I don't
really know.
"I started looking for these fish in practice using a Strike King Series One
crank
bait. I found some schools of fish, and in the tournament, I just went
fishing
using a worm. I figured something out, though. The fish weren't
in the grass.
They were in front of the grass. That's where I was catching them.
"This is really, really sweet. (Winning) the Table Rock event was
great because it
was long overdue, but this one is sweet, too, because it's the second event
in a
year. This really gives me confidence going into the next event in
Prattville."
Davis' Bassmaster Elite 50 trophy was presented by Thomas Hamill, the
Mississippi
native who was held hostage in Iraq and escaped. Davis will take home $5,000
for
winning the event and jumped up to 11th place in the Elite 50 standings.
Michigan's Kevin VanDam was the second-place angler with a weight of 26-14,
but just
didn't have the big fish he needed to take the victory.
"I couldn't get that 5-pounder today like I did yesterday," he said.
"That could
have really made a difference. I pretty much just decided to run and
gun around the
holes today. I had a tough time today.
"I felt like the fish were keying on wood and I thought it was my best
chance today
to fish as much wood as I could find."
VanDam did best Davis in one regard: his second-place finish in Mississippi
boosted
him to the top of the Elite 50 point standings. If VanDam can keep the
lead, he
stands to win the $150,000 Bassmaster Elite 50 series' first prize, the
largest
share of the $1.6 million total purse.
North Carolina's Dustin Wilks took home third place and added a $1,000 check
for the
Purolator Big Bass of the Day, earned with a 5-6 lunker. That 5-6 was
an ounce shy
of VanDam's Purolator Big Bass of the Tournament, a 5-7 bass caught in
Friday's
round. That bass earned VanDam an additional $1,000 from Purolator.
Wilks' day four sack of 14-0 also earned him a $1,000 check from Busch Beer
for the
Busch Heavyweight of the day, a voluntary contingency program that rewards
the
participating angler with the largest catch of the day.
Day 4
| Rank |
Name |
Hometown |
Bass |
Weight |
Pts. |
Winnings |
| 1 |
Mark Davis |
Mount Ida, AR |
10 |
28-15 |
310 |
$5,000.00 |
| 2 |
Kevin VanDam |
Kalamazoo, MI |
10 |
26-14 |
300 |
$6,000.00 |
| 3 |
Dustin Wilks |
Rocky Mount, NC |
10 |
25-02 |
295 |
$4,000.00 |
| 4 |
Alton Jones |
Waco, TX |
10 |
23-04 |
290 |
$1,500.00 |
| 5 |
Stacey King |
Reeds Spring, MO |
10 |
22-03 |
285 |
$1,000.00 |
| 6 |
Gary Klein |
Weatherford, TX |
10 |
20-09 |
281 |
$500.00 |
From BASS
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