Clent Davis' Patern, Baits & Gear
Rather than cranking those points in the tournament, he had the most success with a 4-inch paddle-tail, hollow-body swimbait. He said the 20-foot contour line seemed to be the most consistent toward the end of the points. He'd position his boat well off the point and throw straight up on it. He'd count the swimbait down 5 to 8 feet and that would trigger the smallmouth. "I tried reeling it on the bottom, but I didn't catch them," he said. Part of the reason the fish were suspended, he suspects, is that the water was being drawn down during the tournament, but those deeper fish seemed immune to the change. "I guess that's what those fish do because this lake fluctuates so much," he said. Once he got dialed in on the one bait and realized he could catch 16-plus pounds each day, it allowed him to avoid getting distracted by other options. "This was fishing," he said. "This was fun. It wasn't this bait and that bait. I knew what we had to do and went fishing and caught them. I love one-rod tournaments because when I get to switching around, I get to switching in the wrong direction."
Gear:
Swimbait gear: 7'6" heavy-action Phenix K2 casting rod, Shimano Curado K casting reel (6.2:1 ratio), 16-pound Yo-Zuri Top Knot fluorocarbon line, homemade 1/2-oz. jighead (5/0 hook), unnamed 4" hollow-body swimbait (shad)
Main factor: "I didn't have many options after practice. Knowing this was the only way I could catch them, I had to stay at it."
Performance edge: "My Phoenix and Evinrude got me where I was going every day, through a minefield of floating logs and the scariest stuff I've ever driven through each day."
FLW Tour Lake Cumberland 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/18/18 (Todd Ceisner)
