KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (April 1, 2007) - Mark Davis of Mount Ida, Ark., caught a final-round total of eight bass weighing 27 pounds, 11 ounces to win $100,000 in the FLW Tour bass fishing tournament on Fort Loudoun-Tellico lakes. Davis topped his closest rival, Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa., by more than two pounds to earn the win and 200 points toward qualifying for the Forrest Wood Cup in Hot Springs, Ark., where the winner will earn as much as $1 million - the biggest award in bass fishing - Aug. 5.
"I swung for the fences," said Davis, who earned his first win on the FLW Tour. "It's great that I finally won one of these. I have come close many times, and it's sweet to be here on top. This place is a great fishery, but I had to go to great lengths to figure these fish out. I think the wind kind of hurt me today. I needed slick, calm conditions for my wakebait pattern, so I had to make some adjustments. I tend to fish by the seat of my pants, but I couldn't do that here. I had to slow down and concentrate on one area and stick to my guns. I thought I was around enough fish to win no matter what the conditions were. I was extremely lucky to win this."
Davis opened the tournament Thursday in ninth place with five bass weighing 16-5. He then jumped into third place Friday with a five-bass catch weighing 13 pounds, 15 ounces and advanced to the final round of 10 pros with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 30-4. On Saturday weights were cleared and Davis caught five bass weighing 19-13 to advance to the final day of competition in first place. Davis added another three bass weighing 7-14 to his final-round total Sunday.
Davis was throwing a combination of swimbaits and wakebaits around points, humps and other submerged structure in 4 to 10 feet of water near spawning areas.
Lefebre caught a final-round total of 10 bass weighing 25-11 to claim second place and $50,000.
"I lost a key fish today that might have hurt me," said Lefebre, who was the 2006 FLW Series Angler of the Year. "The fish have been really spooky and tough to sight-fish. Being from up north, I have lots of practice sight-fishing in rough weather so the conditions suited me fine. This area is great. I love the Tennessee River chain. It has a lot of current and good numbers of fish. Overall, I think it was a great event."
Rounding out the top 10 pros are pro Keith Williams of Conway, Ark. (10 bass, 24-12, $40,000); Derek Jones of Chicago, Ill. (six bass, 22-6, $30,000); Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas (10 bass, 22-3, $20,000); Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas (nine bass, 22-3, $19,000); Harmon Davis of Marlow, Okla. (10 bass, 21-12, $18,000); John Sappington of Willard, Mo. (10 bass, 21-6, $17,000); Darrel Robertson of Jay, Okla. (nine bass, 20-5, $16,000) and Thanh Le of Las Vegas (eight bass, 12-1, $15,000).
Overall there were 44 bass weighing 113 pounds, 4 ounce caught in the Pro Division Sunday. The catch included six five-bass limits.
On Saturday, Terry Chapman of Stanley, N.C., won the Co-angler Division and $20,000 with a five bass limit weighing 9 pounds, 6 ounces followed by co-angler Aaron McManaway of Altamont, Ill., in second place with four bass weighing 7-1 worth $10,000.
Chapman opened the tournament in 39th place Thursday with two bass weighing 4-3 while fishing with pro Scott Dobson of Clarkston, Mich. On Friday he jumped to ninth place on the strength of a three-bass catch weighing 7-10 while fishing with pro Katsutoshi Furuswa of Tokyo. He wrapped up his win while fishing with Williams.
"This is great," said Chapman, who now has two FLW Tour victories as a co-angler. "It has been a while since I have made a top-10. We fished some points really close to the dam because Keith thought he had exhausted his area. This new pattern was a co-anglers dream. There was a lot of open-water and easy fishing. I only had five fish, and luckily they were the right ones. I'm going to go home and put this money in the bank and keep fishing."
Chapman was throwing a combination of a ChatterBait, spinnerbait and wake baits to catch his fish all week.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers were David Hudson of Jasper, Ala. (three bass, 5-5, $9,000); Ryan Valentine of Jonesboro, Ga. (one bass, 4-3, $8,000); J.B. Young of Deer Park, Texas (one bass, 4-2, $7,000); Kenta Kimura of Livingston, Texas (two bass, 3-15, $6,000); Eddie Griggs of Richmond, Va. (one bass, 1-11, $5,000); Thomas Helton of Charleston, Tenn. (one bass, 13 ounces, $4,000); John Barrett of Fayetteville, N.C. (zero bass, $3,000) and Kevin Olivet of Greenback, Tenn. (zero bass, $2,000).d