William Davis of the Shoals Area was doing what a lot of tournament bass anglers do before a tournament- checking out places to fish and looking for honey holes on Pickwick Lake with an Alabama Rig®. Davis was fishing several miles downriver from Florence, AL, McFarland Park. He was working a ledge in the Waterloo, AL area fishing eight feet of water when Davis’ Hammer rod bowed under a tremendous strike on his AlabamaRig. To his delight a huge, 11.14 pound largemouth bass had attacked the rig. Davis got the weight from some hand scales in the boat. He noted an unusual “tear drop” on one of the big largemouth’s fins. Happy with his find, he gently released the monster green fish back into Pickwick. That was Friday, the day before the tournament.
On start the next day Davis and partner Tim Cummings headed straight for Waterloo and the ledge with Alabama Rigs and Hammer rods strapped in and ready. However, fishing the same area wherethe huge fish came from did not produce the same jolting strike they were hoping for.
They continued to stay with the eight feet of water and the ledge pattern which was productive but no monster bass. Was she gone for good? About fifty yards upstream from where the “first” big fish had laid into the Alabama Rig another sow plowed into Davis’ A-Rig and Hammer rod. There she blows!
At the weigh-in, the scales marked the fish at 11.83 pounds! The team had a total of 29.48 pounds and first place. But wait. The story does not end there. Remember that odd tear drop marking Davis noticed on the big fish he released? The huge bass they caught on tournament day that weighed 11.83, not 11.14 lbs., had the exact unusual tear drop marking. Top that KVD.
