As current Forrest Wood Cup champion and past Fishing League Worldwide Tour Rookie of the Year, Clent Davis has enjoyed enough golden moments in professional bass fishing to last a lifetime.
An occasional byproduct of success is burnout, which almost prompted the Alabama angler to give up the sport last year. With encouragement from an FLW Tour official, Davis has raised his game to a peak level and become the sport's world champion.
After making the final round by the narrowest of margins, Davis overwhelmed his nine rivals on Lake Ouachita with a five-bass limit Sunday weighing 17 pounds, 13 ounces. Winning by more than 7 pounds, the 32-year-old former college angler from Montevallo, Ala., is the first last-to-first champion in Cup history.
"I don't even know what to do or what I'm feeling," Davis said on stage at Bank OZK Arena. "This is incredible."
First in line, Davis waited out trips to the scale by the others after taking what in golf is called the clubhouse lead. Tour founder Forrest L. Wood, a Flippin native, presented Davis a souvenir check worth $300,000, the winner adding $200 in bonuses.
Davis had second thoughts about fishing again after the 2017 season, his second on the Bassmaster Elite Series. His outlook changed after a call from FLW senior director of tournament operations Bill Taylor, encouraging him to rejoin the tour.
Qualifying for the Cup through a series of seven qualifying tournaments, Davis had two rounds on Ouachita of 9 pounds, 8 ounces -- his 19-pound total through two rounds bettering by 1 ounce the 11th-place finish of FLW Tour Rookie of the Year Matt Becker.
Davis, the tour's 2012 ROY, had the field playing catch-up Sunday after bumping his total to 36-13. It goes in the books as a come-from-behind victory though it was hardly a nail-biter.
Saying he just wanted to have fun on Sunday, Davis had early strikes of 2 1/2, 5 and 2 1/2 pounds, caught on a Mister Twister Mag 12 Buzz Worm in plum apple over a half-ounce head. Davis said later that he dragged the worm over the limbs of the brush, most of his bites coming after he'd pull it over a limb and let it fall. Sometimes, he swam a hollow-belly swimbait over the piles and also used a topwater lure when fish schooled over the brush.
Two more keepers followed, then a 4-pounder late in the round that punctuated Davis' runaway victory.
"I've worked for this my whole life," he said. "I guess it was time for it to happen."
Stumped in practice and still finding his way on the first morning of the tournament, Davis said he kept working brush piles until something worked. He found his treasure chest in a small section on the southwest end of the lake.
"I'm a decent off-shore fisherman," he said, "but I think I'm a really good brush-pile fisherman. So that was the only thing I was going to do since day one.
"I don't know what it was about that (southwest) section other than I could get bit there and not anywhere else."
Texan James Niggemeyer finished second at 29-9, earning $60,000. Defending Cup champion Justin Atkins followed at 28-12 for $50,000 with Cup rookie Nick LeBrun fourth (28-6) and late-season Tour winner Jason Lambert (27-15) fifth.
Completing the top 10 were Zack Birge (26-13), Wes Logan (25-9), John Cox (24-7), Brandon Cobb (23-1) and Bradford Beavers (20-8). For Cobb, a South Carolina angler, it was his fourth-straight Cup top 10, prompting a comment shared by others in the field.
"Someday I'd like to come back and win one of these things," Cobb said, "not just finish in the top 10."
Sports on 08/14/2018