By MLF Communications
LA CROSSE, Wis. – Alex Davis finds himself one day away from the biggest win of his career. Banks Shaw finds himself one day away from capping off his rookie year with an unprecedented grand slam.
Davis hauled in 14-15 on day 2 of the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Championship at the Upper Mississippi River on Saturday to push his total to 33-12 and maintain his lead over Shaw, who caught 15-00 to shave one ounce off Davis' advantage. Shaw has 33-08 entering day 3.
Jimmy Washam (3rd, 32-10) and Steve Lopez (4th, 32-5) also maintained their day-1 positions. Chad Mrazek is 5th with 31-2.
Davis, the veteran pro from Albertville, Ala., has four career MLF wins, the biggest of which was a Toyota Series event at Lake Guntersville in 2012. Shaw already has claimed the Rookie of the Year Award, the Angler of the Year title and won the Pickwick Lake Tackle Warehouse Invitational earlier this season. A championship triumph would give him a grand slam that's never been achieved at this level competition.
Once again the weather was cool, but the wind relented on Day 2, which allowed some anglers to fish more easily, especially those plying shallow vegetation. With no forward-facing sonar in play, some pros had tougher, less precise days, but the change worked out quite well for others. Though the weights tumbled around a good bit, the fishing was a little better on Day 2 overall – on Day 1, just four pros caught better than 16 pounds, and on Day 2, eight pros accomplished the feat.
Davis On The Cusp
Trying to frog his way to a win, Davis whipped up to Pool 7 on Day 1 and caught most of his weight in about 15 minutes. That didn’t quite work out on Day 2.
“I aged about five years today,” said the veteran pro. “I had three that weighed 7 pounds in the first 45 minutes and then fished until 1:40 and never had another bite. Then, I found one little mat about 30 yards by 30 yards, and I ended up filling my limit out and culled three times right there and had one big one hit it and not get it.”
Some might say it was lucky, but Davis’ late rally was very much the result of commitment to a pattern with an expert at the wheel. Raised frogging and flipping on Lake Guntersville, the Alabama pro is deadly with the big stick. If his frog fish work out again – or if he finds more – Shaw and everyone else will have a tough row to hoe.
“I’m thinking of starting there in the morning and then going back into Pool 7,” Davis explained. “I think the water dropping is what has made [the frog bite] worse – practice was better. Now, it’s so shallow, I think the fish have pulled out of a lot of the frog areas. I’ve got a couple places left, and I’m going to hope it works tomorrow.”
One ace Davis still has up his sleeve is the Black River. Though he’ll have company, Davis has made hay in the Black before, and there’s a good chance he’ll slip some into the rotation if the frog fish aren’t paying out as planned.
“I didn’t come to the Black River today because I thought my best option was to frog,” Davis said. “Today, I ran around for two-and-a-half or three hours – I will spend that time in the Black River tomorrow.”
Without a national win to his name, Davis probably has as good a chance now as he’s ever had, but he knows it won’t come easy.
“It would mean everything to win,” Davis said. “We’re going to have to see. I just need to catch 18 or 19 (pounds). Banks is going to catch them better tomorrow. I hope I can catch them better tomorrow too.”
Shaw Narrows The Gap
Weighing four smallmouth and one largemouth, Shaw weathered the no-‘Scope day with ease, as he usually does. And, given that he may have a few options come back into play on Day 3, he could be a dangerous man.
“It definitely could have been worse,” Shaw said. “I was shooting for the 16- or 17-pound mark. I caught three good smallmouth and then some decent ones, but I couldn’t get a big bite. My largemouth bite wasn’t as good as I was expecting it to be – the cloud cover that moved in right as I started fishing my docks probably hurt it.”
Fishing mostly current-related places for his smallmouth, Shaw is looking forward to getting his electronics back in play on the final day.
“Tomorrow I think it’s going to be better,” he said. “I couldn’t really catch the fish I was fishing for that good today. I knew they were there; they were coming up schooling and stuff like that, but being able to look at them a little better tomorrow will be nice. I’ll be able to line my stuff up better. I fished several places today where I couldn’t get them to bite – I realized these fish are keying on baitfish, not a bottom bait, and I had to throw a bottom bait on some places just to get down to the fish.”
Having weighed nine smallmouth so far, Shaw is executing on his pre-tournament plan to perfection.
“It’s feels like I’m right at home,” he said. “I’ve fished on the Tennessee River my whole life, and it’s the same deal. Reading current seams and seeing where the fish set up. I love this kind of fishing, and I knew I didn’t want to be with everybody else, throwing a frog, punching. I wanted to try to do something a little different.”
Heading out on Championship Sunday, Shaw will have a chance to finish off a nearly perfect season with a massive win.
“I’m super excited to get going tomorrow and try to catch 16 or 17 pounds and make Alex or whoever is with me catch the same bag,” Shaw said. “It’s definitely a good position to be in, but there’s definitely a lot of work ahead.”
Here are the 10 anglers who will fish on day 3:
1. Alex Davis: 10 33-12
2. Banks Shaw: 10, 33-08
3. Jimmy Washam: 10, 32-10
4. Steve Lopez: 10, 32-05
5. Chad Mrazek: 10, 31-02
6. Colby Miller: 10, 30-08
7. Matt Reed: 10, 28-15
8. Chris Lane: 10, 28-06
9. Andrew Nordbye: 10, 28-06
10. Jacob Walker: 10, 28-05