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Alex Davis | Lake Okeechobee Details

John Johnson
Bassfan Senior Editor

Courtesy

2nd: Alex Davis

> Day 1: 5, 21-00
> Day 2: 5, 20-15
> Day 3: 5, 9-02
> Day 4: 5, 5-03
> Total = 20, 56-04

Alex Davis, a 4th-year pro who makes his primary living as a guide on Lake Guntersville, spent the entire tournament within a few miles of the launch ramp in Clewiston, Fla. He estimated that he burned less than 20 gallons of boat fuel over 4 days.

He had little to no company in the small pocket that he fished. He flipped to bushes and made longer casts to holes in lily-pad fields.

"The very first year I fished Okeechobee, one day I bet I had 60 bites throwing a (Reaction Innovations) Skinny Dipper in there," he said. "At that time I saw probably 200 beds in that area and I never forgot about it. I had the bites to get a check there 2 years ago, but they just wouldn't commit.

"I was still pretty green about fishing in Florida back then. Since then I've learned some new tactics and I'm not so stubborn."

His casts to the pad holes were lengthy – perhaps 20 or 25 yards on the average. Even while flipping, his best bet was to stay back as far as he could. At times he had to resort to flipping over obstacles such as tree branches, and then just taking his chances with landing the fish if he got bit.

He caught every fish he weighed on a Jackall Flick Shake worm in the junebug color. He Texas-rigged it for flipping (using any of three different weight sizes, depending on the wind) and threw it weightless to the pad holes.

> Weightless worm gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Shimano Zodias rod, Shimano Curado casting reel (7.2:1 ratio), 17-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 5/0 Gamakatsu EWG SuperLine worm hook, Jackall Flick Shake 6.8 (junebug).

> Light flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action Shimano Expride rod, Shimano Metanium casting reel (8.4:1 ratio), 50-pound PowerPro Maxcuatro braided line, 1/4-, 5/16- or 3/8-ounce tungsten weight, same hook and bait.

> Heavy flipping gear: 7'5" heavy-action G. Loomis E6X rod, same reel as light flipping, 80-pound Maxcuatro braid, same weights, hook and bait.

Main factor in his success – "Not doing what I've done every other year down here, which was run around the whole time. I picked two areas within 2 miles of each other that I thought had the most fish, and I figured if I went through enough of them I'd eventually get some big ones. I just spent a lot more time fishing than I ever had before."

Performance edge – "Definitely the Power-Poles and my MotorGuide trolling motor. The trolling motor took me through solid trees and without the Power-Poles, I wouldn't have caught anything in that wind."

Read more: http://www.bassfan.com/news_article/7470/flipping-was-king-but-winding-played-too#.Vr0ItVJkaSo#ixzz3zttXEZpU

Alex Davis | Lake Okeechobee Pattern

2. Alex Davis found beds in flooded bushes

Alex Davis, a well-known guide from Lake Guntersville, scored a top 10 in the season-opener to get his Tour season off on the right foot. Davis’ four-day total was 56 pounds, 4 ounces.

Davis found a mother lode of spawning bass on the Big O in a small clear-water pocket just several hundred yards off the main lake. The area was the size of two or three bass boats and featured flooded trees and bare bushes – quite an anomaly among Okeechobee’s thousands of acres of green vegetation. According to Davis the area featured about 60 or 70 flooded bushes and small trees, and every one of the bushes had a bed at the base of it.

“It was all hard bottom in there,” Davis says. “They were bedding in there like you see bream or shellcracker bed with beds all crammed in there next to each other – dozens and dozens of beds.”

Read more: Alex Davis | Lake Okeechobee Pattern

Alex Davis | Baits and Equipment Used at Okeechobee

Excerpt and Photo Courtesy:

Alex Davis flipped, pitched and cast a 6-inch junebug stickworm rigged with a variety of weights and teamed with 80-pound-test PowerPro MaxCuatro spooled on Shimano Metanium with 8.5:1 gear ratio. Depending on the density of the cover, Davis varied between a 7-6 Shimano Expride flipping stick and an even heaver stick, the 7-6 G. Loomis E6X 904C.

Alexs day 3 pattern | Lake Okeechobee

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Alex Davis clung tight to his second-place spot with a 9-pound, 2-ounce catch on day three.

Like others, Davis saw his hot spot cool down substantially today, sending him scrambling to cobble together a limit just to stay in the hunt going into day four.

“I think I might have burned them all up,” Davis says of the bass on the magical place that produced back-to-back 20-pound-plus limits for him on days one and two. “I mean, that area was no bigger than these two weigh-in tents, and I caught 40 bass out of it. The place is not that far off the main lake. It’s actually the first clear water off the main lake. So maybe a new group will pull in there overnight. I’ve at least got to check it again tomorrow.”

Read more: Alexs day 3 pattern | Lake Okeechobee