For Darrell Davis, the story behind the difference between days 1 and 2 at the Lake Toho FLW Tour boiled down to keeping fish hooked up.
He came in with two keepers for 4-13 on Thursday, but pulled off a sizeable rally on Friday with a stout 22-07 catch that saw him blast up the standings from 143rd to 29th and earn a $10,000 payday.
“One of the main changes I made was I didn’t lose ‘em on Friday,” he quipped. “I lost three on Thursday that would’ve put me around 14 (pounds). You can’t stumble like that against those guys. Me not catching a limit hurt.”
Especially at the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, which he considers his home waters. Instead of continuing to cast around lily pads as he did on day 1, Davis backed off and threw a lipless crankbait on day 2.
“I noticed the water was dropping so fast and the fish were leaving those spawning areas and moving out to where they stage,” he added. “It’s been probably six or seven years since we’ve had that much in the spring and they were dumping it hard. It had the fish in a funk. The tournament should’ve been a slugfest.”
Instead, Davis targeted staging fish and those spawning in 4 to 6 feet. He was also surprised at the amount of fish that were caught cranking.
“It was a crazy thing going on,” he said. “Being local, I knew it couldn’t be won cranking, but I also didn’t know 15 pounds a day would make the Top 10. It was a choice between fishing moving water and catch 15 and get a check or go try to win it. I went for the win and made a good comeback.”
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