Davy Hite's BASSMASTER Tour season is done. He finished 160th in the points, and thus missed B.A.S.S.'s Top 100 cut to remain on the tour for the final four events.

No one would argue that this has been one of Hite's worst seasons, especially when contrasted with the fact that he won the B.A.S.S. points race (Angler of the Year) last year. But he's taken it in stride as best he could, and lately his fishing has improved.

Two weeks ago, at the FLW Tour event on Lake Murray, he was in 14th after day 1 -- but then dropped to 57th. And last Friday, he put together one of the day's best limits at the Santee-Cooper BASSMASTER (27-09) and ended up in 13th, just 10 ounces shy of the Top 12 cut.

Both performances were his best so far this year, and about Santee he said: "I guess it's a good way to end the (B.A.S.S.) season, on a positive note."

Underestimated At Santee

Day 2 at Santee-Cooper "was just an awesome day out on the water," he said. "I thought I had enough to squeak in there, but just they caught them so good. Thirteenth wasn't where I wanted to be, but it's a lot better than 173rd or whatever."

He also was on enough fish to have made the cut. But he found out the hard way -- at the weigh-in -- that he took a little too easy on day 1. "To be honest, I underestimated," he said. "Nobody imagined they would catch fish like they did.

"When I left my area (on day 1), I had 17 pounds. I just didn't want to stay on my 50-yard stretch and pound it. I still had some time, and managed a few more (in different areas) and culled up about a pound." He had 17-15 on day 1.

When he pulled in to check-in, "I'm thinking I'm okay," he said. "Normally when you have 18 on the first day of a tournament, you're in good shape. But then I found out you had to hammer them to have a chance, so I really worked on them hard (on day 2)."

His Pattern

"We had a lot of rain, warm nights and a full moon," Hite noted. "A lot of fish were moving up to spawn, and I was fishing a little staging area right in front of a huge flat." He caught most of his day 1 fish and all of his day 2 fish in a 50-yard stretch of lily pads in 4-5 feet of water.

He was fishing the outside edge of the pads with a 3/8-ounce Hawg Caller spinnerbait (chartreuse/white, Colorado/willow) and a Texas-rigged 6-inch Gambler Lizard (junebug) with a 1/8-ounce Gambler Rat'lin Florida Rig screw-in weight. "That's a light sinker because a big sinker gets caught in the pads," he said. "You wanted a slow fall and a subtle presentation."

He fished the spinnerbait on a 7-foot medium-action Pflueger Trion rod, a Trion reel and 20-pound Trilene XT. For the lizard he used the same rod in medium-heavy, the same reel and 17-pound XT.

Adjusting to the 2-Day Cut

After his Santee-Cooper experience, Hite said he might have to change how he fishes in view of the fact that both tours now have a cut after two days. "I guess I need to adjust my thought process," he said.

"When I started on the (B.A.S.S.) Top 100s, we fished four straight days. Being able to conserve your fish was really important, and I felt like I was smart with my fish. But I probably need to rethink it a bit. I really feel like I could catch a big string (on Saturday), but I didn't get to fish and that's the way it is."

But Hite has been fishing the FLW Tour for 6 1/2 years, and that tour has always had a cut after two days. "I did win an FLW Championship, where I won the most money I've ever won in a single tournament in my life," he said. "But if you look at how I've done overall, I'm better in B.A.S.S. -- maybe because I try to save fish (in FLW events).

"But now that both (tours have two-day cuts), maybe I just need to get out of that old mentality of saving fish. I've been real successful doing that, but the times are changing because of television and things, and I understand that needs to be done."

The bottom line is that in current tour events -- as shown at Santee-Cooper -- "when something's working, you need to just hammer them."

Has Rebounded Before

Midway through the FLW season, Hite is 137th in the FLW points and has a ways to climb to make it into the Top 48 anglers that will fish in the Jacob's Cup championship.

If he doesn't make it, it won't be the end of the world: he's performed well after bad seasons before. The year before his B.A.S.S. AOY win in 2001-02, he finished 96th in the points. "It's kind of weird," he said. "The year before last I had a bad season (on B.A.S.S.), but at the last tournament I made the Top 10 -- and then I made quite a few more the next year."

That's when the BASSMASTER Tour season started in the fall, and that's when Hite will be fishing B.A.S.S. again unless B.A.S.S. changes its rules: those who do not make the Top 100 Tour cut have to requalify via the Opens.