State winners overcome early lull

The respective winners of the Alabama B.A.S.S. Nation (ABN) State Championship were not too sure of their chances as the final round of the two-day tournament played out Saturday (Nov. 6) on Lake Martin.

Unlike Friday, when both Will Davis (boater) and Phillip Sherrill (co-angler) caught a limit early, the fishing proved much more difficult on Day 2. Neither of the eventual winners found fish in the opening hours of the final round.

Instead of panicking, both Davis (Pro Line Bassmasters) and Sherrill just kept grinding. The result was decisive victories for both.

Davis, who led the opening round with a 12.59 catch, surged to the boater title with a late-day flurry and topped a 116-boat field for the victory. He caught 10.56 on the final day and finished with 23.15 overall, well ahead of second-place finisher Marty Giddens (Wiregrass Bassmasters), who had 21.53 over two days. Steven Ingram (Kowaliga Bassmasters) finished third with 21.23.

“The lake sets up well for me,” Davis said. “This time of year, the way I like to catch them is shallow. I like to catch them on a spinnerbait.”

Davis did just that during the two rounds, including two key culls late on Day 1.

“Yesterday started off pretty fast. I caught five on the first three stops that we made,” Davis said. “Later in the day, the water warmed up just enough to push those fish shallow into brush piles. I started running a couple of brush piles and caught my two best ones between 1 and 2.”

With a slight lead, Davis knew he would have a chance to win if he could repeat the opening-round bite. The bass failed to cooperate early, however.

“Today didn’t go as planned,” he said. “I didn’t have a fish until 9:30. I told daddy (team partner William Davis) that we had to go deep for a little while. We went out there, and I caught three on a shaky head. Then we went back shallow and caught a couple but they didn’t really help.”

With the clock ticking, Davis returned to the same brush piles that produced Friday. Throwing a bait produced by his father’s Davis Bait Company, an X-Wire spinnerbait, Davis boated a 3.32 largemouth that improved his weight considerably.

He caught nine of the 10 bass that he weighed on the peacock-colored spinnerbait.

“I just put it in God’s hands like I always do,” Davis said. “If you start getting antsy, you have to put it in His hands, or you will start making mistakes. After I caught that first one, I felt a lot better.”

“I knew it was going to be tough. The lake has a lot of pressure. Covid has definitely hurt every lake in Alabama because everybody is fishing.”

Added the senior Davis about his son’s performance, “Coming down here this morning, he said that he knew it was going to be tough and that we would just go fishing and have a good time. If we caught them, we caught them, and if not, we would catch them next time. He’s pretty cool. He’s a lot better at this than his old dad for sure.”

Sherrill (Coosa Valley Bassmasters) needed an even greater late-day rally to claim the co-angler title. With a small limit of three fish “that would barely measure,” Sherrill came through with a key catch in the final minutes to secure the win.

“Today, at 9:30 or 10, I didn’t have a fish in the boat,” he said. “I just kept grinding. I had three that would barely measure, and then everything shut down for me. I had one spot that I wanted to hit coming back in.”

“We had about 30 minutes left, and I caught my kicker with about 5 minutes left, the next-to-last-cast.”

The fish weighed 3.61, a cull of over 2 ½ lbs that allowed him to reclaim the lead.

“It just goes to show that you don’t give up,” said Sherrill, who fished ABN tournaments for the first time this year.

“I did it for the experience,” he added. “I’ve always been real competitive and really try to win. We didn’t pre-fish. We came on Friday and fished places that we had fished before, fished extremely slow. That’s the only way we could get bit. I lucked out yesterday and caught two decent fish. We fished the same area today, and the bite was really slow.”

Two of Sherrill’s fish on Friday weighed over 3 ½ lbs. He caught everything on soft plastics and said most of his weight came on a 3/16 shaky head paired with a finesse worm.

Sherrill, who teamed with Danny Bailey during the tournament, said they ran “above (Highway) 280” to fish the upper lake. His two-day total of six fish weighed 14.65. Donny Davis (Belgreen Bass Club) took second with 12.81, and Steve Watson (Kowaliga Bassmasters) claimed third with 12.21.

Other tournament winners included Jeff Corley and Giddens, who had the Academy Sports + Outdoors Big Fish of the tournament. Corley (Birmingham Bass Club) caught a Lake Martin giant on Friday, a 6.57 largemouth that hit a buzzbait. He returned to the same brush pile on Saturday to catch three fish in his limit, which allowed him to finish fourth overall with 19.62.

Giddens boated a 3.65 spotted bass for the big fish on Saturday.

In the Fishin’ 4 A Cure (F4AC) competition, Corley and Will Davis took home top honors. Competitors pay an extra fee for F4AC with money going to fight childhood diseases at Children’s of Alabama.

Corley also teamed with William McRee to win the team category and advance to the national tournament. They combined for 31.27. Other teams that advanced to the national event include Simon Morrow (Out of Place Bassmasters)/Tommy Roden (Wiregrass Bassmasters), Kyle Glasgow/Luke Glasgow (both of Winfield Bassmasters), David Pair/David Nokes (both of River City Anglers), and C.J. Knight (Marathon Bassmasters)/Emmanuel Globetti (Alex City Bassmasters). The 2021 B.A.S.S. Team Championship will be held on Lake Eufaula December 8-11.

A pair of Alex City Bassmasters finished off excellent seasons by winning Angler of the Year titles. Brent Reaves won a close competition for boater Angler of the Year. Richard White took the top spot among co-anglers.

The Anglers of the Year plus the top five finishers in the boater division and the top six in the co-angler division made the ABN state team that will fish in the B.A.S.S. National regional tournament on Smith Lake in April. Kyle Glasgow was the fifth-place finisher among boaters, following Davis, Giddens, Ingram, and Corley in the standings.

ABN qualifier winners also make the state team. They were Mark McCaig (Team Tackle Box) at Martin, Bill Black (Monroe County B.A.S.S. Anglers) at Guntersville, Allan Glasgow (Lake Tuscaloosa Bassmasters) at Eufaula, and George Crain (Lake Tuscaloosa Bassmasters) at Lay.

Making the team as co-anglers were Sherrill, Donny Davis, Watson, Courtney Hammett (Shotgun Sports Supply), and McRee.

Aaron Cherry (University of Montevallo), who finished fourth at Martin, had already qualified for the state team as the winner at the Eufaula tournament. Other co-angler qualifier winners during the regular season were Parrish Argo (LA Po Boys) at Martin, Johnny Clark (W Alabama Bass Fishermen’s Association) at Guntersville, and Greg Wray (Tennessee Valley Bass Club) at Lay.

Lake Martin Tourism served as host for the state championship. ABN sponsors for 2021 include Fish Life Fish Care Products, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Airport Marine, Office Partners, Halo Rods, Radicull Culling Devices, Davis Bait Co., George Paint and Body, Triton Boats, Mercury, Motor Guide, Lowrance, NetBait, Shell, Hammer Rods, Shelby County, StrikeZone Lure Co., Charlie’s BBQ, the Rod Glove, T-H Marine, Power-Pole, and Alabama Hosting.

The 2022 ABN season kicks off in February with a return trip to Lake Martin. Other 2022 stops include Logan Martin, Eufaula, and Pickwick.

Greg McCain is a freelance writer from Russellville, AL, and a member of the Belgreen Bass Club. In addition to producing content for this website, his recent credits include articles in Alabama Outdoor News, Georgia Outdoor News, ACC Crappie Stix blog, CrappieNOW online magazine, and Great Days Outdoors.

More photos on Flickr