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| Mark Davis wins the Knockout Round of Stage Five on Watts Bar Lake and feels like he's back to fishing the way he knows he's capable of fishing. Photo by Garrick Dixon |
SPRING CITY, Tenn. – It was the second day in a row with a weather delay to start the morning — an hour and 15 minutes to be exact — but it didn’t seem to affect the bite during the Knockout Round of the General Tire Stage Five Presented by Covercraft on Watts Bar Lake. Mark Davis took the top spot on SCORETRACKER® after catching 10 bass for 25 pounds, 12 ounces during his consistent afternoon.
Jacob Wheeler is heading to his ninth straight Championship Round after finishing in fourth with 23-9, but more on him later. There were also dramatic third-period runs by both Ryan Salzman and Alton Jones to get themselves above the Toro Cut Line. Here are the eight anglers that will be joining David Walker and Kevin VanDam in the Championship Round:
- Mark Davis – 25-12 (10)
- Randall Tharp – 23-15 (11)
- Ryan Salzman – 23-9 (13)
- Jacob Wheeler – 23-9 (9)
- Dakota Ebare – 22-11 (9)
- Brent Ehrler – 21-11 (11)
- Fletcher Shryock – 19-1 (9)
- Alton Jones – 18-0 (8)
Davis Drop-Shots to Victory
You’d be hard pressed to find a more relaxed angler on the Bass Pro Tour than Bass Fishing Hall-of-Famer Mark Davis. Maybe it’s his stoic demeanor or the easygoing perch on the butt seat on the front of his boat. Whatever it is, it work for Davis, and has worked for three decades now. He’s onto another Championship Round with a strategy that may hold up come Thursday.
“I was hoping that with the cloud cover and the rain we’ve had that I would be able to come into this creek and slow down a bit,” Davis said. “This is the prettiest creek on the lake in my eyes, and I know it’s probably been fished to death over these first five days. It took a drop-shot and being a little more finesse-minded to get these fish today.”
