OCALA, Fla. — On his first day competing on Orange Lake, Mark Davis boated three bass over 6 pounds and topped SCORETRACKER® with a total of 53 pounds, 12 ounces on 12 scorable bass – a banner day by just about any standard.
Yet it wasn’t Davis who called Group B’s first day of the Qualifying Round at Kubota Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops “a once-in-a-lifetime day.”
That would be Michael Neal. While he concluded Sunday 4 ounces behind Davis, Neal stole the show with a big-bass bonanza that included an 11-pounder, which won him $10,000 as the Berkley Big Bass. In all, Neal caught six bass over 6 pounds for a total of 53-8 on nine scorable bass.
Davis and Neal put plenty of distance between themselves and the rest of the field. They’re both more than 16 pounds ahead of Jeff Sprague in third place and more than 36 pounds clear of the Lucas Oil Cut Line, virtually assuring themselves spots in Wednesday’s Knockout Round.
Full results can be found here.
Davis puts Florida skills to work
Davis has always gotten along well with Florida bass. In fact, his two best events on the Bass Pro Tour – a pair of second-place finishes – both came in the Sunshine State. He quipped that’s because Florida bass are “cantankerous” and “hard-headed” like himself.
“Something about it, I get along well with Florida bass,” he said. “They’re cantankerous. They can be hard to catch and hard-headed. You’ve got to be hard-headed with them. That was kind of the case today.”
Davis clarified that succeeding in Florida usually means finding an area with a population of bass then slowing down and picking it apart, which has long been his specialty. He showed that Sunday. Even though he caught all of his bass with a moving bait (a bladed jig), he spent most of the day with his Power-Poles down, methodically dissecting the same area.
While that’s always key in Florida, Davis said it’s especially vital given the low water on Orange Lake, which has the bass grouped into small areas and less willing than usual to bite.
“If you fish too fast, you can fish right over these fish,” he said. “You’ve got to really be diligent and slow down and pick it apart and trigger those fish to bite.”
Davis found his honey hole during practice. It took him a little while to relocate the school of bass there, but once he did, he surged to the top of SCORETRACKER® in a hurry with five bass for 23-8 in the first period. He added a couple more scorables early in Period 2 before going more than 2 hours without another fish.
Davis said he tried checking a few other spots during that lull, but when they didn’t produce, he returned to his starting spot. Afternoon showers reignited the bite, and he added five more bass for 22-5 during the latter half of Period 3. That included a 7-5, his biggest of the day.
“I got out of that area, and I went to fish some other areas, and they weren’t any good,” Davis said. “Then we got some cloud cover this evening – some storms and whatnot – and I just went back to that primary area and spent the rest of the day in there, and it worked out pretty well.”
Davis doesn’t think that same spot will be able to hold up for the rest of the event. The good news is his cushion over the cut line earned him the opportunity to spend all of Tuesday looking for more productive water.
“The nice thing about it is with 53 pounds, I can afford to go look for some fish on that second day,” he said. “That’s what I’m planning to go do.”
As much success as Davis has enjoyed in Florida during his Hall of Fame career, he’s never won a tour-level event in the state. Both his runner-up finishes on the Bass Pro Tour were heartbreakers, too, in which he held the lead during the Championship Round before getting passed late by one of the Lane brothers.
So, Davis would love to earn some redemption and get his long-awaited first Bass Pro Tour victory all at once this week. But he’s not ready to think about that quite yet.
“I’d like to finally win one down here,” he said. “This would be a great one to win. But you just never know. Everything has to work out perfectly to win one of these. It would be nice to win, but you don’t want to get ahead of yourself.”
A special day for Neal
Neal has experienced a lot of special days on the water during a career that’s seen him win three tour-level events and two Angler of the Year titles on the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit. But never has the Tennessee pro had a day like Sunday when it comes to catching big bass.
Neal accounted for six of the 12 bass over 6 pounds caught by the 16-angler field on the day. His five biggest bass combined to weigh 38-13 – easily the heaviest five-fish limit of his life.
“We had almost 38 in a team tournament, but I didn’t catch any of them,” he said. “I netted them, so that’s part of it. But I’d never caught 30 by myself.”
Neal’s 11-0 big bass represented the first bass he’s ever caught over 10 pounds – and he did it during a tournament with $10,000 up for grabs. He knew the fish was sizable upon setting the hook, but it wasn’t until he grabbed its lip and unearthed it from a mound of hydrilla that he realized just how big it was.
“I knew it was big,” he said. “I figured it was like an 8-pounder until I got my hands on it. Then I knew it had a real good shot at being a double-digit.”
Making Neal’s day all the more impressive was the fact that he caught all his fish on a technique he called “not my strong suit” – punching. Neal tried to start the day fishing his strengths by winding a bladed jig, but he couldn’t muster a scorable bass during the first period. Late in the period, he went to a football field-sized area where the hydrilla had formed a canopy with open space beneath it – the only place he could find that wasn’t choked out, he said.
“I know (flipping) is always a thing here in Florida, and anytime you’ve got hydrilla – not just in Florida – it’s going to be a player,” he said. “But 99% of the areas that I was in, it’s still too thick underneath it. But that one football field section, it’s actually canopied. So, I think that’s why the fish were holding there.”
Every time Neal thought about putting down his flipping stick (with a Big Bite Baits YoMama on the business end), he’d get another bite. He never ended up leaving, catching all nine of his scorable bass from the same area.
“That exact area, there’s really nothing – you can get on the outskirts of it, but as far as getting up in it, there’s nothing else you can do but punch it,” he explained. “I made the comment on camera, every time I’m about zoned out or falling asleep, I get a bite.”
As special as that spot was, Neal figures he’ll need to find something new to win his first Heavy Hitters belt. He plans to start Day 2 playing some defense before spending the rest of the day looking for similar areas.
“I’ve got to find something else,” he said. “My best bet at this point is probably show up, make your presence known, try and defend your ground a little bit, and then try and practice and cover as much water as I can the rest of the day.”
More to come at Heavy Hitters
The 16 anglers in Group B will take Monday off, when Group A will return to Orange Lake for its second day of Qualifying. The anglers in both groups will look to finish in the top eight and advance to Wednesday’s Knockout Round. The Berkley Big Bass bonus will jump to $30,000 for the Knockout Round, then both the winner of the Championship Round and the angler who catches the biggest bass will earn $100,000.
Keep watching all the action on the MLFNOW! livestream from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET each day through Thursday at MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and the Major League Fishing channel on Rumble.