ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. — Things are changing quickly on Lake Martin, but so far Will Davis Jr. has been the best at keeping up.
With a Day 1 limit weighing 13 pounds, 0 ounces, the 2023 Whataburger Bassmaster Elite Series at Lay Lake champion leads the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Martin presented by SEVIIN by 8 ounces over second-place Allen Brooks and 9 ounces over third-place Dakota Ebare.
Davis anchored his bag with the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Day, a unicorn 4-9 largemouth he caught with a Davis Baits Wood Jig and a Big Bite chunk.
While he’s known as more of a Coosa River stick, the two-time B.A.S.S. Nation Series champion knows plenty about Lake Martin and the importance of landing a kicker bite. He only landed eight bass all day, but they were the right ones.
“I just know from being around here that you aren’t going to win out there ’Scoping,” he said. “You have to have both the dock or brush deal and the ‘Scoping deal going to win. The lake is full of fish — a large population of small spotted bass. The largemouth population is about nonexistent.”
After the remnants of Hurricane Helene caused devastating damage to the upstate of South Carolina and the Lake Hartwell area, tournament officials made the decision to move the final Open of the year to Alabama.
Sunny skies have prevailed thus far, but a cold front pushed through just before the tournament, bringing cooler nights with it. Lake levels are also higher than normal, but the water is starting to fall, throwing another wrench into the equation. Water temperatures have started around 75 degrees and then warmed to 83 degrees, which has Davis thinking the bass aren’t quite to their fall patterns yet.
“The water is dropping a little bit right now, so some of the big ones pull up to eat bream while some of them fall back to hang out in front of the shade. It is really hard to pattern them right now,” Davis said. “My biggest one came out of 20 feet of water and my other big one came out of 2 feet of water. They are still in that pre-fall transition. With the water dropping, too, I think it has the bass a little confused.”
Starting the morning on a couple of shallow bars, Davis landed several keeper spotted bass before moving to the bank to fish docks. The first two hours of the morning have provided some of his better bites, but he has also noticed a bite window that occurs after noon.
“I went four hours today without a bite,” he said. “When the sun got high, it pushed the bass under the docks. There was a lot of wind on a lot of my stuff today and I couldn’t fish it like I wanted to.”
Davis added around 13 pounds has been the winning weight for most of the local tournaments lately. He anticipates Day 2 will be a tougher day, and running new water will be important.
“In a 100-boat field, 9½ pounds gets you paid most of the time here,” he said. “A big bag down here this time of year is 15 pounds. That is a giant bag. You have to run new water here. The big ones don’t replenish on this lake, and they never have.”
Hailing from Georgia, Brooks landed a limit measuring 12-8 to finish the day in second place. While Lake Lanier is his home fishery, another lake in his home state helped him break down Lake Martin.
“I have a lake house at Lake Nottely and it is identical to this place,” Brooks said. “I love it. I probably caught 20 bass today just fishing. I imagine it will be difficult for me to duplicate; I got two lucky bites. I should catch a lot of fish.”
Brooks filled out his limit within the first 30 minutes of the day and culled up by ounces throughout the day. Late in the day he landed his biggest bass, a 3-9 largemouth that bolstered his bag. Two primary presentations produced the majority of his bites.
“I have it focused in a little bit,” he said. “I’m not LiveScoping. I’ve been fishing really shallow.”
Entering the day in seventh in the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers race, and needing a good day to feel comfortable in the Top 9, Ebare landed 12-7 to land in third place.
“I’m thankful for the way it worked out,” he said. “I started out the morning trying to get a big bite, and I was fortunate to do that. It really settled me down and I changed my whole game plan (after that). I fished the rest of the day in a way I didn’t even practice for.”
Ebare took advantage of a morning bite and filled out his limit, which gave him the confidence to change his strategy and hunt for big bass. He has three baits that have caught bass.
“I really slowed down and picked some stuff apart. I expanded on what I thought was going on. I got more bites doing what I was doing than I anticipated,” he said. “There is definitely bait in the areas, and I used the wind to my advantage for sure.”
Not only will the winner clinch a spot in the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic at Lake Ray Roberts, outside of Davis — who is already Classic qualified — nine invites to the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series will be awarded at the end of the tournament.
After Day 1, Minnesota’s Easton Fothergill leads the Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifiers race with 1,597 points while Cody Meyer is second with 1,592 points. Georgia’s Paul Marks is third with 1,513 points followed by Emil Wagner in fourth with 1,504 points and Andrew Loberg in fifth with 1,500 points. Ebare is sixth with 1,494 points, Tucker Smith is seventh with 1,492 points and Evan Kung is eighth with 1,456.
If the tournament ended today, Alabama’s Matt Adams would be the final angler to clinch an Elite Series invite with 1,454 points while Beau Browning would be the first man out with 1,443 points.
The full field of 121 anglers will launch from Wind Creek State Park beginning at 6:30 a.m. CT and return for weigh-in at 2:30 p.m. The co-angler champion will be crowned at the end of the Day 2 weigh-in while the Top 10 boaters will advance to Championship Saturday. Live coverage will air on FS2 Friday from 8 a.m. to noon ET and on FS1 Saturday from 8-11 a.m.
Lake Martin-Tallapoosa Country Tourism and Alexander City are hosting the event.
