What Truck, Boat and Outboard does David run?

Ranger 185VS

150 Yamaha VMax HPDI       

Dadge Ram 1500

My Sponsors

None

What David does for a living:

College Professor

What you should know about David:

Devoted Christian

Married to wife Jan for 27+ yrs

Live in Dayton, TN

Love fishing Lake Chickamauga and Guntersville!

How David started fishing

I attribute my love of fishing to my uncle Lowell Fox. He loved the outdoors and spread that love to me.

Began seriously fishing primarily for bass after graduating from college. Was teaching K-12 Physical Education in central IL and loved fishing farm ponds and strip pits.

My wife encouraged me to try tournament fishing due to my love of fishing. I fish mainly as a co-angler due to lack of practice time but have been fishing tournaments since 2000.

Aspirations or goals with fishing

Love fishing ABA and BFL events.

Love taking people out and showing them how to catch fish, how to pick lures, etc.

I love my current job and location so I don't aspire to change my current situation.

Favorite way to fish

My favorite way to fish is any way that will catch them!

I enjoy throwing moving baits like crank baits, chatterbait, spinner baits, but also like catching them on worms and jigs!

Most exciting fishing experience

Many to choose from!

Catching a 10+ pound bass out of the 5 acre pond at my mom's retirement village in FL was great!

Catching 21.5 lbs in 1 hour on Guntersville in a BFL tournament!

Catching 25.5 lbs (best 5) on Chickamauga while fun fishing one evening.

Catching 18 keepers in 25 casts on Chckamauga!

How David preps for a tournament

Check weather reports for tournament days.

Check and retie baits and lines.

Usually fish 1-2 days prior to tourney, with friend,  to check what fish are doing and biting.

Three favorite search baits

Square bill, Chatterbait, Red-eye shad rattle bait.

Best tournament finish and what you did that day when you were fishing.

Won a BFL Super tournament.

First day caught them mainly on spinner bait. Second day caught them on Frog.

Won ABA on Chick - swim jig and squarebill

Won ABA on Watts Bar - worms and jig

Most challenging part of tournament fishing

As a co-angler: adjusting to your partner's style of fishing. My buddy and I may have caught them good shallow, but my tournament partner might be fishing deep.

As a boater: making adjustments when fish have moved or conditions have changed.

When tournaments don't go my way

Consider it as a learning event. Try to figure out why I wasn't successful.

Advice to give to an aspiring tournament angler:

There is no substitute to time on the water!

Always have fun! No matter how poorly you do in an event, always remember that you got to go fishing!

Some shared general bass fishing techniques for people just getting into the sport

When fishing a squarebill crankbait, don't just reel it back in, try to make it swim erratically by stop cranking, pulling your rod, hitting rocks or stumps, etc.