Bass Fishing Oct 2018 | Page 82

BACKLASH Q&A CLENT DAVIS MONTEVALLO, ALABAMA that’s oddly specific. did some- thing happen? Yeah, people noticed me. I was at LongHorn Steakhouse with the boss from Mister Twister. We sat down, and all of a sudden I looked around and realized everyone was kinda looking over at me. Like, “That’s the guy who just won the Cup.” It was so weird. What’s it like having a check for $300,000 in your wallet? I don’t know. My wife, Ashley, left with the check on Sunday [day three of the Cup]. Well, hopefully you get to see some of it. at least treat yourself to something, right? Actually, something I started doing this year that Cody Meyer and Jason Lambert got me into was camping at events. It’s the single greatest thing I’ve done for my fishing. I can’t explain it, but you gotta do it. So I told Ashley all I wanted was a little bit bigger camper. She was more than OK with that. We’ll probably put away the rest for our daughter, Kayt. how many calls and texts have you received? Thousands. I mean, honestly, more than a thousand; just people congrat- ulating me, or requests for interviews. It’s overwhelming, but it’s all good. When did you first realize you had the cup won? Not until Wes [Logan] raised his hand showing he only had one fish. 80 seriously? Yeah. I mean, I started getting a hunch when I saw Brad Knight out on the water, and he was giving me a thumbs up, and you showed up to take more photos. And then I got off the water and I had 200 texts saying “congrats,” but you never know with that live feed if someone catches them late. What was that moment like, on stage, with confetti raining down? It was crazy. It’s funny, I picked up my daughter to celebrate, and she just said, “Put me down.” She wanted to play and pick up the confetti. She and Ashley took a bag of confetti and kept it. You want to hear something cool about that? In 2015 [Lake Ouachita], I got off the stage on day two of the Cup, jumped in my car and drove straight home to witness the birth of our daughter. Three years later she’s on that stage picking up confetti. can you believe that after every- thing you’ve been through you’re now the cup champion? It’s crazy … man, you’re going to make me tear up. This dream all came about because a man named Brad Killingsworth took me to a pond when I was 5 or 6 years old and helped me catch my first fish. I remember it like it was yesterday. Caught that fish on a worm. He told me where to cast, and I didn’t even know how to set the hook. After that I was hooked. It’s all I ever wanted to do. Who’s Brad? He’s a family friend and like a sec- ond dad to me. He’s the one who real- ly got me into hunting and fishing. My parents were great, too. They took me fishing all the time, and as soon as I was 12 years old and I could legally run a boat with a motor, they’d drop me off on Lay Lake every day early in the morning. I’d fish all day while they were at work, and then they’d pick me up in the afternoon. It’s been two days since you won the cup. has it set in yet? Actually, yeah. It set in last night at dinner. By Sean Ostruszka obviously, that had to have a pro- found impact on your career. Oh, absolutely. But you know what? I probably wouldn’t be fishing profes- sionally without College Fishing. Why’s that? I got to meet Justin Lucas through that, because he was an emcee. He needed a place to stay, since he lived in California at the time. So I offered that he stay with me. We became friends, and he probably stayed with me off and on for a year or two. Cody Meyer started coming out with him and staying there, too. Those two are the ones who pushed me to try fishing as a co-angler. And when I finished fifth in my first tournament [2010 FLW Tour on Ouachita] I thought, “Dang, I need to keep doing this.” So I started fishing the Costas and did a full year on Tour as a co-angler. When I won the Pickwick event with Mark Rose, it basically paid my entry fee to go pro the next year. You talked about nearly quitting because you were burned out. I was. I just kept going fishing every day. I couldn’t stop, and I wasn’t enjoy- ing myself. so how do you plan to combat that this time around? By not fishing – competitively, at least – until next season. I realize I need to take a break. You look at someone like Andy Morgan; that’s what he does. He doesn’t fish non- stop. This way you can be rested for when the season starts. flWfIshIng.com I fall 2018