Hite Hopes His Luck On Northern Waters Holds For Elite Series On Mississippi River
Davy Hite is looking for a good finish on the Mississippi River this weekend. Photo by Seigo Saito
It’s been a busy June for B.A.S.S. pro Davy Hite and he’d love nothing more than to cap the month off with a high finish in the Bassmaster Elite Series tournament this weekend on the Mississippi River near LaCrosse, Wis.
“I’m a long, long way from home and on a real northern trip,” Hite said with a chuckle following the final half-day of practice Wednesday afternoon.
His northern swing began right after he and fellow former Bassmaster Classic Champion Hank Parker participated in a Pure Fishing sponsored Take A Kid Fishing Day at Fort Jackson, near Columbia, S.C., not far from Hite’s home in Ninety Six, S.C.
“It was a lot of fun. There were about 400 people there and I got to meet a lot of young fishermen – and some older ones, too. They served us some really good barbecue, too.”
But that was the last of the Southern cuisine he enjoyed for a while as he, wife Natalie and younger son Peyton, left the next day for Detroit, Mich., pulling his bass boat.
“Kevin VanDam had asked me to participate in an annual Detroit Lions charity fishing event. So I took some of the guests out and met some of the ball players for a couple of days. Then I left there and drove over the Lake St. Clair in Michigan. The last time I was there I was fortunate to win the Elite Tournament on St. Clair.”
From there, he went on to VanDam’s home for a day, then headed for LaCrosse, Wis., to practice for the Elite Tournament this weekend.
“I worked at Gander Mountain for some of my sponsors on Saturday, then spent Sunday getting my tackle together and started practice on Monday. So, it’s been a really busy week and a half.”
And, he noted, his northern swing won’t be over when the tournament ends. Next week he and the other pros head to Lake Mille Lacs, Minnesota’s second largest lake, up near the border with Canada, for a writer’s conference.
But, first there is the sixth of nine 2013 Elite Series tournaments, the Mississippi River Rumble. Hite finished 24th in the Rumble on the Mississippi at LaCrosse just exactly a year ago this week and he hopes to do a lot better this time around.
The odds may be on his side, because a lot of his top 20 finishes have come on rivers and he has done well on the northern reaches of the Mighty Mississippi. In 2005 he recorded a second place finish on Lake Wissola near Chippewa Falls, Wis., less than 100 miles north of LaCrosse on the Chippewa River, a tributary of the Mississippi.
And in September 1998 he made bass fishing history, winning what at that time was the largest cash prize ever in a bass tournament – $250,000 – in the Walmart FLW Tour Championship on the Mississippi River.
“We are fishing Pools 7, 8 and 9 in this tournament and when I won the FLW Championship I was fishing Pool 11, which is downstream just a few pools. I have some really fond memories of fishing this stretch of the Mississippi,” Hite said.
“The fishing is a little tougher than it was this time last year,” Hite said. “There are still lots of fish, but just like last year, it’s going to be important to catch 3- and 4-pound fish. There are a lot of 2-pound fish here.”
Hite goes into the tournament this week, ranked 46th in the Angler of the Year standings and he needs a strong finish in the remaining three tournaments to qualify for his 15th Bassmaster Classic.
“They will take 38, 39 or 40 from the Elite field, depending on crossovers to the Open Series, so I am right at the bubble,” he said. “A win here would be nice – that’s what I am shooting for.”
Bassmaster Elite Series – Mississippi River Rumble
Jun 20-23, 2013
Mississippi River near LaCrosse, WI
Copeland Park
