Even if they can’t gather for their usual Father’s Day feast, the Davises of Sylacauga, Ala., will be experiencing perhaps their happiest ever.
Things are going great for Elite Series rookie Will Davis Jr. The same goes for his father and next-door neighbor, William Davis. Will threw baits his dad developed to win May’s Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake, their home lake.
“It’s very exciting times. It doesn’t get any better than that,” Will Davis said for this article. “It’s very special. That might be a once-in-a-lifetime deal to have all your friends and family there.”
There are more firsts for Will Davis this week. It was birthday No. 1 for daughter, Chandler, days before his first Father’s Day.
“It means a lot to me. Being a dad is the best feeling in the world, getting to see her smile, playing with our two dogs,” he said. “She’s got an unbelievable mom, Megan. I couldn’t do any of this without her. She’s the best wife and mom a man could ask for. It’s a very special first Father’s Day.”
The tight-knit family had a shindig for Mother’s Day, the day Davis edged two of the Elites’ top winners in his fifth Elite entry. In hopes of continuing his impressive season, Davis won’t be home Sunday. He traveled for his first look at fisheries on the Elites’ northern swing.
Although they’ll be apart, William Davis understands his son’s desire to keep rolling. Dad has always been his son’s biggest fan.
“He’s been a blessing to me and his momma (Donna),” he said. “He’s my best friend, and he’s my hero. If you see any of the pictures taken of us together, it shows. I didn’t really realize that until I got to looking at some of the pictures. You can’t disguise how big of a hero he is of mine.”
Doing it all for son
The Davises are blue-collar. William Davis, who worked 20 years at a paper mill, had tournament aspirations but was limited by four weeks of vacation, entry fees and substandard lures. Necessity being the mother of invention, he started building his own lures. When he succeeded, others noticed. They wanted his lures, too. He soon obliged.
“What got him in that business was he was tired of losing tournaments because of lure malfunction,” Will Davis said. “The quality was not there. He finally figured out he had a talent for building lures and just ran with it. He’s been very successful.”
William Davis won a “bunch of tournaments” and qualified to several Alabama B.A.S.S. Nation teams. Getting his lure manufacturing business running also kept him off the water.
“In 1992, the year Will was born, I made the state team to fish at Santee Cooper,” he said. “I actually didn’t even go because I was trying to take care of business at home. Once he was born, I really focused on him. No regrets there whatsoever.”
Like most dads, William Davis provided his expertise, time and resources to his boy. Fishing was always a part of their life, but first dad helped his son become a championship American Skeet shooter. Will Davis realized his dad’s sacrifices.
“When I was 5, he quit working out there making good money, where he could start up his bait business and spend more time with me,” Will said. “Everybody told him he was crazy for leaving a big job. He would never make it. He proved them wrong. I love that.”
William Davis said he read this somewhere, but he took it to heart.
“Your son is the only man that you’ll ever want to outdo you in anything,” he said. “I always wanted Will to do better than what I did, whether it be shooting or fishing. And he’s accomplished that by a long shot.”
Taking his first shot at the outdoors
Will Davis was 2 when his dad put him on his first fish, a bream. Donna’s photo of it was made into a painting that hangs in the family’s cabin on Lake Martin.
His first bass came at 5, and their first bass tournament came a year later, a team event on Lay Lake. They launched out of Cedar Creek, with Will Davis questioning the monster Davis jig, “a black and blue,” his father had him throw.
“I ain’t seen nothing this big,” he said. “‘Will they hit this?’ I don’t think I got a bite on it, but we didn’t fish long.”
A lightning storm popped up, scrambling them off the water. Will Davis recalls his dad had him get under the console as they ran in.
“I was down there near his feet while coming back down river,” he said. “It was scary at the time, but a memory I’ll never forget.”
Better memories were made shooting. During deer hunts with his great uncle Chester Smith, Will Davis was discovered to be a good shot. His dad, also a crack shot and a shooting coach for years, fed that interest.
“If we could do it right and show him what the value of the outdoors really was, I felt like he could make a living,” he said. “I knew at an early age. You see guys who knock home runs in baseball or shoot a lot of hoops in basketball — he was that kid in the outdoors. His hand-eye coordination is good.”
Multi-world champion Gabby Hulgan was hired to teach Will Davis everything about shooting trap and skeet. Will Davis won a handful of 4-H state titles, and at 10, set an impressive mark.
“I had a world record at the time for the youngest to ever shoot 100 out of 100,” he said.
The Davises took their son around the country for junior events, and he became a multi-world champion. From 14 to 18, he competed in about 25 tournaments a year, shooting upwards of 500 rounds in each. He competed against Olympic shooters and was pursued by the Olympic team.
“I got a long ways in the shooting world,” he said. “There just wasn’t any money in it. I got burned out. I actually developed a flinching problem because I shot so much. It was God’s way of telling me this ain’t where I need to be.
“I did not understand that at the time. We went to five different people to try to get that solved. It helped. In American Skeet, you can’t have any hiccups at the top of the game. It’s like the Elite Series, you can’t miss if you’re going to win.”
His last big tournament was the 4-H National Championship in San Antonio. Participants could only compete in one during high school, and Will Davis picked his senior year. He medaled out of 500 entrants.
“I shot that and hung it up,” he said. “I coached for a while and still coach periodically, kids and some high school. The passion just left me.”
Reloading for a shot at fishing
Will Davis was also fishing tournaments with his dad and other partners. As high school fishing took off, he did, too. In 2011, he was named Alabama Student Angler of the Year. Bethel University coach Garry Mason visited to gauge Will’s interest of attending the college in McKenzie, Tenn.
“He came out to talk to him about shooting, and he ended up going fishing,” William Davis said. “Will told me he was burned out. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my, I had spent all this money getting him here, and he doesn’t want to do it anymore.’
“His mom said all he wants is to be like you, the fishing part. That really hit home with me.”
At Bethel on a full scholarship, Will Davis won a title in 2012, but college wasn’t for him. He left after 2 1/2 years, returning home to work, and fish.
“I just got out with general studies and came back and started working in the bait business,” he said. “That and flipping burgers at local barbecue joint.”
Will Davis, who also guided hunting and fishing outings, then took a hospital job conducting sleep studies, which made his dad think “he had bumped his head.”
Bass still called, and winning around 30 events on Lay Lake gave Will Davis the incentive to step up and compete in the Bassmaster Southern Opens in 2017, where he narrowly missed an Elite invitation. He fell into his father’s trap of making decent money but not being able to take off enough time from work to compete on bigger stages.
So, Will Davis headed to the working man’s B.A.S.S. Nation in 2019. Having Lay Lake on the schedule helped him make Alabama’s 10-man team two times. In 2022, he parlayed victories on Lay Lake and Smith Lake to reach the National Championship on Pickwick lake.
“All I wanted to do is to fish the Bassmaster Classic one time. Just one time,” he said. “When I won at Pickwick, I finally got to fulfill my dream. I never knew I would be sitting where I am now with just three tournaments to go in the Elite series. Very blessed.”
The Pickwick win afforded Will Davis an invitation to fish the Elites. With Davis Bait Company as his title sponsor, he has made all but one Elite two-day cut to stand sixth in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings, and he leads the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year race. Much of it has been with his father’s lures, a point of pride for both.
“It’s definitely a big advantage for me, being his son,” he said. “So blessed and it saved me tremendously. His baits are some of the best on the market. It’s got me where I’m at, for sure.”
Davis influence in bait business
William, 61, figured he’s been making lures for 46 years, at times collaborating with some of the biggest names in fishing. After outgrowing his garage then two small buildings, he relocated Davis Bait Company to a 17,000 square-foot facility in Sylacauga, where 9 million baits are produced annually.
“The very first lure was the Shaky Worm and a Shaky Head. We have it registered,” said William, who worked on it with good friend Aaron Martens. “But the biggest thing Aaron and I did was the Scrounger bait.”
William Davis said Martens, the “smartest angler ever,” would come to the cabin on Lake Martin and “drag baits up and down pier lights to watch them. Times were so good. I’ll always cherish those times he and I spent.”
He’s also been blessed to work with other companies and designers, including Braxton McNaughton of NetBait, Ed Chambers of Zoom and crankbait expert Lee Sisson.
Also fondly recalled were his visits with B.A.S.S. founder Ray Scott, who loved eating at Hobos in Sylacauga.
“It was Ray’s Day when he came,” he said. “I used to spend a lot of time there with Ray. He wasn’t a tournament fisherman, but he was a guy who made tournament fishing. Always cherished that type of visit. I learned a lot from him. I miss him too, just, like I do Aaron.”
Having great son, dad
Sunday, when families across America get together to celebrate dads, Will Davis won’t be home. Dad realizes the import of his scouting mission, but the two will miss being with all their family.
“Usually, we go fishing. Or we cook on the smoker,” Will Davis said. “I cherish every Father’s Day I get to spend with him. He means everything to me. We fish 25, 30 tournaments a year around the house. I don’t ever take him for granted. One day I’ll look and he won’t be in the back fishing with me. That’s very emotional to me.
“I want to spend as much time with him as I can, while I can. We have a great bond as a father and son. We’ve done so much in the shooting world, the hunting, the fishing. We’ve lived it to the fullest. I couldn’t be more blessed to have a dad like him.”
Being right next door, a “rock throw away,” it’s easy for them to visit. (And Megan enjoys having a built-in babysitter.) The mutual admiration is evident, the son appreciating all his father has done through the years, and dad watching his son take on the world.
“God give me good product to work with,” William Davis said. “It’s a pretty amazing ride. I wish a lot of the fathers could go through what I’m going through and just enjoy watching him.
“He’s living my dream. I always wanted to fish for a living. I just could never get off enough to do all of it. He’s a good father. He’s a good son to me and his mom. You couldn’t ask for any better.”
Happy Father’s Day to the Davises, and all the dads out there.
