Davis Still Leads Invitationals Championship Tournament on Mississippi River

LA CROSSE, Wis. (Sept. 6, 2025) – Day 2 of the Invitationals Championship tournament on the Mississippi River was fun in and of itself, and it sets things up for what could be one of the more dramatic final days of the season. Weighing 14 pounds, 15 ounces, Albertville, Alabama pro Alex Davis stayed in the lead with a 33-12 total. Meanwhile, Banks Shaw of Harrison, Tennessee, added an even 15 pounds to sneak within 4 ounces of Davis, with a 33-8 total. Behind the top two, pros Jimmy Washam and Steve Lopez are both over 32 pounds, and even Louisiana pro Colby Miller in sixth place is within striking range, with a 30-8 total.

Once again the weather was cool, but the wind relented on Day 2, which allowed some anglers to fish more easily, especially those plying shallow vegetation. With no forward-facing sonar in play, some pros had tougher, less precise days, but the change worked out quite well for others. Though the weights tumbled around a good bit, the fishing was a little better on Day 2 overall – on Day 1, just four pros caught better than 16 pounds, and on Day 2, eight pros accomplished the feat.

Davis is on the cusp 
Trying to frog his way to a win, Davis whipped up to Pool 7 on Day 1 and caught most of his weight in about 15 minutes. That didn’t quite work out on Day 2.

“I aged about five years today,” said the veteran pro. “I had three that weighed 7 pounds in the first 45 minutes and then fished until 1:40 and never had another bite. Then, I found one little mat about 30 yards by 30 yards, and I ended up filling my limit out and culled three times right there and had one big one hit it and not get it.”

Some might say it was lucky, but Davis’ late rally was very much the result of commitment to a pattern with an expert at the wheel. Raised frogging and flipping on Lake Guntersville, the Alabama pro is deadly with the big stick. If his frog fish work out again – or if he finds more – Shaw and everyone else will have a tough row to hoe. 

“I’m thinking of starting there in the morning and then going back into Pool 7,” Davis explained. “I think the water dropping is what has made [the frog bite] worse – practice was better. Now, it’s so shallow, I think the fish have pulled out of a lot of the frog areas. I’ve got a couple places left, and I’m going to hope it works tomorrow.”

One ace Davis still has up his sleeve is the Black River. Though he’ll have company, Davis has made hay in the Black before, and there’s a good chance he’ll slip some into the rotation if the frog fish aren’t paying out as planned.

“I didn’t come to the Black River today because I thought my best option was to frog,” Davis said. “Today, I ran around for two-and-a-half or three hours – I will spend that time in the Black River tomorrow.”

Without a national win to his name, Davis probably has as good a chance now as he’s ever had, but he knows it won’t come easy.

“It would mean everything to win,” Davis said. “We’re going to have to see. I just need to catch 18 or 19 (pounds). Banks is going to catch them better tomorrow. I hope I can catch them better tomorrow too.”

Shaw narrows the gap 
Weighing four smallmouth and one largemouth, Shaw weathered the no-‘Scope day with ease, as he usually does. And, given that he may have a few options come back into play on Day 3, he could be a dangerous man.

“It definitely could have been worse,” Shaw said. “I was shooting for the 16- or 17-pound mark. I caught three good smallmouth and then some decent ones, but I couldn’t get a big bite. My largemouth bite wasn’t as good as I was expecting it to be – the cloud cover that moved in right as I started fishing my docks probably hurt it.”

Fishing mostly current-related places for his smallmouth, Shaw is looking forward to getting his electronics back in play on the final day.

“Tomorrow I think it’s going to be better,” he said. “I couldn’t really catch the fish I was fishing for that good today. I knew they were there; they were coming up schooling and stuff like that, but being able to look at them a little better tomorrow will be nice. I’ll be able to line my stuff up better. I fished several places today where I couldn’t get them to bite – I realized these fish are keying on baitfish, not a bottom bait, and I had to throw a bottom bait on some places just to get down to the fish.”

Having weighed nine smallmouth so far, Shaw is executing on his pre-tournament plan to perfection.

“It’s feels like I’m right at home,” he said. “I’ve fished on the Tennessee River my whole life, and it’s the same deal. Reading current seams and seeing where the fish set up. I love this kind of fishing, and I knew I didn’t want to be with everybody else, throwing a frog, punching. I wanted to try to do something a little different.”

Heading out on Championship Sunday, Shaw will have a chance to finish off a nearly perfect season with a massive win, sweeping Fishing Clash Angler of the Year, Polaris Rookie of the Year and making every Top 10.

“I’m super excited to get going tomorrow and try to catch 16 or 17 pounds and make Alex or whoever is with me catch the same bag,” Shaw said. “It’s definitely a good position to be in, but there’s definitely a lot of work ahead.”

The top 10 anglers advancing to Championship Sunday on the Mississippi River are:

1st:        Alex Davis, Albertville, Ala., 10 bass, 33-12
2nd:       Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 10 bass, 33-8
3rd:       Jimmy Washam, Stantonville, Tenn., 10 bass, 32-10
4th:        Steve Lopez, Oconomowoc, Wis., 10 bass, 32-5
5th:        Chad Mrazek, Montgomery, Texas, 10 bass, 31-2
6th:        Colby Miller, Elmer, La., 10 bass, 30-8
7th:        Matt Reed, Madisonville, Texas, 10 bass, 28-15
8th:        Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 28-6
9th:        Andrew Nordbye, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 28-6
10th:     Jacob Walker, Springville, Ala., 10 bass, 28-5

Eliminated from competition in 11th through 36th place are:

11th:     Mitchell Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 10 bass, 28-4
12th:     Keith Poche, Cecil, Ala., 10 bass, 28-0
13th:     Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, 10 bass, 27-13
14th:     Jordan Wiggins, Cullman, Ala., 10 bass, 27-6
15th:     Jon Canada, Helena, Ala., 10 bass, 27-4
16th:     Hayden Marbut, Grant, Ala., 10 bass, 26-2
17th:     Kyle Cortiana, Broken Arrow, Okla., 10 bass, 25-12
18th:     Levi Thibodaux, Thibodaux, La., nine bass, 25-5
19th:     Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 10 bass, 24-13
20th:     Dustin Smith, Trussville, Ala., nine bass, 23-13
21st:      Christian Greico, New Bern, N.C., 10 bass, 23-5
22nd:    Joseph Webster, Hamilton, Ala., 10 bass, 23-4
23rd:     Cal Lane, Grant, Ala., 10 bass, 22-15
24th:     Ethan Greene, Eufaula, Ala., eight bass, 22-3
25th:     Terry Fisher, Decatur, Ala., 10 bass, 22-2
26th:     Blake Hall, Rogersville, Ala., eight bass, 20-9
27th:     Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., seven bass, 18-14
28th:     Robby Lefere, Jackson, Mich., seven bass, 18-6
29th:     Brian Latimer, Belton, S.C., eight bass, 18-3
30th:     Jack Daniel Williams, Kingsport, Tenn., seven bass, 16-8
31st:      Ken Thompson, Roaring Springs, Pa., five bass, 15-14
32nd:    Thomas Wooten, Huddleston, Va., six bass, 14-7
33rd:     Lane Olson, Forest Grove, Ore., five bass, 12-1
34th:     Britt Myers Jr., Clover, S.C., six bass, 11-8
35th:     Alex Bradley, Wellford, S.C., five bass, 8-13
36th:     Brett Carnright, Plattsburgh, N.Y., three bass, 6-14

Overall, there were 150 bass weighing 411 pounds, 7 ounces caught by 33 pros on Saturday. The catch included 26 five-bass limits.

Pro Colby Miller of Elmer, Louisiana, brought a 5-pound, 6-ounce largemouth to the scale that was the biggest of the day to earn the Berkley Big Bass award of $1,000.