David Kilgore reflects on his experiences fishing in Bassmaster Tournaments

Words by Terrell Manasco | Images by Blakeney Clouse

On a quiet, January morning, a convoy of pickup trucks, all pulling boat trailers, rolls through the parking lot, their headlights slicing harsh, bluish-white beams through the black velvet darkness. It is hours before the sun wakes up and bitterly cold—only nine degrees—the kind of cold that stings your face. As their families snooze in their warm beds, Bassmaster angler David Kilgore and his fellow companions shiver in sub-freezing temperatures while struggling to put their boats in the icy water.

 “The boats were frozen to the trailers,” David explains. “I had to back them in and let them sit for a while.”

 When you’re competing in fishing tournaments like the Bassmaster Classic, weather is always a concern. You simply prepare and adapt as best you can. “When you go off and do it for several days, you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature—hot, cold, whatever,” David shrugs. “You're up way before daylight. The weather doesn’t matter. If it’s pouring down rain, you're still out there.”

 Of course, it’s not always sub-freezing temperatures with which anglers have to contend. “Last year in the Orlando area, it was record highs for five out of the eight days we were there,” David says. “It was 95 degrees—in January.”

 A 1992 Walker High graduate, David attended the University of South Alabama on a basketball scholarship and later played at Bevill State Community College in Fayette. He got his real estate license at 19 and began working with the family business, Kilgore Realty, where he is a realtor, appraiser, and commercial property manager.

 In the early 2000s, David began fishing in the BASS Southern Open (since renamed the Eastern Open) as a co-angler. “The co-angler is pretty much your marshal for the day. They make sure you're doing everything right and I’m making sure they are,” he says. “I was 8-for-8 on making the cuts and making the championship cut for both years and won a substantial amount of money from the back of the boat.”

 At first, he mostly did it for fun. After he got serious about fishing from the front of the boat, he made the Top 30 cut for a tournament at Wheeler Lake near Decatur. “I was tickled,” he says. “After that, I made seven cuts in a row. I said, I’ve got a knack for this stuff, so I kept on with it.”

 A knack, indeed. So far, David has participated in 68 tournaments, finishing in 1st place on four occasions and making the Top Ten cut 14 times. He has won two Southern Opens, wins that qualified him for the 2014 and 2015 Bassmaster Classic, the “Super Bowl” of bass fishing. He has also qualified for the Bassmaster Elite Series three times.

 Thanks to generous sponsors like Duckett Fishing Rods and Reels, Vicious Fishing Line, Power-Pole, Carl Cannon Chevrolet Buick Oldsmobile GMC, and Strike King Lure Company, David can park his Bass Cat Lynx with a 250 Mercury Pro XS Fourstroke on a lake somewhere between Florida and New York every year and wait for his next bass. He’s actually competing with the fish, he says, not the other anglers, and compares fishing to “putting together a million-piece puzzle.”

 “How hot or cold is the water? Is there grass or rock? Is the sun out or is it cloudy? Is the wind blowing?” David says. “Most of it is weather-driven. Wintertime fishing is more fun because cold water fish just seem to bite better. I like the mental grind of it. You have to face what mother nature throws at you.”

 What’s the biggest fish he ever caught? Four years ago, he landed an 11-pound, 11-ounce bass.

 Yep, David Kilgore definitely has a knack for it. 78