Entry 33-3
Mark Davis
How A Spinner Bait Saved the Day for Mark Davis
Editor's Note: Mark Davis, 38, of Mount Ida, Arkansas, who won the BASS Masters Classic in 1995 and the Angler-of-the-Year title in 1995, 1998 and 2001, never has had a career outside the fishing industry. Davis is ranked third by www.BassFan.com for bass-fishing expertise.
Question: Can you tell us any more instances when Strike King saved the day?
Davis: I guess my biggest day saved by Strike King was in the 1995 BASS Masters Classic, on High Rock Lake in Lexington, North Carolina. The first day of that tournament I caught some fish on some top-water lures, and then I switched off and went to a crankbait. On that first day, I didn't weigh in any fish other than those caught on the top-water lures and the crankbait.
The second day of the tournament, which was the turning point for me, I went to these deep brush piles that I had located. I was catching a lot of big fish out of the brush on the crankbait. I couldn't catch them on the worm, I couldn't catch them on a jig, and although I had caught a few the first day on a crankbait, day two -- no bites. At 9:30 in the morning, I had not had a bite. I'm thinking, "What do I do? What can I throw in these brush piles to catch a fish?"
I tied on a ¾-ounce Strike King spinner bait that I'd made a few modifications to. It had a white skirt, and I replaced it with what I call a glimmer blue -- a pearl-blue skirt that looks like a shad. I modified the blades. I changed the blades to willow leaf, one gold and one nickel. And when I got all of that made up, I put a white pearl trailer on there and no trailer hook because I was going to be working through that deep brush.
I started casting into that brush pile, about 20-feet deep, and I worked that Strike King spinner bait through there several different ways, mostly just slow-rolling it. There were bass there, because I had caught a fish there the day before. And finally, I came through the brush pile with my spinner bait and felt it almost hang-up, like it was in some forks or some limbs. So, I reeled it really fast. I kind of ripped it through there, and then I killed it. And when I did, I caught a 5-pound bass.
I realized what I had done there on the first piece of the morning, the second day of the BASS Masters Classic. I had reeled that Strike King Spinner bait really fast through that brush pile before killing it and letting it flutter. And it produced a strike. An hour and a half of fishing there and about three or four brush piles later, I caught five bass weighing a combined total of 19 pounds. I didn't cull any fish. I got out of there. I was out of there by 11:00 a.m. or a little after.
After catching those fish on that Strike King spinner bait, the next day I used the spinner bait and the crankbait to go ahead and win the Classic. But I had not planned to use the spinner bait, and I didn't have one rigged-up ready to go the way I wanted it. I had to stop, put on the blades on and modify it to get it the way I wanted it. But it was that Strike King spinner bait that saved the day and won the Classic for me.
Question: Why did hitting the brush, speeding up and then killing the spinner bait work?
Davis: There are several reasons. First is that the lake is highly pressured. The fish there see a lot of lures. But I offered a different presentation. The Strike King spinner bait probably got those fish excited when it came crashing through the top of that brush and then stopped. I got that reaction strike. You could crawl the spinner bait through there all day long, and it wouldn't work. But if you speed it up right in that brush and then stop it, when it comes clear of the brush, you'll get the strike. Because the water was hot, you had to get the bass excited with that fast movement and then the stop.
