Entry 33-4
Mark Davis
Strike King Series 5 Red Crawfish
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 name another time when Strike King saved the day?
Davis: When you are not planning on having to save your day of bass fishing, that's what's great about Strike King. You don't know what the day has in store for you. But, if you make a change, and it works out for you - then, that's great. But, you don't leave the boat ramp that morning with this in mind; the idea comes to you on the water.
Once I was on Lake Wheeler, the Tennessee River impoundment in north Alabama during 2001. I was in the Angler-of-the-Year race, in second or third place, trying to get on top with only a few tournaments to go. Each fish in that tournament was very important. On the first day of the tournament, I caught a number of good fish on a Premier Elite jig and that was really my basic pattern. I was leading the tournament after the first day. I had caught all of my fish on a jig, but then day two of the tournament, things changed.
With only a couple of bass in the livewell from a jig, the fish quit biting the jig. I had to change areas and tactics; I was scrambling. But I felt with the water falling and clearing-up, and the fish pulling off of the shallow banks I had been catching them on that a crankbait might work. So I went to some underwater structure points. I tied-on a Strike King Series 5 red crawfish crankbait.
Series 5 is my favorite crankbait. It is what I call a medium runner and is going to run anywhere from 8 to 12 feet deep, depending on length of cast, size of line, rod elevation, and so forth. I went to the Series 5 red crawfish and started combing the ends of these long points that ran out into the end of the lake. It produced a big stringer for me - about 15 pounds of bass. That lure saved the day for me again. I went on and had a top-5 finish in that event and eventually won Angler of the Year that year, another time when Strike King saved the day.
