Entry 96-1

Mark Davis' Worst Tournaments

The Real Pain-In-The-Neck Tournament

Editor's Note: Thirty-nine-year-old Mark Davis, who has fished in numerous Classics, has won Angler of the Year three times and has won the Bassmaster Classic in 1995. Davis ranked third on the BASS circuit in 2003 and recently won $100,000 in March, 2004 at the B.A.S.S. Table Rock Lake Tournament in Arkansas. Davis, a quiet, gentle man, competes fiercely once a tournament starts. This week Davis will tell us about some of his worst tournament experiences.

Davis: Without question, the absolute worst tournament I ever had occurred in May, 1992, on Lake Murray, in South Carolina. I had a neck problem and had a vertebra out of alignment. Because of that condition I didn't have much use of my left arm. I didn't really know how I got the problem, but at this time, I was really overweight, and that could have contributed to it. The problem was so severe that I contemplated having neck surgery.

Luckily I had found plenty of bass, which were 4 to 5 pounders. I was catching the bass on a floating worm and a Carolina-rigged worm. I held my casting rod in my left hand, and when I set the hook, for some reason I didn't have any feeling in my hand. So, I couldn't tell whether the fish was on or not, and I didn't have any grip in my left hand. I was trying to wind in these 4- and 5-pound bass, but because I didn't have any feeling in my left hand and arm, I kept losing bass. I was so frustrated, aggravated, mad and upset that I didn't know what to do. I was losing big fish all day long.

Without the sensitivity in your hand and arm, you really don't know how the bass are acting, when they are putting slack in your line or how to play them. I can't remember being this upset in a tournament before. Because I didn't catch the big fish I should have caught, I missed the Classic that year by one pound. I hooked up my boat and started to drive home feeling just about as miserable as a fisherman could feel. I got about 100 miles down the Interstate, and the wheel bearings went out on the left side of my trailer. So, I had to replace the wheel bearings on the left side of the trailer. Now, I was even more upset and thinking about what else could go wrong. Another 200 miles down the road, the wheel bearings on the other side of the trailer went out. All the way home I was thinking:

I've missed the Classic.

My left arm is so messed up I can't fish.

I had plenty of big fish hooked that could have easily put me in the Classic.

I've had two wheel bearings go out on my trailer in one day.

My left arm hurts.

I may have to have surgery and miss part of next year.

 

That had to be the lowest I had ever felt in my entire fishing career. I went through six months of treatment with a chiropractor, and my neck got better and the feeling came back in my left arm and hand, so I didn't have to have surgery.




 

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