Entry 96-2

Mark Davis' Worst Tournaments

The Tournament I Got Nailed

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: I never will forget the tournament on Lake Santee Cooper in 1993. My back trouble had been cured, but it seemed as though I had every other kind of problem a fisherman could have. During one of the first days of the tournament, I was running down a canal when I saw a submerged log just before I got on top of it. What I didn't see was that the log a nail in it about the size of a railroad spike. That spike ripped a hole the entire length of my boat, totally ruining my boat and my day.

Having my boat torn up in a tournament was an enormous disadvantage. The only way I could fish was to borrow a boat. When you're fishing in your own boat, you know the exact location of all of your lures and accessories. When you have to borrow a boat, you have to transfer all your equipment, and you can't remember where you have stored anything. You're much like a blind man in a boxing contest.

On the last day of the tournament I hooked three different 8-pound bass on a top-water lure and lost all three of them. One of the bass jumped off, another bass came off right as I tried to lip him, and the other bass pulled off as I brought it to the boat. I think I had every problem that a bass fisherman could have at that tournament, or at least I thought so, until it was time to weigh-in. When I got to the weigh-in, once again I found I had missed making the Classic by one spot. They took the bass of the fisherman who was just above me in the standings, and I didn't make it by about a pound.

In every tournament you fish to win. But also you try to build points to make it to the Bassmaster Classic. The Classic is the biggest event of the year. And, now for the second consecutive year I had failed to make the cut. I began to wonder if bad luck would plague me throughout the rest of my career.




 

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