Entry 96-4

Mark Davis' Worst Tournaments

Double-Propped

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 was fishing on Lake Guntersville, and I had drawn Denny Brauer as my partner. I had caught a few fish the first day, and Denny had not done so well, so we opted to go in my boat. I was fishing the lower part of the lake, and even though we fished hard we couldn't catch any bass. So, out of desperation, we went to the other end of the lake to try to find bass there.

On the way up the lake, one of the blades on the propeller on my motor spun off. Instead of a three-prop propeller, I now had a two-prop propeller, and we could hardly run. I keep a spare prop in my boat, so I told Denny it wouldn't be a big deal that I would just change the prop out. We were out in the middle of the lake, and I said, "We'll have to idle a long way to get to the bank. But, there's a big green log out there on a bar in the middle of the lake. I think I can stand on that log and change the prop out."

Now, in those days, I weighed almost 400 pounds. The log had green moss on it and was about as slick as it could be. But I got my tools out, and even though I nearly fell off the log two or three times, I got the prop changed. I got back in the boat, and we ran on up the lake. Sure enough, we found some bass. I thought, "We've turned this day around. We'll both have a good bag of fish at the weigh-in."

We left in plenty of time to return to the weigh-in, and about 10 or 15 miles from the weigh-in, I threw another part off that brand-new prop I had just put on. Even though the boat would go, it wouldn't run wide open. We had to go really slow to get to the weigh-in. Of course, I didn't have another prop. Nobody carries two props. I thought to myself, "I've never heard of anyone breaking one of the blades off a propeller in open water, and I know no one has broken two blades off two different props running in open water on the same day." We did get back to the weigh-in but we were penalized for being late.




 

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