Entry 104-3

Road To The Classic - Mark Davis

Table Rock Days 2, 3 and 4

Editor's Note: On May 22, 2004, in Columbus, Mississippi, on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, Mark Davis of Mt. Ida, Arkansas, once again proved why he deserves to go to the 2004 BASS Masters Classic. From the first day of the tournament until the last day, Davis lead the field of Elite 50 and won the tournament. "I started looking for these bass using a Strike King Series 1 crankbait. But on the last day, I had to change to the Strike King 3X ribbontail worm to win the tournament."

This week we're looking at the five defining times throughout Mark Davis' year of professional bass fishing that has secured him a place in this year's BASS Masters Classic.

Davis: Although the first day at Table Rock was the most-important day of the season for me to make the Classic, finishing eighth at the Eufaula tournament was the second-most-important time for me making the Classic this year. I'll have to say that the second, third and fourth days at Table Rock were the third most-critical times in my career this year. You have to remember that on the first day at Table Rock, I was fortunate enough to find a lot of big bass feeding in run-off water during and after a rain storm. But after the storm on the second, third and fourth days, the bass wouldn't hit my Strike King spinner bait. That was a one-day, one-tactic strategy that worked, but it wasn't a pattern that would hold up for the rest of the tournament.

So, on the second, third and fourth days of the tournament after the rain had already passed, I switched tactics and baits and started fishing a Strike King Series 3 crankbait, in the chartreuse/root beer color because it would show up well in the stained water. Fishing this crank bait on spinning tackle with light line, I moved out of the backs of the creeks into deeper, stained water and caught bass on the crank bait. As that stained water moved out toward the main river channel, I started fishing rock bluffs and casting parallel to those rock bluffs. I was making long casts parallel to the bank and fishing that crank bait really slowly. I was reeling the crank bait down quickly and reeling it really slowly and bumping it off rocks. I think that the bass liked that chartreuse/root beer color because it looked like a crawfish and acted like a crawfish out there on those rocks.

Rarely will one day and one pattern win a tournament for you. If I had one tip to give our readers, it would be to watch the weather and water conditions and adapt your fishing to suit the weather and water conditions on the day you're fishing. If I'd wasted a lot of time fishing the backs of the creeks where I'd caught all my fish the day before, I might not have put in the time I needed to spend on those rocky bluff banks with the crank bait and carried that opening-day lead into a win on the final day. I think one of the big mistakes that fishermen make is fishing the spots where the bass were yesterday instead of fishing the spots where the bass are today.




 

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