Entry 104-4

Road To The Classic - Mark Davis

Diamonds at Guntersville

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 have secured him a place in this year's Classic.

Davis: When the tournament circuit went to Lake Guntersville, Alabama, in the spring of 2004, I decided to fish the Diamond Shad with a chartreuse belly, a black back and black stripes on a red body. The water temperature had really dropped when we arrived at to Guntersville, and I found the bass holding in the milfoil.

I had two really-good days of catching bass on the Diamond Shad at this lake fishing the Diamond Shad really slowly. I tried to fish the bass as you normally would a Diamond Shad, but the bass wouldn't take it on a fast retrieve. So, I changed retrieves to a pump-and-wind, yo-yo type retrieve. I'd pick up the bait with the rod tip, let it fall, pick it up again and allow it to fall. When the lure would hit grass, I'd pull it off the grass really easy and let it fall again. I learned that if I cranked the bait with a steady retrieve I couldn't get any strikes. But when I yo-yoed the Diamond Shad and fished it really slowly, the bass would eat it up.

Here's another tip to remember. Just because a bait like the Diamond Shad is considered a search bait and a fast-retrieve bait, that doesn't mean you can't fish it slowly and change the action of the lure to catch bass. In this tournament, if I'd fished the Diamond Shad like most people always fish the Diamond Shad, I wouldn't have caught any fish. Another thing to remember is that most people fish the Diamond Shad on flats and around open water, but I was fishing it in and through grass like you'd normally fish a spinner bait or a buzzbait or flip and pitch a tube and a jig. Therefore, by fishing a lure a different way with a different retrieve in a different type of structure than most people did, I was able to catch bass in a way that most anglers couldn't catch bass.

Don't be afraid to experiment with your lures. Try to learn all the many various ways and places that you can fish each one of the Strike King lures. Then you'll be more effective and catch more bass. I found, at Guntersville that I had to pause the bait, drop the bait and/or pump the bait to get a strike. But learning and trying this technique on that lake, during that tournament was another key ingredient to my making this year's Classic.




 

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