Entry 118-2
How to Keep a Streak Going with Mark Davis
How to Size Up a New Area You’ve Never Fished Before
Editor's Note: For four months in the spring of 2004, Mark Davis, of Mt. Ida, Arkansas, was possibly the hottest bass fisherman on the professional circuit. During that four-month period, Davis went on a winning streak and won three BASS tournaments against the best bass fishermen in the nation. For four months, Davis consistently performed at the very peak of his ability and consistently outperformed all of his competition. This week, Davis will tell us how he maintained that high level of bass-fishing performance for four months and won three major tournaments while he was in the zone. From listening to Davis explaining the streak, we’ll learn more about how to bass fish better and catch more bass every time we go fishing.
Davis: The first thing I do when I pull into an place I have never fished before is to look at the water’s color. If I have caught bass in a particular color of water at another place on the lake, I want to try to find that same color water in this new area. Next I check the water temperature. Bass will tend to hold in the same color water and water temperature where you have caught them before. I’ll look at the available cover. Is there any of the same type cover in that new area that I have caught bass on in the other parts of the lake I have fished? I check the depth of the water. Then I look for a little channel or a little creek where there may be some deep water right beside shallow water. I size up a new area really quickly to try to determine its bass-producing potential. I try to determine which piece of cover in that area has the best potential to produce a bass. I go to that piece of cover first. I’m not really concerned with fishing the whole area. After you have made all those decisions, you have to depend on your past knowledge of fishing lakes like the lake you’re fishing that day.
For instance, when we were fishing Table Rock, the water had been muddy on the first day. So, a Strike King spinner bait was the appropriate lure to use. I like to fish a spinner bait when I have either windy or off-color water conditions. On the second day of the tournament, the lake had already began to clear. Even though I threw the spinner bait that I had used the day before, I couldn’t make the bass bite it. That’s when I realized that because the water was clearing, a crankbait or a jig would be more appropriate to get the fish to bite in that clear-water condition.
Herein lies another secret to keeping a streak going. You have to quickly determine why the fish aren’t biting the lure you’re throwing and determine quickly what lures would be more appropriate for the water and weather conditions you’re fishing at that moment. The faster you can make those decisions and the changes, the more time you have to fish with lures that have a better chance of getting the bass to bite. Knowledge of the fish’s primary bait on the lake when you’re fishing also helps you to make the right lure and color selection. At the Table Rock tournament, I knew that at that time of the year, the bass were primarily feeding on crawfish. So, I wanted a crawfish-colored crankbait that would dive to a 5- or 6-foot depth, which is about the depth where most crawfish on that lake would live. The water temperature dictated the type retrieve I needed to use. Since we had cold water, I used a relatively slow retrieve, and when my Strike King crankbait hit some type of underwater cover, I would pause the bait and let it sit still for a second or so.
Another very-critical key to keeping a fishing streak going is your ability to listen to the bass. Every bass you catch can tell you how to catch more fish. On the second day of the Table Rock tournament, the first fish I caught told me that the bass were backing out of the creeks, and they wanted to stay in stained water. That bass also told me that the bass wanted to hold on a bank with about a 45-degree slope and not a flat bank. Also, that fish told me that stained water on the outside of the creeks on banks with a 45-degree angle would produce the most quality bass. So, by listening to that first fish and trying to determine where, why I had caught it, and under what conditions, I was able to take that pattern and run to other areas of the lake and look for those same conditions. Once I located those conditions, I found the fish. Pay attention to when you catch a bass, and what conditions enabled you to catch that bass, at that place, at that time. Try to understand everything you can about where the bass was holding and the environment that produced that bass. Then quickly have that information, and look for the same type areas in other portions of the lake.
