Entry 118-3
How to Keep a Streak Going with Mark Davis
Determining the Key Factors
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 area that 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. Next I 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 areas 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 near the shallow water. I size up a new area really quickly to try to determine that area’s fish-producing potential. Next, I try to determine which piece of cover in that area has the best potential to produce a bass, and I’ll fish that piece of cover first. One of the most-important ingredients of maintaining a streak is being able to decide what the main factor is on that day on that lake that is critical to finding bass.
At Table Rock, I determined that color of the water was more important than the type structure the fish were holding on, the type bait they wanted to bite, and the water depth where they were holding. If I had all the right combinations of ingredients to catch bass, but I didn’t have the right water color, I couldn’t make the fish bite. Water clarity is an ever-changing element. As water comes into or goes out of a lake, the water changes. The longer a lake sits without water movement, the more it will clear up. On the first day of the Table Rock tournament and part of the second day, I located bass in some small creeks that were beginning to clear, but they still had stain in them. The big creeks that had a lot of water coming into them were too muddy to fish, but as the small creeks began to clear-up and become less stained, the bass pulled out of the small creeks and moved into the big creeks where they still had stained water that was starting to clear. Once again, being able to adjust to changing conditions and being in tune with the bass and what they want, is a very-important key to not only continuing a streak, but more importantly, to continue to catch bass every time you go fishing.
The hardest thing for most fishermen to adjust to is changing conditions. We get locked into a particular type cover to fish, a specific area that we want to fish, a certain lure or a specific technique. But the bass are constantly changing. They change the places that they choose to ambush bait. They move according to sunlight and weather conditions, and if all these factors aren’t hard enough to try to predict where bass will be and when they will bite, you also have to realize that at certain times of the day, even though you have your lures swimming in front of a bass’ face, if he’s not hungry and doesn’t want to feed, he probably won’t bite. The more you can stay in tune with what is going on at the lake, every hour you are fishing and how these factors affect the bass, the more consistently you can fish, and the better your chances are for catching fish every time you go. For me, during that four months when I had such a great run of tournament wins, I was able to stay in tune with the bass, able to determine what was causing them to bite, and was able to make adjustments more quickly than I had ever been able to before. I think when you’re in a streak, especially in fishing, your mental faculties and your physical factors all melt together as one, and you’re able to perform at the highest level you’ve ever performed.
