Entry 140-3

Mark Davis's $100,000 Weekend

The Second Day of the Tournament

Editor's Note: On April 23, 2005, Mark Davis won his third Bassmaster Elite 50 Series Championship against 50 of the best fishermen in the nation. In four days of fishing on Alabama's Smith Lake, Davis earned $104,000. This week, we'll see not only how Davis won the big bucks against the best of the best, but also the character and personality of a true Strike King pro.

Davis: I knew I had to catch only five bass to make the top 12 and qualify to fish the last two days of the competition. I felt confident I could catch five bass on this second tournament day. Instead of trying to catch spotted bass first, as I did on the first day of the tournament, I went straight to my largemouth site. I realized I'd caught all the easy-catching spots the first day of the tournament, and I felt like the area that was holding the largemouth actually had more fish in it.

At the first pocket I went to, I caught two largemouth bass that weighed about 2-1/2 pounds each. I went to another area and caught another largemouth about the same size. However, after I caught the third bass, the weather went sour. We had wind, rain, hail and lightning that was so bad I ran to a boathouse. I sat in the boathouse about an hour to let the weather pass. The lightning was popping on the lake, and I didn't want to be out in it.

When the rain stopped, I returned to the area where I'd caught the 5-1/2-pound largemouth on the previous day. I caught two more bass on the Strike King Zero in that pocket, and I had my limit. Then it was 2:30 or 3 p.m., I had my limit of largemouth, and we didn't have to weigh in until 6 p.m. With 10 pounds of bass in the livewell, I felt fairly confident I'd made the cut. I decided to head back down the lake toward the weigh-in site and fish a couple of other areas I hadn't fished yet to try and better my stringer. I was able to cull two of the bass in the livewell just before a second big hailstorm hit. Once again, I pulled under a boat slip and waited for an hour for the storm to pass. Even though there was money on the line, I wasn't going to risk the possibility of getting struck by lightning to win a tournament.

Here's an important key to tournament fishing: you have to keep your fishing in perspective. Even the best bass fishermen in the nation will come off the water, regardless of where they stand in the tournament, to protect their lives and their equipment. Don't be foolish when you're fishing. When the weather's bad, get off the water, and seek shelter. After that heavy hail storm and its accompanying lightning, the bass totally shut down, and I couldn't get a bite. When I reached the scales, I weighed in 12 pounds, and I moved into second place behind Kevin VanDam.

Mark Davis's $100,000 Weekend

The Second Day of the Tournament

Next: The Third Day of the Tournament

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