Entry 180-4

Mark Davis on Crankbaits

Part 4: Mark Davis on Cochran, Grigsby and VanDam

Editor’s Note: Mark Davis of Mt. Ida, Arkansas, who has won about $2 million in tournament winnings, is the only angler to win the Angler-of-the-Year title and the Bassmasters Classic in the same year. Davis has seen tournament pros come and go, and he’s able to identify the qualities of a champion. Today Davis will describe the qualities of several other Strike King fishermen that make them great at catching bass. You’ll get insights into these world-class bass anglers, who help create the Strike King lures and win tournaments fishing them.

Question: Mark, what makes George Cochran great when he’s fishing for bass?

Davis: George is basically a quiet, slow-talking, shy fellow you can easily misread. When you meet George, you can’t tell just how competitive he is. And George has a God-given talent for reading water. He can tell when water has great potential to produce big bass. What makes George even more special is that he’ll find water that has the possibility of producing a lot of big bass that most other anglers will never consider fishing. I guess the secret to George Cochran is he finds places the look bad but fish good.

During a tournament last fall, I went to a creek, and as I looked at that creek, I told my partner, “This is a George Cochran creek. This creek is flat and ugly, and it has only a few little pieces of cover, a few sticks and blow-downs and a few stumps. This kind of place is just what George Cochran will fish.” When the tournament started, that creek was exactly where George fished, and he was successful during the tournament. Any other angler, including myself, wouldn’t have wasted our time fishing that spot.

But identifying those areas is what makes George great. Not only does George find ugly places that fish great, he’s also one of the most-patient fishermen I’ve ever met. George will continue to fish a piece of cover with a Strike King crankbait, spinner bait, worm or jig until he makes a bass bite. Even when there are thousands of dollars on the line, George Cochran will fish slowly with the lures he’s successful with, while other fishermen are burning-up the water.

Question: Mark, what do you think makes Shaw Grigsby a great bass fisherman?

Davis: Everyone knows Shaw is a great sight fisherman, but he also has a very-good understanding of bass and knows where a bass wants to be, and why the bass wants to be there. Shaw is extremely-versatile with all types of lures and equipment. Shaw can win a tournament with 6-pound-test line and a spinning reel or 65-pound-test line and a flipping stick, and with every piece of equipment in-between.

Question: What are some of Kevin VanDam’s best bass-fishing attributes?

Davis: Although Kevin’s in a league of his own, I truly believe like all the Strike King pros that he has a God-given talent. I believe that all men are created equal. But when it comes to talent, some men are given talents for one thing, and other men are given talents for something else. Sure, you can develop your ability to fish. But to fish on the same level with some of the nation’s best pros, you’ve got to have talent. True, you can improve your talent as a fisherman, and you can become a better fisherman. However, to become a consistent performer at the highest level of bass fishing, I believe you have to have been given a talent for fishing like some athletes are given the talent to ride bulls, high jump, sprint and/or run long distances. Once you’re given the talent, you have to sharpen your skills, hone that talent and use your talent to be the greatest you can be.

I believe Kevin was born with the talent to fish. But another advantage Kevin has is that he’s super, super competitive. Kevin is a very physical fisherman. He will make more casts and cover more water in a day’s time that any three bass pros will. He not only covers water, he covers water both efficiently and effectively. He also presents his lures extremely-well in the water he fishes, another characteristic of his fishing that gives him a tremendous advantage. He’s strong, he’s fast, he’s effective and, when you cover as much water as he does, he has more opportunity to catch more bass.

Mark Davis Many anglers say they cover a lot of water, but they don’t catch the size or number of bass Kevin catches. Kevin will out-fish those fishermen because he’s not only pulling a bait trough the water, he’s causing that lure to look like a bait that a bass wants to eat. Every time Kevin casts-out his lures, his lures are running at the correct speed, the right depth and with the correct action to make a bass bite. If you’ve ever watched Kevin fish, you’ve seen that there’s no wasted effort. That’s where the efficient side of Kevin pays off big for him. Lots of very-successful tournament fishermen aren’t physically capable of fishing at the same speed Kevin fishes.

Kevin is very much a super-athlete. When you combine his athletic ability with his God-given talent and his experience on the water, you can easily see why Kevin performs consistently-well in tournaments. When you consider that Kevin doesn’t like losing, you’ve got a real fishing machine.

Mark Davis on Crankbaits

Part 4: Mark Davis on Cochran, Grigsby and VanDam

Next: Mark Davis on Brauer and Hackney

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