Entry 180-5

Mark Davis on Crankbaits

Part 5: Mark Davis on Brauer and Hackney

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 describes the qualities of two other Strike King fishermen that make them great at catching bass.

Question: What makes Denny Brauer great?

Davis: Most people consider Denny Brauer a flipper, but there are a lot of people who can flip, perhaps even as good as Denny Brauer. But what Denny has is the ability to know how to flip, when to flip, what to flip and what to make that lure do once it enters the water. He also understands how to successfully combine those skills and talents at different times of the year under various weather and water conditions and in areas where the bass have had extreme fishing pressure.

Denny also is a master at understanding and reacting to changing weather and water conditions. If Denny is catching bass on a black-and-blue jig and something in his fishing environment changes, he’ll instantly switch his tactics, his bait, maybe his bait color and possibly the area he’s fishing, based on the conditions he’s fishing right then, not on the conditions he was fishing earlier. You’d be surprised at how many bass fishermen don’t know that when fishing conditions change, you have to change the way you’re fishing, regardless of how many fish you’ve caught 5 minutes earlier.

Most bass fishermen don’t realize that the slightest change in weather or water can change the way the fish are positioned, the style and the color of the lure they’ll eat, the retrieval speed of the lure and/or the way they want that lure to fall. Even if the wind switches direction, no matter how subtly, Denny knows exactly what he must to do to get the bass to bite. Denny Brauer The only way you learn to adjust to weather changes is by being on the water and learning what happens when changes take place. Denny has such a tremendous database in his brain of how to adjust to changing weather conditions on various lakes at different times of year that he consistently makes the correct change at just the right time to win the tournament.

Most fishermen aren’t willing to abandon a strategy that’s been producing bass for them just because the water’s a little clearer or a little more stained than it has been a few minutes earlier. But Denny Brauer will abandon a technique that’s produced in the past and use a completely-different method to be sure he’s got the right Strike King lure and tactic for that condition change. This is a god-given gift that Denny has that lets him know and feel and see changes in the fishing environment that other people don’t see. He’s confident enough in his abilities to change tactics and lures when he sees those changes to continue to catch bass when other fishermen can’t.

Question: What makes Greg Hackney so great?

Davis: Greg grew up in eastern Arkansas where he had a lot of diversity in the water he fished, including the Mississippi River Delta, the Arkansas River Delta, a number of lowland lakes, many clear highland reservoirs and all types of water in-between. Not only is Greg extremely competitive, but he’s also extremely intelligent.

What most people don’t know is that just because Greg hasn’t been on the pro circuit for very long, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been fishing for long. Greg’s been bass fishing for most of his life. But most-importantly, Greg’s been learning how to bass fish all his life. Greg hasn’t just hatched out of an egg into a full-blown, highly-competitive fisherman. He’s been around a long time, and he’s had a lot of success in state and regional tournaments. When he moved onto the national scene, he brought along those winning ways that he honed in state and regional tournaments to the pro scene. Strike King’s always looking for the next great professional bass fisherman, and for years I’ve told them to keep their eye on Greg Hackney, because I knew that one day he would be one of the greats. Today he is.

Greg’s extremely confident. He knows he knows how to catch bass, and he’s very cool, calm, and collected. His strong suit is shallow-water power fishing. He’s extremely good at cranking Strike King’s square-billed crankbaits around heavy cover. He’s also good at shallow-cranking, flipping, pitching and spinner-bait fishing. Too, he can fish light line if he must and fish deep structure if needed. Greg’s much like Kevin VanDam in his competitiveness. Though he doesn’t have the years invested in competitive fishing that Denny Brauer does, you can expect Greg Hackney to be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.

Question: Mark, if you step back and look at Mark Davis as critically as you’ve looked at these other anglers, what in your opinion makes Mark Davis such a competitive bass fisherman? What are your strengths?

Davis: If you look at my wins, you’ll probably say that my specialties are crankbaits and structure fishing. But if you look at my winnings in tournaments, I’ve probably won more money using finesse fishing with light line and small lures. I really believe that my strong suit is my ability to be versatile. I do love fishing a Strike King crankbait, but I’ll lay that crankbait down in a heartbeat if I think another bait and another fishing style will catch bass faster or catch more or bigger bass. I don’t have any type of lure I’m afraid to fish or that I don’t like to fish. When I take a Strike King lure out of a box, I’m 100% confident that bait will catch bass for me, regardless of the bait I choose.

Question: Mark, what do you believe your fishing talent is?

Davis: I believe I can read water and find bass wherever I fish. Even if a fellow isn’t adept at finding bass but has two weeks to practice, he can find fish. But since I’m fishing the FLW Circuit now, we don’t have much practice time on the water. I feel that my strong suit is going to a lake I haven’t had much or any practice on and find and catch bass there. That’s when I feel I’m at my best. I like to try to find bass when we have only a half-day to find them and another half-day to catch them. I think I can combine all the fishing conditions I find on the lake, match that with the time of year and determine where bass should be.

I’ve chased bass so long, that when I go to a lake, I don’t even have to analyze the ingredients for locating bass. I just know where they should be, the type of cover they should be on, and the type of Strike King lure I should use to catch them. I believe the only way to develop a sense of reading water and finding bass is to spend time on the water and have a talent for quickly and easily calculating the conditions.

Mark Davis on Crankbaits

Part 5: Mark Davis on Brauer and Hackney

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