Entry 268-1

Mark Davis on Fishing the BASS Elite Circuit and Preparing for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic

Mark DavisEditor’s Note: Mark Davis has been a Strike King Pro for 13 years. He won the Bassmaster Classic in 1995 and the BASS Angler-of-the-Year award in 1995, 1998 and 2001 and became the only angler ever to win the Classic and the Angler-of-the-Year title in the same year. He left the BASS tour for a couple of years, with 2008 making his first year back on the circuit. Davis will be fishing in his 14th Classic in 2009.

Part 1: My Three Winning Baits for 2008

Mark DavisQuestion: Mark, what did you think about making the Bassmaster Classic on your first year back in BASS’s Elite Series?

Davis: Well, it’s good to be back with BASS, and many of the awards and accomplishments I’ve attained through the years’ have come through my association with BASS. BASS is my home. It’s where I started in professional fishing, and it’s good to be back. It feels good to have had a solid year of tournament fishing and to make the Classic again.

Question: Have you seen much change in the competition and in the way that BASS is set up from the time you left it?

Davis: Yes, the number of competitors in each field is smaller, and BASS is going to some good lakes now where the fishermen can catch a lot of bass and some really-big bass. Strike King football Head JigThe Elite Series now fishes more tournaments than we did when I left, and we have a very-compact schedule. We start in March and end the tour in August. That means we have a lot of fishing crammed into a few months. The competition is stellar. We fish against some of the best fishermen in the world. The competition is getting tougher every year.

Question: If you had to pick three lures that played the biggest role in your winning a berth in the 2009 Classic, what would they be?

Davis: The 3/4-ounce Strike King Football Head Jig probably played a bigger role in my winning a berth at the 2009 Bassmaster Classic than any other lure. Strike King Rage CrawI caught a lot of bass on the Football Head Jig in numbers of events all over the country. I caught bass from Texas to New York and all the stops in-between on Strike King’s Football Head Jig. Therefore, in my opinion, the Football Head Jig has been my No. 1 bait this year to qualify for the 2009 Classic.

I caught most of my fish on a 3/4-ounce Football Head Jig in the green-pumpkin color or some shade of brown. As a part of my number 1 - lure, I used the Rage Tail Craw on the back of my Football Head Jig as a trailer. I like the Craw as a trailer as opposed to the Rage Chunk, because the Craw has a longer body than the Chunk. Mark DavisI like the Chunk if I’m flipping a jig, but most of the time I’m fishing the Football Head Jig in deep water. I like to bulk-up my jig with the Craw and make the jig bigger. I fish the Football Head Jig most of the time in depths from 10 to 20-feet deep.

The second lure that really helped me out a lot used to be called the Stir Stik, but now it’s called the Ocho. I like that bait in the green-pumpkin and the Okeechobee craw colors. I like to fish this lure on a Carolina rig with a 1-ounce weight. Too, I can’t overlook the Bleeding Red Eye Shad in the chrome-blue back color. I just caught a ton of fish this year on that lure.
 

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