Entry 327-2
Strike King’s Mark Davis Is on His Road Back
Editor’s Note: Mark Davis of Mount Ida, Arkansas, one of the most-successful bass fishermen in the nation, won the BASS Angler-of-the-Year title in 1998 and 2001, as well as both Angler-of-the-Year and Bassmaster Classic titles in 1995. Davis is the only professional fisherman who’s won the Angler-of-the-Year and the Bassmaster Classic titles in the same year. Babe Ruth, one of the greatest baseball players in history, was known for his homerun record and his larger-than-life personality, making him the idol of many young baseball players. His 714-homerun-hitting record stood for many years until it was first surpassed by Hank Aaron in 1974. Most people don’t know that Ruth also held the record for strikeouts. But strikeouts didn’t overshadow his greatness. Each time Ruth had a run of bad luck on the baseball field, he’d bounce back with the power of his bat, proving that greatness comes not with a great event, but rather is defined when you come back from great defeats. Today, Davis will tell us about the homeruns and the strikeouts during the 2009 bass-fishing-tournament season.
Part 2: Pre-Practice to Win
Question: Mark, there have to be a few critical factors that will enable us to fish harder and catch more bass. What are four keys to finding and catching more bass?
Davis: Number one has to be to spend more time in pre-practice.
Question: Mark, what do you mean by more pre-practice as an element for improving your bass fishing?
Davis: I’ve already started that process for next year. I’ve been to California, which will be hosting a BASS Elite Series tournament this upcoming season, to study the lake where we’ll be fishing and to prepare mentally and physically to fish it.
Question: What have you learned in pre-practice in California?
Davis: This season, we’ll be fishing the California Delta, which is a huge body of water. Since the last time I fished there, the Delta has changed a lot, including the habitat and especially the grass. 
So, I need to know where the best grass is located, and what areas of the Delta will hold the most bass, based on the habitat available for the bass. I spent 8 days on the water trying to learn the Delta and determine the places where I’ll have the best chances to catch bass.
This research will help me next spring when we have our tournament there. To be more successful as a bass fisherman, you need to learn about the lake, the river or the reservoir where you’ll be fishing before you arrive there. By building a database of information about the body of water you’ll be fishing, you can make better decisions on tournament day, based on water, weather and wind conditions.
Question: Have you pre-fished any other lake where the BASS Elite Series tournaments will be held?
Davis: Yes, I have. I’ve been to Oklahoma where we’ll be fishing a body of water I never have fished before. I spent time learning the lake and the bottom contours, finding the habitat that should hold bass and trying to discover the most-productive areas of that body of water. I plan to spend a lot of time this fall on every lake where the BASS Elite Series will be holding a tournament next season. 
I’m willing to invest the time now before the 2010 Series begins to learn everything about the lakes I’ll be fishing during the tournaments. Yes, this is an extreme step, but I believe it will pay-off next season.
If you fish in a local bass club, I strongly suggest that as soon as the lakes are announced where you’ll be fishing for the year, go to those bodies of water before the tournaments, and spend time learning those lakes and rivers. If you’re a weekend fisherman, spend as much time as possible on the lakes you want to fish. You’ll catch more bass when you have a limited amount of time to fish, if you learn more about competition lakes and spend more time on those lakes, rather than trying to fish a different lake every weekend.
Question: Most professional fishermen don’t do a lot of pre-fishing. They get to the lake, evaluate the conditions they have on the day they’ll be fishing and then look for bass, based on the conditions that day. But you’re pre-fishing in the fall for tournaments that won’t occur until the spring and the summer. That seems to go against what we’ve read about tournament fishermen.
Davis: Not really. You have to know a lake, even if you don’t pre-fish it. I’ve found that in the fall, you can learn a lot about the habitat in the lake. Some of the habitat can change before you fish the lake, especially grass. Generally the most-healthy patches of grass in the fall still will be the most-healthy places in the spring and the summer. When I return in the spring, I’ll know that a good population of bass is holding on certain grass patches I found in the fall. So, I’ll have a starting point when I return to fish the tournament, and all I’ll have to do is determine the type of Strike King lure I need to make the bass bite. Also, if the lake’s drawn-down in the fall and the winter, you can spot a lot of cover and structure you won’t be able to see in the spring and the summer when the waterway’s at full pool.
Contents:
- Part 1: Strikeouts and Homeruns
- Part 2: Pre-Practice to Win
- Part 3: Tackle-Up to Take More Bass
- Part 4: Believe You Can Find and Catch Bass
- Part 5: Time on the Water Increases Your Ability to Catch Bass
