MORE ON MARK DAVIS AND HIS $100,000 WEEKEND
Patience
EDITOR'S
NOTE: Mark Davis of Mt. Ida, Arkansas, has won three
of the five Bassmasters Elite 50 tournaments with the
participants chosen from the top Angler-of-The-Year
finishers on the Bassmasters circuit for the past three
years, along with the top-10 all-time money Bassmasters
winners. Bassmasters has designated these 50 anglers
as the best bass professional fishermen in the world.
The events of this type of tournament include competition
among all 50 contestants the first two days. Then the
tournament eliminates all but the top 12 fishermen,
who have all their fish weights erased to allow all
12 to compete equally. The course, which originally
has included almost anywhere on a lake, also changes.
Bassmasters declares six areas off-limits, and the fishermen
have to fish the final two days in each of these six
areas. This Elite 50 competition tests all aspects of
bass-fishing skills. For any one angler to win three
out of five of these events, he has to know bass inside
and out and be doing something different from the other
fishermen. This week, I’ll pick Davis's brain
to learn how he's beat the best of the best in three
out of five competitions and how you can become the
best bass fisherman you can.
If you'll notice that blue heron on the bank, when
he's fishing, he seizes the opportunity when the time
for him to strike arrives. But before then, he waits
patiently and wades in the water for conditions to be
right and the best fish to come along at the correct
time for him to be successful. I believe that the bass
fisherman's being patient is as critical if not more
critical than any other aspect of a winning strategy.
Over the years, I've learned that for me fishing slowly
and diligently produces more success than my fishing
fast and trying to cover a lot of water. Having said
this, let me also mention that knowing when to fish
slowly is as critical if not more critical than fishing
slowly is. When I have to learn a new lake that I've
never fished before, I'll fish fast and cover and look
at a vast expanse of water. I fish in what I call a
machine-like or mechanical way. I define mechanical
fishing as making numbers of casts during the day, staying
on my trolling motor and covering all the water I can.
I'm using the mechanical ability of the boat and the
trolling motor to help me learn where on that lake the
most bass are holding and
on what type cover those fish are concentrating. This
approach works and makes a very-good tactic for successful
bass fishing. When you're fishing fast, you have to
be conscious of listening to what the fish are telling
you. Are you catching the bass in the backs of pockets,
in bushes, in coves or around logs? Where are the fish
positioned, and how are they positioned? What are the
bass doing at different times of the day under various
water and weather conditions? If you know the answers
to these questions, and you're not catching bass on
one particular type lure, you may be able to return
to that same location with another kind of lure at another
time of day and still catch bass by fishing more thoroughly.
So, just locating bass isn't enough for you to win a
tournament. Often by fishing slower and more intensely,
you can get the bass living in that area to bite.
When you catch a bass by fishing with a spinner bait,
remember you're catching the easy bass. The aggressive
bass are the bass that anybody can catch. Now, you need
to return to that same region, fish it much more slowly,
really cover the cover with your lures and try to catch
the other bass there that aren't so easy to catch -
the ones that often other
people can't and won't catch. Those tough-to-catch bass
are the bass that usually win a tournament. To improve
your bass fishing and catch more bass every time you
go out, fish for, and learn to catch the bass that aren't
easy, because these fish are the ones that nobody but
you can and will catch.
At one time in the sport of bass fishing, you could
just run from actively-feeding fish to actively-feeding
fish and consistently produce good limits of bass. However,
now because there's so much pressure on the lakes we
fish, the number of easy fish has shrunk drastically,
and the number of tough fish to catch is on the increase.
When I start slow fishing, the lures I'll bet on most
of the time will be my soft-plastic baits as well as
my jigs and tubes.
TOMORROW: KNOW WHEN TO HOLD
'EM AND WHEN TO FOLD 'EM
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