MORE ON MARK DAVIS AND HIS $100,000 WEEKEND
Know When to Hold 'Em and When to Fold 'Em
 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.
 I
believe that one of the reasons I've fished so well
in the Elite 50s is my ability to change lures and tactics
quickly when fishing conditions change. Now telling
someone how I do it, when I do it, and why I do it is
much-more difficult than actually switching my baits
or tactics. But, I'll give you what I can. When I make
a decision to change tactics, lures or the water I'm
fishing, I often try to second-guess myself and talk
myself into not making that change. But I've learned
that most of the time, when I decide to change water
or tactics, I've usually made the right decision as
soon as I decide to make a change. Now the problem comes
in fighting myself to go ahead and do what I already
know I need to do. That war within yourself when you
decide to make a change is one of the hardest wars to
win. I try to make sure that the fish have really and
truly made a change before I decide to change. If you're
wondering how you can be certain that the fish have
moved or have started biting a different way or want
a different type of lure at a different depth, - well,
you can't know for sure. You just have to trust your
instincts, and because none of us are perfect, many
times we'll guess wrong.
 However,
I've guessed right enough times to know that when I
really believe fishing conditions have changed and the
bass want a different lure or approach, I need to make
my change as quickly and as deliberately as possible.
Most of the time, a weather change when the fish stop
biting will mean that you need to change your style
of fishing to better match the weather conditions as
they are at that moment. One of the big mistakes we
often make is believing that the bass are going to continue
to bite the same way they did bite on the same lures
they were biting on after the weather has made a drastic
or even subtle change. I guess we just always like to
do what we've been doing, even if we're not catching
bass. I think my strength is that I can recognize quickly
when the weather has changed, and I need to abandon
a pattern and try something different to better match
the conditions as they are and not continue to fish
the conditions as they've been. Another key ingredient
that you have to understand to know whether to hold
'em or to fold 'em is when you decide to change the
way you're fishing to better match the conditions, you
also must decide to stay with that change for as long
as it takes to prove that you made the right decision.
For instance, if you change lures, and the bass don't
instantly start biting, you need to have decided to
stay with that new lure until you know for certain that
the bass won't take it.
 And
this is tough, because your sub-conscious is telling
you, "Hey, when you were fishing the spinner bait,
you were catching bass. And then you didn't have a strike
in two hours until you changed to the tube. But now
in the last 30 minutes, you haven't gotten a bite on
the tube. Maybe you need to go back to fishing the spinner
bait." If you're not a serious bass fisherman,
you won't have the foggiest notion of what I'm talking
about, but if you're a serious bass fisherman, you know
exactly what I mean. You've fought these same wars that
I have to fight, and I believe the one thing I can say
that will help you, is when you make that change, plan
to stay the course and fish the lure you've changed
to until the bass tells you without question over an
extended period of time that they're not going to bite
that bait that day. If you wear the hinges off your
tacklebox going in and out of the box all day changing
lures, you won't catch as many bass as consistently
as you will if you stay the course and fish the two
or three lures you've chosen each time you decide to
make a change. Usually the fishermen who change lures
the most in a tournament will catch the fewest bass.
Generally, the fishermen who change their lures the
least during a tournament consistently will weigh in
the most pounds of bass.
TOMORROW: STAY IN FOCUS
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