MORE ON MARK DAVIS AND HIS $100,000 WEEKEND
The Streak
 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.
There's no doubt about the fact that I was on a winning
streak last year. But, this year I tore up my shoulder
and had to have shoulder surgery. I had an absolutely
terrible touring season this year, and after six events,
I was in 88th place. I didn't cash any checks from tournament
winnings during the first four events and just slowly
began to crawl out of the gutter in the last two events.
But I wasn't healthy. I'd have to say I was really on
a winning streak in the 2003-2004 season. But then this
year I seemed to have lost the streak.
 However,
after winning the $100,000 at Smith Lake in April 2005,
I feel that I'm fishing as well as I did last year.
I think the way you get into a winning streak in fishing
is just like you do in any other sports. You work your
way into that streak. You have to fish a lot. You have
to work hard when you're fishing, and as you start fishing
better and better, your confidence level builds. Then
you get in that mental zone where all tournament fishermen
want to be. The way you lose the streak is when you
get complacent and comfortable and you lose that hunger
to win. When you lose that intensity, then you lose
the streak and you won't do well. To be a winning bass
fisherman, you have to keep the eye of the tiger. I
believe, as we get older, keeping that high-intensity
level to compete gets tougher. To keep my level of intensity
high, I know that I have to fish a lot. When I'm fishing
in a tournament and catching a lot of bass, I go straight
home to Lake Ouachita and continue to fish. When I'm
traveling from tournament to tournament, and I have
an off-day between tournaments, I find a lake and go
fishing. I fish really hard then because I'm trying
to stay focused on my fishing. I keep my casting and
fishing abilities sharp and try not to let myself get
rusty. When you ask
a pro golfer how he stays on top of his game, he simply
says "I go play golf." To stay on top of your
game as a tournament bass fisherman, you've got fish.
The more you fish, the better you fish. I feel really
fortunate and blessed that bass fishing is something
I never tire of doing. I still fish about 175 days a
year, which is the secret of winning I believe. You
have to put the time in on the water, stay focused on
bass fishing and keep on fishing. The only way you can
do that is if you really love the sport as much as I
do.
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