Entry 48-2
Mark Davis on Strike King Baits
More on the Strike King Series 6
Editor's Note: Mark Davis, of Mount Ida, Arkansas, is ranked third by www.bassfan.com. He won the Angler-of-the-Year title in 1995, 1998 and 2001 and the 1995 BASS Masters Classic.
Davis: To catch bass on a deep-diving crankbait, like the Strike King Series 6, when fishing in cover like woods, stumps, roots and treetops, quit moving the bait with your reel. Instead, when you make contact with the cover, use your rod tip to sweep or pull the crankbait through the cover.
By using the rod tip instead of the reel to move the lure through the cover, you'll drastically increase your ability to feel the crankbait as it makes contact with the cover and works its way through the cover. You'll have much greater control over the crankbait. With the rod tip in control of the lure, you can finesse the crankbait through even the thickest cover and not get hung up nearly as much. You can keep the crankbait in the strike zone of the bass much longer.
If I could only choose one color to fish, I would pick the watermelon-shad color, which is a pearl-colored bait with a lime-green back. I've found this color to be the most universally-accepted color to fish almost anywhere, anytime in almost any type of water conditions.
Question: When did the Series 6 crankbait save the day for you?
Davis: Back in 2001, I won the Angler-of-the-Year title on the B.A.S.S. circuit. The last tournament of the year was the B.A.S.S. Mega Bucks Tournament held on Douglas Lake in east Tennessee with the Angler-of-the-Year title still up for grabs. During this tournament, I had located bass holding on points in the lake. I fished a Carolina-rigged 3X lizard, and although I was catching bass, I wasn't catching bass big enough to do well in the tournament. So in an attempt to catch the bigger bass, I switched from the 3X Strike King lizard to the Series 6 crankbait. On the last day of the tournament, I caught and released 150 bass on the Strike King Series 6 crankbait in the watermelon-shad color. I actually caught two bass at one time on the Series 6. The Strike King Series 6 on that day on that lake enabled me to win B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year for 2001.
