Entry 201-2
Wake-Up Bass with Mark Davis
Editor’s Note: Mark Davis of Mount Ida, Arkansas, won $100,000 on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour at Fort Loudoun-Tellico Lakes, outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the spring of 2007. Two-hundred pros and 200 amateurs competed in this tournament. To win, Davis had to use patience and all his fishing knowledge, as well as his Strike King lures, to develop a winning pattern. This week, let’s look inside the mind of one of Strike King’s long-time Pro Staff members and one of the nation’s top professional fishermen to see the frustration and the emotional challenges he had to overcome to take home a $100,000 paycheck.
Part 2: Day 1 of the Competition
Question: Mark, what happened the first day of competition?
Davis: I returned to the spot where I’d caught bass using the King Shad and the Bomber Long A. By 10:00 a.m., I had about 14 pounds, and I’d lost one big fish. In the afternoon, I noticed that I couldn’t get a bite on the wake-bait pattern. I went into the crowd, did some sight fishing and caught a 5 pounder on a Strike King Iguana.I saw the bass on the bed and cast the Iguana to it. I finished the day with about a total of 17 pounds of bass.
Question: Were you doing anything to the King Shad to give it any type of action?
Davis: No, I just cast the bait out and reeled it in really slowly. Fishing a lure like this requires a lot of patience because the technique doesn’t cover much water and uses a very-slow presentation. 
Using the King Shad this way doesn’t produce many bites, but the fish that do bite this bait are quality fish. The wake-bait pattern meant I had to fish blind because the structure being fished was obscured from view. I had to fish this big ole bait out in open water and wake it across the surface with no grass, no stumps and nothing but open water through which to pull the bait.
Question: Why were the bass coming up from the bottom to take that King Shad in open water?
Davis: There are two reasons. I created a silhouette on the surface that the bass could see, and I left a trail or a track in the water that the bass could approach and follow to the bait. 
That V-wake and the silhouette on the surface got the bass’s attention, and the size of the bait caused the bass to come up and attack. By eating a big bait like the King Shad when they were in the pre-spawn condition, the bass could get a big meal without much effort. The strikes weren’t very violent, because the water was still cold. The bass would come up behind the lure, pull it and bite it gingerly. However, when they’d come up and take the King Shad, they’d bite it and pull it under.
Question: What place were you in at the end of the first day of competition?
Davis: I think I was in 4th place.
Next: Day 2 of the Competition
Contents:
- Part 1: How Davis Found the Winning Pattern
- Part 2: Day 1 of the Competition
- Part 3: Day 2 of the Competition
- Part 4: Day 3 – The Day I Won the Tournament
- Part 5: The Final Weigh-In
