Entry 268-3
Mark Davis on Fishing the BASS Elite Circuit and Preparing for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic
Editor’s Note: Mark Davis has been a Strike King Pro for 13 years. He won the Bassmaster Classic in 1995 and the BASS Angler-of-the-Year award in 1995, 1998 and 2001 and became the only angler ever to win the Classic and the Angler-of-the-Year title in the same year. He left the BASS tour for a couple of years, with 2008 making his first year back on the circuit. Davis will be fishing in his 14th Classic in 2009.
Part 3: Oh, Let Me Tell You about the Ocho
Question: Soft-plastic stickbaits, also known as cigar worms because of their shape, have been around for many years. What makes the Ocho special?
Davis: I like the Ocho because I can fish it a number of ways. For instance, at Lake Falcon in Texas, I caught 20 bass that weighed 128 pounds on the Ocho. I like this bait in the 7-inch size because it’s a big, bulky piece of plastic that attracts numbers of big bass. One of the reasons the Ocho attracts so many bass is because it shimmies (wiggles) as it falls. This action becomes really important when you’re fishing the Ocho without a weight, instead of fishing it on a Carolina rig. I caught a lot of bass on it at Falcon on a Carolina rig, but I also caught a lot of fish weightless by letting the Ocho fall to the bottom.
The action in the Ocho is subtle. You won’t see the action when you pick it up and hold it in the store. Unless you watch the Ocho in a swimming pool or fish aquarium, you may not see just how much action that bait has. 
The subtle shimmy the Ocho makes as it falls to the bottom really turns-on the bass. Since most people are fishing a skinny worm or a critter-style bait on a Carolina jig, most bass haven’t seen this bait like others, especially the Ocho in the 7-inch size. At Lake Falcon in Texas, we’re targeting really-big bass—in the 8- to 12-pound range. So when you’re fishing for that size bass, your chances of catching one of those bass is better on a big, fat 7-inch worm like the Ocho than on a skinnier worm or even a longer worm.
If you fish a creature bait or a lizard, you’ll catch a lot of bass, but I believe I catch the biggest bass when I fish the Ocho. If you’re fishing tournaments like I do, you don’t have to get a lot of bites, you just want the bites you have to be big bites. I think that 7-inch Ocho is the best bait I can fish on a Carolina rig to get those quality, big bass to bite.
Question: What colors do you find work best for you when you’re fishing the Ocho?
Davis: Green-pumpkin and Okeechobee craw or a green-pumpkin color that has blue on it pay the most bass dividends for me.
Question: What pound-test line are you fishing?
Davis: I use 20-pound-test fluorocarbon main line, and I use the same line for the leader for my barrel-swivel to the Ocho.
Next: Get ‘Em on the Red Eye
Contents:
- Part 1: My Three Winning Baits for 2008
- Part 2: My Number-One Classic Lure
- Part 3: Oh, Let Me Tell You about the Ocho
- Part 4: Get ‘Em on the Red Eye
- Part 5: Bet on the Rodent
