Mark Davis has his E-50 Mojo Working

When it comes to the all-star circuit known as the Bassmaster Elite 50 Tour, Mark Davis is the man.

All you have to know is that the Arkansas pro has won three out of the last four Elite 50 events spanning the last two seasons. Although he’s a former CITGO Bassmaster Classic champion and three-time CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year, Davis is in danger of becoming better known as “Mr. E-50.”

Case in point: After suffering through the worst season “by a long shot” in his illustrious career — primarily because of a slow recovery from fall shoulder surgery — in which he finished a dismal 88th in the Angler of the Year standings, Davis went to Alabama’s Smith Lake for the E-50 season-opener and walked away with the $100,000 top prize.

“If you look at the Tour, you’ll see I did terrible until the end when I started catching limits again,” Davis said. “I started feeling better. It’s mostly a health deal and a mental deal. I just finally got my game back, and it just all came back together for me at the first Elite 50.

“Everyone thinks it has something to do with the Elite 50s. It doesn’t. It just worked out that way.”

Inside BASS has a different opinion.

Since finishing fourth in his first finals of the BASS MegaBucks tournament in 1990, Davis has developed a wealth of experience in the timed course rotation format that was born with that event. It’s the same format used for the final two rounds of all Elite 50 events, and he’s become an expert at the combination of time management and quickly deciphering patterns for each hole.

“I’ll be honest, for a long time I was not a big fan of the MegaBucks-type format,” he said. “I think the reason being years ago I didn’t win those things. I think my mindset was wrong; I wasn’t fishing them right.

“I’ve learned how to do it. At least my approach is different. The biggest stumbling block you have when you go into that course is you have preconceived ideas. That’s what always beat me before in that format. Finally, I guess I have the mental discipline to overcome that.

“I wipe the slate clean in my mind, and I fish from scratch, and that’s what you have to do. I think for years I didn’t understand that. I always tried to carry what I was doing out there on the rest of the lake [during the qualifying rounds] onto the course. You carry a little bit of that, but usually you have to start over again. In every one of these that I’ve won that was the key.”

Davis heads for one of his favorite lakes in his home state, Lake Dardanelle, next week for the second stop on the Elite 50 Tour. He does so with a certain air of anticipation that only comes with these mega-money specialty events.

“I’m really looking forward to all of them,” he said. “I just want to make sure I make the Classic, but it’s nice to win one this year because you win a substantial amount of money.

“I’m definitely looking forward to fishing the next one.”
 

From BASS