Davis leads
Mount Ida’s Mark Davis caught five bass weighing 19 pounds, 4 ounces Saturday to leap from 25th place into the lead at the Bassmaster Elite Series event on Lake Dardanelle. A three-time Angler of the Year, Davis has struggled on Dardanelle throughout his career.
RUSSELLVILLE — Mark Davis of Mount Ida stormed from 25th place to first in the second round of the Bassmaster Elite Series bass tournament Saturday at Lake Dardanelle.
Davis, a two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year and winner of the 1995 Bassmaster Classic, caught the heaviest limit of the tournament with five bass that weighed 19 pounds, 4 ounces to boost his two-day total weight to 33-09.
Davis surged past Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., who fell from first to second after catching five bass weighing 12-08 for a two-day total of 31-11. In third place was Jamie Hartman of Newport, N.Y. (5/14-04; 31-09), followed by Dean Rojas of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. (5/14-01; 30-13), Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala. (5/14-03; 30-13), Matt Lee of Guntersville, Ala. (5/16-08; 30-01), Rick Clunn of Ava, Mo. (5/14-09; 30-01) and Stetson Blaylock of Benton (4/13-07; 29-13).
The top 51 anglers will fish in today’s third round. The 12 with the heaviest three-day combined weights will fish
for a top prize of $100,000 in Monday’s championship round.
Although he is one of the most accomplished anglers in Bassmaster history, Davis has never done well on Lake Dardanelle. A 90th-place finish here cost him a third Angler of the Year title several years ago, and he said he considers the lake his nemesis.
“I only live an hour and a
half away from here, but going back to before the start of my career in BASS, it was typical for me to have a good practice and then have a really bad tournament,” Davis said. “It has been my nemesis, and it could bite me again tomorrow.”
The antithesis of the modern “power” fisherman, Davis is known for methodically breaking down small sections of water.
“I was fishing where fish are, so it was a matter of hanging around and letting it happen,” Davis said. “You can’t force-feed it. You can’t make it happen. You have to slow down, rotate through good water, keep changing lures and techniques until you figure something out.”
After a dry spell early Saturday, Davis finally caught a 4-pound class fish. He caught another one 30 minutes later, and then another 45 minutes later. He left that spot with about 14 pounds and completed his limit in another spot.
VanDam, whose first-day catch is the second heaviest limit of the tournament, is the archetype power fisherman. He went nearly six hours Saturday without catching a fish. He eventually scratched out a limit, but his 6-11 drop in weight suggests a precipitous trend.
“I was worried about having no fish today more than anything, so yeah, it weighs on you,” VanDam said. “Yesterday was a great day. Today was a day of survival.”
Making good decisions amid such extreme fluctuations in water flow, level and clarity complicates decision-making, VanDam said. Like Davis, he eventually put himself in position to catch a respectable limit.
“I was fishing faster and missed a good one early,” VanDam said. “You can’t do that. I bore down and focused hard and started making right decisions.”
Lake Dardanelle is a technical lake to fish on its best days, VanDam said, but it is very unforgiving in its present condition.
“You have be very precise here,” VanDam said. “You’ve got to use the right presentation depending on the type of water you’re fishing, whether you’re fishing grass, rock, wood or current.”
Blaylock moved from 13th place to eighth Saturday despite catching only four fish. He’s only 3-12 out of the lead, and his four fish Saturday averaged about 3-2. A fifth fish of that size would have put him at 32-15, or second place.
“I had a good one on that would have helped me tremendously,” he said.
Blaylock said his areas are not performing to his expectations, so he will fish new areas today.
“The bottom line is I’ve got to be able to get five [bass],” Blaylock said. “It kills you whenever you don’t get five. I had that fifth one on. There was no reason for it to come off, but it did.”