By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
In any other pro sport, Mark Davis would’ve spent the 2015 season on the injured reserve list with an eye on returning to competition in 2016.
In a traditional team sport, it’s unheard of for a player to return to action four months after surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. It simply does not happen, even with all the advanced medicine and rehab strategies out there. Typically, a player can be sidelined up to a year after such a procedure. Some never regain their previous form.
Not Davis.
He went under the knife last October to have a significant tear in his left rotator cuff repaired and was at the Bassmaster Classic in February at Lake Hartwell, where he finished 20th. Granted, he wasn’t back to full strength, but the 51-year-old still managed to finish in the top half of the field in stifling cold conditions.
As impressive as Davis’ 2014 Elite Series season was – he collected four straight Top-4 finishes and five overall – one has to wonder, if he didn’t have to deal with consistent pain and discomfort, and was able to use baitcasting tackle on a regular basis, how his season would’ve wound up.
“It got worse as the season wore on,” he said. “I could fish okay with a spinning rod, but not at all with a casting rod. That takes so much of your game away from you without a casting rod.”
Davis didn’t make excuses when asked to assess his 2015 season so far. He’s a realist and he knows the recovery process from the surgery has slowed him down this year.
“It’s been a slow process getting over that,” he said. “I had a 13th at the Sabine River, but ever since then, losing fish and not executing and not being on the right fish has led to a dismal season.
“Hopefully, coming up north I can turn it around and salvage the year. At this point, I’m trying to make the Classic and steady the ship.”
Change In Routine
While Davis is 48th in AOY points and still very much alive for a Classic ticket with three tournaments plus the AOY Championship (Top 50) to go, he hasn’t cashed a check since the season opener at the Sabine River over 4 months ago.
He attributes some of his struggles to not pre-fishing some of the venues on the schedule out of caution to not put too much added wear and tear on his surgically repaired shoulder.
“I really didn’t want to push it with my shoulder,” he said. “Once you have something done like that, it’s about a year before things get back to normal. My approach to tournaments this year hasn’t been the same with pre-fishing and preparing the way I like to do. It’s all added up to a dismal season.
“When you have a pretty big injury, it takes you out of your game and I’m having a hard time getting it back.”
He said lost fish at the Sacramento River (60th) and Lake Havasu (56th) were the main reason he narrowly missed the money on the West Coast swing and his finishes at Lake Guntersville (72nd) and Kentucky Lake (67th) were products of not being “around the right fish.”
“Right now, my focus is trying to make the Classic,” he said. “If I can do that I will feel like I salvaged the year.”
Hooked on Smallies
Davis has always been adept at figuring out deep structure and that has served him well in recent Elite Series tournaments where smallmouths have been the dominant species.
Two years ago, he was 20th at the St. Lawrence River, site of this week’s event, and he followed that up with a runner-up finish at Lake St. Clair. Last year, he took 3rd at the AOY Championship at Bay de Noc.
Heading north, he says, is something he truly enjoys now. He was able to pre-fish the St. Lawrence this year and hopes the homework will pay off.
“When you come north, you have to get a good understanding of what these fish do and how they respond,” he said. “It’s very different from a what a southern angler is used to.
“I could spend every summer up here and fish every day. The fishing’s great. It’s a lot about the approach and getting familiar with the water. Just about everywhere you go up north, you’re looking at a huge amount of water and with just 2 1/2 days of practice, you can’t cover as much water as you’d like to. You can narrow it down in pre-practice and get a feel for good areas for the tournament.”
Cup Connection
Davis will be flying back home to Arkansas in between the Chesapeake Bay and Lake St. Clair Elite Series so he can watch son Hunter participate in the TBF Junior World Championship at Lake Hamilton. The TBF youth event takes place in conjunction with the Forrest Wood Cup, which is slated for Lake Ouachita in 3 weeks.
Davis said he’s spent very little time on Ouachita this summer, but figures 15 pounds a day will be a good target for Cup competitors.
As for Hunter, 13, the story of how he made it to the world championship is one Davis gets a kick out of telling.
Hunter and Fisher Davis are 13-year-old twin brothers. In their father’s eyes, Fisher is the more avid angler and “will spend every waking hour fishing,” Davis said, “while Hunter would rather play football. He likes to fish, but it’s not his thing.”
Prior to the Arkansas state tournament that would determine who would move on to compete during the Cup, Davis said he and Fisher spent 3 straight days on Ouachita, figuring out a pattern and locating plenty of fish. Hunter, meanwhile, slept in each day.
“Come tournament day,” Davis said, “Hunter’s ready to go and I pull up on these fish schooling. They tied on (Strike King) Sexy Dawgs and they’re casting side by side. Hunter’s catching 4-pound largemouth, while all Fisher was catching were stripers and white bass.”
Hunter won the tournament with a 12.14-pound limit while Fisher finished 4th.
“Sometimes there’s no justice in any sport,” Davis said. “Fisher did his homework and it didn’t go his way. It happened over and over. They were fishing the same lure 10 feet from each other and working them the same way.
“For his brother, who never fishes, to beat him, it was not good around the house for a few days afterward. That’s the way it goes.”
