Mark Davis is definitely out for the Elite season after undergoing surgery, and Luke Clausen won’t be fishing for a while either.
Davis, of Mount Ida, Ark., received a medical hardship to miss the remainder of the 2018 Bassmaster Elite season. His wife, Tilly, reported his hip replacement surgery Monday on the three-time Toyota Angler of the Year and 1995 Classic champ went well, and he returned home to convalesce on Wednesday.
Clausen, of Otis Orchards, Wash., reported multiple injuries after falling from 12 feet headfirst onto concrete.
“I got an ambulance ride, five broken ribs, a concussion, and a separated shoulder!” the 2006 Classic winner posted on social media. “Not sure what the rest of my season looks like… hoping for a speedy recovery and to be back on the water. Thankful I wasn’t hurt worse!”
Clausen, 39, will certainly miss Grand Lake and Kentucky Lake. He had a great start to the Elite season, finishing 5th at Lake Martin. He will decide in the coming days whether to take a medical hardship for the season.
Update: Luke has decided to take a medical hardship for 2018.
Here’s how the accident happened. Clausen stores some of his tackle in the loft of a close friend’s shop. On Tuesday Clausen was in the loft, which doesn’t have a railing, getting some gear he planned to use for ledge fishing at Kentucky Lake. “Next thing I know I’m waking up on the shop floor,” he said. “I don’t know if I was laying there for 30 seconds or 30 minutes. I don’t really remember how it happened.”
Clausen got a ride to a nearby hospital, but when he couldn’t remember his birthday, the medical staff grew concerned and sent him by ambulance to a different hospital.
Clausen now believes he actually might have broken a bone in his shoulder, which would take even longer to recover from. He described a lump on his left shoulder the size of a softball. Clausen casts with his right hand, using his left for landing fish. He said right now he has no strength in his left arm.
“I’m really dissapointed,” said Clausen. “This is my third year back on the Elites and it really hasn’t worked out like I had hoped. This feels like one more thing piling on. But I take some comfort in knowing the accident could have been a lot worse. I nearly landed on a sea anchor down there. I really want to get back out there for my sponsors, but my wife and friends are telling me I’m crazy.”
Davis fished the Elite opener, where he finished 105th, then made the Top 25 cut at the Classic before deciding the pain was too great and he would undergo surgery.
“(The surgeon) explained that the hip was worn down and had made that side shorter, so that has been built back up and fixed along with the new hip,” Tilly wrote.
There will now be 108 anglers launching this Thursday at 6:15 a.m. CT for Day 1 of the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Grand Lake out of Grove, Okla. The cut now moves to 50th place, with payouts for the Top 50.