BASS PRO SHOPS BETWEEN THE SCALES - Mark Daniels Jr.

my name is Mark Daniels Jr there's a lot of things I enjoy shooting pool playing basketball spending time with my family but I absolutely love bass fishing in fact that's how I make my living [Applause] [Music] [Applause] what is a professional bass fisherman a professional bass angler is someone who's never at home extremely competitive we don't want to lose it nothing in life we travel all over the country all in pursuit of this one green little fish trying to climb that leaderboard to ultimately hoist that trophy at the end of the week my biggest advice to people who want to become a professional angler is to never give up on yourself if you believe in yourself and you're passionate and this is what you truly want to do in your heart you have to go after it 110 percent I live in a small town called Shorter Alabama if you blink too hard you'll probably miss it but that's home base for me that's where I spend all my time prepping all my gear getting ready for these big tournaments all right guys here we go minimal amount of time to pack I'm gonna be gone for two weeks just got back from scouting Lake Norman for the red Crest and now I'm home for a half day basically to pack all my stuff try to compile it all this is a Ranger bass boat get everything dialed in making sure I got it all covered for some Florida fishing I like to start with my tournament gear first and then I'll work my way into the house so I usually will get all my rods my reels I get my line I get my baits anything I think I might need for that week I try to get all that into my truck into my boat until my rod coffin nice and organized first I got these really cool Rod rack systems that I keep my shop that I can put 38 rods on each rack and so that's a lot of rods that have rigged but it gives me a far back view of what I got that's a really cool little piece that I picked up that helps keep me organized because when you're dealing with so much stuff going on organization is very key you got there behind you a little tin rig it's a little this is my around the house so I don't have to be professional bass angler Mark Daniels Jr I could just be Mark Daniels Jr on the water the thing about being a professional angler is it's a business and you you learn that very quickly after you spend a little bit of time around us or spend a little time being a professional angler it's like non-stop sure it's off season the tournament season hasn't started yet but you got sponsorship obligations you got videos you need to do here your wife needs you to do something for her your children need you I mean it's just non-stop phone calls emails packing unpacking rigging unrigging and it's just a fast pace of life it's a lot to deal with at times it really is but it's what we do as professional Anglers partner with a new company Toyota which is awesome so they're texting me now you got to stay on top of this though there's so much to this bass fishing deal man it's just not go fish go fish go fish this is what you guys don't get to see my wife does 99 of it for me she looks out for me luckily I got my wife my wife keeps me together when it comes to all that good stuff because otherwise I'd forget all kinds of stuff I pack my clothes make sure I got stuff like my hats and and all that jerseys Etc camera gear is a big deal although this year I got a camera guy calling he'll be here in a little bit I don't have all the big boy stuff but GoPro 10s I got two GoPro tens and a vlog camera and that's all I need to make YouTube videos for me you know the fishing games changed a lot man it really has and social media is tremendously huge because sponsors not only look at that they're basing their value of yourself on your impressions on social media when I'm pulling out of the driveway there's a lot of mixed emotions right there um you know you you're leaving behind a lot you know your family is behind but at the same time you know you got so much to look forward to at the destination that you're headed to and so it's a very Bittersweet every time you pull out that driveway but at the end of the day once again it's what we do as professional language all right so I got my guy Colin here we just wrapping things up getting the truck loaded causing my camera guy this year for 2023 so we're excited man uh got some big bass to catch this year [Music] here we go [Music] so everybody has their own story and their own journey to becoming a professional angler I'll learn to fish from my dad man and I was very fortunate that he introduced me to fishing at a very young age just him introducing that to me is what got me in love with the sport of fishing as a whole you know I won the TBF National Championship in 2013 and I knew I was going to take that opportunity with that live in the dream package but I didn't have any money at all I was fortunate that they provided me a boat in the truck and they took care of my entry fees that year I knew I wanted to continue to pursue this dream I was more passionate about professional England than I was anything I've ever done in my life and I just wasn't going to take no for an answer I wasn't going to let that be the reason you know that I didn't continue to pursue his dream how much do you roughly do you spend in expenses when you go on one of these trips my numbers High I don't even know so much gas man we burned so a couple about yeah easily here we go man we're about to kick the season off 2023 is starting right now here at the gas station of course we always at the gas station man don't never stop it should be a good week I feel good about it yeah you definitely are not gonna make a living off your winnings and so this is a business you need to really focus on trying to obtain sponsors and keep sponsors my sponsors support me they support my brand that's why we spend a lot of time making videos and or on social media which is huge these days because to keep them at the Forefront of what we do is is really how we make a living and without them there is no tournament bass fishing when I first got into tournament bass fishing if you didn't catch them you were nobody nobody knew who you were the games changed you can be very relevant just from social media so social media has changed the game it's hugely important we as professional Anglers now we have two jobs we fish two tournaments you fish the tournament on the water and then you're fishing the second tournament off the water and that's your social media so you better be active and you better be involved because if you're not you're gonna get beat by another angler and that angler may not even be a professional so you cannot afford for that to happen [Music] foreign down here to Florida we finally get here we're staying here at what we've been calling it the yellow house this is the Airbnb that all four of us share myself Jacob wheeler Dustin Connell and Adrian and Vina and uh it's time to reconnect with the fellas man I haven't seen them together as a group since last season it's always a good vibe man when the four of us connect and we all got camera guys too so there's four extra bodies there's eight of us so find a nice spacious house that can be difficult at times having guys like this to be able to split the cost up on lodging helps tremendously through the course of a season it's really important to have people to talk to to have some camaraderie with when you're out on the road because you're disconnected from your family but we have this group and and these guys are our family man and it's more than just fishing we're buddies outside of bass fishing we definitely feed off each other's energy and that becomes your family on the road [Music] so usually I try to get in a day early at least to where I could kind of decompress from the travel and really start honing in and focusing on my tackle you know there's no pressure I'm not worried about you know the tournament's not tomorrow I'm here a day early and I can really really focus on the tackle portion because making sure you're prepared is part of the overall success of the grand scheme of things rig and Tackle is like for me it's kind of a place to ease your mind you know it's uh usually by yourself frigging tackle putting stuff together thinking through different baits techniques Etc and you know it's uh for me it's therapeutic but yeah actually I actually do enjoy rigging up tackle believe it or not so when I'm setting up all this stuff I mean I got like 25 plus rods on this boat right now and my priorities are my moving baits like my swim jigs my chatter baits things like that frogs and then my pick apart baits is what I call them so that's like my lunker logs my bandito bugs a jig something like that the slow down baits so tomorrow with the weather conditions you know first thing in the morning we'll likely throw around some top water we'll definitely throw swim jigs we'll definitely throw chatter baits and we'll definitely do some flipping I'm ready for anything in a week might throw at me so yeah I got everything lined out you know I know what I need to tie on I'm getting it all figured out I know what's ahead of me and we got long practice days coming so we're up early man practice starts we are allowed to be on the water 30 minutes before sunrise and we can fish all the way until 30 minutes after Sunset and I plan on using every single second of that time to try to locate these bass we launched down here on Kissimmee today a lot of water out here so there's five different lakes we can fish so there's a lot to be covered a lot to be seen but we're going to start off here at Kissimmee try to get super skinny and shallow with the anticipation of these bass moving up to spawn and then we'll just go from there yeah I think definitely has that that water temperature increases later in the day the bikes should get better we went through a host of baits man um any all sort of flipping baits all your cross style baits chatter baits spinner baits top water prop baits jigs you know we tried it all there's nothing that I will not try to catch one first sign of life they move up at different times all over the lake you be at the right place when they're moving up right when they get there that's the key yeah we uh we try not to leave any Stones unturned man out there on the water you know I'm on Google Earth constantly and so I'm looking to put this Ranger wherever I can get it and sometimes that means going through little ditches and creeks and back Waters Etc we're trying to find this magical spot [Music] that's a solid fish and that's about a two pound bass I'm gonna Mark a waypoint right here on my graph unless I saw them with two and a quarter you know it's three bites flipping pads and this is I'm anticipating them getting caught on pads I really am a couple nibbles so far we still looking for them though my bass boat is probably the most important tool I have and having a reliable bass boat that's going to get you to and from quickly safely and offer you an excellent casting platform it's very very Paramount [Music] Toronto see if this is accessible or not we're the Blue Dot and I'm trying to get into there there are no limits to trying to find these bass and we try to turn over every stone out there and my Ranger is a Mean Machine when it comes to that she's quick she has plenty of storage Great organization systems and that mercury 250 on the back pushes that thing lightning speed and that's what you need foreign that's a big one bro dude [Laughter] there's your there's your big one [Laughter] but see how white he is that's a really good sign another little dude these are males but I've seen it on several occasions where the next bite is five six seven pounder female you know sitting up there 224 so two and a quarter solid fish not a not a giant but we're all out here to win but making the cut being able to get a a good check is a form of success because if you do that consistently throughout the course of the year you're going to be at the championship very difficult to win very doable but very difficult oh there's another one gosh that's a good one too beautiful fish like this this is definitely a tournament grade bass yeah that fish there is pushing three pounds those are the ones you need right there oh that was a bite when you don't catch it though you don't know if it was a guard or not oh gosh that's not a guard oh gosh [Applause] that's what we're looking for that's what we came for folks 405. that's a nice fish thank you babe so that's on the Chowder Bay it's funny I was moving from spot to spot and on my Garmin Electronics I could see this right here and that's hydrilla and not say that's probably the number one aquatic vegetation for bass down here I gotta stop catching these fish jeez man I just couldn't help myself the goal during practice is to locate the fish and understand how they're utilizing the habitat we want to learn that we don't necessarily want to catch them all and so while we're out in practice there's a few different techniques that we'll utilize to prevent ourselves from doing just that what you want to do is tie yourself on a hitchhiker like that then I'll take my bait and I'll simply screw that bad boy down into the head of that bait and now we got no hook and we don't have to worry about catching any more Bass there's one right there Let It Go oh you just let it go right there all right another bite right there so by the end of practice a couple baits and techniques really stood out the chatter bait ended up catching a couple of really really nice fish and so I made sure to tie on several of those but then I also got some really good bites and key bites as well flipping around a bandito bug and a lunker log around lily pads these are things I'm very comfortable with I'm confident in and I think we got a good shot at doing well in this tournament so it's tournament warning I get up I get out there I'm ready to get after it man I've been waiting some months since the last tournament and I'm ready to get things rolling day one basketball tour Kissimmee chain it's about to go down so I'm excited to get it going I think we've prepared really good for this this tournament this week but Florida's a very tricky Place very difficult to be consistent and you need a big fish each day to really separate yourself I'm gonna leave it all on the water I'm gonna fish my butt off from the time they say go to the time they say lines out you competing against the best you got to give it your all and you can't cut any corners for these eight hours my entire focus is on catching these bass and these guys I stay over here they can all attest to it when we launch these boats it's game on we hate each other for eight hours [Applause] from Alabama representing Bill Lewis favorite fishing rods Columbia and Ranger Boats Daniels Jr

Channel: Bass Pro Shops

Views: 24,287

Keywords: bass pro shops, bass pro, bass fishing, Between The Scales, Mark Daniels Jr., Bass, MLF, Major League Fishing, fishing, ranger boats

Id: TjA16p_7s_0

Length: 17min 14sec (1034 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 18 2023