world of bass fishing as he secured a job working for WCB while still in high school. Daniels used his WCB money to pay his entry fees into other tournaments such as local team tournaments and rookie events.
With over 20 tournament wins on the team trail and several “Angler of the Year” titles to their credit, the Daniels/Andrews duo are one of the premier teams to beat on the CA Delta. “I was fishing tournaments with my dad and Jamond was fishing with Larry Walton and we used to compete against each other” Daniels said. “Being young anglers, we gravitated towards each other. Jamond called me and said we should really do these team tournaments together.” The two young anglers started their team fishing partnership with a bang in the spring of 2008. Daniels and Andrews ran away with their first ever tournament win by sacking over 30 pounds of fish during team tournament. “Jamond caught a 10 pounder in the last 30 minutes at that first event,” Daniels stated.
Daniels started fishing the TBF while he was still in high school. “It’s a funny story,” says Daniels. “Ish Monroe is the one who got me started fishing the TBF. Ish and I fished some team tournaments together before he left to fish on the BASS tour,” says Daniels. “I got to learn a lot from Ish.” Once Ish started to fish on the BASS tour he told Daniels’ dad that the young angler should start fishing the federation.
Fishing the Federation events since age 16, Daniels had made the state team 4 times but never made it to
national championship until this year. This is quite an accomplishment since the TBF’s format for qualifying for the National Championship is one of, if not the, hardest national championships to qualify to fish. According to the TBF, the national championship is “the culmination of more than two years of work for most of these anglers, competing against the nearly 25,000 members in TBF clubs across the United States and Canada to earn their spot in the finals”
As luck would have it, Daniel’s mentor Ish Monroe made the FLW Top 20 cut at Beaver Lake the same week that Mark Daniels won the TBF National Championship at Grand Lake. The final TBF weigh-in took place just after the Beaver Lake FLW weigh-in. Daniels and the other anglers fishing TBF National Championship drove an hour and a half to weigh-in under the lights and glitter of the FLW event. Daniels recalls Ish coming over to give him a big hug of congratulations after he was crowned the winner of the TBF National Championship.
Daniels prepared for the TBF championship on Grand Lake by examining pictures on Google Earth and researching past tournaments held on Grand Lake. He spent countless hours viewing the BASSMASTER Classic, which took place on Grand Lake in February. Analyzing the Classic gave Daniels a general understanding of the lake. “I read articles and I watched the Classic,” says Daniels. “Just from viewing the Classic I had a real strong take that the fish at Grand Lake really like to feed on baitfish.” Daniels reviewed the weights that it typically took to win local tournaments on Grand Lake, allowing him to develop
Summer 2013
»
21