Get to know Alabama’s own Professional Angler, Mark Daniels Jr.
Mark Daniels grew up a native of the Bay Area in California and with a love for the outdoors and fishing. Daniels continued to cultivate that love throughout his teenage years and then as he moved to Alabama for the first time to attend Tuskegee University.
“There’s something about the peacefulness and just the connection and interaction with nature. Seeing animals, fish, birds, turtles, frogs. I’ve always been that guy you know kinda just a Steve Erwin kind of a guy. I mean honestly I love nature I do big time,” explains Daniels.
While at Tuskegee Daniels met his wife. The two later moved to California where they had their son and daughter before moving back to Alabama. Daniels now lives full time in Tuskegee with his family and competes on the Major League Fishing Tour.
Daniels first came on to the pro fishing scene after winning the 2013 Bass Federation National Championship.
“That afforded me an opportunity to come out on tour through a program they had called living the dream. And they gave me a boat and a truck and I jumped out on tour in 2014 as a rookie,” says Daniels.
And after ten years of professional fishing, Daniels has gotten to fish some incredible spots, but his favorite is New York State.
“If I had to give it to one state, I’m just going to be honest, very difficult to beat New York. New York is top tear Bass fishing,” says Daniels.
With the continuous growth of competitive fishing within the high school and college ranks Daniels offers words of advice for those pursing the same dream he once did.
“I always push to them is to continue to follow the dream and pursue it. It sounds so cliché you hear it all the time and the bottom line is it’s the truth and it’s the reality. And most of the time people quit right when they’re knocking on the door of breaking through and so that was me, but I didn’t quit and I feel like that’s the only difference from myself and other individuals who haven’t made it to professionalism as far as fishing goes, so my advice to them is to follow it through, follow your dream all the way to the end,” says Daniels.
