Courtesy of Dynamic Sponsorships

Team Toyota pro Mark Daniels, Jr. pulled quite an acrobatic move during Power Stop Stage 3 on Lake Murray.

Are fisherman not athletes? When Team Toyota pro Mark Daniels Jr. lurched over the side of his bass boat to retrieve a snagged bass, one might argue different. With seven minutes to go in a less-than-stellar period, the Alabama-based angler hooked a big largemouth underneath a dock covered with crossmembers. If you’re an angler, and if you’re reading this – I assume you are, you can imagine the sinking feeling you get in your gut when you set the hook over these unfortunate obstacles.

You feel the “thump” on the end of your line and when it comes time to set the hook, your line is wrapped around every possible thing it can be.

That’s what happened to Daniels Jr., but it didn’t stop him from weighing a game-changing 4-pound, 9-ounce bass when he needed it most.

“I was out of the cut line before that bite,” MDJ said. “In Period 3 I was in 19th place by about 8 ounces. You know how fishing goes; I figured somebody was going to catch one and knock me out of the cut. With seven minutes to go, however, I’m fishing a Neko rig underneath the skinny, shallow section of the boat dock and I get bit. I set the hook, and it felt solid but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it unwrapped from the dock post and crossbeams. I was just about to bite my line to cut it off but a second before I did that, I saw the fish rise to the surface and it was one I needed to make the Knockout Round.”

According to MDJ, he didn’t have a choice but to take matters into his own hands. With his heart beating out of his chest with just a few minutes to go, he asked his boat official for permission to jump into the 55-degree water and manually retrieve the fish. It was allowed per Major League Fishing rules but doing so would result in a three-minute penalty. The decision was a no-brainer for Daniels Jr. and the penalty was well worth it.

“If it was a tiny fish, I don’t think I would have done it,” Daniels said. “But my gosh, this fish was a big one. When she surfaced I thought I was going to have a stroke. She was a giant based on what I had been catching. So I stripped down and jumped into the water.”

The cold, pre-spawn water wasn’t exactly comfortable, as you could guess. But duty called and he knew he needed the fish to fish on into the Knockout Round.

“When I got my hands on the fish’s mouth, I cut the line with my teeth, grabbed the fish and swam back underneath the dock to get it back to my boat,” Daniels Jr. said. “I haven’t played sports in a while and I’ll be honest, it was a project getting back into my boat from the bow of the boat. But I did it and as I said earlier, it was totally worth the small penalty.”

His practice was tough. Coming off of a rough Harris Chain event, it was a much-needed confidence boost. Throughout his practice, he kept noticing the pre-spawn and spawning fish setting up on shallow dock posts. While it took a little coaxing to get them to bite, the ones that did fall prey turned out to be the quality fish which led him to a fourth-place finish.

“It finally worked out,” Daniels Jr. said. “It’s not often that a pattern holds up throughout an entire practice period and tournament. But this was special for me. I was just running new water every day because it was totally a pattern thing on those boat docks. It’s so rare that a pattern stays so solid over multiple days, and it allowed me to fish new places and target fresh fish every single day. You’re going to have some tough derbies in this business so when it all works out, you need to take advantage of every opportunity you have. That’s why I took a swan dive into the water for a four-pounder.”

The fish seemed to be farther along in the spawning process in the mid-lake section of Lake Murray. Due to the dirtier water, Daniels Jr. felt as if the water was warming up quicker and staying warmer throughout the day.

“Dirty water gets warmer quicker and stays warmer because of its density,” MDJ said. “I know it sounds nuts but it’s the truth. I was getting bit on a Neko rig on dock posts right at daylight because those big females moved up and the warmer water, dirtier allowed them to commit.”

Commitment comes in two forms, apparently. When the fish are on dock posts, they’ll bite. But sometimes you have to strip down, get ‘em in by hand and take care of business and that’s exactly what MDJ did.