#FishGarmin Spotlight: Meet FLW Pro Mark Daniels Jr.

We recently caught up with Garmin and FLW Tour pro Mark Daniels Jr. to see how he likes his Garmin electronics since making the switch last season, and also ask him what he’s looking forward to most in 2016. 

What are your strengths as an angler?

Growing up on the California Delta, I naturally love fishing shallow and I love fishing grass. Of course, as a pro, you have to be able to do it all. At the end of the day, I just like catching fish; I don’t care how I’m catching ‘em, I just want to catch ‘em!

What do you love most about fishing grass?

I just love fishing grass in general. I think what I like most about it is that it’s just so unknown. You’re stepping into their world and you just don’t know what could potentially be down there. For example, when I’m flipping grass, I’ll get a bite and have no clue if it’s a one-pounder or a 12-pounder. I love the surprise aspect of it because you can’t see them, so that’s what I really love about fishing grass. You know, if you’re throwing a topwater bait and a 10-pounder comes up and nails your bait, you’re going to know that it’s a giant fish, but in grass, you just don’t know what you’re doing until you hook it.

If I had to pick one technique to fish the grass, it would be punching mats. I absolutely love to do that.

Are there any lakes coming up on the 2016 schedule that have you excited?

Okeechobee – it was the first event of the season and it was my third time going down there. I just really like that place simply because it’s one heck of a grass fishery.

It’s really not as easy down there as people make it look. Yeah, there are a bunch of 8-10 pound fish caught out of there, but it’s not as easy as you would think after watching a TV show about fishing Lake Okeechobee. As big as the lake is, there are really only three main productive areas on the lake, so it actually fishes pretty small.

Have you noticed a difference in the clarity of your Garmin electronics compared to what you had before?

The clarity is out of this world. I’ve spoken about this several times on social media … you can see things so clearly! For example, when I was at Ouachita marking all these brush piles in preparation for the Forrest Wood Cup, not only could I see the brush piles, I could see if there were fish inside of the brush piles with DownVu. You can actually sit there and count the fish. A lot of that is due to having CHIRP sonar, which transmits a continuous sweep of many frequencies, generating a much clearer picture.

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