Brock Mosley is not going to win this tournament. But no one has had more fun than the 31-year-old pro who became a father for the second time on Wednesday. It’s all so unlikely. Mosley might be from Collinsville, Miss., but he does know something about smallmouth bass fishing. His two second-place finishes on the Elite Series have been at the St. Lawrence River and Lake St. Clair where he was catching smallmouth bass.
But with his wife, Leslie, about to and then giving birth back home, Mosley never got his head in the smallmouth game this week. As he put it, “I went largemouth fishing just to clear my head.”
“I was struggling that bad,” Mosley said. “I thought maybe I could catch 14, 15 pounds a day and survive, get some (Angler of the Year) points and go to the next one. I was just trying to survive. I was just trying not to bomb.”
Mosley did catch a couple of smallmouths this week, including a 6-pounder on Day 1. Then he took big bass honors Saturday with a 6-pound, 10-ounce largemouth. That’s just one more star in his unlikely crown this week.
“I might go the rest of my career and never catch a six-pound smallmouth and a six-pound largemouth in the same tournament.” Mosley said.
And unlike the two guys battling it out for the title on a rocking-and-rolling Lake Ontario this week, Mosley has had a large following of fans who have seen him fishing in front of their docks and come out to say hello. Someone even delivered a couple of sandwiches to his boat this morning.
“The people around here are awesome,” Mosley said. “I don’t know how many came running down the bank and said, hey, we’re watching you on TV. Props to everybody around here. They’re extremely nice and welcoming.”
Mosley is hardly the first Elite Series angler to make the final day cut at the St. Lawrence River by concentrating on largemouth bass instead of smallmouths. It seems one or two guys do it every year. But Mosley’s success seems like it was meant to be – an early gift from his newborn daughter, maybe.
“I’m just real grateful,” Mosley said Saturday. “After the practice I had, I’m just glad to be here on Day 3, much less getting ready to go on Day 4.”
And he’s catching ’em again on Day 4. Mosley has 15 1/2 pounds and currently ranks third in the BASSTrakk standings.