One last cast, a 5.5 pound fish, and a $125,000 paycheck. Mark Rose is the man!
I'm sure at some point we've all dreamed of being a touring bass pro. The slick boat, unlimited tackle, and hefty paychecks are certainly enviable rewards for chasing around fish. But the life of a tournament pro is anything but easy, so when you know a winning fish is in the net, well, it's more than ok to yell to the heaven's above.
Mark Rose is a well-known and loved angler that makes his living on the fishing stage. At a recent FLW tournament on Lake Guntersville, the unthinkable happened on his last cast of the day - and it was all caught on film.
With 20 minutes left on the final day of the tournament, Rose headed back to the same creek that had produced all of his fish up to that point:
"I made a run in the opposite direction of weigh-in to an area where I'd caught three or four of my biggest ones all week," he said. "I wasn't going to fish close for 10 minutes. I decided I was going to run 5 minutes to fish for 5 minutes and push it. I made one cast and caught a 5 1/2-pounder."
"I'm a pretty laid-back guy, but I remember going Ike on 'em," he said, referencing Mike Iaconelli's boisterous celebrations on the water. "I've always wondered when I see Mike go crazy where that stems from. I found out today on that 5 1/2-pounder."
Rose won the tournament by a mere 15 ounces, beating out Bryan Thrift for the FLW title - and a $125,000 payday.
We're all guilty of saying "just one more cast" when out on the water. For Rose, it most definitely paid off.
NEXT: 10 BUCKET LIST FISHING GOALS FOR THE NEW YEAR
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