Summer 2020
page 26
Credit Phoenix Moore
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The Delta’s tidal water has also been a great assistance when fishing other tidal fisheries across the country.
“The things I learned about tides and how the fish position has also been really helpful on tidal fisheries like the Potomac, Sabine River, and the James River,” Daniels shared. “We don’t go to those places too often, but it is good to have that knowledge.”
He’s also been able to translate his Delta fishing style of flippin’ and punchin’ just about everywhere he goes.
“When I started on Tour, I had a rod with a shallow crankbait or ChatterBait, and a couple of flipping rods on the deck everywhere we went,” he recalled. “That’s all I grew up doing and it is what I brought with me to start as a pro. That’s still the way I love to fish, but I’ve had to learn some new things.”
LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY
Daniels is now in his seventh season as a professional bass angler. The first of those were possible thanks to winning the TBF National Championship and the “Living the Dream” package that came with the victory.
That gave him free entries into the 2014 FLW Tour and Daniels has no problem admitting he was forced to go out of his comfort zone or fail.
“That first year, I was lost,” he said. “We went to Kentucky Lake and just trying to figure out ledges and stuff was so different for me.”
He was able to survive and cashed three $10,000 checks that year, but quickly realized he needed to
learn to be
versatile if
he was going
to make it
work for any
Credit Garrick Dixon
length of
time as he
finished the
year 92nd in
the Angler
of the Year
points race.
“That’s
the whole
key; you
have to be
able to do it
all,” he said.
“If you can’t
dropshot, you are going to be in trouble and
if you can’t flip, you are going to get exposed.
You have to be able to do it all or you are
going to get beat up.”
With the mindset of wanting to learn, he
was able to get comfortable doing anything
and he says that is valuable advice for
anyone looking to get better.
Finesse Fishing and Using His
Electronics
Daniels finds it funny that after years of
fishing with heavy gear and fishing shallow,
finesse fishing is now a considerable part of
his repertoire.
“I was a straight ‘Delta Rat’ and now I
feel like I am a finesse guy,” he said. “We threw the dropshot on the Delta, but it was cracking giants with 20-pound test around tules. Now, it seems like I am always fishing with spinning rods. I hardly ever fished any of the spotted bass fisheries in California. I’ve had to learn all of that out here.”
Another thing that Daniels had to figure out was his electronics and he had to do it quickly.
“I feel like I am really efficient with my graphs now, but when I started, I had no clue,” he admitted. “I only used the electronics to read the water temperature because that was all you needed on the Delta. I didn’t even use GPS because you just knew where everything was.”
Daniels recalled the extent of his electronics knowledge back then with a laugh.