Collinsville angler Brock Mosley has been on a roll on the BASS Elite Series Tour lately. The talented angler finished second to arguably the greatest tournament bass angler of all time, Kevin Van Dam, at the St. Lawrence River three weeks ago by consistently catching lunker smallmouths each day. His total weight for that tournament was 82 pounds 3 ounces which was good enough for $25,000.
Mosley was relaxed and ready when he got to Lake St. Clair last week and he showed his offshore smallmouth fishing prowess while staying in contention from start to finish. Mosley caught a limit of bass each day and led after the second day of competition with a 5-fish limit of smallmouth’s weighing 25 pounds 5 ounces. The talented young angler garnered another $25,500 for his runner-up finish including $500 for leading the tournament on day two.
“I fished a BASS Open tournament on St. Clair in 2014 and spent my time in the Detroit River,” Mosley said. “I went back to the river this time and found the fish in the same current breaks and areas where I’d caught them before. That gave me confidence to spend my practice on St. Clair and I was able to catch some 3 to 4 pounders in one area. The last day of practice I would’ve had a 24-pound limit by 10:00.”
Mosley decided to spend his time in that area fishing for quality fish instead of quantity and it paid off.
“My main goal last week going into the tournament was to get into the Angler of the Year Championship at Mille Lacs Lake – Onamia, Minnesota in a couple of weeks,” Mosley said. “First place in that tournament is a guaranteed $25,000 and everybody else who qualifies will be paid based upon their year-end Angler of the Year finish.” With the tournament winnings from that event Mosley will hit the $100,000 mark for the year.
Mosley started the tournament in fine fashion with a 5-fish limit of bass that weighed 20 pounds 8 ounces anchored by a 5-pound smallmouth caught in the first hour. That limit was good enough for 13th place and gave him the confidence to go back again the next day to the same area.
“Day two I started out in the same area and I caught another 5-pound smallmouth in the first 10 minutes,” said Mosley. “By 10:30 I only had 4 that weighed about 15 pounds so I went back to the river and caught them pretty quickly and culled to 20 pounds.”
That’s when the young gun made a move reminiscent of some of Rick Clunn’s famous tournament moves.
“I went back to the main lake and caught a 5 ¾ pound smallmouth,” Mosely said. “And then I caught another 5-pounder giving me a 25.5 pound total weight for the day.”
That hefty limit attracted the attention of the country as all eyes were on Mosley and his Leader board first-place finish for the day.
“Every move I made paid off,” said Mosley. “I just came up a little bit short on the final day with a limit of 4 pounders. I just needed a couple more 5 pounders to bite to win it.” But after 4 days of heavy fishing pressure in the area it just wasn’t meant to be.
So how did a shallow water fishing expert from Mississippi become an accomplished open water smallmouth expert?
“The best thing I did was fish the Northern Opens in 2014,” Mosley said. “All of the lakes are different but at St. Clair the smallmouths related to the grass lines in 16 to 17 feet of water. On the St. Lawrence River they related to wood cover so I just took advantage of what I’d learned about the lakes and fish up there earlier.”
Practice and valuable experience gained on the tour along with his natural ability has prepared the young angler well.
It didn’t hurt that he’d grown up fishing competitively with his father Danny Mosley against some of the nation’s best bass anglers right here at home.
Mosley caught most of his fish on a Spiralite Defiant SDS72MF 7’2″ rod and Ardent Apex Elite spinning reel with 15 pound Seaguar line drop shotting a Net Bait contour worm with a ¼ ounce weight. If the recent tournaments are any indication Mosley will soon be joining the winning ranks on the Elite Series Tour and qualifying for a Classic too!
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