Colby Dark is an 18-year-old first-year student at Louisiana Tech from West Monroe. Until recently, his goal in life was to become a success at construction. He wants to be a builder; that’s his college major.
However, he is putting the hammers and nails and saws and levels on the back burner for now because he’s in the process of building something else, a successful bass fishing guide business. There is a good chance for success in the guide business, and more, because of something phenomenal that happened on Caney Lake in Jackson Parish not long ago. Fishing with a partner, 19-year-old Gage Struben, Dark and his pal hit the mother lode of big bass.
The pair, fun fishing on Caney that trip, experienced something not many other bass anglers have accomplished anywhere. Fun fishing it was because they were obviously having a blast when over the course of two days, the two teens landed 10 bass that weighed 86 pounds and change.
Folks, that’s over an 8-pound average topped off with Dark’s personal best weighing 13.5 pounds and Struben’s best weighing almost 12 pounds.
I was able to chat with Colby’s dad, Randall Dark, who shared how this amazing two days on the water happened.
“The boys had been out the day before and were fishing shallow in spots they knew,” said Dark. “They didn’t have any luck fishing shallow so they decided to try another place and were just idling along using a side scan sonar when they spotted something that captivated their attention.
The sonar picked up a big school of what they believed to be large gizzard shad being followed by a gathering of big fish that were obviously interested in the shad.
“At first, they felt the big fish following the shad were probably carp but they decided to see just what they were. Casting jigs, the show was on. Between noon when the first fish was caught – not a carp but a huge bass – and 3:00, the guys brought 38 pounds of bass to the boat, including Gage’s personal best 11.8 pounder” said the proud dad.
“My son had just signed to fish the pro series this year and he had arranged for a cameraman and media guy to work with him. They decided to go back to the same area the next day to see if they could duplicate what they had done the first day.”
With the camera rolling, they second day was even better. The pair brought to the boat five bass weighing 46 pounds, 6 ounces topped off by Colby’s personal best 13.5 pounder.
We were able to visit with Colby later that day to pick his brain a bit. He is a member of the Louisiana Tech Fishing Team and was headed for the College National Championship last weekend on Lake Tohopekaliga in Florida.
“I went to Florida to pre-fish and was able to locate some good bass, catching 30 pounds two days straight,” Colby said.
He’ll be putting his school work on the back burner for a while as he will be fishing tournaments and inviting people to go to his Facebook page and check out his Hooked Up Guide Service.
What is this teenager’s secret? “I’ve just been lucky,” he said.
In my opinion, it has taken much more than luck to produce the amazing results he has enjoyed catching big bass. The professional bass fishing world has a young fellow from West Monroe who is on a path to eventually see his name up there on the same level as the Kevin Van Dam’s of pro fishing fame.
Contact Glynn at glynnharris37@gmail.com