By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

For the past 2 years, Brock Mosley has competed in all three Bassmaster Opens divisions in an attempt to qualify for the Elite Series. There's one positive aspect in not achieving that objective until this year.

"At least I won't have to go to California," he said in reference to the West Coast swing that took the Elite pros to both the Golden State and Arizona last spring. "Those kind of expenses can be tough on a rookie."

The 27-year-old Mississippian secured his 2016 Elite berth last week with a 31st-place finish in the final Southern Open at Lake Seminole. Combined with showings of 10th at Lake Toho in January and 17th at the Alabama River in April, he ended up No. 6 on the points list to claim the final invitation from the division. Only the Top 5 are guaranteed slots, but 5th-place Bobby Lane is a pre-qualified Elite Series pro.

Mosley derived a bit of added satisfaction in qualifying from the Southerns, as the fields are always inundated with tour-level pros along with the top-notch regional competitors.

"To me, it's the toughest of the three divisions," he said. "You can't have a bad day when you're trying to qualify (for the Elites) – just one off day can kill you."

Longtime Goal Achieved

Mosley played baseball for 2 seasons in junior college and another at Delta State University before transferring to the University of Mississippi to complete his degree in business marketing. Despite competing at a high level on the diamond, he never really had visions of making it to the major leagues.

His father owned a Ranger dealership in Collinsville, Miss. when he was a boy, and he determined way back then that he'd rather make his living casting a rod than swinging a bat.

"I grew up around it," he said. "The Red Man tournaments were really big around home back then and I spent a lot of days just watching everybody blast off.

"I always knew I wanted to fish, and just about everything I've done since then has been to get me ready for this career."

During the first of his 2 years at Ole Miss, he didn't even know the school had a fishing team. In his second year, he was fishing as many BFLs as he could and someone he knew mentioned seeing something on Facebook about the Rebels club. He only fished a couple of events wearing the school colors, but one was a victory in the B.A.S.S. College Regional at the Alabama River.

Had to Sweat for Awhile

Mosley had one superb day of practice for the Seminole event as he flipped up numerous quality fish – including a 7 1/4-pounder – from a bank up the Chattahoochee River. He visited that bank on both days 1 and 2, though, and was unable to generate a single bite.

"I thought I could catch a decent bag there, but when that didn't work out I knew I had to just put my head down and grind out a limit every day," he said.

He caught a 10-pound stringer on day 1 and figured that another double-digit haul on day 2 would lock down his Elite Series invitation. But with just 2 hours remaining in the second day, 45 minutes of which would be consumed by the ride back to the launch, he had only four keepers in his livewell. He'd been in a nearly identical situation 2 years earlier at Ross Barnett Reservoir and had been unable to come up with his limit fish, missing the Elite cutoff by just a few places.

This time would be different. He didn't make the 10-pound mark (he weighed 8 1/2), but the critical fifth fish was in his sack.

"I knew I had to keep calm," he said as he reflected on the final hours of day 2. "I was lucky that I had a guy I travel with on the Centrals as my co-angler, and he encouraged me. He said, 'Come on, you've got this, you just need one more.'

"I ended up catching a 13-inch (spotted bass) with 45 minutes left to finish my limit. That's when I knew I had a chance."

He had people tallying up points for him and he wasn't certain he'd made it until Todd Auten, a veteran of both major circuits, had brought only three fish for less than 6 pounds to the scale.

"Waiting on him to weigh in was a scary feeling because he's a great angler. Once I saw that he didn't have very much, it was a big relief."

Skill Set Has Grown

Mosley has been a proficient cranker and flipper for bass in shallow, muddy water since his youth – that's all the fisheries near his home offered. He's since become much more versatile, though, and now considers dropshotting one of his strengths.

As an Elite Series rookie, he won't see much familiar water.

"Those places will pretty much all be new to me – I haven't been to but a couple of the venues," he said. "Of course, I don't think anybody's been to the one in South Carolina (Winyah Bay), so it should be kind of a level playing field there.

"There's a lot of good fisheries, though – the St. Johns River, La Crosse, Wis. (Mississippi River), Cayuga, Toledo Bend ... it's a really good schedule and it'll be fun nonetheless."

His performance against the Elite field at the 2014 BASSFest at Lake Chickamauga, where he finished 34th and cashed a $10,000 check, gives him confidence that he can compete at the sport's top level.

"My main goal, like everybody else, will be to qualify for the Classic. I feel like if I can achieve that, I'll make some (prize) money and pick up a few more sponsors."

He feels like he's done pretty well in the sponsorship department already even though he's still in search of a boat-wrap deal.

"I'm still working on it," he said, "but I'm off to a pretty good start for a rookie."