Dave Mercer’s high school counsellors used to laugh in his face when he told them he wanted to fish for a living.
Mercer, 34, host of the television program Facts of Fishing, said he was hooked from the first time he went fishing with his father at age three.
“Everybody has something that they’re just meant to do,” said Mercer, who left school determined to make his living as a sport fisherman.
He travelled across North America, competing in fishing tournaments and 12 years ago began shooting one-minute fishing tips for a local television station in Barrie, Ont.
Mercer is now in the second season of Facts of Fishing, a half-hour show broadcast on The Score and the World Fishing Network.
“I’m on the water 250 days a year and people ask me if it is still fun,” he said. “It never stops being fun.
“I think it is more challenging that any other sport out there. It’s like golf, only you can’t see the hole, and the hole is always moving.”
