Mark Pack of Mineola, Texas passed away this weekend from complications with the COVID-19 virus. He had been hospitalized since early December and his conditioned progressed from there. He was 59 years old and is survived by his wife and two grown sons as well as his many fishing acquaintances who loved him.
Mark Pack was a winning professional angler, successful and loved Texas fishing guide and a very creative fishing tackle innovator. While some of his fishing accomplishments were known by those that follow tournament fishing, he never really received nearly enough credit for his innovations on the tackle side of things.
Pack was a very successful fishing guide on Texas’ famed Lake Fork starting back in the 90s and was encouraged by his fellow anglers to throw his hat in the ring as a national touring professional angler. He fished the FLW Tour from 2000-2009 and won the $200,000 Walmart Open in 2008 on Beaver Lake.
He founded Lake Fork Trophy Bait and Tackle which he later sold. He was man that should be credited with the tungsten weight craze in bass fishing. One of his guide clients talked to him about the density and weight of tungsten for the machining industry and the rest, as they say, was history.
He later founded M-Pack Lures and a series of jigs that incorporated a unique fiber guard that skirt collared to the hook keeping it protected in cover but easy to move out of the way on the hookset.
Pack continued to guide for more than 30 years on Lake Fork. He gave some of the great professional anglers in fishing their start. The likes of Kelly Jordon and James Niggemeyer will tell you they owe so much of their careers to Mark Pack as he took them under his wing and put them up when they were first getting started.
Pack’s imprint on the bass fishing world will last and his ribbing and joking and fun fishing trips will leave many of us with fond memories of our experiences with him. We keep Donna, Jason and Josh in our prayers in the months ahead.
Services have not yet been announced.
