By Scotty “Bud” Melvin, Guest columnist
In November 2005, I was let go from the radio station I worked at for 17 years. It was a rough spot in my almost 40-year career.
I had lots of support from friends and family as I navigated the waters of unemployment for the first time and tried to get back on the airwaves.
No one tried to help me more than Mark Zona. You may know him as “Z”; he made calls, offered suggestions, and went fishing with me.
In June 2006, he invited me to go to Kentucky Lake with him. He had to be there of course, since that was his job. It was the Elite Series Bluegrass Brawl. What’s better than a weekend in Paducah, Kentucky? He gave me a media pass; I took a bunch of photos that weekend and got to hang around backstage at the event.
He got invited out by a local to go fishing for a couple of hours. I tagged along. Although I didn’t catch anything dragging a jig from the back of the boat, it was a fun trip as Z made some guy’s dream come true by fishing in his boat.
Later, I would watch as he signed some autographs during the weigh-in. It was cool to watch him in his element, hanging with the people who loved bass fishing the most, the fans.
It was a great weekend. I even got to spend a little time with Louie Stout. The power had gone out at his hotel, and he came over to ours with his wife.
But my favorite part of the trip was the ride down and the ride back on that Father’s Day weekend. We talked about our families, our careers, and life in general.
If you don’t know Z personally, just know that he’s the same as he seems on your tv or on his YouTube channel. He’s just as original, funny, and unique behind the camera as he appears in front of it. I can attest to that, because I met him in 1993 before his BASS and ESPN stardom that eventually made him a household name across the world.
While I don’t get to see him as much anymore, because he’s busy being Z, I often think back on that time we shared a fun weekend at Kentucky Lake, when I needed something to get my mind off my troubles.
Mark Zona was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in 2024. But, in my mind, he was a Hall of Famer way before that.