Mark Zona

Mark Zona grew up in a southern suburb of Chicago. He caught his first bass at the age of 4 when his parents traveled to Sturgis, Michigan on a family vacation. That first bass sparked an immediate passion for fishing and set the trajectory of his life.

In 1982 at the age of 9 he fished and won his first ever bass fishing tournament splitting $2,200 with his partner. The fishing bug was on overdrive from that point forward. After graduating from Homewood Flossmor High School Zona immediately moved back to Sturgis, MI where his parents had bought a house on Klinger Lake. He attended Glen Oaks Community College while also fishing local and regional bass fishing tournaments.

After college he began selling pontoon and bass boats while still competing in local tournaments and eventually moving on to the national level which included the Bassmaster Invitationals and Opens, and the FLW Everstart Northern Division, where he won the division’s AOY in 2003.

Around that time he and his wife Karin seriously considered a full time move into tour level fishing but then an opportunity to interview with ESPN for their new outdoor Bass Saturday block arrived. Zona landed the position and became the co-host of a show called Loudmouth Bass in 2004. This was the beginning of his new life as a television commentator, host and analyst.

In 2005 ESPN scaled down their outdoor programming but kept Zona on as the host of his own fishing show named “World’s Greatest Fishing Show “which aired for four years. When ESPN transitioned out of outdoor programming in 2009 Zona continued with his fishing show but renamed it “Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show!” and began airing it exclusively on the Outdoor Channel and World Fishing Network. Zona’s show is currently still in production and has become one of the most popular bass fishing shows in the history of outdoor television winning multiple Golden Moose awards. Expanding outside of television Zona also began hosting a live internet fishing show called “ZONA LIVE” which aired on Bassmaster.com and YouTube. ZONA LIVE along with “Zona Unplugged” and “Zona Show Dirt” have generated over 15 million views on his YouTube channel.

In 2005 in addition to hosting his own show Zona’s extensive knowledge of professional bass fishing caught the eye of Jerry and Mike McKinnis who invited him to co-host The Bassmaster Show with Tommy Sanders. What was initially thought to be a one time occurrence has become a multi decade long career. Zona has been with B.A.S.S. through the inception of Bassmaster LIVE which launched at the 2015 Classic on Lake Hartwell, bringing reality to the long dreamed concept of truly live on-the-water tournament coverage.

Zona’s work on outdoor television has included BassCenter, The Greatest Angler Debate, The Bass Pros, Pro Team Journal by Strike King, Strike King’s Fish Hard, Kings of Bass, College Smash-Mouth Bass Championship, Oberta Redfish Cup, The World’s Greatest Fishing Show, Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show, Zona Live, as well as appearing in the movie Bait Shop.

He has appeared on ESPN, FOX, FS1, The Outdoor Channel, World Fishing Network,MyOutdoorTV, HULU, Amazon Prime Video, Bassmaster.com, YouTube, and many more platforms. His passionate style and love for fishing has entertained millions of fishing fans and brought countless new fans into the sport.