Marc Cooper and girlfriend, Katie Allen, show off a 30-pound blue taken pulling planer
boards in relatively shallow water in the back end of a slough off the Tennessee River.
Marc Cooper: Saying Goodbye to Corporate Life
Story and photos by Capt. Richard Simms
Living the dream.
We were dragging planer boards in an area I never would have considered searching for cold-weather catfish—relatively shallow water, far from the main channel of the Tennessee River.
Pointing at his Humminbird Helix down-imaging, Cooper said, “There’s a freaking gigantor.”
At 30 years old, Cooper barely qualifies as a millennial, hence he often makes up his own millennial-style words. What he called a “gigantor” was the mark of a catfish that, based on the Helix, was about four feet long.
Two minutes later, one of Cooper’s starboard boards began to slide backward. It took several cranks on the reel handle to take up the slack, but it was soon apparent that Cooper was solidly hooked up and doing battle with a healthy fish.
However, on video, Cooper immediately said, “That ain’t him,” meaning this fish was not the “gigantor” he’d marked. About that time, in the relatively shallow water, the big blue came up thrashing the surface.
“He tried to jump, look at that,” exclaimed Cooper. “I don’t think this is him, but this is a quality fish.”
And it was just another day at the office for Marc Cooper.
“I’m out here maybe 250 days a year,” said Cooper, and it didn’t sound like a boast or exaggeration. “I don’t really know. Maybe some of those days, I’ll just go out for an hour or two, but yeah, I’m out here all the time.”
I first met Cooper in 2014 when he was still a fresh-faced college kid. As soon as he graduated, Cooper immediately stepped into the 9-to-5 world of a salesperson with Verizon.
“I had a great job, and I made really good money,” he said. “It was easy, but it’s not what I love doing.
“I just get it an immense amount of joy introducing others to fishing or seeing them catch their biggest fish ever. So that was kind of always lingering in the back of my mind.”
Another friend encouraged Cooper to create his YouTube Channel that began as just a fun hobby. But after seven years selling cell phones, he knew that wasn’t going to be his chosen career.
“I actually prayed about it,” said Cooper, who admitted he wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to do, but it wasn’t selling cell phones until retirement age.
“I was like, ‘God, what do you want me to do? I need to know,’” he said. “A month later I had a bunch of old videos I’d made just started blowing up, and it just steam-rolled from there. Within about two months the YouTube revenue had replaced my survival revenue.
“I talked to my uncle, who is basically a father-figure to me, and he was like, ‘Dude, you’re young. Go do it and see what happens.’”
So, What Happened?
Cooper did it. He pulled the plug and said goodbye to his 9-5 corporate job with a steady income and great benefits. That life-changing decision came about two years ago. Of course, he announced his plan on YouTube in a video called, “I QUIT MY JOB!”
Today Cooper keeps a roof over his head, food on the table and gas in his boat, plus some. How does he afford it? Right now, two ways.
Cooper is never on the water that he doesn’t have a GoPro around his neck and/or other cameras running. He is regularly churning out videos for his YouTube Channel, Top Knox Fishing (“Knox” coming from his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee). He has garnered about 17,000 Facebook followers and nearly 28,000 YouTube subscribers, working hard to master the art of monetizing his video views.
Never ashamed to make fun of himself or boast about his ginger-headedness, Cooper is, indeed, real.
“I’m pretty charismatic,” he said unabashedly (which no doubt helped him sell cell phones). “I can talk on camera, and I’m goofy.”
But there is no goofing around when he’s pursuing his second revenue stream—capturing baitfish to put money in the bank. Beside producing videos, Cooper spends many of his “work” days on the water catching baitfish to sell to other catfish anglers.
As a licensed bait dealer, Cooper must abide by a strict set of regulations. But the baitfish he catches—mostly skipjack herring and gizzard shad—he sells for a healthy price to catfishermen who do work other jobs. They can’t afford the time on the water or don’t have the know-how to catch their own bait when they want to go in pursuit of trophy catfish.
In between his time on the water, Cooper is working to add a third revenue stream to his repertoire. He is toiling through an online course to obtain his U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s license so he can also be a fishing guide. With his huge following on social media, there is little doubt that Cooper’s guide services will be in demand.
“I don’t intend to guide full-time,” he said. “I just need to diversify. One problem I have with YouTube is that you can just get out of their algorithm for no reason. You can just stop getting views, like someone flipped a light switch. I don’t like something that’s not within my realm of control being my main source of income.
“I need to get out there, put clients on fish and have fun with them. Then do some marketing online, sell some bait and don’t break too much stuff.”
It’s Not Just Catfish
Catfishing may be what put Cooper on the map, but that is far from his only piscatorial passion.
“I’m a good storyteller and I just like telling the story of fishing,” said Cooper. “I love catfish, but I’m a multispecies guy. I also love catching stripers, muskies and really anything that’s big.
His pursuit of big fish regularly carries him to saltwater. He said his most notable 2024 catches included a 170-pound yellowfin tuna on topwater in Venice, Louisiana and a fish called an ulua on topwater from a kayak in Honolulu, Hawaii. So yes, the Top Knox Fishing brand has done some traveling.
“I don’t think I spend enough time on one species to be the absolute best person at it, because to be the best at something, you have to live and breathe that fish all the time,” Cooper said.”
Building The Brand
His college education taught Cooper all about marketing and business branding. I asked him to describe what he considers “the brand” of Top Knox Fishing.
“The Top Knox Brand is no BS,” he said quickly. “I don’t dress anything up to be what it isn’t. I’m just not going to push a product that I hadn’t bought on my own or wouldn’t.
“Through my videos on YouTube, I like to show people how I actually catch fish. Like ‘Here’s what I’m doing, the type of structure I’m fishing, why I’m here and the tackle I use every day.”
“I like real, actual fishing, the story of fishing. Like catching bait when it’s 10 degrees outside and the net’s freezing in your hand. Or sometimes getting skunked or going out and catching 700 pounds of blue cats in a day. Just no fluff because there’s too much fluff out there in the world, and I can’t stand it.”
Final Thoughts
In closing I asked Cooper what he would like to share with others.
He said, “If you want to catch big fish, you better be prepared to outwork and spend more time on the water than everyone else. If you’re fishing from the bank, you’ve got to walk to places other people won’t walk to because they don’t want to put in the work.
“Put the work in and then have fun while you’re doing it. Fishing is an adventure every single time. If you look at it from that perspective, like you’re going on a new adventure every time, you’re going to have fun.”
And like Cooper, mix in some dedication along with some intestinal fortitude, and maybe you, too, can make money doing what you love and never work a day in your life.
(Capt. Richard Simms is the Editor of our sister magazine, CrappieNOW, as well as owner of Scenic City Fishing Charters. He was a former game warden for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency before becoming a photographer and PR guy for TWRA. That led to a 30-year career as a broadcast journalist and freelance outdoor writer. You can follow Capt. Simms on Facebook or contact him at Richard@ScenicCityFishing.com.)
