By David A. Brown
BASS Press Release
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| Big fish key during tough first day. (Photo: BASS) |
Fla. — Patrick Walters, a Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Summerville, S.C., had approximately eight hours on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, but he needed less than 20% of that to catch a five-bass limit of 21 pounds, 4 ounces that gave him the Day 1 lead at the Basspro.com Bassmaster Eastern Open.
Around 10:30 a.m., Walters found himself without a keeper. But once the show started, it happened quickly.
“I caught all my fish in an hour and a half, because after 12 o’clock, I didn’t catch another fish,” he said. “I started deep, bouncing around a lot. I found a bunch of fish offshore in practice because the shallow bite wasn’t really any good. They were dropping the water, it was a full moon — there was something holding those fish back a little bit.
“Yesterday afternoon, right before we came to the meeting, I found a couple more areas where it looked like the fish had pulled up on the bed. Today, when nothing was happening out deep, I ran shallow and it happened quick.”
With a 7-13 largemouth anchoring his limit, Walters said he was targeting spawning fish, but he was not sight fishing. Rather, he was making 15-yard fan casts to promising areas.
“It was on the outside a little bit, they weren’t way in there where you’d want them to be spawning,” he said. “They were a little further out on the first actual spawning cover. The water has been warming up 2 degrees every day; it was 77 today. They’re definitely making a push. I think they’ll make an even bigger push tomorrow.”
Walters took a unique approach, targeting his fish with a Tokyo rig — a setup that has a weight suspended from the eye of a hook. This allowed him to present a traditional soft plastic in a horizontal fashion and, most importantly, with strategic precision.
“I was dragging a Zoom Zlinky (stickworm) on the Tokyo rig with an 1/8-ounce weight,” he said. “I’d throw it in there and let it sit for 30 seconds.
“The Tokyo rig keeps the bait of the bottom about 2 1/2 inches. The best thing is that it will fall vertically, whereas, if you have the worm on a Texas rig, it glides. You’re casting at a hole that’s the size of a basketball. So if the bait glides, you’re already out of the spot. When the Tokyo rig lands, it goes straight down."
Bryan New of Belmont, N.C., is in second place with 21-0. Despite breaking the 20-pound mark, New described an exasperating day devoid of consistency.
