by Kyle Wood
FLW PRESS RELEASE
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| Finesse and pitching key for B.Lat's first Tour win. (Photo: FLW) |
Brian
Latimer has dreamed his entire life of being crowned an FLW Tour champion, and
after years of hard work and dedication, it has finally paid off. The Belton,
S.C., pro led coming into the final day of the FLW Tour event on Lake Seminole,
presented by Costa, and though it wasn’t easy, he sacked up 21 pounds, 3 ounces
to lock up the win with 80-15 overall. He edged out day-one leader Braxton
Setzer by 2 pounds, 1 ounce in one of the most emotional victories seen on the
FLW stage.
While his
weights may reflect a somewhat easy week on the water, the truth is far from
it. With just a handful of bites each day, “B. Lat” had to make them count, and
despite losing some fish in the last few days, he stayed focused and
determined, avoiding the dreaded spinout that many pros would experience.
“It
happened,” Latimer says of his win. “It really happened.”
To make it
happen, Latimer had to evolve over the week, adjusting to the fish as he went.
While flipping shallow grass did much of the heavy lifting, without his
cranking spot on day one to catch the majority of his 19-1 limit, who knows
what would have happened?
“I caught my
19 pounds on day one cranking in the [Flint River],” he says. “On days two and
three, I started in the river again hoping that would materialize again,
because that’s easy, and I was hoping to catch a limit quick, but it never
happened. So, today, I went straight down to my flat early so I could spend all
my time where I’ve been catching my biggest fish.
“It was
slow, just like it’s been every day, and the first bite I missed – just didn’t
grab it good. But I think the heartbreaker was my first two good bites I hooked
up with, I lost them. I was really down and out, and then I caught that big one
that was probably 7 pounds. Then, a few minutes later, I caught another one
that was pushing 4.”
After
getting those good bites, he boxed another decent keeper and hit a dry spell.
With three fish in the box around lunchtime, things were starting to look like
the tournament may not swing his way.
“I didn’t
get a bite for a very long time after that, so I decided to go do something
else and mentally reset,” admits Latimer. “I went sight-fishing, found
one right away, immediately cast over there, hooked up on the fish and it comes
off. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a bed fish, it’ll swim back.’ The thing never came
back.”
