Patrick Walters caught a lot of big smallmouth at the St. Lawrence River.
October 11, 2023
By John Johnson Considering his four straight finishes among the Top 5 in the season-ending Bassmaster Elite Series points standings, it would be easy to assume that Patrick Walters will soon capture an Angler of the Year title.
Walters, who recently completed his fifth year on the cirucit with a victory in the final tournament at the St. Lawrence River, isn't so sure about that.
"Everything has to truly line up," said the 29-year-old South Carolinian. "When it's your time, it's your time. Every season it's one thing or another (that ends up costing him some points). Sometimes you can control those variables and sometimes you can't.
"Consistency pays the bills and my goal is to be as consistent as I can possibly be. When the tournament schedule aligns and the stars align, maybe (the AOY title) will happen. Or it might never happen."
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Having never finished lower than 16th in the points is testament that his game contains no weaknesses (his triumph at the St. Lawrence showed that smallmouth are no longer a mystery to him). However, he admits that he hasn't always been as decisive as he should've been during the course of some events.
"Sometimes I wish I'd stuck to my guns more," he said. "Two examples of that this year were Seminole and Santee Cooper, which were the ones I thought I had a chance to do the best in."
Those turned out to be, by far, his worst finishes of the campaign – 69th and 75th, repsectively. In addition to his win, he had four other Top-15 finishes during the nine-event season, along with two placements in the 20s.
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He ended up 35 points shy of the total posted by AOY winner Kyle Welcher.
"At Santee (in his home state) I thought I was going to win, but I fished history," he said. "You have to fish the conditions because every single day is different. You can't force the fish to bite; you have to let things flow naturally.
"Sometimes your biggest competition is yourself. To be the best angler I can be, I can't be making bonehead decisions."
His ledger attests that bad moves are rare and also suggests that he's among the best at preparing for a derby. In his case, though, that doesn't always mean being on the water from sunup to sundown on practice days.
"Sometimes I won't get out there until 9:30 or 10 o'clock," he said. "I try to go daylight to dark, but if I'm exhausted, I'll catch up (on sleep). The main thing I want to be is 100-percent mentally in it."
He'll compete in his fifth Bassmaster Classic next March at Grand Lake in Oklahoma. He's yet to make a major impact on that event – he's logged 10th- and 12th-place finishes and also missed the cut to the Top 25 on two occasions.
He wants to win one of those just about as badly as he wants an AOY title.
"The Classic is pretty high up there – I like both of them a lot," he said. "The Angler of the Year might mean more to me personally, but I think the Classic means more for your career."
Lacking any tournament experience at Grand, he's already made a pre-practice visit.
"I went for two days and rode around and it sets up different that what I thought. From TV and videos of past Classics, I thought it was way deeper than it is. Now I think it's more of a shallow-water fishery.
"I like where I think they're going to be when we get there."
Notable
> Walters' win at the St. Lawrence resulted in his second six-figure payday of the year. He also earned $100,000 for a National Professional Fishing League (NPFL) victory at Santee Copper in May.
