Patrick Walters brought in 15 bass weighing 62 pounds and 10 ounces over the course of three days of competition on the famed Saginaw Bay to finish in second place at the NPFL (National Professional Fishing League) event this past weekend. It wound up being a great event for Patrick and his two traveling roommates, Trent Palmer and Mike Corbishley, who finished in first and third place respectively. Going into the final day of the tournament, Walters had the lead, but received a call from Palmer that his motor was having mechanical issues. Without hesitation, Walters drove out to find Palmer and brought him and his bag of fish back to the weigh in on time. He eventually ended up losing to Palmer by two ounces, but when asked about the tournament, he stated he was pleased with his finish after a tough practice and was more excited seeing their whole group do well.
Walters keyed in on many of his favorite soft plastic baits from Zoom on his way to his second place finish. The two baits he primarily used were the Zoom Fluke Stick and the Zoom Super Fluke fished on a drop shot rig. He used a 1/2 oz VMC Tungsten weight paired with a #2 VMC Neko hook and threw his drop shot on 6-pound Sufix 832 braid to an 8-pound Sufix fluorocarbon leader. Walters found schooling fish chasing bait in 30 feet of water during the first day of the tournament but caught most of his fish in 10 feet of water on the second and third days.
In regard to his rod and reel setups, Walters leaned heavily on the new Daiwa Tatula Elite Rods, specifically the Cody Meyer drop shot rod, and Tatula MQ 4000 spinning reel. He opted for the larger reel for a smoother drag to allow those smallmouth to make hard runs without breaking off.
