For the first time since 1996, an FLW Tour event will launch this week without David Walker in the field. It'll be just the second derby in the circuit's history that the Tennessee veteran, who'll compete on the Bassmaster Elite Series this year, has missed.
"I did it for so long that it's just a habit to be at all of them," he said. "I'm not down about it – it's just the idea that it's a big-money tournament that I think I need to be fishing.
"Other than that, I'm excited about the change and I'm really looking forward to fishing with B.A.S.S. again. Just being at the Classic (he worked for sponsors in New Orleans) reaffirmed what I'd said before, that there's no event like it. I've given up the whole (FLW) Tour for it."
The only other FLW Tour stop he sat out was the Forrest Wood Open at Kerr Lake in '96. It was not the championship event (now known as the Forrest Wood Cup) that year, but rather the final regular-season tournament.
It was the first event that paid $100,000 to the winner (Mike Terry took home that six-figure check). Walker skipped it because the entry fee was much higher than for the other events – he recalled it being in the neighborhood of $1,200. He'll pay roughly four times that at each Elite Series tournament this year.
Had he fished that event, he almost assuredly would own two FLW Angler of the Year (AOY) awards instead of just the one he captured in 1999. The award was determined by total weight for the season, and even sitting out at Kerr, he finished just 5 pounds back of winner Peter Thliveros.
"I thought it was crazy to pay that much to fish a tournament," he said. "Once it started getting close I tried to get in, but it had filled up."
