David Walker had two finishes of 66th or lower in his first three Bassmaster Elite Series events upon his return to B.A.S.S. this year after 5 years as strictly an FLW pro. The Tennessee veteran was 53rd after the first day of last week's derby at Toledo Bend, seemingly on his way to another disappointing placement that would put him even further from his goal of competing in the Classic for the first time since 2006.
Things changed dramatically on day 2, though, as he boxed a tournament-best 24-pound sack and rocketed all the way up to 4th place.
"The first day I spent too much time with searchbaits," he said. "I knew I was in a good area – there were a dozen or more other guys in there and everybody was catching lots of fish, but there weren't many big stringers. I think Davy Hite had the biggest one (18-08) and everybody else was about where I was (13-06).
"The next day I went in with a lot more rods out and I'd planned to experiment a little more and I started out just flipping a jig. I caught a decent fish – close to 3 pounds – right away, and then 30 minutes later I caught a 5-pounder. The next thing I knew, I had a 24-pound bag.
"I finally figured out that the real big fish just didn't want to have to chase anything."
He followed that up with two more strong bags under post-frontal conditions (16-00 and 16-12). He ended up 3rd – less than a pound away from the initial tour-level win that continues to elude him. But he also collected a pile of AOY points that moved him up to 35th in the Angler of the Year race and laid a solid foundation for the second half of the season.
"I knew I'd been doing something wrong," he said, referring back to day 1. "There were too many fish in there to not be any big ones."
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