By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
(Editor's note: In observance of the Labor Day holiday, a new First Cast feature story will not appear until Tuesday, Sept. 6.)
"When you’re ready to give up, you’re closer than you think."
Those are words that David Walker has lived by over his career as a professional angler. This season, though, they’re carrying even more weight in light of the uncharacteristic struggles he’s endured.
The 2016 season marks Walker’s 6th year as an Elite Series competitor. Throughout his career, he’s been one of the most consistent performers regardless of which circuit he’s fishing. For reasons he’s still trying to nail down, this has been far and away the most challenging campaign of his career, he says.
With the final full-field event at the Mississippi River set for next week, he is currently 81st in points – his lowest finish since 2011 was 29th (2013) – and he’s no longer in contention to make the Bassmaster Classic or qualify for the Angler of the Year championship.
In seven of the eight tournaments so far, he’s finished 50th or lower. His best showing was at Lake Texoma, where he took 15th. Between 2011-15, he had seven finishes of 75th or lower combined. This year, he has three alone.
“It’s been my worst year of fishing I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’ve always recovered and just kept fishing, but this year has been my consistently inconsistent year. I’ve had too many days with two fish. I’d be where I’m usually at – I’d catch them solid for one day and then catch two or start off slow and not catch up. It’d be nice to have an excuse for it, but I don’t.”
He knows he’s not alone in his struggles. Other veteran anglers have gone through or are going through a similar experience.
“Mark Davis been under the same black cloud this year and I can feel his pain because it’s like any other momentum,” Walker said. “Good momentum builds and bad momentum does the same thing. You can never quite get the scale to tip your way. It always goes the other way. I can rattle off all the fish that jumped off this year, but that being said I can’t blame it on anything because if I’m doing well I’m going to take all the credit. When it’s going bad, you have to take the blame.”
Two years ago, when Kevin VanDam failed to qualify for the Classic, Walker remembered calling him after the final tournament to offer words of support to the seven-time Angler of the Year.
“I know everybody goes through it, some more prominent than others,” he said. “I’d never had a year like that and I told him not to worry about it. I’m now having to take some of my own advice and I’m hoping that getting a good dose of that poured over me will help me down the road.”
‘Are You Kidding Me?’
The negative vibes started right off the bat at the St. Johns River, a place he’s excelled at in the past with two Top-12s and three Top-30 finishes overall. He caught limits both days, but his 22-15 was only good enough for 79th place.
He followed with a 72nd at Winyah Bay along the South Carolina coast before heading to Arkansas for the combo event at Bull Shoals and Lake Norfork, where he wound up 89th.
“That’s the one that bugged me,” he said. “I had the utmost confidence on Bull Shoals and I’d spent most of my practice there because it was so big. I felt good about it because I felt I had enough good things going that I’d be solid.”
He only spent one day of practice at Norfork, but only caught stripers and walleye. After day 1 of the tournament at Norfork, he was in 12th place after bagging 13-07.
“Going into that day, I was pretty apprehensive, but I was 12th going back to Bull Shoals and that had me excited,” he said.
Then the wheels came off, particularly in one area where he had four fish pinned down on beds.
“I had my poles down and I could fish for two of them off the front of the boat and a third one off the back,” he said. “I hooked all three and all three broke off. Any one of them would’ve put me in the money. I lost them all. I was just dumbfounded.”
He wound up weighing two for 5-05 that day.
“It was maddening,” he said. “I was furious about it. That one really ticked me off. There have been so many things happen where I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? That happened again?’”
His frustration was such that after notching a 50th-place finish at the Potomac a few weeks ago, it barely registered with him.
“At least at the Potomac I got a check,” he said. “After day 2, it felt like I crossed the finish line and just fell down. That was a theme of the Olympics. I didn’t worry about running across it. On day 3, I didn’t care where I ended up.”
Undeterred Despite Struggles
Walker has started to come to grips with the fact that he won’t be in the Classic field at Lake Conroe next March. He’s been a mainstay since he shifted over from FLW in 2011. Instead, he’ll be working on behalf of his sponsors at the Classic Expo in Houston.
“I totally hate the concept of not being in it,” he said. “Odds are if you fish enough years, eventually you’re going to have a bad one.
"At first, it really pissed me off. I was furious about it. It made me fish mad and then you get sad about it. Now, I’m at a point where I’m indifferent about it. At this point none of those emotions help. I've eaten a crap sandwich and I'm ready to move on."
When the scene shifts to La Crosse, Wis., next week for the final Elite Series tilt, he’ll have a clear mind and a tight focus.
“I’m ending the year at the last one,” he said. “I’m unwilling to give up the fight. I’m going to La Crosse with sharp hooks. They can try to beat me out of a check but I’m going to catch some fish. I’ve given up on the ones that are done, but I’m unwilling to ruin this one because of those.”
