Walker Battles the Elements on Lake St. Clair

DETROIT (Sept. 5) — Wanting to ensure his safety in the battle for the Bassmaster Elite championship, pro angler David Walker competed in the Bassmaster Northern Open No. 3 this weekend on Lake St. Clair in Detroit.

 

Continuing to climb up the leaderboard, the Cabela’s/GEICO For Your Boat Elite angler culled his way to a 14-pound, 10-ounce bag Thursday and a 16-pound, 7-ounce bag Friday. However, his total tournament weight of 31 pounds, 1 ounce fell shy of the final cut at the end of Day 2, when he finished in the 48th position.

 

“I caught fish this weekend; it was just a struggle,” Walker said. “In fact today is the first day I really caught a good one. I caught a smallmouth that weighed 5-11, which is probably one of the biggest smallmouths I’ve ever caught.

 

“This lake was a really good one with a lot of fish. You can catch largemouth bass in it, but you’re wasting your time if you’re trying to win anything. It’s slam full of smallmouths though. When you get to fish in a place like that it’s not all bad.”

 

While he remained competitive in the tournament, Walker believes that weather played a key factor in his results. Nevertheless, he isn’t concerned about the outcome; he just feels more prepared for his next tournament.

 

“I think weather hampered me the most in this Open because only a couple days was it really stormy,” Walker said. “Every day it had been windy; I mean like 15-mph winds. That made for some really rough conditions for trying to get around in a bass boat. It really limits you on where you can go and how many areas you can check out. Battling those kind of conditions may talk you into not following your normal routine of fishing an area.

 

“I know I really didn’t cover near as much water as I normally would. I tried like hell though and just didn’t get it done this weekend. There’s always that one thing you can point to about what went wrong, but this one here, I just don’t think I caught them well enough. No worries, we’ll get them next time.”

 

Cabela’s/GEICO For Your Boat angler David Walker caught a total weight of 38 pounds, 1 ounce over two days of action at the Bassmaster Northern Open No. 3 on Lake St. Clair in Detroit.