Whatley's Way: Power Fish Through Winter

Bradley Whatley tried. He really tried. But around 2001, he knew that he couldn’t take it anymore — he could no longer pretend to be a jig fisherman in the winter.

“I was a power fisherman,” starts Whatley. “Back then, we didn’t have YouTube or the outlets that people have nowadays to learn, so all I knew was that it was wintertime, and in the winter, people throw a jig.” Relying on tried-and-true winter techniques, the boisterous Texan would saunter off to fish his favorite haunts, like the Sulphur River. But one day, he says that he just snapped. “I absolutely hated throwing a jig. It was like watching paint dry. I couldn’t do it, and I said, ‘There has to be another way to catch fish in the wintertime.’”