Harvey Horne

PATRICK WALTERS LOVES it when the going gets tough. He’s in his element when his competitors are scratching their heads. “Figuring out the puzzle. Yeah, that’s the best part of bass fishing,” he says. Case in point: the November 2020 Toyota Texas Fest event on Lake Fork. In spite of Fork’s storied reputation as a lunker factory, Walters was one of only four out of 85 competitors to catch five-bass limits each day. While his competition struggled to get bites, Walters unlocked a “sneaky little pattern” consisting of standing timber, jerkbaits and his state-of-the-art electronics setup to win the event with a whopping 104 pounds, 12 ounces, beating the second-place finisher by a record-setting 29 pounds, 10 ounces. Evidently, Walters doesn’t have a panic mode. “On the last day of competition, I only had 11 pounds at 2 p.m.,” he recalled. “But a last-minute flurry kicked my Day 4 bag up to 22-10.” OK, fine. So, that was Lake Fork in balmy-ish early November. Can Walters piece together the puzzle on tiny, obscure Lake T on a frigid January day? Stay tuned to find out!

◗ It’s clear, calm and 32 degrees when Walters and I arrive at Lake T’s boat launch. Walters pulls several Daiwa casting and spinning outfits from storage. What pattern does he anticipate today? “This region has had a cold winter, and I expect the water will be in the low 40-degree range. The lake looks clear;