Event: Bassmaster Open Div. 2 tournament on Lake of the Ozarks.
Scenario: Recalling a tournament with favorable weather, the pro from Cooperstown, N.Y., said he quickly recognized that summer was yielding to fall. This truth played out in his event’s where and how details.
“The cool thing was you could tell the fish were transitioning from summer patterns to fall feeding,” Patrick said. “You could see that because there were baitfish on the move from the main lake to the backs of pockets, so it was a tournament of adjustments.”
Doing most of his work with a 3/4-ounce Greenfish Tackle Crawball flipping jig with a Missile Baits Chunky D trailer, Patrick caught his first day’s fish under docks in deep brush. Some of that brush was anchored to the bottom, other pieces were suspended 5 feet beneath docks in 50 feet of water.
“Day 2, I went to a place that didn’t have very many fish in practice and a lot of bait had moved back there,” Patrick said. “It takes some time; it’s not like the bass are just immediately back there. It just so happened that in the one creek I fished Day 2, they were all back there.”
Championship Saturday found Patrick starting on a spot he’d fished the previous day and boated twin 4 1/2-pounders. After that, he pushed farther into his chosen creek and fished new water.
What he settled on was significantly different from the deeper docks he fished the first two days. Dialing in a pattern comprising flatter banks with sharp dropoffs at the ends of docks, he ran that the rest of Day 3.
“I did something different Days 1, 2 and 3. I think that’s what you had to do to win it.”
Admitting that Lake of the Ozarks was the last fishery where he would have imagined winning, Patrick said his week was not without its challenges. Still, he soldiered on, rolled with the punches and enjoyed the ride.
“People always say, when it’s your time, it’s your time,” Patrick said. “I genuinely could not do anything wrong that week.
“I had my prop go (on Day 2); I had a lower unit issue in practice. I had all these things stack up, but I just kept catching them.”
Patrick began his campaign with a Day 1 limit of 19-15 that put him in a tie for first place with eventual St. Croix Bassmaster Elite Qualifier Angler of the Year, J.T. Thompkins. A second-round limit of 15-6 dropped Patrick to second — an ounce off the lead.
On Championship Saturday, Patrick turned in 18-6 and secured the win by a margin of 3-4. The victory helped ensure Patrick’s 2024 Elite invitation and earned his first Classic berth.
The Decision: Patrick recalls two particular moments that buoyed his victory. The first came a couple of hours into Day 1, when his first area failed to produce.
“I went to go run back to my backup spot (near) the ramp and as I’m running down there, I said, ‘I need to look at this one spot I haven’t fished the whole time I’ve been here,’” Patrick said. “I’d been looking at it ever since I first ran past it, so I pulled in there and I caught (nearly) 20 pounds in like 45 minutes.”
Patrick’s spot was a little cove off the main river with a few docks that were loaded. The potential, he said, proved to be far more than he had anticipated.
“I was going back to basically lay up because I knew that spot was not a three-day, or even a two-day spot,” Patrick said. “That was the spot I was hoping to save for Day 2 because it was probably a little later in the baitfish movement. But I knew if I absolutely had to, I could go in there and lay up.
“On the second day, my Day 1 pattern died, so I had to adjust really quickly. I ran back toward the ramp, where I had one little creek I thought may start to pick up. It did, and I caught like 16 pounds in 15 minutes at the end of the day.
“That was huge because that day could have gone really poorly.”
Game Changer: While a drop shot produced a few bites, Patrick caught all of his limit fish on the jig. This, he said, proved to be a key element of his success.
Getting bites is, of course, always the name of the game, but doing so with techniques he favors gave Patrick the edge he needed. While Day 1 saw him catch fish on standard pitching and skipping presentations, he stuck with the same tool for Day 2 but shifted his tactics.
“On Day 2, I was swimming the jig,” Patrick said. “I would let it go to the bottom, the fish would engage with it and I would immediately start reeling in the jig, which would create a reaction strike.
“Day 3, I caught two out of brush, two under docks and one offshore — all on the jig.”
A firm believer in the jig’s consistency and versatility, Patrick said ommitting to a technique that suits him helped foster a winning mindset.
“I had so much confidence in the jig, I just said, ‘If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it my way, and I’ll just make the jig work,” he said. “If I’m fishing my strength, I’m able to say to myself, ‘I’ve never fished this area of the lake, but it doesn’t matter.’
“If I have confidence in something, I can go out of my comfort zone.”
Takeaway: Patrick said he recognizes the general wisdom of the phrase, “Don’t leave fish to find fish.” However, he also knows the value of taking a contrarian viewpoint.
“Nowadays, with technology and how good our mapping is, I don’t think that logic is (always) as useful,” Patrick said. “To be able to win, you have to be willing to go find more and bigger fish.
“There are times when maybe you need to lay up, but if you have the chance and you feel comfortable moving and finding new fish, 90% of the time, that’s the best way to win.”
