Elite

Atkins and Ito on Pickwick

Posted on
Photography by
Dalton Tumblin
Catch up with the hometown hammer, Justin Atkins, as he battles out day one of the 2022 Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Pickwick.
I caught up with Atkins first thing this morning as he approached his first spot. He doesn’t have intentions of staying long if can’t spot fish on the graph.
After a short time, Atkins decides to go looking. Bouncing around to a few different spots and relying on the graph to find schools of fish.
Atkins spends the first 30 or so muninutes of his morning looking. If no fish are on the graph when he idles over, he keeps on moving.
He gives a couple places a quick try without much luck.
And keeps on moving.
Later in the morning, Atkins settles into his first long term spot and immediately hooks up.
Before I could get close enough to capture the scene, Atkins has fish number one in the boat.
Only a short time later, fish number two is on the hook.
And in the boat.
Atkins is taking a slowish fishing approach. He relies on the graph to spot his fish, and slowly drags his bait through the school.
Number 3 is quickly hooked up in the same spot.
A slower start earlier in the morning, but Atkins is begining to push back.
Atkins is starting to pick up and slowly climb the leaderboard.
This stretch continues to heat up as Atkins hooks into fish number four.
And it’s in the boat.
This fish is a better one, helping Atkins greatly on the leaderboard.
And just like that! Fish number five on the way.
Atkins has filled his limit. It isn’t a big limit. he is currently hovering around the 15th spot on BASSTrakk.
But it doesn’t take long to hook up on something bigger.
A great cull for Atkins. Putting him closer to that top ten position.
With a few good fish and a limit, Atkins takes a moment to arrange his fish and cull tags.
And it’s back to fishing the trusty stretch of river.
And quickly puts another in the boat.
This fish was a cull for Atkins. This puts him in position to make big leaderboard moves if he finds some bigger fish.
After a few more tries, Atkins decides to switch up his spot and heads for a long run. Find out how everything played out him at the 3:00 pm weigh in.
Later in the day I caught up with Taku Ito, who is currently holding the number three spot on BASSTrakk.
As I approached Taku, he was busy putting yet another fish in the boat.
And a good fish at that.
Although I may have missed most of Taku’s earlier fish catching action, I managed to witness a cull.
This fish helped Taku make a small leaderboard jump, making a neck and neck top three.
Taku quickly got back to fishing in search for a giant to make all the difference.
Taku is taking a much different approach than most anglers in this tournament. He is finess fishing along some areas of the main river.
He can see the fish on his graph and makes casts in all directions as he targets specific fish
Taku decides to make a small run after no further luck in this spot.
His next spot a little more productive as he reels one in.
But this one isn’t even close to being any help.
Taku spends a little while longer on this spot without any bites.
He decides to make a big run down the river. Will he catch a giant to take the lead? Find out how it all plays out at the 2022 Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lake Pickwick.

Related