Walters wallops ’em

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Photography by
Dalton Tumblin
Follow along as Patrick Walters hammers down on day one of the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes.
Walters didn’t waste any time, pulling up on his first spot and immediately finding fish.
Walters had already caught around six quick fish before my arrival, this one being his third keeper of the bunch.
Per usual, Walters is making quick moves and covering multiple spots swiftly.
Walters is hooked up again with something big.
Although it’s not what he’s looking for, big largemouth are near in the future.
Satisfied with the outcome of his first area, Walters makes a long run to go catch the bigger fish.
Shortly after arriving here, he hooks up.
And it’s going in the livewell.
Walters has five fish in the livewell, dead set on locating the bigger bass to cull with.
Walters is picking apart cyprus trees in this area. This being his home lake, he is able to target specific trees that have produced for him in the past.
What’s Santee Cooper Lakes without some shallow water obstacles.
Walters arrives to his next set of trees and hooks up immediately.
But this one doesn’t keep.
The next hookset on this set of trees seems to be a bigger one.
With this fish, Walters can start culling. A few more upgrades like this and he will be sitting in a respectable position.
Almost back-to-back, the next fish is on the hook.
This fish is also a decent cull, moving Walters even further up the leaderboard with a lot of time still left.
Walters continues to switch between two different baits, fishing various structures and using his LiveScope to locate fish in the area.
And it continues to work.
Even with the wrong species.
Another fish is on the hook.
This fish was able to help by a couple ounces.
Back-to-back…
But this one won’t help.
Walters idles over to another set of trusted cyprus trees and quickly finds another largemouth.
And this one will surely help his cause.
Walters hooks up on one last fish before we left him for the afternoon. This fish won’t help, but he still has time left on the clock.
Walters is sitting in a great position within the top ten unofficially on BassTrakk. With a couple of hours left, he continues to battle his home lake for a shot at Championship Sunday.