NPFL Communications
Patrick Walters claimed his second National Professional Fishing League victory of 2023 on Saturday as he topped the field in the regular-season finale at Lake Lanier by nearly a 5-pound margin. Meanwhile, Todd Goade clinched the NPFL Angler of the Year (AOY) title with a 3rd-place showing in the tournament.
Walters, the winner of the final Bassmaster Elite Series event of 2023 at the St. Lawrence River, caught a 17-07 bag in the final round to conclude the three-day event with a 57-05 total. Will Harkins was 2nd with 52-08.
“I just want to thank the NPFL; this is truly a family-oriented league and I can’t thank you all enough,” said Walters. “To my mom, dad, and beautiful wife, I can’t thank you all enough for the support, and thanks for coming up for the weigh-in.
Walters' first two stringers in the derby weighed 19-13 and 20-01. Like most of the field, he was keying on Lanier's abundant brush. He said the big difference in getting bigger fish to bite each day, and surviving the local pressure, was targeting piles with a larger group of fish than average.
“You had to find brush with a lot of fish and they had to be set up right within,” he said. “Usually, they didn’t get set up until later in the morning and it was really hard to trick five or 10 bass. If you found a pile with 20, you could get them to compete for it and bite.”
Walters estimated that he fished about 50 brush piles on Saturday and said he was physically tired from lifting and deploying the trolling motor all day. While he located some key piles in practice, he credited new water for his final two days' weight leading to his third career NPFL win.
Todd Goade clinched the NPFL Angler of the Year title with his 3rd-place finish at Lake Lanier.
“I was literally making two or three casts per spot this afternoon and it was exhausting. I ran the Falcon/Mercury all over the lake this week. The majority of my bites came in the new brush; I just went fishing and rotated between the Zoom Super Fluke and Zoom Magnum Shakey Head worm each day."
Harkins posted his second straight runner-up finish and also ended up No. 2 in the final AOY standings. After leading on Day 1 with 20-06, he followed with bags of 18-09 and 13-09.
Harkins is familiar with Lake Lanier and spent the majority of his time on certain brush piles on high-percentage schooling points, rotating through nearly 50 per day.
“I was not fishing anything special by Lanier standards, but it was off the path enough for most of the field,” he said. “Each day I would typically hit 50 spots and then rotate my best five of those spots later in the day. I was fishing a really old Bomber wakebait, and I don’t even know what it’s called.”
When the brush fishing got slow, Harkins hit the bank and targeted small groups of spotted bass chasing baitfis with a Zoom Super Fluke.
“I would troll down the bank and throw that Fluke at them feeding towards the surface and get them to bite. Today four of the five I weighed in came on the Fluke.
“Overall, the season was a lot better than I could have expected. I had no expectations, but in the first two events I was too stressed, and then I decided to have fun and fish and ended with a run of 3rd, 7th, 2nd and 2nd, which put me right behind Todd in the Angler of the Year and qualified me for the championship. No complaints, it’s been an awesome year and I have an amazing support group."
Goade closed out the points title on a body of water he knows well. He caught 17-15 on the final day – his biggest bag of the event – to finish with 48-10.
“It really was a storybook ending for the season,” said an emotional Goade with his wife on stage. “I said I had to do my job all year, and I am not going to lie, when I caught that last 3.5-pounder this morning I hollered, and I knew I had done it. It’s what you dream about and work for. I love Lake Lanier and spotted bass; it was an incredible way to end the season."
He threw Magnum Shakey Head worm in green pumpkin.
“The deep fish didn’t bite for me on Day 2, but I was able to survive,” he said. “I saw them all, and today it was stupid – I culled a limit of 15 pounds. I still don’t know why yesterday was tough but today was incredible and the Mag Shakey Head worm fished alongside brush piles was key. I caught fish from 10 to 35 feet.”
For complete final standings, click here.
