weigh-in at the Forrest Wood Cup in Columbia, S. C., last summer, Watson sat down in one of the aerated water tanks, telling a protesting Senior Director of Tournament Operations Bill Taylor that he was suffering from South Carolina’ s broiling heat. Another time, on the weigh-in stage, Watson wore a facemask that mimicked Tour great Bryan Thrift – in looks, if not in catch.
Perhaps his ever-present happy-golucky demeanor is an offshoot of his self-realization that he isn’ t a Scott Martin or a David Dudley and doesn’ t claim to be. Qualifying for championships and capitalizing on opportunities to move up in the standings are more realistic goals, and he gives them all his focus.
Reflections On Tournament Fishing
Inconsistency has been Watson’ s biggest nemesis. He put together three solid days when he won the Norris Lake Tour Invitational event in 2016, but has struggled mightily to keep up the pace in other tournaments. In the Costa FLW Series Central Division test on Lake of the Ozarks last season against some of Missouri’ s best, for instance, he was in third place after the second round. Then he broke one of his own cardinal rules by recycling an area in hopes of catching a third good limit from it. Instead, he caught a single keeper and slipped to 10th in the final standings.
“ Boy, did I mess up that one,” says the 45-year-old Missouri native, who jokingly describes himself as a“ power junk-fisherman.”“ I hate it when somebody says they should have won, but I should have won that one. Most of the time, I’ m not the type who goes in to every tournament trying to win. That’ s just not a reasonable expectation. What I do is just try to figure out a pattern that will put me in a position for a paycheck or as many points as I can get. But, hey, a win is nice too, and if it’ s in the cards, then great.”
Regardless of the approach he takes to various fisheries, Watson’ s track record shows that he has his best success in difficult autumn tournaments, whether on Norris or the Ozark lakes of Missouri. Tough fishing is something of an equalizer for him, as he’ s had a lot of experience scratching out decent limits from waters not known to produce big stringers. The first bass club he joined after entering the military was the
Radcliff Bassmasters near Fort Knox, Ky., where he was stationed for a while. Mainly the club held its tournaments on the Ohio River, Barren River Reservoir and Nolan River Reservoir – none of them having a reputation for producing hefty stringers. One year, Watson won his club’ s annual Big Bass Award with a fish that weighed 3.33 pounds.
Watson admits that he has some blank spaces in his fishing toolbox to fill in before he reaches the level of expertise he hopes to attain. Fishing ledges is the weakest part of his repertoire and causes him the most frustration. Lakes of the Tennessee River chain such as Kentucky Lake and Guntersville, in particular, aren’ t high
on his list of favorite fisheries.
“ Ledge tournaments are absolutely the scariest for me. I have to undergo psychiatric treatments and take anxiety medicine for a while,” he kids.“ The thing is, though, when that tournament’ s all over, it’ s back to business. I’ ll put a smile back on my face and look forward to the next one.”
His love of tournament fishing might have kept Watson from becoming a sort of Midwestern Donald Trump in the real estate business, but he doesn’ t secondguess himself and the professional choices he made. Though his roller-coaster tournament career has had its exasperating moments, Watson has experienced enough success – and a load of fun – to
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FLWFISHING. COM I FEBRUARY-MARCH 2018