TAKEOFF
ANGLER PROFILE
STEPHEN PATEK IS GETTING HIS ACT TOGETHER
thouGh he’s had his shaRe of false staRts, this califoRnian-tuRned-texan’s
aBilitY to find and catch Bass MaRKs hiM as a pRo to Watch
t
hree years into his flW
tour career, and stephen
patek is still learning hard
lessons. the latest came at
lake travis in february, where
he was in the lead going into
the third day. then he returned
to the weigh-in late and was
docked 5 pounds. on day four,
a bit rattled and with his spots
milked out, he blanked and
wound up in 10th place.
Welcome to the tourna-
ment-fishing school of hard
knocks. even the best pros
have graduated from this
same institution of higher
learning, some taking less
time than others to earn
their degrees. how fast patek
learns from his mistakes
remains to be seen, but he’s
smart enough to know that
he and nobody else made
them, and he doesn’t plan to
make the same ones again.
cut patek some slack.
though he now lives in
Garland, texas, the 30-year-
old is from san diego and was
never immersed in the same
sort of 24/7 tournament cul-
ture that dominates in the
lone star state and the
southeast. When he was a kid,
he fished some with his dad,
chris, but mainly was more
interested in playing guitar in
a metal band and pitching for
a local baseball team.
he still plays guitar, more
to unwind after a tour event
than anything else, and even
pitches for his old adult
league team when it visits
las vegas for a tournament
each summer. But a few
country music chords are
starting to sneak into his gui-
tar repertoire, and he’s find-
ing that he’s eating more bar-
bequed brisket than he used
to. texas is slowly seeping
into stephen patek.
an interest in tournament
fishing now underlies every-
thing. the seeds were plant-
ed by stephen’s dad, an avid
angler who mainly confines
his tournament activity to
events in his home state.
“there are a lot of lakes
around the san diego area,
and dad and i fished all of
them pretty regularly – dad
still does, of course,” says
stephen. “i also fished team
tournaments and club tour-
naments with southland
Bass club. My dad and i won
three team tournaments out
there. somewhere along the
way i decided that i wanted to
make a career in bass fishing,
and tournaments were the
way i wanted to go about it.”
learning the
shallow Game
patek moved to texas to be
closer to the heartland of bass
tournaments, and Garland was
the best choice for him
because he has family there.
soon after his arrival, he quick-
ly discovered that nearby lake
Ray hubbard didn’t appeal to
him as much as lake Ray
Roberts, about an hour’s drive
away. patek says the bass pop-
ulation in the latter isn’t great,
though it harbors some big
fish. Besides, patek figured that
By Colin Moore
photoS by Jeremiah Stanley
mastering the tougher bite at
Ray Roberts would help with
his bass-fishing education.
“the first time i went up
there [Ray Roberts] it was kind
of overwhelming because of
all the standing timber,” he
says. “it presented a big chal-
lenge to me, but i like chal-
lenges. the more i fished it,
the better i got.”
Ray Roberts and other
texas lakes have filled in some
of the blanks in patek’s shallow-
water resume. otherwise, he’s
a fairly well-rounded angler, as
fishing clear california lakes
such as otay, Miramar and san
vicente have helped patek
hone deep-water fishing skills
that will come in handy on
tennessee River and ozark
lakes. in particular, he admires
A former guitarist in a metal band, Patek says his tastes have changed a bit since moving to Texas to pursue fishing.
maY-june 2017 I FlWFIshInG.com
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