Touey Goes Wire-To-Wire in Havasu Romp
LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. – Nobody stood a chance against Patrick Touey this week. Weighing the biggest bag of the day on two of the three days of the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Western Division event on Lake Havasu, Touey totaled 66 pounds, 7 ounces for the win. Weighing over 20 pounds on Day 1, over 26 pounds on Day 2, and 18-8 on Day 3, Touey won by a 17-8 margin and barely needed to catch a bass on the final day. For the win, his first with MLF, Touey earned a berth in the Toyota Series Championship this fall and $29,218.
“[It feels] amazing dude. I’ve been fishing for quite a long time, and I’ve been close, but I’ve never been in the situation to finish the job,” said Touey. “Today was just a special day. I was looking for three bites. I got my third bite and was like ‘let’s get another one.’ Got my fourth … then we ended up with five, so it was a blast. Just crazy man … crazy.”
The victory is redemption for a previous trip to Havasu, where a costly misstep taught him a valuable lesson. A lesson that paid dividends this week.
“What’s really funny is, two years ago in an MLF event I made a bad decision on Day 1 and kind of tanked. So, on Day 2, I just threw everything out the window and went for broke. I was throwing the same bait, same technique, same areas almost. I ended up weighing almost 20 pounds. So, when I got here this week in practice that’s kind of what my game plan was,” he said.
After attempting to force his swimbait bite throughout this week’s scouting, the weather finally got right on the final day of practice and he was able to find some fish cooperating with his techniques of choice.
“We had that last day of practice, we got that hot weather, and I went and checked one more time. All the areas that I was at prior to in practice, they were there. All the stars aligned this week.”
Touey approached his areas with a mid-sized swimbait geared for the forage.
“They like gizzard shad here, people forget that with it being such a clear lake,” said Touey. “Everybody wants to finesse. These big fish here, they eat gizzard shads all year long. If you can commit to big bait style fishing, it obviously can pay off sometimes.”
In addition to utilizing the right swimbait, proper adjustments to the constantly changing weather and conditions throughout the event were essential to staying on the bite. He utilized areas with different characteristics to keep on the changing fish.
“I had two sections of the lake, and they were both completely opposite from each other. On Day 1 I caught them all on the steeper stuff. Steep, red rock wall pockets. Just little pockets, and there would be shade lines in those. The fish seemed to be schooled up. Once that shade was just on one side of the cove, it seemed like every fish in the cove was sitting on that side of the cove.
“Day 2, I went filtering through there and just wasn’t seeing what I wanted to see. Not many followers, not many biters. So, I kind of made a little adjustment to fish some more 45-degree banks, areas with a lot of overhang and wood, with cages down in the middle to stage on.”
After two days of lights-out fishing, Touey was confident he knew what he needed to do shut the door on the final day and take home the Toyota Series title.
“I didn’t have any decisions to make. I was like ‘I’m throwing this all day, if I get five bites, they’re going to be big,’” said Touey. “I went to my 45-degree bank area and just ground it out for five bites… and it happened.”
Touey plans to fish the entire schedule and will be looking to chase down another title when the Western Division rolls to Clear Lake at the end of April. Touey also mentioned that this week wouldn’t have been possible without those who support him.
“I want to thank my family, they’ve always been supportive of me,” he said. “Especially my beautiful wife Madison, she’s been holding it down there at home while I get to go fish. I also want to thank my sponsors, AFTCO and iRod.”
Top 10 Pros
1. Patrick Touey – 66 – 07 (15) – $29,218
2. Kyle Grover – 48 – 15 (15) – $11,628
3. Patrick Whitaker – 48 – 10 (13) – $8,615
4. Mark Williams – 47 – 11 (12) – $8,180 (includes $1,000 Phoenix Bonus)
5. Mike Williams – 47 – 00 (15) – $6,462
6. Tim Rath – 46 – 11 (15) – $5,744
7. Justin Kerr – 45 – 07 (15) – $5,026
8. Jason Akins – 45 – 04 (13) – $4,308
9. Nate Caldwell – 44 – 15 (15) – $3,590
10. David Valdivia – 44 – 14 (15) – $2,872