July is like a month long homecoming tour for Toyota Tundra Pro Dave Wolak. He moved to North Carolina last year, but he cut his tournament teeth around the famous Smallmouth waters of the northeastern US. Wolak was raised in the eastern Pennsylvania, not far from Lake Erie, home to this week’s Bassmaster Elite Series event, the second of three consecutive tournaments scheduled for the month of July in the northeastern United States.
Wolak, who’s in his sixth year as a pro, has chased Erie’s mighty Bronzeback many times, including an unplanned therapeutic trip to Buffalo ten weeks ago. Back in mid-May, Wolak jumped out to 4th place on the first day of competition at the Bassmaster Major on High Rock, NC, the event he won a year earlier in his new home state of North Carolina. But then, he had a horribly bad Day 2, causing him to miss the ‘cut’ and completely fall out of a chance to compete for the $250,000 first place prize and defend last year’s victory.
“I was in need of a little mental therapy after Day 2 in North Carolina. So I made a quick decision to use a frequent flyer airplane ticket I had been saving and immediately flew from North Carolina to Buffalo, not only to begin getting ready for this upcoming Elite Series tournament, but also because there’s nothing like catching a bunch of monster Smallies to pick up and angler’s spirits,” explained the 2005 Bassmaster Toyota Rookie of the Year.
Therapeutic for sure, and Bassmasters be warned, Buffalo is ‘on fire’ according to
Wolak. “I fished two days, and caught several Smallies five pounds or bigger, and that’s not bragging, it’s just that good right now,” exclaimed
Wolak. “The Buffalo area just hasn’t had the angling pressure that other parts of Lake Erie have received historically, and the average body weight per fish in Lake Erie’s eastern basin just seems to keep getting bigger as time goes on,” he concluded. |
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“That trip back in May was definitely good for me. I just love Erie’s big water. I look out across that gigantic lake, no land is visible, and a feeling sort of comes over me that there is just an infinite supply of fish to be caught. It’s pretty cool, and a huge confidence builder,” said Wolak, winner of more than a half-a-million bucks in his short time on tour.
“Tournament bass fishing is a game of huge variables, and big water fisheries magnify variables such as weather, wind and equipment durability. Combine all those variables with the one constant which is the presence of so many big Smallmouth, and this tournament could be pretty dramatic,” concluded
Wolak.
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