An Outstanding Comeback Year for the North Carolina Pro

 Story By Pete Robbins - Photos by Mark Jeffreys 

Norman, OK – Every time Dustin Wilks hooked up his boat to head to an Elite Series tournament in 2008, his neighbor Steve drawled out “Boy, you get that $10,000 check and don’t worry about it.”

That brief pep talk seems to have worked as Wilks not only banked nine checks signed by Tom Ricks this year, but in doing so also reserved himself a spot in the 2009 Classic. He largely remained under the radar in 2008 but his constant improvement speaks for itself. A chart of his climb up the Angler of the Year standings resembles that of a good year on Wall Street – with the exception of a seven point downward slide after Amistad and a one point hiccup after Erie, he moved in the right direction each time, starting at 88th and ending up in 13th overall.

After taking two years off on a medical hardship waiver, Wilks returned to action in March unsure of how his elbow would hold up to a full tournament season. He did occasionally experience some tenderness, but nothing that limited his ability to flip or throw even the biggest swimbaits.

“It still hurts from time to time, but it’s mostly weather-related,” he said. “A good example is the third day at Erie there were some approaching storms and it started hurting real bad, but when the pressure stabilized it immediately got better.” 

The only other sign of fatigue may have resulted from his frequent trips to the bank – after the fourth event at Amistad, he never missed the call for checks again.

The Season
In addition to the elbow discomfort, Wilks suffered another health-related impact earlier in the season when he caught a bug at the Classic. Its full effects didn’t hit him until the practice period for the season-opener on the Harris Chain. 

“It hit me real bad. I just remember sitting in a canal (during practice) in my seat, barely awake. My practice went slow because of that. I had to go to the urgent care center and they wanted to give me oral antibiotics but I convinced him to give me a shot.”

The lost practice time got his season off to a dismal start with an 88th place finish, but after that he’d miss the money only one time, at Amistad, where he missed the cut by a mere two places. He finished in the money the other nine events, including a top 12 at the final tournament on Oneida.

At the Kissimmee Chain, he took a gamble and shot for the top 12, but missed and ended up in 47th.

“At the end of the second day I caught an eight pounder on a frog,” he said. “I was in 26th and I fished the frog all day long. It was the wrong decision, the comeback rookie mistake of the year.”

But in the third event, at Falcon, he rebounded and notched a 17th place finish, showing himself and everyone else what he was capable of doing. While most of the top finishers found their fish offshore, Wilks caught all of his bass at Falcon flipping bushes.

“I’ve always tried to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing so that made me want to go shallow,” he said. 

Regrets
He characterized the Harris Chain fiasco as “the one I’d really like to have back.” Not only was it his season’s worst finish, but he could have done much better had he landed the fish that bit. 

“I lost a seven and a three the first day,” he said. “That would have put me in the top 50, maybe the top 30. I used too light a wire hook. I was casting, not flipping, and when I came to a mat I used that same setup and a fish bent my hook straight out.”

But it was a lesson that he carried forward, and proper planning in subsequent events generally prevented him from making similar mistakes down the road. But there was the occasional misstep. For example, he lamented some of the decisions he made at Kentucky Lake, where he still ended up in 43rd place.

“The first day I caught my fish on a 10- or 12-inch Culprit worm, all except one came flipping. Then on the way in I caught a 5 ½ pounder on a jig. First thing the next morning I caught a 4 ½ on a jig and that messed me up. That fish was an anomaly. Then at the end of the day I missed a big one on a frog and I went out and did that the whole day.”

The lesson that he took away is that “you have to adapt to each day.”

While he wasn’t surprised by the caliber of the competition, he recognized that there’s no room for failure on the Elite Series: “I can’t tell if it’s the guys or the lakes we’re going to, but everybody finds the same dominant patterns at every lake. It used to be that 10 pounds a day put you in the Classic. Now 10 pounds a day is good for about 90th place.”

Satisfaction
While he does have some regrets, it’s hard to say too many negative things about a season that but for a 52nd at Amistad would have had 10 consecutive money finishes against the best anglers in the world. First and foremost, Wilks was happy just to be out there again.

“Coming back after an injury, it makes me appreciate it more,” he said. “When you’re about to lose it, it’s a tough thing to go through. At the same time, I realize that it’s not the most important thing in my life. Not that it necessarily was, but it was higher up on the totem pole.”

He stated that he believes that shift in priorities may have helped him be more relaxed, and in turn affected his fishing for the better. He’s also exceptionally thankful for the support and understanding of his wife Mary and his family, who supported him when he “couldn’t empty the dishwasher or open a door.”

While he certainly wishes he’d been able to notch one or two more Sunday appearances to “give (his) sponsors their money’s worth,” if he had to make only one final day cut, Wilks is glad it happened at Oneida. 

“That was one of my worst practices of the year,” he said. “I had only one little stretch with just three key spots. I was worried about just catching a fish.” 

“It was great to have a good last tournament, ending the year on a high note. That gives me good momentum heading into the Classic.”

He’ll especially want to do well in the big show, and said he “can’t think of any place (he) would rather have it. “

“I’ll probably end up going down there a few times before the cut off. I need to run around there and learn how to get into places quickly.”

Those $10,000 checks he’s earned all year long have been nice, but when he goes to his bank teller at the end of February, Dustin Wilks wants to deposit something larger, preferably with an extra zero. That won’t bother his neighbor Steve one bit, and it will make the two long years he sat out of the game seem like they occurred in a different lifetime.