NPFL competition begins today at Wright Patman
TEXARKANA, Texas — After three days of practice on Lake Wright Patman, and a day of various activities in and around Texarkana Wednesday, the 108 professional anglers hit the water today to begin the National Professional Fishing League’s Texarkana tournament.
Co-sponsored by the City of Texarkana, Texas, and the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, the NPFL event will continue through Saturday with weigh-ins each day at the Texarkana, Texas Convention Center. Anglers will weigh-in between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday.
Friday, after the final weigh-in, there will be a concert at the Convention Center with locals Alex and Liv opening for Jake Gathright.
The anglers and officials from the National Professional Fishing League participated in numerous events benefiting local nonprofits and high school fishing programs Wednesday.
One of the events was the anglers fishing Spring Lake Park with clients from Opportunities Inc.
“Our clients really are enjoying this,” Opportunities Inc. Executive Director Sherry Young said. “Because of COVID and the pandemic, they’ve all been vaccinated, and so we’re just now starting to get back out. It’s a beautiful day, and they’re having great fun, learning from the anglers.”
Starting this morning, the boats will launch at 6:30 a.m. from Sportsman’s Cove each day.
Six-year professional angler Jeff Dobson of Tulsa, Okla. believes the tournament could be decided the opening day. Dobson spent three days fishing Wright Patman before the no contact time, and he has spent the three more days this week practicing.
“The lake is fishing good; the main concern is if there’s going to be enough fish to go around,” Dobson said. “It’s a pretty big field for this size lake. We’ll probably hit it pretty hard the first hard the first day, and it will likely straggle off quite a bit after that. You’re going to win it on the first day.
“All during practice, we fished in sunshine. We’re only going to have one day of sunshine during the tournament. The rain will change things up a little bit, but I don’t think it will change much in how we fish or how we target them.”
Angler Pug Clements of Rock Hill, S.C., believes Friday’s forecasted rain could help bring the fish out for the second day of the tournament.
“There’s a lot of big fish in the lake, it’s just a matter of getting on one’s head,” Clements said. “It’s a cool lake; it’s like going back a little bit with flooded bushes and muddy water. Nobody’s going to invent a new way to fish. There’s just one way to fish; it’s just a matter of landing on five of them’s head.
“The rain could get them more active. We’ll just have to see.”