By David Xiong
When most people think about bass fishing and its national hot spots, the southeast region of the country comes to mind. Florida, Alabama and Texas are among the top of the list. The state of Maine is probably a response one expects not to hear in that conversation.
Lobsters, rocky coastlines and lighthouses are what many would associate with Maine. For a little boy named Tyler Williams growing up around the Belgrade area, bass fishing was a part of home.
Tyler’s love of bass fishing started out catching them through the ice with his father. While targeting trout, the both of them would reel in nice size bass. It was the fight of America’s favorite freshwater sport fish that convinced the younger Williams to make fishing a career choice.
Born in 2001, Tyler took advantage of the exploding media site of his youth, YouTube, to help bring him up to speed. Watching shows like Facts of Fishing educated him on how to target bass and appropriate presentations. It is surprising that about nine years later from watching YouTube videos that this angler would make his dream of being a professional angler come true.
Though largemouth bass are not as treasured when compared to trout, tournament bass fishing was fairly popular in the New England area, Maine included. Like many other anglers across the country, Tyler would get his taste of fishing tournaments at a young age. With many local tournaments having a 7-fish limit, his dad would be his initial team partner but Tyler would soon become friends with a local hammer. This angler, Dave Cousins, would become his mentor, showing him the ropes to the tournament game and sharing advanced knowledge that Tyler didn’t have before.
Fishing on an almost weekly basis, Tyler would join any open or club tournament that he could get in, winning a few along the way. It was in these tournaments that he would develop into being a power fisherman, his go-to presentation being a skirted 3/4 ounce football jig with a Yamamoto Flappin Hog trailer.
As with many anglers bitten by the tournament fishing bug, Tyler knew becoming an Elite Series pro would eventually require spreading his wings to experience the fishing and competition outside of Maine. At the ripe old age of 20, he would pack up his FXR20 and compete in the 2021 Northern Opens to see if he could go toe-to-toe against some of the best sticks throughout the country. Tyler would end up cashing checks in two of the events but fell short of the Elite Series goal. Still, he felt that he was meant to be fishing against the best and would sign up again for the Opens.
2022 was a more difficult season as Tyler fished all 9 Opens but did not get the results he wanted. Feeling that he needed to fish to his strengths, he was even more determined to make the 2023 season count.
BASS would introduce a major change by increasing the difficulty level for 2023, requiring an angler fish all 9 events as part of the Elite qualification criteria. Fortunately for Tyler, he started to piece things together after the 2022 season and not only made the 2024 Elite Series but also won the event on Watts Bar, which also qualified him to fish the 2024 Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake. That’s quite a list of accomplishments for a young angler, let alone any angler.
The momentum seemed to stay with Tyler throughout the first 2 Elite events of his career so far with a 19th place finish on Toledo Bend followed by a 4th place the weekend after on Lake Fork. He accomplished the latter feat by catching a massive 124 pounds and 9 ounces, granting him one of the rare Century belts given to anglers who break the 100 pound barrier. How did he accomplish such an amazing feat? With the tried and true 3/4 oz jig he’s been fishing with for years.
