The next Jason Christie?

After dominating triple-A level, Zach King ponders plans for FLW Tour

It’s no walk in the park when it comes to being a full-time professional angler. Until an angler overcomes myriad hurdles, there is a constant struggle as to whether they will make it in the world of professional bass fishing or not. Without major endorsement deals and sponsors to help ease pressure on the financial side of the equation, cashing checks at each event becomes a vital necessity. And while many anglers who have experienced success in local and regional circuits believe they have what it takes to hang with the big boys on the Walmart FLW Tour, the truth is that few actually survive for the long haul.

However, that is not to say that it can’t be done.

In recent years, Rayovac pro Jason Christie serves as a prime example of someone who managed to parlay regional success into a burgeoning stellar career on the FLW Tour. Christie was a dominant force in the regional level for years. After holding his own on the Walmart BFL and EverStart Series circuits, Christie finally got his chance to fish the Tour in 2008. However, it was far from a smooth transition. In his first year on Tour, the young pro found himself in 118th place by the season’s end. It was a reality check that almost sent Christie back to his day job in Oklahoma. Since then, however, he has not missed a Forrest Wood Cup and is coming off of one of his best seasons to date.

Mirroring the same path as Christie, would be the man from Clarksville, Ark. – Zach King. Being a good ol’ boy who just loves to fish, King has worked his way through the various levels of FLW competition with an amazing degree of success. Now, the 2012 EverStart Central Division Angler of the Year looks to make the leap to the Tour, and hopefully, follow in Christie’s path.

King’s long road

King’s passion for the sport of fishing began at an early age. His father got him started fishing, and by the age of 14, King signed up to fish in his local club. After his second season in the club, King managed to grab the Angler-of-the-Year title when he was only 15 years old.

Although early on he knew his goal was to become a professional angler, King also came to the realization that he would need to make a living as well. After graduating from Clarksville High School in 1997, he made his way to Nashville, Tenn., in search of a degree from Nashville Auto Diesel College. A few short years later, King was on his way back home with a degree and thoughts of a new bass boat.

King’s first real taste of competition came when he entered a TBF event on Lake Dardanelle. Not knowing exactly what he was getting into, King ended up having a great time and fishing well enough to secure fifth place overall.

“That event was a ton of fun – I loved it,” said King. “Competition is what drives me; and trying to catch `em gets me going.”

If you spend any amount of time talking with Mr. King it will become quite clear that the man lives and breathes to fish. He has long been a supporter of FLW in the BFL and EverStart circuits and fishes as many events as he can each year. To underscore that point, King notes a BFL regional that he fished a few years back.

“A couple years ago there was a BFL regional on Toledo Bend. I only fished like three events that year so I had no intentions to fish it because I hadn’t qualified. Well, the night before the first day of the tournament I got a phone call from the tournament director. He basically told me that they had some people not show and had an opening if I would like to fish. Without hesitation, I answered back that I would be there. It is about a seven-hour drive from my house to the lake. So I hooked the boat up and got there in time to get some tackle ready and put in. And after all that, I took 11th place.”

Not only does that explain just how much he loves to compete and fish, but it also shows how versatile of an angler he really is.

“I really don’t have a favorite technique,” King says. “I try to be versatile. I go with the moment and as long as I have confidence in what I’m using, I can catch fish. But I guess if I really had to pick a strength of mine it would be fishing fast and covering water.”

Being versatile is an important part of the professional-fishing puzzle. Aside from being comfortable using any given technique the situation dictates, King felt he needed to practice fishing different types of cover he was not as familiar with. Not surprisingly, as he dove headfirst into the 2012 EverStart season, that is exactly what he set out to do.

“My main goal this year was to fish the Texas Division,” King explained. “Since I am a river fisherman, I really wanted to learn more about fishing grass. So the Texas Division was really where I had my focus at.

“Then I noticed that the Central Division was going to start off the year on Bull Shoals. I figured I’d give that a try since I like that lake. I took second in that tournament and thought that maybe I should just keep fishing that division as well.”

After a tremendous start to the Central Division season, King maintained his momentum throughout the season. He followed that up with a 12th-place finish on Kentucky Lake. The next Texas Division event was held shortly after that on Toledo Bend where he stumbled to his worst finish of the year in the EverStart Series – 54th place.

Coming off of that result, King decided to switch his focus and concentrate solely on the Central Division. He rounded out his regular season with a runner-up position on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis., and a 30th-place finish at Lake of the Ozarks.

“This year really proved to me how versatile I am,” said King. “I did well on bodies of water from Amistad to the Mississippi in La Crosse. It really opened my eyes to the fact that I could do this for a living.

Closing in on the dream

“When I started fishing the EverStart Series in 2011 my main goal was to make a top 10 – and I accomplished that. So this year I set a goal for myself to capture a win. I came close a few times, but to be honest, winning the AOY title makes me feel a whole lot better.”

After working his way through the various levels of FLW tournament offerings, King now has an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of his – fishing the Walmart FLW Tour.

Fishing this past season with only Tacklecenter.com as a sponsor, he is now undergoing the tireless search of finding a title sponsor to wrap his boat – in addition to other sponsors to help with entry fees for the upcoming tour year.

“Hopefully I am able to fish the Tour this coming year. And if I do, then my primary goal is going to be making the Forrest Wood Cup. It’s going to be a tough year. We are going to a lot of lakes I have never been to before. But then again, that’s like last year so I am confident that I can do pretty well.”

King also marvels at the fact that he will get a chance to fish against some of his idols in the fishing world such as Andy Morgan and Larry Nixon.

“I am one of the few anglers to start in the TBF, then fish BFL and EverStart to work my way up to qualify for the FLW Tour,” said the 33-year-old pro. “I take a lot of pride knowing that I worked my way up to the point I am now.”

However, despite his difficult road to the top, he’s never been completely alone on his journey as his father has supported him in the tournament world since day one. If King does manage to fish the tour this year, he is excited about the opportunity to have his father accompany him as a travel buddy.

“My dad told me that if I fish (the Tour) this year that he will fish it as a co-angler. It would be pretty special to have him with me at every event along the way this year.”

King also plans to continue to fish the EverStart Series Central Division along with any Arkie BFL events that he has time for.

With King following a path similar to Christie in his bid to qualify for the Tour, it’s not surprising that the Oklahoma native sees plenty of parallels between their approaches to the game.

“I have never met or talked to the guy, but I have fished against him and he reminds me a lot of how I was,” says Christie. “I used to fish as many tournaments as I could, just like he does. He just reminds me a lot of myself.

“There’s no doubt that he has done good, and he is doing good on lakes he is not familiar with. That will definitely help him out for the Tour next year. For his first year he may be classified as a rookie, but he won’t fish like on that’s for sure.”

The Rayovac pro also offered up a little advice for King.

“The biggest mistake I made my first year on Tour was that I fished the ways you were supposed to fish on certain lakes,” Christie continued. “But the reason a lot of guys on the Tour are here is because of the ways we fish. You can’t fish other people’s way. So now I try to fish how I like to back home. If King keeps fishing how he feels comfortable and doesn’t change how he is, then I think he will be just fine.”

So what does a man with a busy tournament fishing schedule like to do for fun you might be wondering? The answer is simple: fish some more. Whether it’s fishing recreationally or registering for the occasional summer evening bass tournament whenever the chance arises, King just wants to be on the water – even if bass fishing occasionally has to take a back seat to other piscatorial endeavors, such as his love of crappie fishing.

“Crappie fishing is fun, but it also keeps me in tune with bass fishing. I can really practice feeling those lighter bites,” said King, who also lists turkey, duck and deer hunting as his other great passions in life. “Plus, picking apart brush piles with a crappie jigs helps me stay focused on working structure for bass. I can practice getting mental imagines of what it is exactly that I’m fishing.”

Whether it is chasing crappies for fun, or hauling his boat all over the country to fish in big-time tournaments, Zach King lives to be on the water. And with his dream that much closer to becoming a reality, King now looks forward to proving himself on bass fishing’s biggest stage. While following in the path of Christie holds no promise of future success, it surely isn’t a bad place to start.