Someone pinch Bill Perkins. The self-described fanboy of pro bass fishing wants to know if he dreamed the past month, because it’s been so surreal no one could have scripted it better.
The Rochester, N.Y., club angler became fishing buddies with Bassmaster Elite Series pro Taku Ito after coming to his aid more than a year ago. That connection led to an epic day of fishing this summer on Oneida Lake. Soon after, the Japanese sensation broke through with an Elite win. Two weeks after congratulating Ito, Perkins, fishing his first B.A.S.S. event, had the favor returned when he won the Basspro.com Bassmaster Open on Oneida Lake.
“It’s just kind of weird how this all lined up,” said Perkins, whose energy and voice sounded like a fired-up Jack Black. “It’s just been really crazy. It was just so special to have hometown buddies, my brother and closest friend watch me catch the fish on the last day. If you gave me a pen and pad I couldn’t have written it that cool.”
“Even the stuff with Taku and fishing with him there a month or so before and he goes on to win. Then somehow I win. It’s so weird. It’s like they say — reality is stranger than fiction. It’s definitely the case here.”
Pulling the thorn from a lion’s paw
Perkins came to Ito’s aid on Cayuga Lake in late June of 2020 as the Elites began their Northern Swing. Thinking he knew the boater in distress, Perkins went over to discover Ito’s boat stuck on a pin buoy, its chain wrapped around his propeller twice and most likely held down by a bunch of cinderblocks. It was a hard fix made sketchy in 3-foot waves.
“The back of his boat would go up, and then it would rip it back down,” Perkins said.
As precarious and dangerous as it was, Perkins got it partly unwrapped, but a link remained wedged between Ito’s prop and lower unit when Perkins drove for help. When Perkins came back with news that help was slowly coming, Ito decided to strip down to his skivvies and jumped into the 52-degree water to loosen the prop.
“As soon as he got a couple turns on it, the chain just like ripped to the bottom and he was off,” Perkins said. “He took a picture. That’s me in the background with a stupid smile.”
Soon after, Ito posted the photo on social media searching for “this nice person” who “helped me all the way.” They connected, and a friendship was born. Ito thanked Perkins profusely and mailed him more thank yous.
“He sent me a bunch of stuff, exclusive Norie baits,” Perkins said. “Bragging up to my buddies, ‘Hey, look at this stuff you’ll never be able to get.’”
They’ve texted back and forth since, Perkins mostly praising Ito for his successes on the Elite Series, which included consecutive Top 10s on the St. Lawrence, Lake Champlain and Lake St. Clair in his first foray into smallmouth fishing. Before this year’s Northern Swing that started on Champlain, Ito carved out a day to personally thank Perkins by taking him fishing on Oneida.
“I blew off work. Sick day,” said Perkins, who owns an insurance agency. “We went to Oneida and just wrecked ‘em. Just had an epic day, 40 or 50 bites. Laughing it up. It was surreal.”
They learned from each other on that trip. Perkins showed Ito the catching abilities of a Ned rig in dead slick conditions, eliciting Ito’s response, “Oh, Neddo good? Neddo good!”
“I couldn’t believe he wasn’t throwing it. It’s the stupidest bait on earth,” said Perkins, who then learned why Ito was a bit frustrated despite catching around four an hour.
Ito had been throwing to bass he was seeing on his electronics but not always getting bites — “Oh, you don’t know Garmin?” — leading to a 20-minute crash course for Perkins, who then got to run things from the bow for a half hour. Apparently Ito is a good salesman as Perkins later purchased a unit.
You had me at ‘I need help’
Perkins became an Ito fan after their first meeting. After helping Ito out, his buddies asked “Who?” Researching Ito, Perkins discovered he cleaned house in Japan then did well in his first forays in the U.S. Perkins said he’s impressed by anglers from Japan who come here “read the map, drive around the country” and catch ‘em.
“He’s just a super ruthless competitor and has that drive,” Perkins said. “He told me he fished 80 hours a week, dusk to dark. A lot of it is electronics. He’s a beast.”
The work paid off big-time for Ito as he found a school of smallmouth in Lake Ontario, a two-hour run from Waddington. Ito climbed from seventh place on the final day with the event’s biggest bag at 26 pounds to win with 90-0. Of course, Perkins was pumped for his buddy and texted huge props. The finish helped Ito land 16th in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings and again make the Classic.
What’s just as impressive to Perkins is how much Ito has improved in communicating and showing off his personality. Ito is like a super, happy fun-time anime character whose joy is contagious and has enamored throngs of fans.
“His English was terrible — obviously substantially better than my Japanese,” Perkins said, “but he was definitely not the Taku he is now. His English is night and day, just the mannerisms, because he’s funny.
“It must be so hard to not to be able to display your personality because you can’t effectively communicate. Now he’s able to read your tone, if it’s a joke. I noticed he’s doing that way better. He’s making jokes like his boat is ‘smallmouth Disneyland.’ It’s just neat seeing him coming out of his shell.”
Yet when writing posts, there’s still something lost in translation.
“Taku posted, ‘(sic) My best friend Bill Perkins Won Bass open Oneida lake!!’ All my buddies are like, ‘You and Taku are best friends?’” Perkins said. “It also said I was his benefactor. I Googled English into twisted Japanese, and put it back into English and it made absolutely made no sense. It sounded like the most stupid thing in the world. This stuff just doesn’t translate.”
One good win deserves another
Perkins certainly appreciated the sentiment, though, and having a friend in high places. Ito was texting him every day during his Open win, telling him to keep it going. Ito kept better track on Bassmaster.com than Perkins.
“I never looked the whole three days. I never looked at the leaderboard,” Perkins said. “I just knew I was in the lead because (tournament director and emcee Chris Bowes) said it.”
Perkins led by an ounce after 18-11 on Day 1, then 17-0 gave him a 15-ounce margin over Sam George heading into Championship Saturday, with big names like Mike Iaconelli, Brandon Palaniuk and Jacob Powroznik also in pursuit. Perkins’ friends, many of whom blew off work to watch him on the water, gave him no quarter.
“The guys were at dinner busting my balls. ‘You’re in the lead.’ ‘Oh, you got like 15 ounces on this kid.’ Oh, Ike’s in there. Palaniuk’s in the hunt.’ I can’t even eat my dinner. ‘You guys think this is funny? I’m about to die inside. Fellas, leave me alone.’ I’m a huge ballbuster, so I deserve every bit.”
Although his dream was becoming reality, Perkins had a rough time accepting it. Sleep was difficult even though he had a buddy’s camper to himself. He said he kept waking with partial paranoia that he’d overslept and missed launch. His wife, Alana, added to the trepidation as she texted about his lead.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he wrote back. “I’m just going to be the idiot who blew it after two days. These guys are going gobble me up.”
But with 16-8, Perkins totaled 52-3 to beat AJ Selgona Jr. by 2-1. The 39-year-old joked he doesn’t want to ruin his B.A.S.S. bio that includes $45,733 in earnings and a bunch of ones in his stats, entries, wins, top 10s — “I don’t know if I want to come back.” Yet because he didn’t fish the first Northern Open, Perkin has a zero next to Classic appearances.
“I know,” he lamented. “As a bass geek, I’ve never even attended one. Guys told me you’re crazy not fishing the first one. I had never been to the James (River). The only reason I jumped in at Oneida was because I was spending the whole month of July there. I’m either going to go down in flames or kind of hold my own.”
In a rolling stream of consciousness, Perkins then laid out what he thinks it takes to make the jump to full-time pro. While he and his brother, Jacob, have won their club Angler of the Year three of the past four years, he said he needs to get more well-rounded before branching out, although more Opens are definitely in his future.
While locals oftentimes hold their own on their lakes and match the weights of the pros, he said he realizes doing it on the national level takes a lot more experience, knowledge and dedication.
“I think a lot of guys in this sport are very delusional about what they’re capable of,” he said. “It’s like playing poker for pennies or playing poker for your mortgage. You might make some great moves playing poker for pennies. You might pull off some great bluffs. Are you doing that with the mortgage on the line?
“I haven’t made the sacrifices these guys have made. I’m not on the road, not away from my wife and kids. It’s huge that B.A.S.S. lets me cherry pick an event and potentially make a Classic. I feel like I can get in a fight with those cats and hold my own over here, but I don’t think I could tool around the country and just on three days of practice do what they do.”
Perkins said he’s in awe of the abilities of anglers like Palaniuk, who on a day of practice can piece together a competitive pattern.
“I have a tremendous respect for that,” he said. “Dudes say, ‘I can do that.’ I think you don’t even know how hard it is to fish for four consecutive days, let alone smashing them for four days.”
With young children Natalie and Benjamin, Perkins said he’ll fish his tail off trying to make the tournament scene. He hopes he’ll have a fishing rod in his hand whether in big competitions or simply being boat captain to the kids. Being dad is a huge part of his life.
Tournament fishing success, he realizes, requires complete dedication at all levels. Perkins remains excited, the dream of so many aspiring anglers slowly sinking into his reality. Yeah, it wasn’t a dream. His name is etched in B.A.S.S. history. His future is yet to be written, but he is awake.
“We just got our teeth kicked in our club event, so it’s back to reality for me,” he said, “but it was an awesome few days.”
Aw, pinch him anyway.