Haynes holds lead at home, again
Former AFS Pickwick winner looking for a repeat.
FLORENCE, Ala. – When the American Fishing Series visited Pickwick Lake in June of 2008, a man by the name of Randy Haynes of Counce, Tenn., won the event.
After day one of the AFS on Pickwick this year, Haynes is right back in the lead again with a day-one catch of 21 pounds, 6 ounces of largemouth bass, giving him a 2-1/2 pound margin over second place.
Pickwick competitors wrestled with 20 to 25 mph winds today, but it didn’t seem to hamper Haynes efforts. The well-known local executed his ledge-fishing game perfectly despite the gusty conditions.
“I stayed right here in Pickwick,” Haynes said. “I’m fishing deep – ledges, humps and secondary stuff near grass. The last week or so fishing has been extremely good out here. The number of bites fell off today, but I got the right bites.”
Haynes hit about 25 places today, noting that many of his best places already had boats on them.
“Everything is real crowded,” Haynes said of his hot spots. “These boys have found just about everything out there. I had some stuff I wanted to save for tomorrow, but I had to go ahead and fish them today because so many other places had boats on them. In fact, I ended up fishing a couple of places that I have not fished in a long, long time. I was idling down one ledge I haven’t fished in a couple of years and suddenly I saw bait all over the graph – I ended up catching a couple of good ones there, which was real fortunate.”
Haynes said his key baits included Carolina rigs and football head jigs.
“I’m trying to save one place in particular if I make it to Saturday,” he added. “But if it gets tough on me tomorrow, I might have to go ahead and use it.”
Davis second 
William Davis of Sheffield, Ala., grabbed the second place spot after day one with five bass weighing 18 pounds, 15 ounces.
In 2008, Davis swapped the lead with Haynes during the AFS event and eventually ended up third. So once again, it looks like two of Pickwick’s best locals are going at it for the top prize.
Davis, however, is on a run and gun program on Pickwick and is not committed to any one pattern or area.
“I’ve got a deck full of rods and I’m covering a lot of water – a lot of different water – it’s not like I’m keying on any one thing,” Davis said. “There are a lot of ways to catch fish here right now – topwaters and spinnerbaits in the grass, fishing out deep on ledges – and I’m trying to utilize it all. For some reason I did not get the number of bites I had been getting though. Today was really kind of a struggle for me.”
Weber third
Chris Weber of Fort Meyers Beach, Fla., is in third place after day one with a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 1 ounce.
Weber’s limit was anchored by a 7-pound, 4-ounce Pickwick behemoth, which took the day-one big bass honors.
“I’m fishing here in Pickwick,” Weber said. “I’ve got one little area where I’ve got a couple of things going on: a little flipping, some ledge fishing and some shallow grass fishing. I’m just kind of bouncing around between those patterns in that area.”
Williams fourth
Leon Williams of Fairdale, Ky., is in fourth place after day one with a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 13 ounces.
Williams’ home lake is Kentucky Lake and he says the grass in Pickwick now looks like the grass in Kentucky Lake.
“The grass on Pickwick is in great shape now,” Williams said. “Hopefully they won’t kill it because it’s full of bass. It grows out deep and has nice edges on it – that’s all I fished today was the grass. I probably caught 10 keepers total; it was a lot of fun.”
Terrell fifth
Bill Terrell of Bartlett, Tenn., rounds out the top five pros after day one with a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 2 ounces.
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top-10 pros in the FLW AFS on Pickwick Lake after day one:
6th: Adam Lynch of Hamilton, Ala., five bass, 15-9
7th: Jason Lambert of Pickwick Dam, Tenn., five bass, 15-2
7th: Kevin Snider of Elizabethtown, Ky., five bass, 15-2
7th: Michael Wooley of Collierville, Tenn., five bass, 15-2
10th: Dalton Bobo of Northport, Ala., five bass, 15-0
Miller leads co-anglers
Randy Miller of Athens, Ala., leads the Co-angler Division of the AFS event on Pickwick Lake with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 8 ounces.
His leading limit was helped by a 6-pound, 10-ounce bass, his third fish of the day.
Miller fished with pro Greg Johnson and he scored early on shallow grass, catching four of his bass by 7:15.
“I caught five bass on five different baits,” Miller said. “There are so many ways to catch bass here now, you kind of have to throw everything at them.”
Tripp Pittman of Holly Springs, Miss., is in second place in the Co-angler Division with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 9 ounces.
Pittman’s limit was anchored by the big bass in the Co-angler Division on day one weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces.
Craig Grubbs of Tishomingo, Miss., is in third place with a five bass limit weighing 13 pounds, 8 ounces.
Howard Poitevint of Bainbridge, Ga., is in fourth place with four bass weighing 13 pounds, 1 ounce.
Jamie Bladow of Houston, Ala., is in fifth place with five bass for 12 pounds, 8 ounces.
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers in the FLW AFS on Pickwick Lake after day one:
6th: Daniel Hinkelman of Conyers, Ga., five bass, 12-5
7th: Marty Scoggins of Trion, Ga., five bass, 12-2
8th: Brian Brecka of Alma, Wis., five bass, 11-14
9th: Tony Prince of Pulaski, Tenn., five bass, 11-13
10th: Shawn Malcom of Monroe, Ga., five bass, 11-11
Day two of the FLW Series Eastern on Pickwick Lake will begin Friday at 6:30 a.m. at McFarland Park.