Aches and Haynes

Former AFS winner dishing out bassing beat down on Pickwick again

FLORENCE, Ala. – With each passing day, it becomes more obvious that Randy Haynes of Counce, Tenn., is the man to beat on Pickwick Lake when bass are on the ledges during summer and fall.

Haynes already has one AFS winner’s trophy on his mantel from Lake Pickwick and it looks like he is well on his way to having another one.

Today Haynes brought in another 21 pounds, 11 ounces of Pickwick largemouths to the scales to take a dominating lead of 43 pounds, 1 ounce, accumulating nearly a 9-pound margin going into Saturday’s final day of competition.

“Yesterday was a little bit of a struggle, but today, everything went my way,” Haynes said. “A couple of my places showed up; I caught them where I wanted, when I wanted.”

Haynes said his problem on day one was not being in sync in his rotation.

“Yesterday, a lot of my spots were covered up with boats and that kind of put me out of the rotation I wanted to be in in terms of being on the right spot at the right time,” Haynes said. “Today, there were a lot fewer boats on those places and I could rotate around them just like I needed and it worked out perfectly.”

Haynes revealed that wind was a big factor in both turning on the bite and opening up his water.

“That north wind was pretty hard today and it helped me tremendously,” Haynes said. “It keeps boats off the lake and off the sweet spots. When boats are not constantly pressuring those places, it really lets the fish stack up on them. When it’s calm and slick out here, everyone goes fishing and rotates around on the good stuff and it keeps those schools busted up. But when it’s windy like it was today, the fish get a lot less pressure and the fish bunch up in those current spots big time.”

In all Haynes estimates he caught about 75 fish today.

“This lake is just phenomenal right now,” he added. “I think it’s second behind Guntersville in terms of productivity on this chain of lakes. In fact, I had one spot today where I caught four of the bass I weighed in (all 4- to 5-pounders) in about 10 casts – it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Davis second



William Davis of Sheffield, Ala., brought in 15 pounds, 6 ounces today to hold his second place position with a two-day total of 34 pounds, 5 ounces.

Davis is fishing half and half in grass and on ledges, but it’s not by choice. He found some good ledge fish in practice, but they’ve left him scrambling in the grass to fill out his limits.

“I was catching them pretty good on ledges, but they’ve moved and now I can’t figure out how to catch them out there,” Davis said. “I should probably stay out there and find where they’ve relocated too, but I’d rather go to the grass and catch something.”

Davis says tomorrow he’s going to gamble on a whole new area and technique to try to close the gap on Haynes.

“I’m either going to come in with a whole lot less or a whole lot more,” Davis said.

Snider third



Kevin Snider of Elizabethtown, Ky., brought in 16 pounds, 10 ounces today to move into third with a two-day total of 31 pounds, 12 ounces.

Snider is employing a ledge-fishing strategy, dragging a football head jig in 22 feet of water for his fish.

“This lake is incredible,” Snider said. “I probably caught 60 keepers today. There are so many 2-pound, 10-ounce fish in this lake it’s unreal. I know because I weighed dozens of them like that today.”

“They’re stacked up so thick on the graph,” he continued. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean the whole graph screen is just covered in solid fish – it’s like they’re stacked in there one on top of each other.”

Wooley fourth



Michael Wooley of Collierville, Tenn., rose to the fourth place position with a 15-pound, 8-ounce catch today giving him a two-day total of 30 pounds, 10 ounces.

Wooley is also playing the offshore game, casting a 1/2-ounce Strike King football head jig and a ¼-ounce Strike King shaky head in 14 feet of water.

“What I’m fishing are not really ledges,” Wooley said. “They’re more like humps or high spots on bars that top out in about 14 feet. I’ve got three places that are pretty similar and I’m just rotating between them.”

Wooley, too, is catching an inordinate amount of fish, estimating that he’s catching between 50 and 75 bass per day.

Williams fifth

Leon Williams of Fairdale, Ky., rounds out the fifth place position with a two day total of 30 pounds.

Williams is the only one in the top five that is fishing grass exclusively, punching mats with a big tungsten weight and plastic.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top-10 pros in the FLW AFS on Pickwick Lake after day two:

6th: Jade Keeton of Florence, Ala., two-day total of 28-15

7th: Erwin Cole of Murfreesboro, Tenn., two-day total of 27-11

8th: Adam Lynch of Hamilton, Ala., two-day total of 26-7

9th: Nathan Brewer of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., two-day total of 25-13

10th: Shawn Perrigo of Rienzi, Miss., two-day total of 25-12

Pittman still leads co-anglers



Tripp Pittman of Holly Springs, Miss., has moved into the lead in the Co-angler Division of the AFS event on Pickwick Lake.

Pittman added 11 pounds, 4 ounces to his day-one catch of 15 pounds, 9 ounces for a two-day total of 26-13, giving him just a 12-ounce margin over second place going into final day.

Day one co-angler leader Randy Miller of Athens, Ala., slipped to second place with a two-day total of 26 pounds, 1 ounce.

Craig Grubbs of Tishomingo, Miss., is in third place in the Co-angler Division with a two-day total of 25 pounds, 5 ounces.

Mitch Reynolds of Petal, Miss., is in fourth place in the Co-angler Division with a two-day total of 23 pounds, 11 ounces.

Anthony Goggins of Auburn, Ala., caught the big bass of the day in the Co-angler Division weighing 5 pounds, 11 ounces, which put him in 5th place with a two-day total of 23 pounds, 8 ounces.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers in the FLW AFS on Pickwick Lake after day two:

6th: Wendell Johnston of Belfast, Tenn., two-day total of 22-13

7th: Daniel Hinkelman of Conyers, Ga., two-day total of 22-8

8th: Lyn Melton of Florence, Ala., two-day total of 21-13

9th: Daniel Costley of Memphis, Tenn., two-day total of 21-1

10th: Bill Kisiah of Muscle Shoals, Ala., two-day total of 20-12

Day three of the FLW American Fishing Series on Pickwick Lake will begin Saturday at 6:30 a.m. at McFarland Park.