No assumptions

Pickett ignoring huge Pickwick lead in EverStart finale

FLORENCE, Ala. – Lloyd Pickett Jr. knows the stats. He’s the only angler to break 20 pounds in the first two days of EverStart Series Southeast Division competition on Pickwick Lake. He won the Snickers Big Bass prize both days. His total weight of 52-12 gives him a 13 pound, 7 ounce lead going into the final round. What does that mean? Exactly nothing, according to Pickett.

“Everybody keeps telling me I have a big lead, but in a tournament like this, that big lead really doesn’t mean much,” the Tennessee pro said. “You just have to put that out of your head and go out and fish as hard as you can and put what you can in the boat.

“Somebody could come from behind and have a 27-pound day like I had yesterday and get you. I had a magical two days, but everybody’s done their job to be in the top-10, so anybody could have a day like I had. That lead – I love it, but I’m forgetting about it.”

Pickett has proven himself as a master of the Carolina rig and he’ll stick with the bait that got him to the lead. He’ll bait his rig with Zoom Brush Hogs, Old Monsters and finesse worms and work it across ledges in about 16-18 feet of water.

“I believe in getting good at a technique and becoming an expert at it and I’m an expert on the Carolina rig,” Pickett said. “It works really well on pressured lakes and Pickwick is one of the most-fished lakes. It’s a subtle bait that fish react to. They see a lot of (deep diving crankbaits) and they’re constantly getting pounded by those baits. So if a guy comes in and throws something different, you’ll come away with a lot more bites. You may not get as many bites, but you’ll come away with the quality bites.”

Pickett’s top tip for effective Carolina rigging: “When you think you’re moving it slowly, you’re not moving slowly enough.”

Bobby Padgett, of Lagrange, Ga. will also forego the standard ledge-banging routine in favor of another subtle presentation. He has enticed most of his bites by targeting suspended fish with a white bucktail jig. Dressed with real feathers and flashy accents, the jig resembles a dying shad – something that fish holding a few feet off the bottom can’t resist.

“It’s something unique that works for about two to three weeks in June for fish in the 3- to 5-pound range; it doesn’t catch them if they’re smaller than that,” Padgett said. “The fish are sitting three or four feet off the bottom and usually, that’s your better fish.

“The fish are used to seeing and hearing (baits) banging and there’s no noise to this. All of a sudden, they just see something that dies in front of them and they get it in one quick peck. You get one bite at it and then it’s over.”

Third-place pro Anthony Goggins reached the top-10 by putting together two solid bags of 18 and 19-8. He has been using a Strike King spoon to fire up his fish and then running a crankbait through them to draw most of his strikes. Goggins has only fished his main areas a couple of hours each day, but today he’ll give them a thorough workout.

“I have two places I’ve been fishing and I’ve only been giving them a total of two hours,” he said. “I’m really interested in seeing what’s going to be on my spots today. I’m going to get in there and fish them all day and not worry about coming back early.”

Starting the day in fourth place, William Davis has prepared himself to grind out another day of slow fishing. He said he prefers a faster run-and-gun routine, but the lack of lake current during the fishing day has forced him to pull back and fish more methodically.

Logistics

Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Walmart located at 3100 Hough Rd. in Florence. Saturday’s weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. Weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

Pros will fish for a top award of $35,000 plus a 198VX Ranger boat with 200-horsepower outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger 177TR with 90-horsepower outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.

The EverStart Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of four tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the Angler of the Year title along with $5,000 for the pro and $2,000 for the co-angler. The top 40 pros and co-anglers from each respective division will qualify for the EverStart Series Championship that will be held on Kentucky Lake in Buchanan, Tenn., Oct. 27-30.

The EverStart Series tournament on Pickwick Lake is being hosted by Florence/Lauderdale Tourism.

Saturday’s conditions:

Sunrise: 5:37 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 69 degrees

Expected high temperature: 93 degrees

Wind: NW 1-3 mph

Humidity: 40 percent

Day’s outlook: Mostly sunny