Co-angler victor calls win ‘magical’

Hicks reels in Sam Rayburn win

JASPER, Texas – After a top-10 finish on Sam Rayburn Reservoir last year, Randy Hicks of Lumberton, Texas, won his first tournament with a three-day weight of 46 pounds, 3 ounces – 15 ounces better than Rusty Harvey’s second-place weight.

By the time Hicks took the stage, he needed 8 pounds, 9 ounces to win the Stren Series Texas Division tourney, and his day-three catch of 9 pounds, 7 ounces made it a lot closer than anybody expected.

It was his day-two catch of 26 pounds, 9 ounces that won the tournament. For that he used a red Excalibur rattle bait he’s had in his tackle box for years.

“It’s old school,” Hicks said, but after years of trying all other colors I thought, `You know, I’m going back to what I used 20 years ago.’ ”

But everybody was throwing lipless rattling crankbaits, and probably more than a few were using red. It was Hicks’ special technique that he credits for its effectiveness.

“You had to hold your rod tip high,” he explained, “and just reel it across the top of the grass. When you felt something you had to jerk it to get it out of the grass. And that’s when I got the bites.”

His other good lure was a splitshot-rigged fluke he calls “my beggin’ rig.”

“If I’m throwin that I’m beggin’ for a fish,” he said.

Hicks, who works as an insurance agent in Lumberton, Texas, rigged all his baits on Stren Magnathin monofilament line.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers competing in the Stren Series Texas Division event on Sam Rayburn:

2nd: Rusty Harvey, Nederland, Texas, 45-4

3rd: Keith Honeycutt, Temple, Texas, 38-6

4th: Stephen Francis, Brookeland, Texas, 37-6

5th: Kevin Carter, Spring, Texas, 35-11

6th: Will Welch, San Angelo, Texas, 32-12

7th: Joe Embry, Tyler, Texas, 30-10

8th: Claude Rabb, Vidalia, La., 30-5

9th: Steve Hope, Ovilla, Texas, 29-7

10th: Bob Snyder, Marion, Ind., 28-2