Pickwick picking tools

Haynes’ ledge-fishing lures

FLORENCE, Ala. – In the darkness before Saturday’s final round of the FLW American Fishing Series event on Pickwick Lake, Randy Haynes put his fishing rods on the deck.

“There are my four ledge-fishing lures,” said Haynes, who leads the event by nearly 9 pounds going into the last day. “Two of them are for when the fish are activated and feeding and two of them are for when the fish are not as active and I have to drag them up off the bottom.”

The “activated” lures included a Strike King 6XD crankbait and a Strike King Sexy Spoon. The “dragging” lures were a Strike King ¾-ounce football head jig with a Rage Tail trailer and a Carolina Rigged Zoom Brush Hog.

If these lures sound familiar, it might be because it’s the same arsenal Yamaha pro Mark Rose used to win the Lake Chickamauga FLW Series event a few weeks ago.

Rose and Haynes are good friends and share a lot of ledge fishing information with each other.

“Several years ago I taught Mark a few of the things I knew about ledge fishing, especially when it comes to the electronics end of it,” Haynes said. “He has applied that basic knowledge successfully all up and down the TVA chain and has become so good at it, he is now teaching me about ledge fishing, especially on other lakes like Guntersville or Kentucky Lake. We are always comparing notes about offshore fishing, we both love it.”

Haynes said his main fish-catchers this week have been the 6XD and the football head jig.

“I’m still learning about that spoon,” Haynes said. “Now Mark, he’s the spoon man, I’d say he understands that spoon on these TVA lakes better than anyone else. He knows when to pick it up and put it down.”

“It used to be that I was a better ledge fisherman than Mark, but that’s not the case anymore,” Haynes said. “Mark is really, really good at it now and I’m thankful for it because he is now teaching me some things that I would have never done if we had never become friends.”

The final weigh-in of the FLW AFS on Pickwick Lake begins Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at McFarland Park.