Sweet as Honeycutt
Texas co-angler claims second Tour win
Keith Honeycutt knows how to fish his way to the tournament podium. The veteran Texas co-angler has won multiple FLW tournaments, including the 2013 Walmart FLW Tour event at Grand Lake.
Still, when Honeycutt hoisted the FLW Tour co-angler champion’s trophy over his head on stage this afternoon at Lake Eufaula, he celebrated with great joy because he knows how difficult it is to attain that level of success against the best amateur anglers in the world.
“It doesn’t come around very often,” says Honeycutt, who edged out Japan’s Hiroyuki Watanabe by just 2 ounces with a two-day total of 22 pounds, 12 ounces. “It’s hard to get two pro partners who fish a way that you can catch them too.”
Honeycutt, perhaps being a bit too modest, gave much of the credit for his win to Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson and Andrew Upshaw, the pros he fished with on days one and two, respectively. He says they were both generous with information and put him in position to catch fish. Gussy even handed Honeycutt the bait that he used to catch 15-04 on day one.
“Gussy told me we were going to be fishing shallow,” Honeycutt says. “We ran the bank and caught fish shallow on Pop-Rs. There are shellcrackers in this lake – perch, as we call them in Texas. The shellcrackers are spawning, and we caught bass around them on sandy banks.”
He started the day with several shallow baits tied on, but after Gussy caught a pair of 4-pound-plus fish on the Pop-R, the co-angler champ knew he needed to switch. He joked with his pro partner that he ought to share his stash, and Gussy happily opened his tackle box and offered Honeycutt a bait.
“I love fishing a Pop-R,” Honeycutt adds. “I threw it the whole day. I didn’t throw a shaky head or anything like that. I knew I wasn’t going to get many bites, but they were going to be good ones. When I saw the size of the fish he was catching, I had to throw it.”
With the Pop-R, Honeycutt fished very quickly. He and Gussy covered a lot of water, but from the back of the boat Honeycutt keyed on little lanes and targets that Gussy missed.
On day two, he and Upshaw fished very slowly on ledges in 12 to 15 feet of water. Honeycutt dragged a Texas-rigged redbug Zoom Ole Monster worm tied to 15-pound-test Berkley fluorocarbon.
“I think that’s a big deal – not using really big line,” he says. “Today was a lot tougher. I only caught five keepers.”
What’s interesting about Honeycutt is that he never practices for Tour events. He’s too busy running H&H Mowing, Inc., the landscaping company that he’s owned and operated for 25 years in Temple, Texas. Instead, he prefers to rely on his history at a lake and many hours of tournament experience.
“I just show up and fish and go with the cards I’m dealt,” he says. “I fish extremely hard, and I take it pretty seriously. Plus, I’ve been doing this a long time. I just think the good Lord was watching over me.”
Top 10 Co-anglers
1. Keith Honeycutt – Temple, Texas – 22-12 (10) – $20,000 + Ranger Cup ($5,000)
2. Hiroyuki Watanabe – Shizuoka, 416-0931 Japan, Japan – 22-10 (10) – $7,448
3. Eric Self – Lawndale, N.C. – 20-10 (10) – $4,964
4. Tim Cales – Sandstone, W.Va. – 20-05 (6) – $3,971
5. Mark Howard – Mesquite, Texas – 20-03 (8) – $2,978
6. Mark Fisher – Wauconda, Ill. – 19-14 (8) – $2,481
7. Mike Devere – Berea, Ky. – 19-12 (8) – $1,984
8. Jerry Reagan – Byrdstown, Tenn. – 19-07 (9) – $1,786
9. Tom Stark – Angola, Ind. – 18-10 (8) – $1,686
10. Tony Bennett – Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – 18-08 (6) – $1,587