Another homer for Haynes

02.Oct.2010 by Rob Newell

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FLORENCE, Ala. – If FLW Outdoors continues to have American Fishing Series events on Pickwick Lake, they might have to consider changing the name of the event to the Randy Haynes Benefit Tournament.

For the second time in his fishing career, Randy Haynes of Counce, Tenn., has won an AFS event on Pickwick Lake. His first win came in June of 2008 and Haynes is also credited with piloting a fishing team to victory in a PAA Corporate Cup in 2008 as well.

Today Haynes put an exclamation point on his Pickwick dominance with a closing limit of 20 pounds, 9 ounces to give him a three-day total of 63-10, over a 10-pound margin of victory. He collected $18,933 for his win.

“Anytime I win on Pickwick it’s special to me,” said the 37-year old hardwood flooring contractor. “It’s my home lake and I feel like I’ve defended my turf.”

Haynes key baits during the week included a Strike King 6XD crankbait (sexy shad), a Strike King Sexy Spoon, a ¾-ounce football head jig teamed with a Rage Craw trailer and Carolina-rigged Zoom Brush Hog.

Haynes noted that the biggest difference between his win in ’08 and now is the sheer numbers of bass in Pickwick these days.

“Back then there were not as many fish in the lake, so I had to use a grub a lot,” Haynes said. “But now, there are so many fish out there, and they’re so competitive, that I can use a crankbait and sometimes a spoon to catch them.”

Haynes also said that this time of year the bait and bass tend to stack up higher in the water column than in the early summer.

“In June, a lot of time those fish will hunker down on the bottom on those ledges and dragging lures are more of a key,” he said. “But now, they’re up chasing shad around. When I ride over a place I can tell what mode the fish are in just by looking at my depthfinder. I can’t really explain it, but based on how those fish look on my graph determines what I throw to catch them.”

Haynes spent a majority of his fishing time from Bear Creek to the Tennessee State line (Tennessee water was off-limits) where the ledges are deeper and grass has less of an influence. His best ledges were 14 to 22 feet deep.

“I know a lot of people probably think I go to the same holes over and over again for these wins,” Haynes said. “But I can tell you that’s not the case. A lot of ledge fishing is just like any other type of fishing, you have to keep an open mind and constantly search out new places and try different lures – these lakes are always changing and the fish are always moving.”

“I’ve been fishing this lake for 12 years and each time I’ve won a big tournament out here I’ve found the winning spot during the practice round – they were totally new spots to me,” he continued. “The spot that produced the best for me in this tournament, I found Wednesday afternoon and it was a place I had never fished before. Even with ledge fishing you can’t get too set in your ways and stop experimenting. These fish move so much, each week new spots develop out there as fish move from one ledge and stack up on another. But that’s the part of this game I love so much – there’s always a new gem to find out there.”

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Aches and Haynes

01.Oct.2010 by Rob Newell

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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.”

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