By BassFan Staff
Randy Haynes calls Lake Eufaula a ledge-fisherman's dream. He should know.
The man who's built a sterling reputation as an offshore ace on the Tennessee River has put his skills to work this week on the Chattahoochee River impoundment and, good grief, has he proven to be a quick study. After averaging nearly 17 1/2 pounds through the first 2 days, he walloped 22-02 today to seize control of the fourth FLW Tour event of the season with 1 day remaining.
The fourth 20-plus pound stringer of the tournament was by far the heaviest of the day and his 3-day total of 57-00 is nearly 8 1/2 pounds better than that of J.T. Kenney, who advanced a spot to 2nd today with a 14-07 stringer that gave him 48-09.
Justin Lucas bounced back after a three-fish day 2 to weigh 13-10 and move up a spot to 3rd with 47-03. John Devere continued his meteoric rise up the ledger with a 16-04 sack that has him in 4th with 46-11 while reigning Angler of the Year David Dudley made his first Top-10 cut of the season in 5th with a 16-11 effort that pushed his aggregate to 46-08.
Here's how the Top 10 will look at takeoff on the final day, with the deficit margin from Haynes indicated by red numbers in parentheses:
1. Randy Haynes: 57-00
2. J.T. Kenney: 48-09 (8-07)
3. Justin Lucas: 47-03 (9-13)
4. John Devere: 46-11 (10-05)
5. David Dudley: 46-08 (10-08)
6. Scott Martin: 45-11 (11-05)
7. Bryan Thrift: 45-03 (11-13)
8. Kelley Jaye: 45-03 (11-13)
9. Stetson Blaylock: 44-15 (12-01)
10. David Fritts: 42-03 (14-13)
Day-2 leader Bryan Thrift came in with four fish for 7-14 and that dropped him back to 7th with 45-03 while David Fritts sacked 14-04 to rise from 20th to 10th, securing his best finish since 2010, when he took 3rd at Lake Guntersville.
Overcast skies had some anglers thinking the topwater bite would fire up today, but it never did while it seems the anglers concentrating their efforts on fish migrating away from the bank (Haynes and Kenney) remained consistent.
Additional rain is in the forecast tomorrow, but should give way to partly sunny skies with high temperatures near 88 and a light southwest wind topping out at 10 mph.
After tomorrow, the Tour takes 2 weeks off before heading to Grand Lake in Oklahoma on June 6-9 for the penultimate tournament of the season.
Haynes Had a 6
> Day 3: 5, 22-02 (15, 57-00)
Haynes didn't come prepared to make the final-day cut at Eufaula so he spent part of Saturday afternoon at the local Walmart, buying new socks and other items to get him through the weekend.
That seems to be the only thing that's gone wrong for the Counce, Tenn., resident.
Haynes got a school of fish fired up this morning and caught a 6-pounder.
His first fish of the day was a 6-pounder that wound up anchoring his bag.
"I saw a few marks on my graph and turned around and saw they had schooled up," he said. "I didn't have a fish at that point (8 a.m.) so I said to my co-angler, 'Let's just catch a couple fish to get started.' So he throws out there and catches a big striper. I threw out and caught a 6-pounder. I about died. I squealed like a little girl when I got it in the boat."
After that, it was "off and on," he said the rest of the day as he added a Carolina rig to his crankbait program.
"Each day, I'm learning more how the lake lays out and I'm just fine-tuning the sweet spots and figuring out the right angles," he said. "Today, I lost a couple places, but a I gained couple, too. Who knows, it might dry up tomorrow, but I think I may have figured something else out.
"I'm just blessed that it's going this way. It's scary, too, because you don't know where you're going to get the bites. It's not the Tennessee River where you can get a bunch of fish fired up."
He's not sure how he's going to react if he's able to close out the win tomorrow.
"It would be awesome," he said. "There are not words to describe it. My first win at Pickwick is always going be my biggest win, but to do it here at the Tour level, it'd be awesome. Right now, I'm so tired, I'm not even worried about it."
2nd: Kenney Realistic About Chances
> Day 3: 5, 14-07 (15, 48-09)
Kenney knows he's likely fishing to retain the runner-up spot and nothing more tomorrow, but that's enough motivation for him to try to uncover some more fish-holding areas offshore.
"I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and that's offshore structure fishing," he said. "It's what I like to do now and I'm obviously fishing where the fish are moving to. It's the middle of May in south Alabama. These fish are not going to the bank. They're moving out away from the bank.
"I'm not an idiot, though. I'm a realist. I don't think I'm going to win, but I'm going to try hard and I'm not going to fish any different. Randy's got a big lead on me, but the rest of us are bunched up pretty good."
He said he caught the only five fish that bit today and the majority of his fish have been caught on deep-diving crankbaits and an umbrella rig.
J.T. Kenney grinded out five bites today and moved into 2nd place.
"I'm pretty happy with how it went today," he said. "I'm just basically bouncing around and stopping where I mark fish. I have some spots that have repeatedly given up fish so I'll be stopping on them tomorrow. You never know when your next bite is going to come here, but the offshore structure is where you can hit the motherlode. You're not going to pull up on a bank in May in south Alabama and catch 25 pounds."
3rd: Lucas Went Looking
> Day 3: 5, 13-10 (13, 47-03)
Facing a deficit of nearly 10 pounds, Lucas is realistic about his goals for tomorrow.
"The goal at this point is to salvage as many points as possible and make as much money as you can," he said.
Today, he abandoned most of the water he'd been fishing and uncovered some promising areas that may produce on the final day.
"I caught one out of an area I'd been fishing, then went to all new water," he said. "I went into one pocket and caught four fish – all males – off beds. I saw the females, but couldn't catch them so hopefully they'll still be there.
"The ones I caught were straight up on beds and that tells me they didn't move in during practice. They moved up today or yesterday so there are still a few coming in. Definitely not a ton, but a few. As hard as it is to get a bite right now, I feel comfortable sight-fishing because you can go all day and not get bit as hard as the lake is fishing right now."
5th: Dudley Scrapping Shallow
> Day 3: 5, 16-11 (15, 46-08)
Dudley knows it's going to take a lot more than what he caught today to pull close to Haynes or even overtake him tomorrow.
"When he's got an 11-pound lead over me, I think I can catch another good bag doing what I did today, but that's not going to do me any good," he said. "I've been fishing shallow, but I'm going to move off the bank all day tomorrow."
Today's weigh fish came on an assortment of baits, including one on a Booyah Pad Crasher frog, one on a swimjig and three on a YUM Dinger. He caught about 12 keepers and the best five were all between 3 and 3 3/4 pounds.
"I'm going in behind people where I know boats have been fishing the whole time and catching fish behind them," he said.
8th: Jaye Throwing a Jerkbait
> Day 3: 5, 13-12 (15, 45-03)
Kelley Jaye will head out tomorrow a little more than 3 pounds behind Kenney for 2nd place and that's what he's gunning for.
Despite opening the tournament with 14-11, he felt like the potential was there for more, but he had a tough time tracking down some fish that had seemingly moved during the off day.
"The first day, the conditions were pretty good, but whenever I found the fish, I didn't go back to them in practice," he said. "I'm assuming they just relocated and moved a little bit out farther and it took me a while to figure out where they moved to, so I've been playing a little bit of catch-up."
He had been catching fish that were relating heavily to rock, but that's been replaced by a typical post-spawn suspended pattern round piers, floating docks and standing timber. He's mainly been throwing a Smithwick Rattlin' Rogue.
"I haven't fished the same place 3 days in a row so I'm constantly moving around," he added.
Notable
> Day 3 stats – 20 anglers, 12 limits, 2 fours, 1 three, 3 twos, 1 one, 1 zero.
> Ray Meredith, who started the day in 13th place, broke down on the way back to check in and had his weight zeroed. He finished 20th.
> Luke Clausen missed the Top-20 cut by just 11 ounces while Jay Yelas failed to catch a limit either of the first 2 days and finished 115th, his worst result since the Lake Guntersville FLW Tour in early 2009. To check out their tournament recaps in the BassFan Pro View Reports, click here.
Weather Forecast
> Sun., May 19 – Mostly Sunny - 89°/65°
- Wind: From the S at 7 to 12 mph
Day 3 Standings
1. Randy Haynes -- Counce, Tn -- 17-03 (5) -- 17-11 (5) -- 34-14 (10) -- 22-02 (5) -- 57-00 (15)
2. J.T. Kenney -- Palm Bay, Fl -- 17-13 (5) -- 16-09 (5) -- 34-06 (10) -- 14-03 (5) -- 48-09 (15)
3. Justin Lucas -- Guntersville, Al -- 22-06 (5) -- 11-03 (3) -- 33-09 (8) -- 13-10 (5) -- 47-03 (13)
4. John Devere -- Berea, Ky -- 8-00 (3) -- 22-07 (5) -- 30-07 (8) -- 16-04 (5) -- 46-11 (13)
5. David Dudley -- Lynchburg, Va -- 16-02 (5) -- 13-11 (5) -- 29-13 (10) -- 16-11 (5) -- 46-08 (15)
6. Scott Martin -- Clewiston, Fl -- 18-04 (5) -- 13-11 (5) -- 31-15 (10) -- 13-12 (5) -- 45-11 (15)
7. Bryan Thrift -- Shelby, NC -- 20-06 (5) -- 16-15 (5) -- 37-05 (10) -- 7-14 (4) -- 45-03 (14)
8. Kelley Jaye -- Dadeville, Al -- 14-11 (5) -- 16-12 (5) -- 31-07 (10) -- 13-12 (5) -- 45-03 (15)
9. Stetson Blaylock -- Benton, Ar -- 16-13 (5) -- 13-08 (5) -- 30-05 (10) -- 14-10 (5) -- 44-15 (15)
10. David Fritts -- Lexington, NC -- 9-03 (5) -- 18-12 (5) -- 27-15 (10) -- 14-04 (5) -- 42-03 (15)
The following anglers did not make the cut and will not fish on day 4.
11. Andy Morgan -- Dayton, Tn -- 19-15 (5) -- 11-14 (4) -- 31-13 (9) -- 9-12 (5) -- 41-09 (14) -- $12,500
12. Randall Tharp -- Gardendale, Al -- 14-12 (5) -- 14-05 (5) -- 29-01 (10) -- 11-10 (5) -- 40-11 (15) -- $12,500
13. Todd Hollowell -- Fishers, In -- 18-06 (5) -- 10-00 (5) -- 28-06 (10) -- 10-06 (3) -- 38-12 (13) -- $12,500
14. Clent Davis -- Montevallo, Al -- 15-12 (5) -- 12-06 (5) -- 28-02 (10) -- 9-11 (5) -- 37-13 (15) -- $12,500
15. Dan Morehead -- Paducah, Ky -- 12-15 (5) -- 15-14 (5) -- 28-13 (10) -- 8-07 (4) -- 37-04 (14) -- $12,500
16. Joe Don Setina -- Pittsburg, Tx -- 22-03 (5) -- 9-01 (2) -- 31-04 (7) -- 2-12 (1) -- 34-00 (8) -- $12,000
17. Jason Meninger -- Gainesville, Ga -- 13-00 (5) -- 15-08 (5) -- 28-08 (10) -- 4-14 (2) -- 33-06 (12) -- $12,000
18. Anthony Gagliardi -- Prosperity, SC -- 13-15 (5) -- 14-14 (5) -- 28-13 (10) -- 4-01 (2) -- 32-14 (12) -- $12,000
19. Zell Rowland -- Montgomery, Tx -- 15-08 (5) -- 12-09 (5) -- 28-01 (10) -- 3-14 (2) -- 31-15 (12) -- $12,000
20. Ray Meredith -- Smiths Grove, Ky -- 16-14 (5) -- 11-15 (5) -- 28-13 (10) -- 0-00 (0) -- 28-13 (10) -- $12,000
