Rose and Hackney Victorious at Pickwick 

 Story by Matt Pangrac - Photos by  Matt Pangrac  

Florence, AL - Saturday marked the final day for the PAA’s Corporate Cup on Pickwick Lake. With the top 12 teams competing for the $100,000 top prize, the title was up in the air as less than a pound separated the top two teams of T-H Marine and Haynes Hardwood Floors. 

On Friday, quality fish eclipsing the four pound mark were rare but on Saturday, the big bite resurfaced as numerous kicker fish were hoisted on the PAA weigh-in stage. 

When the last fish had been weighed, the leaders had swapped positions atop the standings and the Haynes Hardwood Floors team led by Mark Rose and Greg Hackney hoisted the inaugural Corporate Cup with the tournaments heaviest one day stringer weighing 33.59 pounds. 

Rose and Hackney needed every bite, as the T-H marine team led by Steve Kennedy and Brent Crow turned in another solid performance, bringing 29.92 to the scales and falling just over two pounds short of the title. 

Here are what the top 3 teams had to say about Saturday on Pickwick:

First Place: Haynes Hardwood Floors

Mark Rose:
“We knew that there were some shallow fish in the grass but my style is deep. Greg was also trying to focus more on the deep stuff and we decided that the deep deal would hold up a lot better than the shallow deal so we decided to go deep. 

“We were throwing a ¾ ounce Strike King football jig, a Sexy Shad spoon, and deep running crankbaits and just covering a lot of water. We had a lot of schools of fish found that I always fish here and our partners fish here a lot so we just covered a lot of water.

“I feel like our success was that we had a lot of schools found. Some of my old stuff that I found last year was good and we found some new stuff so we put in a good group effort.”

Greg Hackney:
“We really had a good day today and the fish bit good. We really didn’t think that we had enough but we actually had our best day today that we’ve had all week. We caught a limit really quick this morning and that allowed us to stay on some areas and get some quality bites.

“We really worked our spots instead of trying to rush around and catch a five pounder and that really helped today. It worked out because my partner would crank and I would throw a jig on structure stuff. 

“The wind was really the biggest factor today. We just about got bit on all of the stuff that we stopped on today. Yesterday we would have to work to find the aggressive fish but today every place we would at least catch one or two.” 

Second Place: T-H Marine

Brent Crow: 
“We rode 50 miles to the other dam for some shallow fish and found a pocket where they were schooling and caught two, four pounders right off the bat. For the next hour we watched them bust baitfish and we knew that we needed to catch at least one more and we couldn’t get a good one to bite. 

“It’s frustrating especially when you know they are there and can see good ones jumping but you just can’t catch them. We had almost 30 pounds today and got beat so you really have to tip your hat to the other team. 

We really had two different patterns during the week. Steve fished below the dame in the tail race and current with a buzzbait and a jig and we were down the lake fishing grass and pockets with schooling fish with topwater and a Skinny Dipper.” 

Steve Kennedy: 
“Today started out tough. There was one stretch where we caught most of our fish off of this week and we started on it this morning and never got a bite. It was almost two hours in and we hadn’t had a bite so I started going down the right side of the bank starting at the dam and we had five good ones going down that bank. After that, it was around12:30 and we didn’t cull another fish.

“Basically what we needed was the five pound bite and we never got a big bite the rest of the day. One big bite would have made it close. The other team caught them good and we just got beat. 

“My previous history here helped me tremendously. I fished a pattern that I figured out practicing for a Red Man Regional tournament way, way, way back and it has just taken me this long to figure out how to come back and catch some more out of those areas."

Third Place: B&H Dental Lab

Tony Datuin:
“Today started off for one of our teams pretty good. We locked through and the other team’s spot didn’t start producing until later on in the day. We started immediately catching bass as soon as we got to our area and had three keepers within the first 10 minutes that were about three pounds each.

“When it slowed down for us, it picked up for our other team so it went really well.”

Andrew Bacon:
“We’re from here in Florence so this is our home lake. We were fishing a shell mound below Wheeler Dam but the fish moved each day so we had to find them by throwing a deep diving crankbait. The first day they were shallow, the second day they were deep and today if you could pinpoint them in one spot then you could catch them. 

“Yesterday was probably the toughest. We only had five little fish and just happened to see something on the sonar and were able to catch three pounders almost every cast so it was a real blessing” 

FINAL STANDINGS