Rookie rocks Pickwick

College Fishing alum Peek tops at EverStart Southeast event

FLORENCE, Ala. – What better endorsement for the National Guard FLW College Fishing series than to watch a recent grad raise a tournament trophy. Richard Peek of Centre, Ala., did just that at the EverStart Southeast Division tournament on Pickwick Lake.

Competing in his first EverStart season since his 2010 graduation from Auburn, Peek credits his College Fishing experience with preparing him for his Pickwick victory.

“College Fishing definitely did help prepare me for (FLW events) – it’s a big step up from fishing local tournaments and club tournaments back home,” he said. “It shows you how a large scale tournament works. It was a really good learning experience to go to the next level.”

Obviously, Peek’s getting very comfortable with the big-time fishing thing because he opted not to disclose his bait. He did, however, say that he used a soft plastic bait and fished it off the bottom.

“In practice, we found that the fish were holding really tight to the bottom so crankbaits and Carolina rigs were working really well,” he said. “But I started noticing the shad coming up a little bit and you’d see the fish starting to suspend a little more. When those other baits didn’t work anymore, I started fishing that mid-depth range, about 5 to 6 feet off the bottom with soft plastics, and that really made a big difference.

“Color didn’t really matter. They’d eat just about anything you threw at them. The main thing was the depth. You just had to get it in front of them.”

Peek was the only co-angler to break 20 pounds and he did so twice with 20-4 on day one and 21-0 on day two. In the final round, he added 17-6 and tallied a winning total of 58-10.

Cummings mops up second

Tim Cummings of Waynesboro, Tenn., caught a final round limit of 14-1 and stayed in second place with a total of 49-8. Cummings caught his fish on a ¾-ounce brown homemade football-head mop jig with a Strike King Rage Craw trailer.

Cummings caught his fish in about 15 feet of water – much shallower than he would normally expect by the second week of June. “Most of these fish would have been gone two weeks ago, but they’re still hanging around. I’m glad they did.”

Melton maintains third place

Lyn Melton represented Florence, Ala., by holding on to his third-place spot and finishing with 47-2. Melton caught most of his fish the first two days on Strike King spoons and the 6 XD crankbait. Today, he fished with Anthony Goggins (second place) and a swimbait best fit the scenario.

“My pro today was on suspended fish, so the swimbait was working,” he said. “It took me a couple of hours to get the hang of it, but once I did, it started (producing).”

Best of the rest

Daniel Hinkleman, of Conyers, Ga. finished fourth with 43-1 and T.J. Smith, of Richmond, Ky. was fifth at 42-11.

Rounding out the top 10 co-angler finishers at the EverStart Series Pickwick Lake event:

6th: Jason Smith of Killen, Ala., 41-14

7th: Daniel Costley of Memphis, Tenn., 40-1

8th: Justin Jones of Apex, N.C., 38-7

9th: Robert Russell of Smyrna, Tenn., 35-4

10th: Greg Sorrell of Guntersville, Ala., 33-3