Spin cycle
Hendricks wins consecutive titles on tour with same old spinner bait
What are the odds of a co-angler winning back-to-back tournaments on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour? What are the odds of a co-angler winning back-to-back tournaments on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour with the exact same lure?
It happened.
Bobby Hendricks, fishing in only his third FLW Tour event, made history by being the first angler to win back-to-back events on the FLW Tour. Furthermore, Hendricks won the Ouachita and Beaver Lake events with the same spinner bait.
No stranger to bass fishing
A Texas native, Hendricks, 55, has always had a passion for bass fishing. He discovered tournament fishing in 1993 when he fished an FLW Outdoors event on Lake Okeechobee and finished sixth.
Hendricks was encouraged by his initial tournament success, but he was under no delusions about fishing for a living. He was happy with the security of his chosen profession – chemical engineering.
Hendricks worked for chemical kingpin DuPont for 20 years. During the last 10 years, he traveled the world overseeing processes at 11 DuPont plant sites as an operations manager.
Hendricks resided in Delaware while working for DuPont, but his business travels often took him to Texas, where he liked to bass fish.
“I would take my fishing gear on business trips and try to squeeze in a little bass fishing when I could, especially in Texas,” he said.
Hendricks’ desire to bass fish eventually led him to pro-am tournaments where a boat was not necessary.
“I would try to schedule visits to Texas during events so I could get in a couple of days fishing,” he said.
During the last several years, the professional engineer/amateur bass angler has accumulated some impressive back-deck credentials. In 1995, he won the amateur side of an FLW Outdoors tournament at Lake Okeechobee. In 1998, he won a bass boat in another tournament circuit.
Recently, Hendricks retired from DuPont and moved backed to Texas, where he is getting serious about his tournament fishing.
This season he is focusing on the FLW Tour, and already his record is extraordinary. He finished 59th at Okeechobee, had to miss Wheeler Lake and then won Lake Ouachita and Beaver Lake.
The $55,000 spinner bait
Hendricks won both the Lake Ouachita and Beaver Lake tournaments on a single spinner bait. Although he used other baits in both tournaments to qualify for the finals, he caught his final-day fish in both events on the same spinner bait.
But there is one small problem with Hendricks’ confidence bait.
“I only have four left,” he said with a laugh. “They quit making them about five years ago. I used to own quite a few, but now my inventory is critically low. I have to get as much mileage from one bait as I can. I think $55,000 is pretty good mileage, though. I’m going to retire that one.”
The spinner bait is called a Golden Eagle, and it was manufactured in Virginia about 10 years ago. At first glance, the spinner bait looks nothing out of the ordinary. The bait has two gold blades, one No. 3 Colorado blade and one No. 4 willow blade. The head of the bait is gold, and the skirt is chartreuse and white. But according to Hendricks, the spinner bait is constructed from very thin wire that makes it vibrate drastically.
“I have caught a bunch of fish on that bait all over the country. If somebody knows where I could get some more, I sure would like to know,” he said.
Repeat at Beaver
After winning Lake Ouachita, Hendricks qualified for the top 20 on Beaver Lake. On the final day, he was paired with pro Randall Hutson of Washburn, Mo.
By 3 p.m., Hutson was struggling with four tiny keepers, and Hendricks had lost his only keeper bite. Then a feeling of peace came over Hendricks.
“I told Randall that his four fish would be enough to make the top 10, and that I had one little spot near weigh-in that I wanted to try.”
Hutson was not exactly comforted by Hendricks’ good tidings. He wanted to find one more fish to seal a ticket to the finals. But at 3:30 it started raining, and he could not see the beds anymore. So the pair headed back to weigh-in.
The two anglers had about 10 minutes to spare before checking in. Hendricks pointed out the small pocket he wanted to visit.
“We pulled in there, and on the second cast with the Golden Eagle, I caught a 3-pounder; on the fourth cast, I caught a keeper spot,” he said. “Those two fish were enough to win.”
Hutson was also fortunate. Just as Hendricks had predicted, he squeezed into the top 10. On the final day, with only five minutes remaining, Hutson caught his fifth keeper on a spinner bait from the exact same place that Hendricks had taken him the day before. Hutson finished second in the Pro Division.