Hayden Heck of Lufkin, Texas, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Friday weighing 18 pounds, 1 ounce to win the Toyota Series Southwestern Division event at Sam Rayburn Reservoir and earn the top payout of $75,300, including the $35,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus. Heck’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 65-03 gave him the victory by a 2-07 margin over runner-up Keith Combs, who caught 15 bass weighing 62-12.
Heck moved to Sam Rayburn two years ago to dedicate himself to becoming a professional angler. He’s spent 4 to 5 days a week out on the lake, graphing and learning all its nuances. So, he’s put in the time, and Friday, it showed.
“This feels amazing,” Heck said after the win. “I moved out from California to do this for moments like this. So, it’s crazy it happened. Crazy [to beat Combs]. I mean, I fished with him on the final day of a B.A.S.S. Open as a co-angler a couple years ago, and I won that event. So it was crazy to be back up on stage with him and to pull this thing off.”
How he was doing it was how many others this week found success – targeting brush piles and hard spots right at the mouths of spawning areas – the first areas the big girls would transition to on their way out from the shallows.
The areas weren’t technically deep, offshore places, but they weren’t close to the bank, either. Just 40-50 little sweet spots that Heck would check with his Garmin LiveScope to see if fish were suspended above the piles.
If the fish were there and shot off the bottom when he cranked his Strike King 5XD over their heads, he knew he was going to catch them. Be it on the crankbait, a Roboworm Straight Tail Worm (mean green) on a dropshot or a rare 6-inch swimbait. However, if they didn’t, they’d just follow his lures in, which is unfortunately what happened a lot on Friday.
“Today the fish were more in the brush piles with the high sun,” Heck said. “Yesterday’s clouds had them roaming around a bit more off to the sides of the brush piles, which made it better for me.”
Considering he figured it would take 25 pounds to beat Combs, his 18-01 bag had him feeling he’d come up short. That is, until he got the surprise he’d dreamed of for two years.
“My heart is still pounding so much,” Heck said while holding the trophy. “I mean, I 100-percent felt I needed 25 pounds. Keith is a hammer. So, this is just crazy.”
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1. Hayden Heck: 65-03
2. Keith Combs: 62-12
3. Brian Schott: 57-09
4. Wyatt Frankens: 52-12
5. Kevin Lasyone: 52-00
6. Cole Stewart: 49-02
7. Chris Jones: 49-02
8. Jack York: 48-10
9. River Lee: 48-02
10. Marshall Hughes: 47-13
For complete results, click here.
