Fishing Is Therapy For Division Leader In Bfl Regional On Pickwick Lake
Tim Hicks, left, of Kingsport, TN. Photo courtesy FLW Outdoors.
Ten years ago Tim Hicks was practically living on the street. “I had lost everything,” he said.
Lost everything. To drugs and alcohol.
Somewhere along the way in the last few years he found himself and began climbing back out of the deep hole of drug and alcohol addiction. He was aided by rekindling a passion he had lost two decades ago when he descended into the hellish life of an addict – a passion for fishing..
“I used to fish 20 years ago,” the Kingsport, Tenn., bass angler said, “but I quit fishing for quite a few years. I got back into fishing about four years ago and it has been my little thing to replace that (addiction).”
Some of his friends helped him find the joy in fishing again, he said, and he started back floating rivers and fishing.
“Once I went fishing one time it was on,” he said. “Then I got a jet boat and the next thing I know I had a Ranger bass boat. I started out fishing small tournaments.”
He fished the Lone Wolf Trail, a local solo tournament series back home, for a couple of years and decided to take the step up to the Walmart Bass Fishing League’s Volunteer Division. Hicks capped his first year in BFL competition by winning the points title in the Volunteer Division.
He finished a consistent year on the circuit with $2,822 in prize money, finishing 8th in the first tournament on Watts Bar in March, 5th on South Holston Lake in April, 19th on Douglas Lake in May, 22nd on Lake Cherokee in June and 3rd on Watts Bar last month in the two-day division final.
“I had a blessed season, but I worked really hard at it. I enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun,” he said.
Hicks has been fishing Alabama’s famed Pickwick Lake daily since he came to the lake for the fist time this past Saturday, practicing for the Walmart BFL Regional Tournament featuring anglers from the Bulldog, LBL and North Carolina Divisions, as well as his Volunteer Division.
“I like the lake, but the water is a lot clearer than I expected and I have never fished current that runs this hard,” said Hicks who normally fishes Cherokee, Douglas and Holston Lakes back home in Tennessee.
Another thing he said he never faces back in Tennessee is the constantly changing weather in Alabama right now.
“It can change in 30 minutes. The wind will blow out of the northwest for a while and then all of a sudden it will change and blow out of the south. I’m not used to fishing in a place where the weather changes so drastically.”
And, he noted, an even more drastic change in the weather is on the way.
“Rain is moving in with a front this evening and that could really cool things down for tomorrow, so that will probably change the fishing even more.”
Hicks said the bite is already slow, so it may take two or three patterns to put together a successful day on the water this weekend.
“Pickwick is noted for ledge fishing and I love fishing deep, so I came down here with the full intention of fishing deep. I’ve found a few deep fish, so I plan to stick with it. I’m catching a few good fish on swim baits and an Alabama Rig, but no great numbers. But you can go up in the grass and catch numbers of fish on a frog of flipping, although most of them are smaller fish.”
If he does well on Pickwick this weekend, Hicks would love to move on up to higher level tournaments. He’s already demonstrated the resolve it takes to be a winner by his recovery from addiction and he’s shown he can fish head to head with the best in the Volunteer Division, so don’t be surprised if his name starts showing up soon among top anglers in big time tournaments.
“You never know where you will end up. I am just going with the flow,” he said.
Walmart BFL Regional Tournament
Bulldog, Volunteer, LBL and North Carolina Divisions
Oct 18-20, 2012
Pickwick Lake
McFarland Park
