The passion for bass fishing did not strike Hayes until later, after he moved to Virginia. The epiphany came in 1974. On a trip to Back Bay, fishing out of his small aluminum boat, he struck up a conversation with a fellow angler on the water. The other fisherman, Bill Powell, invited Hayes to join the Little Creek Bassmasters, and Hayes pursued that offer and hasn’t looked back since then.

Since Wayne has been a member of our organization for nearly three decades, he has seen ups and downs, in terms of membership, enthusiasm and volunteerism. These fluctuations don’t bother him too much. "Sometimes people just get tired of it," he says, and they decide to spend more time "playing golf, or with their wives or grandkids. Also, given the number of military personnel in the eastern part of Virginia, their frequent transfers and responsibilities "definitely hurts membership sometimes. But there are a number of new people getting involved and we always seem to stay within about a hundred or a hundred and fifty members."

Federation Responsibilities
For the past several years, Wayne has served as the Director of Region 7. Prior to that, he was former Director Sid Ryan’s assistant, and also the tournament director. His reason for getting involved was simple: "I’ve known the board for years," he says, "and I thought it would be fun to contribute."

Many Federation members choose only to participate in the Federation by fishing the tournaments, and do not contribute in others ways. That is their right, says Hayes, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. "There are too many followers," he says. "My philosophy is lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way, and my only choice was to lead." In contrast, he perceives that there are many clubs where the officers have been entrenched for upwards of 10 years. While they may be leaders in title, they do not choose to adjust to changing times, changing conditions, and the new issues that seemingly arise every day. As a result, our organization is not always as progressive or productive as it could be.

The toughest part of volunteering for the Federation is the need to be impartial. Wayne has always drawn upon his training in the Navy in enforcing the rules. "It doesn’t matter if you’re my best friend, the rules say what they say." He once had to "DQ a close friend who didn’t follow directions, and that was tough," but his response to people who "cry about this and that is ‘Do you go to fish Red Man or an open tournament without reading the rules?’ I didn’t think so.’"

Hayes is eager to cite Federation President Roger Fitchett as a model of fairness. "He doesn’t cut you off, and he doesn’t embarrass anyone. I’ve never been pissed or upset at the man." Furthermore, he says that Fitchett was instrumental in making ESPN aware of all the good things that the Federation does, "when it seemed they wanted to do away with us."

A lot of people who criticize the Federation hierarchy, Wayne adds, "don’t see what goes on behind the scenes, and aren’t aware of all the expenses that are involved." For example, when last year’s state team went to Connecticut, "we were one of the few states that had its team’s total expenses paid....$23,000." Since the Classic is the ultimate reward for the "hardworking man," he feels it is imperative that we pay those expenses, especially "when the team goes to the northern states where they try to rape our wallets." (for a contrary view, please read the November, 2002 Tim McCoy Profile).

Wayne is also proud of the manner in which Region 7 tournaments are run. He claims that they are the only region with a one hundred percent payback, paying down 15 teams each time, and there are also frequent raffles for sponsor-donated products.

Wayne says that some of the other region directors fail to utilize the resources available to them. "There’s so much you can do. There are a lot of people who are looking to help." He credits Region Seven’s many sponsors with keeping them in great financial shape.

Most of the problems that the Federation faces, both large and small, can be countered through open communication. In Region 7, there is a quarterly meeting of all of the board members, as well as a newsletter to spread information. Hayes handpicked his board members since "a popularity contest doesn’t always produce the best board." While the board members may not always agree on a given issue, they "back each other up and there is no backstabbing."

B.A.S.S. Pro-Am Tournaments
For over a decade, B.A.S.S. has offered pro-am style tournaments in their Tour events, formerly the Top 100 and Top 150. [Note: this season, B.A.S.S. changed the Opens, formerly the Invitationals, to the same format.] This provides any interested B.A.S.S. member (chosen by lottery) to fish for cash and prizes on some of the nation’s best bodies of water, while sharing a boat with the best bass fishermen in the world. Most of the pros seem to like this format because it gives them total control over the fishing locations, the boat positioning, and requires the amateurs to fish from the back deck.

These pro-am events have proven tremendously popular. The first year the opportunity was offered, anglers traveled long distances to camp out at B.A.S.S. headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama to be first on the list. Later, a lottery system was implemented, but rumors of over a thousand entries (in some cases) for a hundred and fifty spots made the rare opportunity to fish one of these tournaments a treasured event.

Since taking over B.A.S.S., the ESPN brass have instituted a new rule, which reserves fifty percent of the amateur spots specifically for Federation members, and this apparently worked to the benefit of Wayne Hayes, who was selected to fish in January’s Tour tournament on Lake Okeechobee, the first one he had ever entered.

Although Hayes lived in Florida as a child, he had never fished Okeechobee, and he elected not to spend the designated prefishing period on the water. He drove from Virginia all day Monday, then took it easy on Tuesday, largely because he "hadn’t taken a vacation in years."

Tuesday Afternoon
With the first day of the tournament on Wednesday, many anglers spent part of the preceding Tuesday completing their prefishing, then pulling off the water early for the registration process and meeting, all of which began at 3:30.

Prior to registration, Wayne ran into Virginia resident Bo Fraser, who was fishing the pro side of the event. Fraser "recognized me from Helen’s tournaments, so we talked for a while and I helped him spool his reels. We were just BSing." Then Kevin Van Dam came over to talk to Bo. "I just kept my mouth shut," Hayes says, but after I while "I realized that they’re no different than us, but it’s their job." Shortly thereafter, Virginia pro Curt Lytle (profiled in December, 2001), a resident of Suffolk, recognized Wayne and the two chatted for a while.

Heading into the registration, Wayne picked up some giveaways and enjoyed the picnic provided by B.A.S.S. There, he ran into several more pros that he knew. He had worked with Guy Eaker "in the Garcia booth at the Hampton Coliseum." Also, since Wayne is currently employed at Federation sponsor Seaport Marine, a Skeeter dealer, he knew both Joe Thomas and Zell Rowland, and he talked with both of them for a while. Mostly, though, he just "set back and watched the legends walk in .... Roland Martin, Jimmy Houston, Paul Elias.... it was exciting."

Prior to announcing the pairings, B.A.S.S. introduced the amateur winner from the prior Tour event on the Harris Chain of Lakes, who was participating in this tournament as well. Hayes was impressed by the attention given to the amateurs. Then the staff read the rules. "It really wasn’t any different than the six man," he says.

Day 1
For the first day, Wayne drew out with pro Tim Loper of Mississippi. One of Wayne’s greatest fears seemingly came true: Loper was bed fishing, dropping anchor to fish for specific fish, leaving Wayne to fan cast blindly off the back of the boat.

At first, Wayne was upset. Having always been a boater, "I look out for the guy in the back." But after being "frustrated for about five minutes," Wayne decided to make the most of a bad situation. Prior to the tournament, he had Ed Lewis make him a dozen special Prostyle Spinnerbaits, and he was confident they would work. Soon, Loper maneuvered him into an area of sparse grass, "like Back Bay used to be," and pitching the spinnerbait into a hole in the grass, he quickly caught a three and a half pound bass. A few casts later, he had another keeper in the boat.

Loper, meanwhile, was having little success, despite the fact that he had borrowed one of Wayne’s custom made spinnerbaits. He quickly missed a few strikes, and commented, "these hooks must not be sharp." Hayes knew otherwise, however, as he had personally sharpened each hook. He managed to catch the type of strikes that Loper was missing by "force feeding the fish. You need to drop the rod tip down to get ‘em. Just hesitate a second."

When the scales were done spinning at the end of day 1, Wayne’s five keepers (he culled one) weighed 16 lbs. 6 oz., and he had a three pound lead over the second place amateur.

Back at the hotel, Wayne didn’t feel much pressure. He had felt much worse "butterflies walking up on stage. Fish Fishburne, you know he’s crazy, and I was so nervous I’m not sure if I kissed him on the cheek."

The 16-06 limit wasn’t Wayne’s biggest tournament limit ever, not by a long shot. In one of the two Mr. BASS tournaments that he’s won over the years, he weighed in a 22-05 limit. Both of his Mr. BASS wins came on Back Bay, out of Munden Point, site of this year’s tournament. Surely Wayne must be excited about the return to that site, but that upcoming tournament was probably the furthest thing from his mind that January night at Okeechobee.

Day 2
For the second day of the tournament, Hayes drew Mark Kile, an up-and-coming young pro from Arizona. When they first met, Kile confided in him that they would be making a long, one hour and fifteen minute run to their fishing grounds. With a heavy front rolling in, "I just prayed for a big boat with a dual console," Wayne remembers, and his prayers were answered.

As day 2 dawned colder, Kile and Hayes made the long run to the south end of the lake, where the plan was to throw floating worms in the bulrushes. At the first stop, Kile caught 2 keepers and Hayes caught 1, but after awhile it became impossible to hold the boat in place, and they were mercilessly whipped through the bulrushes.

Kile, who had spent four years in the Navy, apparently took a liking to his fellow former Navy man Hayes. "The fact that we both served broke the ice." With the wind preventing them from staying on their first spot, Kile asked Hayes what he wanted to do. Hayes responded "I don’t have a clue where we are," so Kile went to another spot that he thought might produce.

At their second spot, Kile quickly caught a limit on a crankbait made by Lucky Craft (profiled in January/February, 2003). Wayne didn’t have a comparable crankbait, so Kile loaned him one. "He was trying to do anything he could to help me out." Wayne quickly added three more keepers to his livewell, but then the action died, and all they could come up with there were ten and eleven inch dinks.

On the way back to the weigh-in site, Kile decided to try to find another spot that produced for him in practice. The pair stopped in the bulrushes, then spent 15 or 20 minutes looking for the spot. With just a few minutes to go, Wayne pitched a lizard into a hole in the grass and pulled out his limit fish, a two and a half pounder.

For the day, Wayne’s limit weighed eight pounds even, less than half of his monstrous first day stringer, but he extended his lead from three to four and a half pounds. Now he was getting excited.

After the second day, the new B.A.S.S. format cuts the field to the top 12 amateurs and the top 12 pros. After day 3, the amateurs are done, and the top six pros go on to fish a fourth day.

Once the standings were tallied, the top 12 from each side gathered for a meeting with B.A.S.S. staff and Citgo personnel to prepare for day 3. They were given sponsor shirts to wear, and each angler was allowed to pick a song that would play as he walked up to weigh his fish. Wayne picked Toby Keith’s "How Do You Like Me Now." Then the pros put their names in a hat, and the amateurs picked their day 3 partners in the order of their finish.

Day 3
Among the pros to make the cut were legend Roland Martin and another top Florida pro, Bernie Schultz. Wayne, drawing first, picked the name of slightly lesser known Marty Fourkiller of North Carolina, who has gained notoriety in recent years through his ESPN outdoors show.

Fourkiller had caught over twenty three pounds of fish on day 2, and his strategy was one used by many of the top-finishing pros – he was flipping the heaviest mats he could find with a small black and blue crawdad behind a one ounce pegged weight.

Because Fourkiller was not among the top few finishers, they were given the use of an "unwrapped" (i.e., not sponsor-logoed) Triton. Before they took off, they were miked and prepped by the film crew. As the take-off approached, Fourkiller suddenly became concerned when he couldn’t figure out the boat’s GPS system. He called Roland Martin over to explain it to him. Hayes "kept my mouth shut. I wanted Marty to get into the zone."

The film crew confirmed the location of Marty’s first planned, in case they lost him in the rough water, and then Marty put the throttle down and gave it all he could. Once out on the big lake, Hayes says it was "rough as anything," but Fourkiller handled the swells with ease. In fact, he was "surprised that none of the pros beat the boats to death," as many are rumored to do. Heading across the inland ocean, Hayes felt sorry for their film crew, who were taking a beating in an undersized Ranger.

After arriving at their first spot none the worse for wear, the fishing was slow for a while. Finally, however, Wayne felt that clear "thump" on his texas rigged lizard, and landed his first fish (which, along with the fifth fish is often the hardest one), a 14.5" keeper. He quickly planted a big kiss on the fish’s lips with the camera rolling. His next task was to figure out how to run the livewells – since neither he nor Fourkiller usually fish out of a Triton, neither was familiar with the system. Eventually, Marty evened the score at one fish apiece.

With time running down quickly, Fourkiller suggested they make a run up to the Kissimmee River. They were not allowed to lock through, but Fourkiller suggested that he had a couple of Carolina rig spots near the dam. Wayne put on a centipede, pegged his one ounce bullet sinker away from the bait, and quickly caught another, then lost what felt like a good one. He feared that the unseen fish would come back to haunt him.

The partners hit a few more Carolina rig spots, unsuccessfully, then went back to the grass to look for a big bite. By that point, the wind had battered them so much that the thirty six volt trolling motor was dead. They just "kept our baits in the water, flipping and throwing the spinnerbait at anything that looked good."

With twenty minutes left, Hayes caught a third bare keeper. Heading back to weigh-in, he thought that the tough day left him with only a "slim" chance of victory, but "If it’s meant to be, then I’ll win."

Final Weigh-In
While the pros’ Day 3 weigh-in is conducted as a "drive through," the amateurs go to the stage first. Each pro drops off his amateur partner, and the fish are placed in a non-transparent black bag, so no one can really tell the size of another’s catch.

Waiting to weigh in, Wayne heard through the grapevine that the angler who was in 3^rd going into that last day had a limit, and "on that lake a limit could be six pounds or it could be thirty." Still, he didn’t let it bother him: "like when your wife talks to you when you watch TV, I just didn’t listen. I didn’t let the filming both me, and nervousness didn’t bother me either."

As each amateur weighs in, the current leader remains in a chair on stage. Because he was in first place going into the 3^rd day, Wayne was to go last. He knew that the guy who had previously been in 2^nd skunked, so Hayes had a feeling it would come down to him and the angler in 3^rd. When his main competition finally weighed the 5 bass in his bag, they totaled just over 7 pounds, giving him 27-01 total. It meant that Wayne’s three squeakers needed to weigh 2-12.

"I know that even three small keepers usually weigh three pounds, but with these three I wasn’t sure." As he walked to the stage, his chosen theme music was blasting away.

Fish Fishburne isn’t one to let an opportunity to create drama and suspense pass him by. He milked the situation for everything it was worth, until Wayne thought his "fish were gonna dry rot in the bag." Although he claims that his time on stage was a blur, Wayne does remember bringing out his fish one by one, to the roar of the cheering crowd, and the scale reading (after what seemed like an eternity) 3-12.

As flash bulbs popped, Wayne was instructed to lift the massive trophy (pictured) above his head until it finally got too unbearably heavy.

Among his prizes were a certificate for a $35,000 Skeeter Boat and Yamaha motor, $1,000 in cash, and $1,000 in Citgo Gas. The boat is already on order. Since Wayne is Yamaha certified and works at a Skeeter dealership, he should already be familiar with its operation. Since the dealership already wanted to put him on the Skeeter team, this sealed the deal. Even the Yamaha rep pulled him aside to take his picture in one of the new big block HPDI engines, and gave him one of the pro team hats, which made the guys at Seaport especially jealous, since even they can’t get them.

As much as he appreciated the generous first place prize package, the recognition that he received for winning was just as gratifying. As he waited for the prizes to be awarded, fans behind the fence clamored for his autograph. Additionally Curt Lytle went out of his way to congratulate me. "That felt real good," Wayne says, "and it impressed me about the man." The kudos continued as he made his way back to Virginia. "The hardest part was driving home because the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. The guys at Seaport were watching how I’d do and it seems like everyone wanted to congratulate me."

Congratulations on the big win, Wayne, and thanks for showing us that a person can be a wire-to-wire leader for the Federation in more than one way.

If you’d like to contact Wayne Hayes, he can be reached at 757.471.0197.