A guy that has been around the Marshall Trail for about as long as I can remember would be my friend Aaron Hayes. A guy who I can always pretty much count on to shoot me a text message the week of a tournament about who knows what. Or I could almost reference him as my kidney stone buddy who gave me some tips he used to get rid of his and checked on me while I was trying to get rid of mine. But, my favorite is when he leaves weigh-in early, cuts a check and I got to hold his money until the next time I see him. So, if y’all see Aaron out just remind him that his interest for me holding his money is still owed. And the rate only keeps getting higher.

Only kidding.

As far as I can remember I don’t think I have ever seen Aaron without Ben Halcomb at any Marshall tournaments throughout the years. Nor have I ever seen them at the bottom of the leaderboard in a September Summersville tournament. Aaron is a two-time winner on the Marshall Trail and most notably those two wins have come on Summersville in September. If I had to put money on two guys in September on Summersville, I’d be hard-pressed not to take them. Since the beginning of the Marshall Trail, they have never finished lower than fifth in September on Summersville and just recently scored a fourth-place finish in the 2022 Cup.

But that is enough of the stat talk. I want to dig in on a little bit of Aaron’s story this week on ‘The Catch’ and how he got into fishing and what he is looking forward to in the future.

“I owe my dad, who got me started when I was just big enough to even hold a fishing pole,” said Hayes.

But it was when Aaron’s high school history teacher took him to a tournament is when he got the tournament bug. That high school history teacher is Ben Halcomb who is still his partner to this very day and introduced him to tournament fishing.

“Ben lives about five minutes from me, I can remember when he asked me to fish with him for the first time,” Hayes said of his former high school history teacher. “We started fishing all the time and that is ultimately how we became best friends and how we got into tournament fishing together.”

And for those keeping track of time, Ben was Aaron’s history teacher at Walton High School from 1989 to 1993. Just a little over 30 years ago. Hope that doesn’t make you guys feel too old… But I will say, they have aged like a fine wine. Only better with time. But who am I kidding, I would love to have the wealth of knowledge those two have with the amount of experience they have had over the years.

Looking towards the 2023 season Aaron is just grateful to be still out on the water and competing after an almost-death experience back in 2019. Right after Christmas in 2019, Aaron suffered a stroke that put him in the hospital for an extended amount of time.

“I had to have emergency surgery to remove a blood clot that I was fortunate enough to survive from. Had my health not been as good as it was I may not be here today,” said Hayes. “After having my stroke it has definitely helped me become a stronger person and I don’t take anything for granted now. I am just so thankful I still get to be around my friends and family, but I am also thankful I still get to do what I love and spend time on the water fishing. I actually just had an ultrasound of my carotid arteries and everything is clear.”

Aaron is one of a kind person and I am lucky to call him a friend. I personally hope that as long as the Marshall Fishing Cup is alive, I get to see him and Ben get the win and hold those trophies. They are definitely deserving of one and it would not suprise me one bit when they finally win it.