I weld a scupper to the rear of the pan to contain the oil in the sump and prevent the oil from jumping to the rotating assy. The windage tray needs to be fit to your set up. Any thing that keeps the oil in the pan and isolates the rotating Hurricane from the frothy oil will greatly increase the bearing life in your engine. Airation of your oil in a wet sump is a fact of physics. even a dry sump will pump a small amount of air with your oil. The fluctuations you were seeing may have been your oil pump holding air pressure on your oil galley not just oil. If you like your bearings and plan to rev that big stroke in a confined wet sump pan, a windage tray should be as important as your drain plug. In racing engines with 4.5" stroke or more really need a dry sump set up to reliably maintain oil pressure and deminish airation of the oil. The big builders that sell wet sump big stroke engines sell them with wet sumps for COST ONLY, but advise highly to upgrade to a dry sump. Now for your question. YES you should always have a windage tray in your racing wet sump no matter what. The question should be which one should I use. The fit to your rotating assy must be as close as possible to remove suspended oil and keep the oil below protected from the paddle.
There are lots and lots of pans that claim bolt on fit. I would rather buy a good pan with as deep a sump as your chassis can fit, NOT a shoe box style that dragsters use unless that applies, and get a trim to fit bolt in windage tray that you can fit on the stand to get the best performance from your dollars. I guess I am going on and on, Please use the tray, the better the fit the better the performance and the more power you free up. Sorry I went on so long, but your question deserves to be addressed to the extent that you do the right thing for your 09 racing engine. Best of luck