BOB'S LOCAL RIVER REPORTS

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"BOBS LOCAL RIVER REPORTS"

ESCAMBIA RIVER

February 22, 2003
Water Temperature: 50's
Water Clarity: Heavy Stain to Muddy

Man did the wind blow! Before we even launched the boat at Swamphouse Marina in Pensacola, FL for the first of seven NW FL Open Bass Tournament events I could see the water was up. Add to the 25 - 30 mph wind from the south, the fact that it was a rising tide and it had rained probably a couple inches the day prior and it spelled very high water.
We left out planning on hitting the places where I had found decent fish on Thursday. The current was moving pretty good except there was at least 2 feet of extra water on top of my prime places. We fished it anyway since I know there are always good fish there...Nothing... Off to spot number two only to have the same problem - too much water!
In one place we found a single tree standing in about a foot of water. We put three keepers in the boat from that, missed a couple and I lost one on a jump. All of them came on a buzzbait with a 3 1/2" Allen Lures Baby Fat Grub trailer. It was looking good again.
Up the river we caught our fourth, and final, keeper of the tournament by the wall near the thermal canal from the power plant. It took a Texas rigged junebug Allen Lures Baby Eel in 7 foot of water. Along the wall I had a couple more bumps but they resulted in hooking only water.
We weighed in our four little bass for just under 5 pounds to end up mid field someplace. We didn't hang around to find out as the wind had taken the "wind" out of us and we just wanted to get back to the house.

February 20, 2003
Water Temperature: 60's
Water Clarity: Moderate to Heavy Stain

Haven't been fishing the rivers a whole lot this past year, been spending time either with a broken boat or on lakes.
Oh well, I reckon it's time to get back to the brackish water again. I fished a half day on Escambia River today out of Swamphouse Marina in Pensacola. Tide was rising, wind was
mostly light water ranged from moderate to heavy stain.
Fished a lot of my usual places and I caught fish just about everywhere I went. I did manage to pull a few nice bass, but I had to wade through an awful lot of little fish to do it.
The key was staying on the main river and fishing plastics.
I had strikes on numerous plastic baits but the star performer today was the Allen Lures Baby Eel, in black.
I put 21 bass in the boat with the 4" bait out of which there were 9 descent keepers. I was fishing in the current, which is a major requirement on Escambia to get any fishing to amount to anything. I keyed on standard places, any object which creates an area of reduced current where the bass can lay and wait for the food to wash past him.
Nothing fancy, nothing special just a lot of hard fishing.
It has been a while since I wrote a report, but I will be doing more of them now that I am back to fishing.

May 11, 2002
Water Temperature: 80's
Water Clarity: Light Stain

John Kauffman, or Crestview FL, and I fished the Log-A-Load For Kid Bass Tournament on Escambia River out of Swamphouse Marina and Landing in Pensacola, FL today.
The river was light stain, upper 80's and the tide was rising slowly, then slack, and falling at the days end. Sky was mostly sunny with about a 10mph wind from the south.
We started off by running down to Mulatto Bayou and working the canals and docks. After spending about an hour down there without any success we headed back up onto Escambia River. Our first stop was the bridge pilings at Highway 90, which we worked without success. Another hour or so passed and we decided to run up White River to its junction back onto Escambia River. In the narrow section of Escambia below the head of White river we caught some short bass and put a single keeper in the boat. It was now approaching 11am.
Back on White we got our second keeper. It was getting on to noon by now. For the most part we had a lot of casting practice. Heading back down White we stopped in a few places along the way and picked up some short fish. At 1pm we were south once more fishing the grass in Sullivans Ditch and on East River.
A couple little fish came there and nothing else. At 2pm we tried some main river docks which I have had success on before.
The tide had started moving out and I got 4 bites and broke one off at a single dock. Since the tide was falling we moved back to the highway 90 bridge pilings. Boat traffic was awful, but the fish didn't mind as we commenced to getting the other 5 keepers we needed and culling a single time.
We also caught several short fish at the pilings.
Baits of choice? John caught all his fish on a watermelon Centipede, I managed some on a 1/8 ounce buzzbait and a red shad Allen Lures Baby Eel. Water depth seemed 1 - 4 foot average but the absolute key was movement - the water had to be moving for the bass to be active.
We ended the tournament in 18th place out of 129 teams with one of very few limits for 6.80 pounds.- not good weight, but pretty respectable under the conditions - just about 5 pounds back from the winner, who had 11 pounds and change.
There were also more than 50 zeros posted today.

Febuary 11, 2001
Water Temperature: 56-61
Water Clarity: Stain

After a few hours on Perdido River this morning we decided that
the fishing had to be better on Escambia. We launched at 12:30pm and fished until 4pm - we were right.
As we left Swamphouse Kevin cast a black Baby Eel along the south bank at the entrance to the river at highway 90.
Two casts - two bass! A great start to an almost wasted day.
The tide was falling pretty strong and the water was
56- 61 degrees and stained. Much better conditions than we had on Perdido earlier. I caught my first fish, a nice 2 - 2 1/2 pound bass from the pilings of the Highway 90 bridge. Then we moved across to the East bank and worked our way up river.
We threw the Baby Eel most of the afternoon, and I caught a five
more fish on it. Later I changed to a buzzbait in the warmer water and caught more bass. The topwater bite was energetic, but not explosive while the worm caught fish bite quite lightly.
Right at the ramp I put four bass in the boat in 7 or 8 casts.
They were chasing baitfish along the grassy banks and eagerly took the topwater. As we loaded up the total for the day stood at 15 bass and one nice flounder. Out of the 15 bass6 took the Baby Eel and the rest ate my buzzbait.
All in all a pretty good day.
Should have started on Escambia though.

January 15, 2001
Water Temperature: 46-52
Water Clarity: Stain

On the water today about 8:30am and fished until 3pm.
Water was stained, 46 - 52 degrees. Tide was low and falling. Sky mostly cloudy with a 10 - 15 mph wind from the south.
Everywhere along the river were dead mullet! Maybe the cold water killed them, I don't know. All the other fish we caught looked clean and healthy so I don't imagine something in the water killed them. Could be a natural fish kill - nothing but mullet though. Kevin Friend and myself started close to the ramp at Swamphouse and worked upriver to the thermal canal without a bite. After about a half hour we cranked up and ran up to the power planet. The barges were in on the end I wanted to fish, but the first pilings were open so we started there.
I missed my first bite then boated our first bass - not a big one, but still a fish to pull on my line.
We moved on up White River a ways and tried our luck there. No luck after about an hour fishing so we headed south to the grass. At the Highway 90 bridge I missed another, then caught one. Slowly, against a pretty strong current we worked back upriver catching a few sporadic bass.
Finally a keeper came to the boat, followed a minute later by another. Final total for the day stood at 15 bass, 1 warmouth and 1 redfish. All were caught on black Baby Eels fished Texas rigged in 5 - 10 foot of water along deeper banks.
To say the strikes were soft would be an understatement!
For the most part it just felt different.