Fred Raby
fraby@hook1.com
hook1.com
"FISHING WITH FRED"
Covering Tidal Waters And Impoundments
Escambia River
Wally Cassiano and myself tackled the mighty Escambia Saturday. With a falling tide and good water we expected to do well early in the creeks and lakes. So we started up the river only to find the fog so thick you could not see any better than Don Jahnke on a clear day, so we started fishing in the lower end of Whites River. The water was beautiful, and the current
swirling over the laydowns almost guaranteed us a fish…but not a bite. After the fog lifted we moved into Buzzard Lake.
The current was moving well and it looked like an ideal place to load the boat, but about 30 yards from the mouth we heard the sound of 30.06's in the back end of the creek and decided that cannons could have that place. We then went to some secret spots and flipped a jig on the river ledges…nothing.
It was getting up in the morning and we decided to go to Blue Lake, Wally had a hot tip. Sure enough second cast with a crankbait and I had an eleven and a half-inch fish (a bass). We moved about 10 more yards and Wally connected on a worm. A nice three pound Grinnell. We fished on back into the lake and didn't get another hit, so we moved up to the river junction. There we ran into the experts, Jeff and Lee. They didn't have a
fish! Lee said "they ain't in the woods", so Wally and I went on up and worked some creek mouths to no avail.
We only had about 2 hours until our weigh in so it was time to go to my secret secret spot. We got to my spot on the river and on the third cast I boated a nice 14 incher. Wally eager to help took the trolling motor while I boated my fish. "Oh yeah, Wally the trolling motor works backwards" I screamed as we assaulted the treetop in the middle of the river. It was a good thing the wasps had left for the year. We continued down the bank and
saw another guy, fishing my bank…it was YW! I screamed "get out of my hole" and he said he was fishing a different bait@!?
By the end of the day I had caught 4 bass and Wally hnd learned all of my secret spots,
so I don't know what I will do on Tournament day.
Good luck
Fred Raby
