John Buck
jbuck@granis.net

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Total Fish Caught
Tensaw River
28

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Total Dead Fish
Tensaw River
1

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Total Fish Weight
Tensaw River
47.00 lbs.

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Total Fish Caught
For Year
443

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Total Dead Fish
For Year
14

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Total Fish Weight
For Year
722.74 lbs.

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Pensacola Blue Angels
Bass Page
hook1. com

"John's Club Report"
Covering the Pensacola Hawg Hunters

Tensaw River
Live Oak Landing
July 24, 1999

The Hawg Hunters monthly tournament was held out of Live Oak Landing on the Tensaw River. This was a change from the yearly schedule which had us fishing on the Choctawhatchee River out of Ebro, Florida. As tournament time neared the Ebro area had a lot of rain and the river was rising. Our tournament director, fearing that the river would be out of it’s banks and hazardous decided to change our site to the Tensaw River, knowing that it would be fishable. As this change was announced at our monthly meeting there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief from the membership as much for the shortened drive as for fishing more familiar waters in the heat of summer.

As the sun rose, 19 Hawg Hunters and 1 guest ( Mike Tyson...no relation *%#*!!) were on the river waiting to brave the fish and the sun. I got paired with a good friend, Pete Potter, and was looking forward to fishing with him since we hadn’t fished together for several years. (Pete is the person for whom the "SLAMMER" award was originally created!) We planned our fishing strategies around fishing several grass lines down river and headed straight for them as soon as the tournament director sent us off.

We were surprised upon arriving at our first stop that only one other boat was in sight...We thought that "this is going to be good". After only a few casts, I hooked up with a nice bass which I lost at the boat. (He was a solid 2 lbs but grew as the day wore on to about 3 lbs.) Soon after that another keeper took my shad puppy and I put him in the live well. Within 15 minutes of that fish no less than 5 boats came in and just crowded up the bank.

On to spot #2. We pulled into the mouth of a gut to fish a underwater hump with cranks but had no luck there and then went down to another grass line. Pete was working buzz baits and spinners but couldn’t get anything going. I kept on with my shad puppy and boated a nice 2 ½ lb bass. Pete’s reputation about being a good guide and getting beat from the back of the boat became a topic of conversation and thought.

As we moved on to spot #3, the sun was bearing down and it was downright HOT!!!!! Pete continued with a spinner bait and I switched to a jig/pig as this grass line was patchy and not matted like the others. As we moved along I flipped my bait in a little cut in the grass and saw my line twitch before the lure hit bottom. I set the hook and boated a nice 4 lb bass. Now I was starting to feel much better, but Pete wasn’t feeling that great. He switched to a worm and picked up a couple of dinks but no keepers.

As "old Sol" heated up, we pulled under a treed and grabbed a bite to eat while we cooled off a bit. We decided to start working our way back up stream and work some deep banks. Around 2:30, I got my 4th keeper and Pete broke the ice with a nice keeper. We thought that we were going to get into some fish but they never found our baits.

By 3:40, we had enough and decided to head in and get the boat loaded and ready for the trip home. When we arrived we found that most of the other guys had already given up and were just waiting around for the weigh-in.

The weigh-in provided some interesting finishes as there were several ties in the standings. Dave Dyess, who has really been consistent this year, came in with a 5 fish limit weighing 6.50 lbs good enough for 3rd place. Mac Cramer came in with 3 nice fish totaling 7.0 lbs for second place. Mac also was fishing out of his beautiful new Ranger for the first time. It’s a really pretty boat and I’m sure there’s a story there somewhere. I had great "guide service" and came in first place with four fish weighing 8.3 lbs. I also had the lunker at 4.20 lbs.

Our August tournament is slated for Claiborne Lake on the Alabama River near Monroeville, Alabama. We are launching out of Isaac Creek Campgrounds. Remember when fishing in the extreme heat be sure to drink plenty of fluids throughout the day and be careful of heat exhaustion. Until next month...



Keep your hooks sharp and your lines tight.....

Creek Chub

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