The October tournament was held our of Break A Way Lodge on the Appalichicola River. The October tournament is always our "end of the year" tournament and everyone is trying to grab his place in the final standings for the year. This year there was quite a race for many places.

Our tournament started with mild temps and pretty clear skies. The water ranged from heavy stained to clear, depending on where you fished. The other major weather factor was the wind. We had a very strong south wind each day which made for some rough waster in the open areas.

My partner for the weekend was Rich Cornelius. Rich is one of the best fishermen in the club so I felt really lucky going into this contest. On Friday, Rich and I located fish in three different areas and had good bites on both spinner baits and crank baits. We located fish up river in clear water sloughs, in the main river, and in the grass near the mouth of the river. We were ready for Saturday morning to get started! When we reached our starting place up river on Saturday we immediately hooked up with a couple of nice keepers on white/chartreuse spinner baits. I was lucky enough to catch another keeper right away and then made the statement that must have doomed the day. I said with them hitting like this we'll both have a limit in just a short time. I even put a clip in the small one's lip to mark it for culling later. Hahahaha what a joke that turned out to be!
After boating that 3rd fish, we didn't get another hit for several hours.
We changed locations and strategies as the skies had turned to "high blue" and we knew what that meant. We slowed down and worked the structure with worms and jigs. My partner Rich showed me his great ability to catch GIANT mud fish time and again. As noon approached we decided to head downstream and fish our patterns down the river. When we fished our area on the main river we found nothing again so we were off to the delta. Down in the delta we were faced with
3-4 foot ground swells as the tide was flowing hard against a strong south wind to compound that every 50 ft. charter boat in the world ran by throwing a huge wakes on us. I was really glad that I was in the Ranger. As rough as it was we at least stayed dry. Rich managed to pick up a keeper on the grass line and that was it for us for the day.

Back at the scales we found everyone had had a tough time catching keepers. Fred Raby, however, didn't as he showed up with a limit weighing 5.7 lbs. Fred caught a 6.1 lb bass in practice*what a shame he was sore lipped for the tournament! Gunny Mills had the lunker for Sat. weighing in at 4lbs and was in 2nd place with 5.5 lbs., while Brian Metcalf came in with 4 fish weighing 5.3 lbs.

As the first day wound down, the Hawg Hunters wound up with a fun fish fry and social. This was much like last months fish fry with Mac Cramer performing as head chef. Great job to all who helped in the event. We had fresh mullet, and Gunny and Bryan brought some fresh speckled trout and red fish and no one left hungry. Fred, you maybe should've cooked the hush puppies about 15 more seconds!

Day 2 started with the balmy temps that we were accustomed to with clear skies and south winds all over again. Rich and I ran to our starting point and tried to pick up a few fish on the early spinner bite. We both were able to catch only grinnel and wound up with no fish for the scales.

As always somebody finds a way to catch them. Mitch Gardner and Brian Metcalf came to the scales with fish in the bag. Brian brought in 4 for 6.8 lbs. and Mitch had 3 for 4.15 lbs. Brian also had big fish Sunday at 2.95 lbs. When all was said and done Brian Metcalf had won another one with 12.10 lbs., and he is also "Fisherman of the Year"!! Mitch Gardner was 2nd with 8.05 lbs., and Gunny Mills was 3rd with 7.85 lbs.

Fish were caught on a variety of lures from spinners, to crank baits, to worms. The winning pattern was floating worms and soft jerk baits. The top four finishers all used that pattern to catch their fish.

This tournament also determined our "Top Six" fishermen for the year. They are in order of finish, 1) Brian Metcalf, 2) Mitch Gardner, 3) Rich Cornelius, 4) Mack Cramer, 5)Jere Jaillite, 6) Wally Casiano. Congratulations guys!!!!!!!

Our next tournament is on the Tensaw River at Cliff's Landing on November 17.

Til next month …Keep your hooks sharp!

Creek Chub