~ Tensaw River ~
The Hawg Hunters fished the monthly tournament on the Tensaw River out of cliff's Landing.
Upon arriving at the launch we found the water to be high and muddy with a strong current.
Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain was the order the night before the tournament so there was plenty of muddy run-off to deal with in the river and backwater creeks and lakes.
The bad weather gave way to cloudy skies at dawn and strong winds (15-25 mph) howled throughout the day. The water temperature in the main river ranged from upper 40's to low 50's.
In the backs of most creeks and lakes the temps were 57-59.
There were 23 members and 1 guest at this event.
My partner was Rich Cornelius. I was the rider, and knowing that Rich is a good and knowledgeable fisherman gave me a high degree of confidence at the start.
We left the launch and headed south to a small creek. After riding about a half mile back in thecreek we found clear water and a few banks that were not flooded.
We both fished junebug baby brush hogs and junebug finesse worms most of the day.
We caught a lot of fish, I guess at least 30 between the 2 of us. We found them early on flooded flats just off the channel and later in the morning they moved to the channel edges near treetops and cover.
Rich must have caught at least 20 fish but just couldn't find a keeper. On the other hand, my first 3 fish were keepers. After 10 AM I caught nothing but small fish.
We stayed in the creek all day because of the very high winds and we were getting a few bites and we held out hope that sooner or later we'd get a keeper. That was our day on the water and we never got a keeper to bite after mid-morning.
The only other highlight was near noon we heard a splashing in the woods behind us and we turned to see a nice little 4 point buck swim across the creek about 25 yards away.
As tough as the fishing was, it still beat a day at work!
At the weigh in we found that only 13 members found keepers. Needless to say that the fishing was tough for everyone. "Sandbar" Brannon managed to catch a nice catfish but had no other major mishaps. Oh yeah …Watch out guys…"Senior" weighed fish in AGAIN.
Looks like his luck is starting to change. Better keep a close eye on him next month!
Most of the fish were caught on soft plastics, worms, and crankbaits. A few bites came on jigs, black/blue and crawfish/brown. Favored worm colors were the usual junebug and green pumpkin.
Crank baits with chartreuse and red in them seemed to be the better performers.
Jere Jailette found 4 fish weighing 4.5 lbs to take 4th place. My 3 fish weighed 4.70 lbs, good enough for 3rd place. Kevin Simmons had a nice bag with 3 fish weighing 5.35 lbs for 2nd place.
Brian Metcalf brought in 4 fish weighing 5.65 lbs to take the WIN! Pete Potter showed up with a pretty 2.75 lb largemouth to take the lunker honors.
I'm not sure where everyone fished but I know that several fish were caught in the "Basin" and in the Crab Creek area. Several other guys fished the backs of small creeks.
The extreme lower end of the river was very rough with 4 foot waves the order of the day.
Those that went down there had a rough time of it and had little or no success with any fish.
Next month we travel to Lake Martin. We will be fishing out of Wind Creek. Lake Martin has become a real favorite of most of our members. It is so different from any body of water that we see down here, and it is loaded with spotted bass. If you have not fished Lake Martin you're really missing a great lake, and we always have a good time as a club at Martin, so make your plans to fish this 2 day event.
Check the past year's results from our Lake Martin tournaments and you'll see why we like it so much.
‘Til next time. *Keep your hooks sharp!
Creek Chub
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