Pensacola Hawg Hunters
Bass Club

Founded In
1975



John Buck
"John's Club Report"
Covering The Pensacola Hawg Hunters
Email: John Buck


Lake Martin
October 18,19 2003

Lake Martin
Total Fish Caught
82
Total Dead Fish
1
Total Fish Weight
107.00 lbs.
Total Year Standings
Total Fish Caught 578
Total Dead Fish 22
Total Fish Weight 852.85 lbs.
~ Tournament Winner ~

Brian Metcalf
9 Fish - 18.20 lbs
~ Tournament Big Fish ~
Brian Metcalf
5.35 lbs.
Place Name Fish Weight Place Name Fish Weight
1. Brian Metcalf 9 18.20 2. Rich Cornelius 9 12.15
3. Mack Cramer 8 8.55 4. Dave Dyess 8 8.20
5. Ron Fairbanks 5 7.80 6. Terry Smith 5 6.10
7. John Buck 5 5.95 8. Neil Springstead 4 5.85
9. Fred Raby 6 5.75 10. Don Jahnke 2 3.75
11. Jeff Weaver 4 3.65 12. Frank Kelly 2 3.45
13. Walter McCartney 2 3.15 14. Tony Boyett 3 3.05
14. Ken Repine 3 3.05 16. Pete Potter 2 2.30
17 Wally Casiano 2 2.05 18 Paul Sullivan 2 1.95
19 Kevin Simmons 1 1.10 20 Lee Brannon 1 .95

Also Fished
Jim Bailey Sr.

~ Lake Martin ~

The Pensacola Hawg Hunters held their annual fish-off at Wind Creek State Park on Lake Martin, near Alexander City, Alabama on the weekend of October 18-19, 2003. This is the southern most of the "Alabama Mountain" lakes. The water is usually clear, in fact very clear on the south end of the lake. Weather conditions were not the best as back to back weak cold fronts blew through on Thursday and again on Friday afternoon. These fronts eventually left us with very windy, cool and blue bird sky conditions, not the best especially with clear water. Still with adverse conditions many guys still managed to find a few fish!

I pre-fished the lower portion of the lake on Thursday with poor results. My partner, Lee Brannon came up on Friday morning. We started hunting in the mid-lake areas. We found some good quality fish on windy points and felt comfortable that we would catch quality fish the next day. Boy were we wrong! Two foot rollers made for difficult boat control on Saturday and we never got bit on any of our main fishing holes. We had found them on crank baits and worms (Carolina rig and spotsticker jigs) but They just would not bite for us on Saturday. We eventually sought calmer, protected areas and managed to pull a good many small fish off of docks with spotsticker jigs and green pumpkin finesse worms.
I managed to find 4 small keeper spots and Lee managed only one.

At Saturday's weigh in, Brian Metcalf showed up with a beautiful bag of fish (5) including a 5.35 lb kicker to take lunker and the lead with 13.15 lbs. His partner Rich Cornelius also had a limit (5) to take the 2nd slot with 7.90 lbs. In the 3rd spot for Saturday was Terry Smith with a limit (5) for 6.10 lbs. Mac Cramer was 4th with (5) 5.20 lbs, John Buck was 5th with (4) for 4.90 lbs, and Neil Springstead was 6th with 4.30 lbs. That's the way it stacked up on Saturday. Eighteen (18) guys weighed in fish on Saturday. According to the stories that evening fish were caught on worms, top waters, cranks and spinners.
Not much help there in preparing for the next day!

Saturday evening was a great time for everyone in attendance. Pete Potter brought red snapper and grouper fillets and we had a wonderful cook out, complete with French fries, cole slaw, and baked beans. Pete fried the fish and others helped with the extras.
Wow what a meal!!
Guys, you done yourself proud!

Sunday rolled around with cool temps and a little fog, but at least not the high winds. As usual, the Sunday weights were less than Saturdays. High blue skies made fish spook easily and held them deeper and tight to the cover. Lee and I started out on our best bank only to find out that the fish weren't biting there again today! To put it simply, we struggled. By days end I had only one small spot and Lee didn't get a keeper. We really worked hard to get what little we had for the weekend. This was my worst outing ever at Martin….oh well guess I was due. Two guys did manage to stay on the bite Brian and Rich. Brian had 4 fish (5.05 lbs) and Rich had 4 fish (4.25 lbs) and they wound up taking the top two slots for the tournament. Tournament results are as follows: Brian 1st place with 18.20 lbs and Rich in 2nd with 12.15 lbs. Not a bad showing for a couple of daredevils who tore up a motor on a rock Friday afternoon drove back to Pensacola picked up another boat and returned in time for the start on Saturday morning. Taking 3rd place honors was Mac Cramer with 8.55 lbs. Dave Dyess showed some good consistency to take 4th place with 8.20 lbs. Ron Fairbanks brought in 2 nice fish on Sunday to move him into 5th place with 7.80 lbs. Terry Smith held on to 6th place with Saturdays catch at 6.10 lbs. 7th place-John Buck 5.95 lbs, 8th place-Neil Springstead 5.85 lbs, 9th place-Fred Raby 5.75 lbs, and taking the 10th slot was Don Jahnke 3.75 lbs. Don also had the lunker on Sunday at 2.55 lbs.

Most of the fish came on finesse worms, junebug, green pumpkin, chartreuse crank baits, and pop r's early. Fish were relating to wood and many came from docks and tree tops/lay downs. Even though this was a far cry from our usual performance at Martin, it was not bad considering the conditions and the fact that we had never fished there this time of the year and with the water 5 ft low.

Congratulations to Brian Metcalf for winning, 4 years in a row, Fisherman of the Year Honors! Also congratulations to the rest of the "Top Six Fishermen"! 2nd Rich Cornelius, 3rd Mac Cramer, 4th John Buck, 5th Pete Potter, and 6th Neil Springstead.
Next month begins our new fishing year. This is the time to get started on those tournament points!
The next tournament is a one day at Miller's Ferry on November 22.
Make your plans to be at the meeting on the 19th and the tournament on the 22nd.
Til then….


Keep Your Hooks sharp!

Creek Chub

 

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