John Buck
John's Club Report
Covering The Pensacola Hawg Hunters


Email: John Buck

Founded In 1975

Tensaw River
Total Fish Caught 74
Total Dead Fish
0
Big Fish 3.40
Total Fish Weight 106.65 lbs
Total Year Standings
Total Fish Caught 164
Total Dead Fish 0
Big Fish 4.45
Total Fish Weight 254.65 lbs
Place Name Fish Weight
1. Mack Cramer 5 11.25
2. Brian Metcalf 5 8.75
3. John Buck 5 8.45
4. Pete Potter 5 8.20
5. Dave Dyess 5 7.70
6. Walter McCartney 5 7.25
7. Jere Jaillite 5 7.15
8. Jim Bailey Sr 5 6.70
9. Randy Cole 5 6.55
10. Ron Fairbanks 5 5.95
11. Neil Springstead 4 4.80

***Tournament Winner***

Mack Cramer
5 Fish - 11.25 lbs
Big Fish
Mack Cramer
3.40lbs
Place Name Fish Weight
12. Lee Brannon 5 4.60
13. Fred Raby 2 3.60
14. Frank Kelly 3 2.85
15. Jeff Weaver 2 2.40
16. Keven Simmons 2 2.25
17. Tony Boyette 1 2.10
18. Rich Carnelius 2 1.85
19. Chris Malena 1 1.55
20. Terry Smith 1 1.45
21. Ken Repine 1 1.25

Also Fished

Wayne Thomley - E. W. Coombs
Guest
Dewayne Kimbro

Tensaw River
January 24, 2004


Every once in a while you get lucky and hit the conditions "just right". Well, such was the luck for the Hawg Hunters January tournament. We fished out of Cliff's Landing on the Tensaw River.
We had had freezing temps every morning for about 4 day (very cold for us down here!).
However about 3 days before the tournament day we had a nice warming trend.
Tournament day the morning was cold (38-40) but not freezing and warmed up to near 68 during the day.
We started out with cloud cover and had a hour of sun near midday but clouds returned for the last 3 hours.
Water temp in the river was about 48.5 and the visibility was about 18 inches.
Creeks were very clear for the most part and we had an out going tide for the day.

Jim Bailey (Senior) was my partner for the day. We decided to run south to the lower delta to try our luck.
We started by fishing cuts off the Blakely and Appalachee Rivers but initially had only limited success.
We then moved out to the grass lines along the main river channel and began catching fish on the drop ledges in about 8-10 ft of water. As bad as it hurts to say this, by 9:30 AM, Senior had his limit and I only had 1 fish.
I was catching as many fish as he was but mine were all short. We were both using green pumpkin trick worms, but he was using a red bead on his rig. Once I put a bead on mine, I started picking up better fish. (Thanks for the tip Senior!) By 11:30, I had found my limit. We kept working the same bank (about ¼ mile stretch) and started to leave to go to another bank a half mile away but decided to fish one more point out in the deeper water (boat was in 24-30 ft). I immediately hooked up with another fish and Bailey started culling. We sat on the point for about 45 minutes and each culled 5 keepers and caught several shorts and had a couple of break offs.
We had landed doubles three times on this point. We decided to go to some other banks and try to get a bigger bite. We started working 16-18 ft cut banks with jig/pig and each caught another keeper.
By then we decided to head for the scales. We both had a great day joking and fishing and catching.
Senior said that this was his first time ever to catch a limit in a tournament and the first time had had ever culled! It's really a lot of fun when your fishing plan works and you and your partner catch limits.
Those days don't happen often enough for me, but they sure make for some good times and great memories.

At the scales we found that (as expected) most of the other guys had also found fish.
We had 23 members fishing and one guest. I believe 11 guys brought limits to the scales.
Limits were caught on a variety of baits with worms, cranks baits, and jigs being the most productive.
Green pumpkin and junebug were the main colors in worms and jigs and shad was the favored color for crank baits.

Mac Cramer took 1st place honors with a nice bag weighing 11.25 lbs. He also had the lunker at 3.40 lbs.
Brian Metcalf was 2nd with 5 fish weighing 8.75 lbs. I finished 3rd with 5 fish weighing 8.45 lbs.
Pete Potter took 4th place with a limit weighing 8.20 lbs.

Next month we once again fish the Mobile Delta on the Tensaw River.
We are scheduled to launch out of Mizell's on the causeway.


Til next time …Keep your hooks sharp!

Creek Chub

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