John Buck

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

Founded In 1975

Place Name Fish Weight 1. Brian Metcalf 8 25.30 2. David Rogers 6 18.40 3. NeilSpringstead 6 14.85 4. Kevin Simmons 5 14.10 5. John Buck 5 13.50 6. Fred Raby 7 12.95 7. Ron Fairbanks 6 11.30 8. Jim Bailey Sr 5 11.15 9. Jeff Weaver 5 11.10 10. Rich Carnelius 6 10.95 11. Frank Kelly 4 7.90 Tournament Winner Saturday Brian Metcalf 5 Fish - 17.45 lbs Big Fish Saturday John Buck - 4.25 lbs Lee Brannon - 4.25 lbs David Rogers - 4.25 lbs

*** Tournament Winner*** Brian Metcalf 8 Fish - 25.30 lbs **Tournament Big Fish** Paul Sullivan - 5.70 lbs David Rogers - 5.70 lbs

Place Name Fish Weight 12. Paul Sullivan 3 7.70 13. Lee Brannon 5 6.85 14. Mack Cramer 4 6.10 15. Dewayne Kimbro 3 4.95 16. Dave Dyess 2 3.90 17. E. W. Coombs 2 2.70 18. WalterMcCartney 1 1.60 19. Pete Potter 1 1.45 20. Terry Smith 1 1.25 21. Ken Repine 1 1.05 Guest Bob Ward 1 2.85 Tournament Winner Sunday David Rogers 5 Fish - 14.15 lbs Big Fish Sunday Paul Sullivan - 5.70 lbs David Rogers - 5.70 lbs

PENSACOLA HAWG HUNTERS
TOURNAMENT REPORT
MARCH 20-21, 2004

The Hawg Hunters fished Lake Seminole out of Sneads Landing for the March tournament. Tournament day we found moderate temps in the morning warming to near 75 by the afternoon. The wind was light and the water temps were in the 60’s. Water clarity varied depending on where you fished. The Hootch and the Flint had stained water but the lakes were very clear. The traditionally clear areas of Seminole; Fish Pond, Cypress Pond, and Spring Creek were gin clear as usual. The stage was set for some terrific spring time fishing.
Skies were bright and sunny.

My partner for the weekend was E.W. “EarthWorm” Coombs. It had been a long time since we had fished together and I knew we’d have a good time. EW has enough tales to keep you laughing all weekend. Every once in a while he’ll even catch a fish. We started our practice day fishing the flats between Fish Pond Drain and Spring Creek. We found some good fish almost immediately and left them for tournament day. We next explored the flats west of Fish Pond but found only a few bedding fish but not the concentration of roaming bass we were looking for. Next we checked out Fish Pond Drain and found some small fish but nothing that we wanted to stay around for. We wound up the day checking some places on Spring Creek.

Tournament day, we headed for the flats between Fish Pond and Spring Creek. I missed 4 top water hits in the first 20 minutes and EW hadn’t had a hit. We moved into our hot spot and EW promptly put a keeper in the boat on a fluke. He then proceeded to land to very healthy grinnel. The only difference between their smiles and EW’s smile was that they had more front teeth. Meanwhile EW continued his catching with another keeper and I had yet to get a hit. We kept on working the pattern we had found the day before. Fish were holding on the grass edge in about 2 feet of water. We had to dead stick a fluke off the edge and watch the line for movement as it was very hard to feel the hits. The day before we had caught fish on jerk worms, but Saturday they wanted flukes.

As the day progressed I was able to catch 4 nice bass on the fluke. All four of my bites were nice fish with the biggest weighing 4.25 lbs. My total weight was 12.25 lbs. EW didn’t catch any more. He did lose a very nice bass (about 5 lbs) as it neared the boat. When that happened, EW quoted several verses of poetry (North Carolina style). He wound up with a little over 3 lbs for the first day.

At the scales we found that there was not the large numbers we had expected but there was quality. Although there were no really lunkers the overall size of the fish averaged about 2-3 lbs. We had 3 guys tie for the big fish of the day at 4.25 lbs, Kevin Simmons, John Buck, and Lee Brannon. I can’t recall ever having 3 guys tie for big fish. Brian Metcalf took the lead for the first day. He came in with the “motherload”. He had five fish which weighed 17. 45 lbs. and no fish over 4 lbs. What a beautiful bag of fish! I wound up 2nd with 12.15 lbs.
Kevin Simmons was 3rd with 11.85 lbs and 4th went to Neil Springstead with 11 lbs.
In total for the first day the club had 58 fish that weighed 124 lbs.

Sunday morning found quite chill temps as a cold front blew in overnight. High blue skies and 20 MPH winds kept the flats all but unfishable. EW and I worked hard all day but couldn’t make the adjustment needed to get the bite. We each missed a couple of short strikes and I wound up with one little dink and EW didn’t boat a fish.

Some of the guys who didn’t find fish on Saturday took over and brought in nice bags of fish on Sunday. Jim Bailey….yeah you read it right! Jim Bailey brought in a nice bag of 5 fish for 9.4 lbs. Paul Sullivan had nice fish including a 5.75 lber for 7.70 lbs. However, they were both overshadowed by Dave Rogers who was fishing his first tournament with the Hawg Hunters. He had a pretty limit weighing 14.85 lbs. We had another tie for big fish with both Dave and Sully bringing 5.70 lb lunkers to the scales. I’ve been fishing with the Hawg hunters since 1976 and I can’t remember that we’ve ever had ties for lunker on both days of a 2 day event or even a 3 ways tie on one day. Brian didn’t let up too much even in the face of motor problems. He brought in 3 nice fish (7.85 lbs) to anchor the win. It seems like Seminole has a jinx on Brian’s motor.
The last time we fished here he had motor trouble but still won the tournament!

The final tournament results were 1st place-Brian Metcalf 25.30 lbs, 2nd place was Dave Rogers 18.40 lbs, 3rd place was Neil Springstead with 14.85 lbs and Kevin Simmons came in 4th place with 14.10 lbs. For the tournament totals we weighed in a total of 87 fish that weighed 191.90 lbs. If the stories were to be believed, most of the fish were caught on an assortment of soft plastics, crank baits, and topwaters.

We had one guest fishing with us, Bob Ward. Bob writes fishing reports for Hook1.com on the Tensaw Delta.
I’ve read his reports for some time now and enjoy them very much.
I enjoyed visiting with him over a cup of coffee each morning.

Our next tournament is a two day event at Lake Martin. This is another GREAT lake to fish in the spring.
Have your topwater lures ready for up there!