John Buck

John's Club Report Covering The Pensacola Hawg Hunters 2007 Season Email: John Buck

Founded In 1975

Place Name Fish Weight 1. John Buck 4 5.85 2. Jim Bailey Sr 3 4.14 3. Mack Cramer 3 4.08 Big Fish Winner John Buck 2.30lbs

*** Tournament Winner *** John Buck 4 Fish - 5.85lbs

Place Name Fish Weight 4. Dave Dyess 1 2.01 5. Pete Potter 2 1.70 6. Lee Brannon 1 1.10 Also Fished Jere Jaillite Glen Kittrell - Jeff Weaver Frank Kelly - Dewayne Kimbro Terry Smith - Ken Repine

PENSACOLA HAWG HUNTERS
TOURNAMENT REPORT
JANUARY 20, 2006

The Hawg Hunters held their January tournament on the Blackwater River in Milton, Fl. The morning was cool and clear skies ruled as 13 fishermen set out to hunt for the elusive little green fish. The water temp was about 54 and rose to about 57.5 by mid- afternoon.
Water color was the usual Blackwater, clear, but tea colored. Air temps was in the mid to lower 40’s.
We started on the end of a very low tide and with NE winds the water was really pushed out.

Jere Jailitte and I drew out as partners. We had both pre-fished and had similar ideas about plans for the day….just try your darndest to catch a keeper. We both wanted to start out on the same bank, and that worked out well for me. We went to a spot Jere liked first.
It was very narrow so we both were on the front deck. Jere got first cast since it was his spot. I cast to the opposite bank. In just a few seconds I had a familiar tug on the line and brought in a short a fish. About 2 or 3 casts later, I had a stronger tug and landed about a 2 lber.
We were fishing about 12-18 inches of water. Our next stop took us down the bank about 50 yards to a spot I liked, and Jere got the hit and boated a short fish. After catching a couple right off the bat, I gave Jere one of my little crawfish baits, and that’s what he caught his fish on.

As we prepared to go to the next spot a boat zoomed past, and Jere saw something fly out of the back. About 5 minutes later when we decided to leave we went across the way to see what it was and to our amazement found a nice $100 Ranger life jacket floating downstream.
Sort of reminded us of the Evinrude commercial where the guy looses his clothes….but at least they go back to get them. We waited around a few more minutes, but those guys never returned so we picked it up and headed south. Guys if you go overboard in the cold water you won’t have a lot of strength to swim ashore. Keep those jackets on when running and don’t bet against fate!

We arrived at a bank where I had caught several nice fish the week before, but that was last week and the fish just were not there.
The tide was running very hard on this bank and the wind made it tough to position the boat properly. We then headed farther south to a swamp water creek where I had also caught several fish the previous week. We worked to the back on the creek where it drained from the swamp and caught several more fish in fact we caught 4 short fish and 3 keepers. All of the fish came on the crawfish bait and were in the middle of the creek and not on the edges. We each missed several hits but we think that some of them were probably crabs. In fact I pulled up one very large blue crab who didn’t want to let my bait go. We basically spent the rest of the day just scouring the creek from the swamp to the mouth. I managed to tally 4 keepers but Jere couldn’t get the keepers to take his bait. He did catch several short fish. We were both fishing the same places with the same lures.
It was just my day to be lucky. Still in all, we had a great time visiting and telling stories, and reminiscing of bygone days.

At the scales, only 6 guys brought in keeper fish. No one had a limit and no one had any big fish. I managed to grab the win with my 4 fish at 5.85 lbs. Jim Bailey Sr. came in 2nd place with 3 fish for 4.14 lbs. (Jim, see what fishing in a new boat will do for you! The rest of you guys better be on notice, Bailey's making a move! Dare I mention that all 4 places were taken from Ranger Boats. Probably a first for this group!). Squeaking into the 3rd slot was Mack Cramer with 3 fish for 4.08 lbs. Dave Dyess nailed down the 4th position with 1 fish for 2.01 lbs. I managed to take the lunker with a 2.30 lb hawg! I think that it would probably be in order to mention the other 2 guys who brought in a fish. Pete Potter took 5th and Lee Brannon was 6th. I think most of the fish were caught on junebug worms and black/blue jigs.

Oh yeah….I almost forgot…the rest of the life jacket story. Seems that Frank Kelly was the fellow who lost the jacket. Story was that he was wearing his inflatable vest, but gave the Ranger life vest to his partner Jeff Weaver. According to Jeff, he thought he had it on under his coat……
for those of us that know Jeff, his story is believable…..at least they had a spare in the boat which I hope he used the rest of the day.
We had some good laughs at the weigh-in and everyone was a good sport about it, even Jere and myself, as we didn’t try to auction it off.

Next month we fish the Tensaw River out of Cliff’s Landing. February can be a great month to catch numbers of fish in the delta so make plans to be there. Til next time..Keep Your Hooks Sharp!

Creek Chub