Volume: 5
Issue: 5

Minutes of the Meeting:

The March 2002 meeting of the Pensacola Hawg Hunters was brought to order at 7:00 p.m. on March 20, 2002. The meeting was held at the Seafood Shanty on Hwy 29 and was presided over by President Wally Cassiano.
There were 28 members and one guest present.

Members Of The Board:

President
Wally Cassiano
Vice President/Treasure
Kevin Simmons
Secretary
Dwayne Mills
Tournament Director
Neil Springstead
Asst. Tournament Director
Mack Cramer

Old Business:

There was no old business brought up.

New Business:

The Pensacola Hawg Hunter Tournament Rules number 21 and 22 state: 21. Partner are expected to share normal tournament expenses, i.e., boat automobile gas and oil, lodging, and launch fees. The club will reimburse any member who is required to fish alone, due to an odd number of fishermen, upon presentation of expenses to the club treasurer. 22. A fishing partner will share expenses whether or not he rides to and from the tournament site with the boater. Please remember that no matter what, you have to share expenses with each other. Let's please keep up the comradery and all pay our fair share.

New Business:

If you have made reservations for a room for any tournament, please use the room or call the establishment if you aren't going to use the room.
It only takes a couple of minutes to make a phone call and to keep peace. The Pensacola Hawg Hunters Bass Club Constitution Article I, Section 1,d. states: Maintain 100% B.A.S.S. membership, both active and inactive members. Article II, Section 1,a. states: Be a member of B.A.S.S. Article II, Section 2, a. states: A member may be removed from membership for failure to meet membership requirements. Please keep up with your membership requirements.
Let's not end up losing members because of something so small as this. The self inflating life jackets have to be worn in order for them to count towards having a life jacket. If you have a self inflating jacket it would be a good idea to have another in the boat to make sure that you are within the rights of each states requirements.

Jeff Weaver has coupon books for sale if anyone is interested.

We currently have $495 in the "Fish-Off" pot for October.
The Special Fund has $1241. There is a total of $1188 in the "BooRay" pot for a 6 lb bass. There is another "BooRay" pot that has started. The pot will be for a 3, 4, and 5 lb bass. Once the 5 lb step is reached and caught, the step will return to 3 lbs.
If you are going to be absent from any meeting or tournament please let someone know. If someone has let you know that they are not going to be at the meeting, please let the club Secretary know so he can document the absence.

March Tournament:

The March tournament was held on Lake Martin out of Wind Creek State Park Landing. There were 25 Hawg Hunters present to fish for the weekend. Everyone did a little pre-fishing and found Kentucky spotted bass to be plentiful. Only a few members were able to find the heavier large mouths. The lake level was about six foot low, which exposed a lot of bank and made the submerged timber easier to find. There was a front that was passing through that made it very windy and chilly for Saturday. The low temperature for Friday night was 28, which made for a very chilly morning. Even though we had very frigid temperatures to start the tournament, Saturday warmed up very nice with the temperatures reaching the 70's. At safe daylight which was about 5:20 am, the numbers were called and everyone was off and fishing. Despite the frigid temperatures the bass were still eager to bit. Many Hawg Hunters had there five fish limits very early and fifteen Hawg Hunters were able to bring their limits to the scales. Most of the days fish were caught on worms, whether rigged Texas, Floating, or Carolina. Just about all the fish that were weighed in were spotted bass, there were only a few largemouth weighed in. Once the scales closed there were 101 fish weighed for 145.55 lbs.
Mack Cramer took the first day lead with a limit of fish that weighed 10.95 lbs, which would prove to be the heaviest stringer for the tournament. Pete Potter's limit weighed in at 9.10 lbs, to take over second place. Brian Metcalf's limit weighed 9.05 lbs for third place. Mitch Gardner with 8.15 lbs. Rich Cornelius with 8.10 lbs, and Fred Raby with 7.55 lbs rounded out the top six.

After the scales were closed we had one member that went to empty his partners live well and found out that he had forgotten one of his fish. So we actually had 16 limits of fish, but now all we have is 15 limits and a "Slammer" nomination.
Immediately following the closing of the scales and doing the golf ball draw everyone tried to get back to the hotel before anyone else so that they would have a descent parking spot. After all parking spaces were filled and everyone settled down Mack Cramer and Chris Malena started frying up some chicken for everyone. There were beans (cooked not burnt) and potato salad for sides. It was great idea to have something else other than fried mullet to eat. Thanks goes out for everyones efforts in putting it together.
Sunday morning greeted us with temperatures in the mid 30's with a light fog. It warmed to the mid 70's as the day wore on and it turned out to be a wonderful day on the lake. When the scales opened up there was a lot of anticipation in the air. The days fishing was a little tougher than the day before, and there were six limits of fish brought in. The days totals were as follows: 77 fish that weighed 102.20 lbs. John Buck found a nice limit of largemouth bass that weighed in at 9.00 lbs. Dwayne Mills was able to bring a limit weighing in at 8.35 lbs. and also tied Fred Raby for lunker of the day weighing 2.45 lbs. Rich Cornelius's limit weighed in 6.80 lbs. Pete Potter brought in another limit of fish weighing in at 6.55 lbs. Mike Tyson with five fish weighing in at 6.50 lbs and Mitch Gardner's four fish weighed 5.95 lbs to finish off the top six for the day. The yellow golf ball was drawn out, so the next pot will be small. It took a few minutes to get all the tallying done and checked, but once done it was consistency that payed off for Pete Potter with ten fish weighing in at 15.65 lbs.
Pete used a finesse worm to boat most of his fish in the two days of fishing. Dwayne Mills was able to edge out his boating partner with 10 fish weighing 15.15 lbs for second place. Rich Cornelius also had 10 fish which gave him 14.90 lbs for third. Dwayne and Rich caught all of there fish on finesse and trick worms.

Total Fish Caught 350
Total Dead Fish 4
Total Fish Weight 479.05
Total Limits 25
Big Fish 4.65
(Brian Metcalf)

Nominations For Slammer

Jim Bailey Sr.
Wally Cassiano
Don Jahnke
Terry Smith
Neil Springstead
Jeff Weaver

April Meeting:

Tensaw River
Cliff's Landing

From The Daily Planner:

Full Moon: April 26th
New Moon: April 12th

Peak Fishing Times:

April 20rd
1st 6:41 pm - 9:42 pm
2nd 5:40 am - 9:14 am

Sunrise Sunset:

6:19 am 7:24 pm

Moonrise Moonset:

12:24 pm 1:59 am