John Buck 		John's Club Report
Covering The Pensacola Hawg Hunters
2010 Season

 Email: John Buck
Founded In 1975
August Tournament
Total Number Fished Tournament 20
Total Fish Caught 25
Total Dead Fish 3
Total Limits 2
Big Fish 2.48
Total Fish Weight 35.31 lbs

Total Year Standings
Total Number Fished Tournament 195
Total Fish Caught 504
Total Dead Fish 16
Total Limits 49
Big Fish 5.11
Total Fish Weight 728.61 lbs

*** Tournament Big Fish ***
Don Jahnke
2.48 lbs

Tensaw River
Upper Bryants Landing
*** Big Fish Of The Year ***
Jeff Weaver
5.11 lbs
1st Place
John Buck
5 Fish 7.51 lbs		 2nd Place
Jeff Weaver
5 Fish 7.44 lbs		 3rd Place
Tony Boyett
3 Fish 3.63 lbs		 4th Place
Lee Brannon
2 Fish 3.47 lbs

Place Name Fish Weight
1. John Buck 5 7.51
2. Jeff Weaver 5 7.44
3. Tony Boyett 3 3.63
4. Lee Brannon 2 3.47
5. Jim Bailey Sr 2 3.34
6. Don Jahnke 1 2.48

Tournament Results

Also Fished:
 Randy Cole - Bryan Nall - Frank Kelly
Terry Smith - Dave Dyess - Bob Jones
Billy Myrick - Glenn Kittrell
Place Name Fish Weight
7. Jere Jaillite 2 2.08
8. Butch Gunnels 1 1.56
9. Ron Bridges 1 1.01
10. Bob Hanson 1 .98
11. Dave Bock 1 .91
12. Buddy Yates 1 .90

TOURNAMENT REPORT

Tensaw River August 21, 2010
 		Upper Bryants Landing

The Hawg Hunters fished their August tournament out of Upper Bryant's Landing on the Tensaw River.
The weather was hot and muggy with temps in the low to mid 90's. The water in the main river had a slight stain with about 12" visibility. The creeks were pretty much the same. We had an incoming tide for most of the day and as usual just at the time to start loading up the boats as weigh in time approached we had a strong thunder storm with heavy rain for about 15 minutes
and everyone got soaked.

My partner for the day was Butch Gunnells. Butch is new to the group and it was our first time to fish together.
We decided to go to Douglas Lake to try our luck. I had found lots of fish there earlier, and for once maybe the pre-fishing paid off because they were still there. Right now there are menhaden schooling in huge pods all up and down the Tensaw river.
Bass and other fish are still gorging themselves. The problem I have found was that even though the fish are easily caught, still you have to sift through many small ones to get keepers. We did not really try to chase schoolies that would have been impossible where we were because there were too many schools of bait fish getting eaten all day. Also I found it difficult to get them to hit anything even if you could throw into sloshing schools. They did not want flukes, spinners, or cranks. I did catch a few on a rattle trap.
Mostly we caught them on trick worms with trig. They would push the bait fish up to the banks and then tear them up next to the bank and if you threw the worms around the schooling area, they would hit quickly. Also there were many bream and warmouths eating them, and yes, they bit our worms a lot too.

We were under one large tree fishing the shaded area when the bass started busting about 15 yards to the back of the boat and Butch immediately threw a rapala with very large hooks at the feeding fish. He missed his target and hung up in the tree and started frantically trying to snatch it out while the fish continued to churn the water by him. Seeing him about to break it off I said wait we'll go get it. But, before I could back the boat around he had already freed the plug only to get hung up again, this time in HIS ear.
Now Butch looked really cute with that rapala hanging from his ear and I should have made a picture but with all the blood running down his head I grabbed the pliers and started back to try to help. He did it good folks and the hook was buried in the cartilage in the top of his ear. I tried to push it through as I could see the point in the back of his ear but it did not want to push through no matter how hard I pushed or tugged with the pliers (another reason to keep your hooks sharp)! I finally trimmed it up a bit so he could deal with it until we got back to the ramp at the end of the day. About an hour later Randy Cole came by, and with his medical expertise was able to grab the barb with the aid of side cutters and pull it through. Thank you Randy!!! Butch was a happy camper after that, until he got to the weigh scales, and found that I had accidently told all his buddies of his mishap.
Surely he will get a slammer nomination for his efforts

Back to the report…well we caught probably 15-20 fish each (bass) and lots of warmouths and a few large grinnel. I was able to catch limit and even cull a couple. Butch caught lots of fish but could only get the short ones but he did get one good keeper.

At the scales there were only a few who brought fish back to weigh in. I had my limit for 7.51 lbs and that took first place!
Jeff (Mr. Consistent) Weaver also had a limit that was slightly better than mine, but oops, he had one fish that died and with the penalty he finished 2nd with 7.44 lbs. Tony Boyette was 3rd with 3 fish @ 3.63 lbs, and Lee Brannon took 4th with 2 fish @ 3.47 lbs. Don Jahnke took the lunker honors with a pretty fish weighing 2.48 lbs.

Most fish were caught on worms but a few hit spinners and top water baits. As I said earlier the river is full of menhaden and there are lots of fish to be caught but so many are small. However all the fish I have seen and caught are very healthy even in the 89-90 degree surface temps. Maybe with all this food now they will grow a bit.

Our next tournament is a 2 day event at Lay Lake, and by that time the temps will have eased a bit I hope. Lay Lake is a great fishery and fun place to fish and I hope you will make your plans to attend.

Until next time..Keep your hooks sharp….

John