Total Year Standings
Total Fish Caught 540
Total Dead Fish 16
Total Limits 60
Big Fish 6.96
Total Fish Weight 895.95 lbs

Tournament Results

We had our July tournament on the Escambia River out of Smith’s Fish Camp. We had 23 members fishing.  The weather was hot with highs near 95 and thunderstorms from mid- morning until about 1:30pm.  We had a falling tide for the day, but a stout south wind kept the water from falling hard. The week before the tournament brought heavy rains and the river rose about 8 feet.  Even though it had fallen a lot by tournament day there was still a heavy stain throughout the system.  Water temps ranged from upper 70’s early to mid 80’s by afternoon.

Billy Myrick and I drew out as partners for this tournament.  We both are familiar with the river but we had opposite thoughts on where to find the fish.  He wanted to fish the sawgrass in the lower delta and I wanted to fish the current and lakes off Whites River.  Since we were in my boat, we started off up river on the White River.  We had a few hits early on buzz baits and horny toads but nothing to keep.  About 7:30 I managed a small spotted bass in 16 feet of water on a green pumpkin worm.  We continued fishing but never got any more bites up there and so we headed for a bank that had lots of lily pads on the Escambia.   Billy picked up a couple of short fish and I managed a short fish or two but also a keeper.  That gave me 2 in the boat but Billy still did not have a keeper.  At 10:30 I told Billy to take the front and we’d go to his banks.  We fished the sawgrass hard and got lots of hits from a variety of saltwater fish and Billy managed 2 keepers in the grass.  We fish it hard until quitting time at 2PM.  We both laughed that at least we would each have a “golf ball” fish and at least we didn’t get skunked!

At the scales there were many long faces and empty weigh in bags. As luck would have it, my 2 little fish won with a total weight of 2.19 lbs.  Billy was 2^nd with 2.03 lbs.  Taking the 3^rd slot was Buddy Yates with 1 fish @ 1.84 lbs and it was the lunker!  4^th place went to Dave Dyess with 1 fish @ 1.31 lbs.  We had 13 guys who did not even catch a keeper.  This was the toughest tournament that I can remember in over 15 years.  All the locals know the Escambia can be tough but this was ridiculous.   Most of the fish were caught on soft plastics of some type, worms, lizards, crawfish and horny toads.  These results will surely tighten up the yearly standings in the club.

Next month we fish our last short day for the year on the Tensaw River out of Hubbard’s Landing.  Make plans to attend the meeting and the tournament.  Until next time….

Keep Your Hooks Sharp,

John