2015 Season
Pensacola Hawg Hunters
Bass Club




2015 Season


Volume: 18
Issue: 11
Angler Of The Year
Jere Jaillite




Hawg Hunter E-Board
Big Fish Of The Year
Don Jahnke
Sept.
2015

President
John Buck
Vice-President/Treasure
Buddy Yates
Secretary
Dave Bock
Tournament Director
Mack Cramer
Asst. Tournament Director
Bill Myrick

Minutes of the Meeting:

The September meeting of the Pensacola Hawg Hunters was brought to order at 7:00 P.M on Wednesday the 16th of September by our President John Buck. We had 23 members present and 1 guest Elania Silvania daughter of club member Carlito.

Old Business:


Minutes from last meeting was waived in hopes of speeding up the meeting.

The treasury report was read by Buddy Yates and accepted by the membership.

Booray Report: Rolled over from last month with 21 members participating.  See Bill Myrick for details.

50/50 draw was conducted and won by Kevin Simmons for the second month in a row.


Reservations for Lake Point at Eufula was paid by the club. Anyone going to Eufula needs to pony up $75 for their lodging expense as soon as possible. Stop by and see Buddy Yates to pay...maybe he'll even talk you into a new tow vehicle while your at it.
Contact Mack if you are going up Thursday for an additional room charge Thursday night.  But regardless please keep Mack informed on any changes of your plans.


Perdido Boat Ramp - Looking for an October ribbon cutting ceremony.  See Bill Myrick for more details and be sure to wear you shirt to represent if you go there.


Boat Insurance, Boat Insurance, Boat Insurance...

Club Officers will be voted on at the October Meeting.  These are the nominations so far.  Not to late to get a  job if you are interested.

President - John Buck
VP/Treasurer - Buddy Yates
Tournament Director - Mack Cramer
Asst. Tournament Director - Matt Brown
Secretary/Web Master - Dave Bock



New Business:

 A very lively discussion was conducted concerning the proposed rule changes brought before the club by various members.  Here they are again for you to refresh your memory.  

Proposed Rule Changes:

2016 Proposed Hawg Hunter Rule Changes
 Click Here

Hopefully you had the chance during the tournament to discuss with your partner their opinions.  Remember...at the October meeting the changes will only be read then voted on by the 17 eligible members.  It takes 2/3 vote to pass.  To be eligible you had to have fished 6 tournaments prior to the October meeting.  Check the Standings Page "Tournaments Fished in 2015 Season" column to see if you qualify.

The E-Board met on Friday night before the September tournament to discuss changing the lake order based on newly acquired information.  Seems on Saturday a very big tournament (67 boats plus) was going to be conducted at Lake Mitchell with limited parking and ramp space.  The E-board voted unanimously to swap the lakes then presented it to the club during a special meeting of club members.  So we fished Lay on Saturday and Mitchell on Sunday.    

Fish Fry - Our Annual Fish Fry during the September tournament was a great success!  Great job to all involved in the preparing, cooking and clean up.  The food was outstanding as well as the camaraderie!  In fact the fish was so good....we decided to forgo the "mullet toss" games this year.

From the Treasurer

Annual Dues

Per our Constitution Section 4a. Dues are due and payable at the October Meeting for the following year.  Any member that hasn't paid his dues by the November meeting will be removed from membership and must re-apply and fish a guest tournament."  Active member dues are $40.

October Fish Off Money

If you didn't already know, $5 of your tournament entry fee each month goes toward the annual fish off payouts.  That means if you are eligible to win fish off money you are actually paying $60 to enter the tournament.  For you mathmaticians....$5 times 12 months = $60.  Per our rules, to be eligible you must fish at least 6 tournaments in a season.  The October tournament can and will be counted as your sixth tournament.  So Buddy, Frank, and Randy you still have a chance to be included.    

If you made it to all the tournaments, Great Job, you are paid up.  But, if you missed any touranments then you will owe an additional $5 for each tournament missed if you want to get in on Fish Off money.  This will be due at the October meeting in addition to the normal $30 entry fee charged for two day tournaments.  Check the club's Standing Page "Tournament Fished in 2015 Season" column to see how many you've attended.

From the Tournament Director:

We always talk about life jackets, flares and other safe boating items.  But when is the last time you looked at your fire extinguisher in your boat?  Maybe, the game warden checked it for you up at Lake Mitchell.  Luckily he was a nice guy and just wrote a couple of warning tickets.  Learn from others...CHECK your FIRE EXTINGUISHER!  

Lake Eufula size limits are different.  Large mouth bass have a 14" minimum where as the spotted bass have our club rule of 12" minimum.  Be sure to know your species of the fish you catch.

Our fish mortatility rate sharply increased this tournament.  If fact we just doubled our annual count from the whole year during the September tournament.  Our fish fry was Mullet not bass.  We had 22 dead fish, 11 each day, to add to our yearly count of 23 prior to the tournament to bring us to a total of 45 dead fish after 11 tournaments.  Not a number to be proud of.  Let's get them livewells fixed and turning them on would help a great deal too!

Payouts were given for last month and the draw was conducted for the August Tensaw River Tournament.

Meeting adjourned at 8:43pm.


Mack Cramer's "From the Tackle Box for October"

Hey everybody, fall is in the air and its Fish Off time.  Yep we will be headed to Eufaula Alabama to fish Lake Eufaula. As most of you know we will be staying in the cabins at Lake Point Marina. Remember those of you going up Thursday make sure you get with me, if you don’t you are subject to arrive with nowhere to sleep.  We have all 5 cabins on the hill just as you turn into the park on your right. Our treasurer Buddy Yates will be handling the final payment so remember to bring your room payment of $75.00 to the meeting in October. Let’s all of us make an effort to have the room payments go smoothly.
Lake Walter F. George, also known as Lake Eufaula occupies 85 miles of the Chattahoochee River, separating Alabama and Georgia. The lake is perfect for all types of recreation and spans 640 miles of shoreline. The Walter F. George Lock and Dam generates enough electricity to serve up to 56,000.00 homes. The lock itself is the second highest east of the Mississippi with a lift of 88 feet. Construction on the lock and dam, and powerhouse was completed in 1962.  Now that we know a little history and facts about Eufaula lets discuss fishing it. First there is a 14 inch size limit on Largemouth Bass, I say again there is a 14 inch size limit on Largemouth Bass, I hope that I have made it clear on Largemouth, however on spotted bass it is 12 inches. Fishing Eufaula can be challenging and enjoyable at the same time, it offers river fishing where one can fish the banks with lay downs and grass and at the same time fish the mouths of the creeks, it also offers lake fishing where one can fish the drop offs, humps and sunken structure. Electronics can play a huge role in locating fish so read your owner’s manual.
Last tournament we unfortunately had 22 dead fish which is totally unacceptable. It is obvious that we as a club are not doing our part to insure that the fish are returned to the water alive, in fact I cannot recall any other time in the clubs history that we had this many dead fish. There are several things that we as club members can do to help solve this problem, merely turning on your live wells isn’t enough, we have to continuously check the fish, there are chemicals that can be added to the water to increase the oxygen levels, there are Cool Well systems that can be installed to maintain a cooler temperature of the water in the live well. Whichever one works for you needs to be done. As tournament director I can’t tell you that you can’t take your boat, however there is a tournament rule that requires all boaters to have their boats in good working order to include your live well.  Remember if you put live well on recycle you are merely recycling the water that is in the live well and the water will eventually get hotter  and loose oxygen  thus the fish will die, continuously run fresh water into your system. The bottom line is this we simply have to do a better job.  On another note some of you were given warning tickets for fire extinguisher issues, please get this resolved before the next tournament, I would hate to see someone disqualified for getting a ticket. 

No birthday boys for October
 
Remember respect where others are fishing and be safe on the water.

By the way I have never liked Guntersville.

  







 Tournament:

The September Tournament was a two day split tournament.  After the unanimous e-board change we fished Lay Lake on Saturday and Lake Mitchell on Sunday.  Half the club went up on Thursday while the working class members of the club went up Friday.  We had 19 fishermen originally however Marion returned home before the start of the tournament.  To fill his spot Neil Springstead joined us as a guest.  We need to start charging him dues like the rest of us.  Anyway we put 10 boats on the two bodies of water.  The weather was nice...cooler than Pensacola...but still bright sunny and warm with minimual wind.  Some battled the early morning Fog along the main river channel to get to their first spot especially at Lay on Saturday.

Tournament Results:



1st Place
Roger Helm

Our long distance member, Roger Helm, showed us how to catch fish in our backyard.  His 2 day total of 10 fish exceeded the 20 pound mark coming it at 20.82 pounds.  This is Roger's 2nd tournament this season and so far he's taken money from us both times.  He had a 3rd place at the March Seminole tournament.

 Great Job!

Congrats Roger!


2nd Place
Tony Boyett

Tony drew out the blank chip but he refused to let that stop him from finding some nice fish.  Tony also brought limits to the scales both days.  His 10 fish totaled 17.68 pounds to earn 2nd place honors.  This is Tony's 3rd trip to the money spots this year.

Great Job!

Congratulations Tony!



3rd Place
Lee Brannon

Lee showed us what it takes to stay in competition with our AOY points leader by gaining 2 points on Mack.  Lee bought in the heaviest stringer of the tournament with a 11.99 pound limit on Saturday.  Add that to another limit of Sunday and Lee's two day 10 fish total tipped the scales at 17.52 pounds.  Can this guy fish under pressure or what?   Lee's 6th trip to the money spots.....any more we may have to call the IRS.

Great Job!

Congratulations Lee!



4th Place
Jeff Weaver

Jeff rounds out our top 4, also catching a double limit for the two days of fishing.  His 10 fish weighed 16.08 pounds.  Even after testing his safety strap on his boat to make sure it worked properly he was still able to find the right fish to take some money home.  5th time this year in fact.

Great Job!

Congratulations Jeff!



AOY Analysis

This month we had 7 members advance their positions while 9 declined. Still not a lot of big moves as the season is almost over.  Kevin moved the most jumping 4 spots.  Not to take away from Kevin but way down on the standings most of the hurdles to jump over are no different then the armadillo's laying on the roads with their feet up in the air.  Roger Helm jumped 3 himself with his win at the tournament.

Mack was lucky enough to find some fish to keep his AOY 1st place standing but Lee managed to close the gap to within 3 points leading up to our Annual Fish Off in October.  It's gonna be a nail biter!  Just for that reason alone you should come to the Fish Off to witness first hand who takes home the coveted Angler of the Year Trohpy.

Jeff Weaver maintains his 3rd place position but opens the gap up to 6 points ahead of 4th place.  It's impossible for Jeff to climb any higher up the leader board this year as 1st and 2nd are over 30 points ahead but a 3rd place finish is still very respectable in our club.  Will he hold on?  

Bill Myrick manages to jump ahead on the leader board to the 4th place spot while Jere also jumps up to grab 5th.
Falling from grace a wee bit is John who drops 2 spots down to 6th.  Last month 4th, 5th and 6th were only seperated by 1.5 points now they are spread out a little more.  Still room to move around if they find the right fish at Lake Eufula.







CO-AOY Analysis:

Looks like we have a winner already!   Hooyah!   Matt has sewn it all up in the CO-AOY race.  He's a whopping 25 points  ahead of second place Bob Jones.  With that much of a lead Matt could stay home and sleep in even if Bob won the tournament at the fish-off.  Great job Matt!  On the other hand if Matt shows up and fishes he has a chance of breaking into the top 6 as he's only 8.5 points behind.   Bob moved up to the 2nd place silver position mainly because Dave Dyess drew out as a boater disqualifying him in the category.  (Bob when you prefished with Dave last week how much did you pay him to drop out?)
In the 3rd place Bronze position we now see Jim Bailey Sr. moving up.    Just 8 points behind Jim is Marion.  



Booray Winner!



"Big Fish" Bob as he now wants to be called caught a 6.58 pound Hawg on Saturday at Lay Lake to win the Booray pot.  The pot has been rolling over since May.
Back then he was the co-runner up for the Booray pot with a 5.3 pound brute.   Last month on Tensaw he also took big fish money as well as back in February on Fish River.  "Big Fish" Bob formally known as "The Bob Jones" has been on fire this season catching them big fish  Tell us your secrets to your success!  Great Job!


Sunday's Big Fish Winner



 Sunday's big fish winner was Dave Bock with a 4.97 pound beauty he caught on a shakey head worm in 2 feet of water.  A milestone for Dave as this is his biggest tournament fish caught in over 30 years of tournament fishing from coast to coast.



Tournament Standings:

Lay Lake @ Beeswax Landing - Saturday

Lake Mitchell @ Higgin's - Sunday

1st – Roger Helm - 10 fish – 20.82 lbs
2nd – Tony Boyett - 10 fish – 17.68 lbs
3rd – Lee Brannon - 10 fish – 17.52 lbs
4th – Jeff Weaver - 10 fish – 16.08 lbs
5th – Mack Cramer - 9 fish – 15.75 lbs
6th – Dave Dyess - 10 fish – 15.24 lbs
7th – Kevin Simmons - 8 fish – 13.78 lbs
8th – Bill Myrick - 10 fish – 12.75 lbs
9th - Matt Brown - 5 fish – 10.40 lbs
10th - Bob Jones - 4 fish - 10.38 lbs
11th - Jere Jaillite -7 fish - 8.33 lbs
12th - Ron Bridges - 5 fish - 8.12 lbs
13th - Dave Bock - 3 fish - 7.61 lbs
14th - John Schaeff - 3 fish - 6.35 lbs
15th - Carlito Silvania - 5 fish - 5.88 lbs
16th - John Buck - 5 fish - 5.43 lbs
17th - Pete Potter - 3 fish - 3.95 lbs
18th - Cliff Armstrong - 2 fish - 2.14 lbs

Also Fished:

Hooyah!  Everyone caught fish one day or the other.


A Little Humor

From the fish's prospective

Good Samaritain Award of the Month

This month I'd like to Award the Good Samaritain of the Month to Jeff Weaver as he was kind enough to let Dave Bock borrow his spare trolling motor after his crapped out.  Thanks Jeff!  Your a gentleman and a scholar!


Slammer Nominations:

This month I'm self reporting.  Seems I got a little wet getting my boat on the trailer at Lake Mitchell on Sunday.  I was doing what I always do....step down out of the boat onto the trailer to hook up the bow strap before towing the boat out of the water.   Well I missed the trailer by a couple of inches with my foot and ended us ass-planting on the ramp in about a foot and a half of water.  Real good thing I didn't have my wallet and phone with me.  (I have you know....I'm only saying so because there were witnesses.....)


 

For the Record:

Lay Lake / Lake Mitchell
Beeswax / Higgin's Ferry Landing

Total Number Fished Tournament 18
Total Fish Caught 119
Total Dead Fish 22
Total Limits 15
Total Fish Weight 198.21 lbs
Big Fish: Bob Jones 6.58 lbs

For the Year:

Total Number Fished For Year 195
Total Fish Caught 685
Total Dead Fish 43
Total Limits 74
Total Fish Weight 1261.57
Big Fish 7.85
Buddy Yates
Lake Seminole - March

October Meeting

Location: Founaris Bros.
October 21, 2015
Time: 7:00 pm

October Tournament

October 24 & 25, 2015

Tournament Site:

Lake Eufalua
Lake Point

From the Daily Planner:

Sunrise: 6:35am

Full Moon:

10/27/15


Any questions should be addressed to:

Dave Bock
E-Mail the Secretary

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