April 2018 Newsletter

Minutes of the Meeting:

The April meeting of the Pensacola Hawg Hunters

was brought to order at 7:00 P.M on Wednesday the 18th of April at Founaris Bros. Greek Restaurant by Jeff Weaver. We had 20 members present.

Old Business

The minutes from the last waived by the membership.

The treasury report was read and accepted.

Booray Report: The Booray pot started over once again since Lee Brannon won it last month with a 7.75lb Hawg.
So now we are all in the hunt for a 5.5 lb fish to win the next Booray. No one got close with the Spotted bass at Lake Jordan so it will start to roll over to get bigger. Sorry Lee.

See Buddy Yates for Details...

This month's 50/50 was won by Dave Hall.

The Cookout committee promised us a great big Chicken Dinner at the Jordan Tournament and it turned out to be a good one. There was nothing left over but stuffed bellies in the end. Great Job Dave Dyess. Remember you 50/50 contributions go towards the fund that pays for the cookouts so be sure to donate your fair share....I know you all eat it!

New Business:

We lost a Friend to the Bass fishing Community this past month so we held a moment of silence and a prayer for his family. Wayne Cox died as a result of a boating accident during a bass tournament.
Obituary for Wayne Cox

Be careful on the water and keep aware of your surroundings.

A discussion was held on the accommodations we experienced at Bay City Lodge. Everyone seemed to be pleased when you compared it to the Rancho Inn that we normally stay at.

From the Tournament Director:

Payouts for the March tournament were handed out. Congrats to all those who received a paycheck.
Great job!

The draw for the April Tournament was conducted.

We had 12 boaters with 8 co-anglers drawn out for our annual Lake Jordan Tournament with some leaving on Thursday and some leaving on Friday. According to Pete Potter though....I heard him tell Mack you better leave on Wednesday to beat him....

April Tournament:

The April Tournament was held at Lake Jordan on the Coosa river system where the Spotted Bass outnumber the Largemouth. At least that's how it appears as we only had a handful of largemouth caught out of the 154 lucky fish who joined us at scales for weigh-in. Well 4 of them weren't so lucky.... but that story is best told at the dinner table.
We had 20 members fishing out of 12 boats with one guest joining us for the weekend. Neil Springstead was a former member and the original "Blinky" during our tournaments. Good to see you again Neil. We stayed at the Key West Inn in Wetumpka as we launched out of the not so crowded Boy Scout Ramp by the Lower Dam.
The weather on Saturday was a little cool in the morning with blue bird skies and wind that picked up around 9am. Sunday was a threat of rain and for those of us that went up the lake we saw some of it with overcast all day. By weigh in time on Sunday we had some rain but at least it was down pouring so it was not bad. The lake on Sunday was rougher than Saturday but my Triton loved it just fine. Running 50 mph into the wind and waves we stayed dry and on top. Hooyah!
Water temps were mostly hovering around 66-68 degrees but the balls of shad were pushed deeper from previous years by the cold front that went through mid week.

Seems Bob "Good Luck" Jones is at it again. Saturday him and his partner Dave Dyess showed up late for the blast off and then on Sunday it seems Dave had truck problems so they didn't fish on Sunday.

Okay so here are some stats for the April's Lake Jordan tournament. We had 20 people catch 154 fish weighing in at whopping 333.55 pounds! Saturday's weight alone with topping 190 pounds. On Saturday to get in the top 10 you had to have over 10 pounds!
Going back through the records for the last 10 years this appears to be our best tournament ever in April!

Click here for a view of the past 10 years showing number of fish caught and weights along with the past winners and their winning weight. I also included Big Fish winners and weights to say Jere's statement of No Booray Fish caught in April at Jordan is true. But the numbers with weights and limits should show you that April in Jordan has been good to us. This years winning weight of 28.31 pounds by Brian Nall is at least a 10 Year Record!
7 out of 8 tournaments at Jordan topped more than 100 fish caught compared to 1 out 3 at Lake Martin. You had to have over 20 pounds in 6 out of 8 tournament at Jordan to even win and 4 of them 6 you needed over 25 pounds!

Great Job Tournament committee for picking another great site this season. I'll just get that in there before next month.....

Okay...on to the results!

Tournament Results:

1st Place
Brian Nall

Brian was leading the tournament on Saturday with a limit of fish weighing 14.00 pounds which he said was his biggest limit he's caught to date. Well that didn't last long as Sunday he bettered himself with a 14.31 limit! His two day today added up to a 10 year club record of 28.31 pounds set for an April Tournament. I'm willing to bet it his his personal record too. Brian caught them all using non-Zoom baits and not one slider head either so get your wallets out for more tackle purchases..... Brian even got to cull both days with Sunday's cull taking him to the finish line in the last 20 minutes of the tournament. Brian truly had a great weekend and he worked hard to capture the win!

Great job!

Congrats Brian!

2nd Place
Buddy Yates

Buddy once again end's up as the bridesmaid for the tournament. Last month he finished Second place also. This month he only missed out by 1.11 pounds compared to last month when Second place was a whopping 11 pounds behind Lee. Buddy had a limit on Saturday tipping the scales at 13.11 pounds. Adding another limit on Sunday of 14.10 pounds gave him a two day total of 27.21 pounds! Buddy also managed to catch the biggest fish of the tournament weighing in at 4.34 pounds to take on Big Fish Honors.
Even though Buddy doesn't want to talk about it he continues his 100% catch rate for the tournaments he's fished. Now up to 40 out 40 for 8 eight tournament days fished this season.
So it is now Buddy "Double, Double Turkey" Yates?

Great Job!

Congratulations Buddy!

3rd Place
John Russell Buck

Newcomer to our club but no stranger to fishing with a last name of Buck is John Russell who captures our 3rd place spot. Come to think of it....John Russell may be a Pensacola Hawg Hunter Baby as his Dad is a founding and active member of our club since he was born. But this weekend he proved he's truly a Hawg Hunter as Saturday he captured Big Fish Money with a 4.25 Hawg. John Russell earned 3rd place with 2 nice limits of fish weighing in at 13.65 and 13.49 for a two day total of 27.14 pounds. John Russell drew out his Dad as a partner for the weekend and I'm sure he enjoyed himself especially on Sunday when he had his limit done before his Dad managed to find a keeper late in the afternoon.

Great Job!

Congratulations John Russell!

4th Place
Lee Brannon

Well someone finally managed to beat Lee "Slider head" Brannon. Must be because he went Pro on us and found him a sponsor.
Don't let Charlie Brewer know....
Lee also had 2 limits of fish for the weekend. 11.34 pounds on Saturday and 13.06 on Sunday for a two day total of 24.40 pounds. It was more than last years winning weight but only good enough for 4th place this year. Still a great job since Lee has yet to finish lower than 5th place in all six of the tournaments held so far. He's caught 44 fish out of a possible 45 for a 98% catch rate and now has contributed over 100 pounds of fish to our club total of 935 pounds. That means Lee has caught over 10% of the weight this year.

Great Job!

Congratulations Lee!

AOY Analysis:

Okay we are at the Half-way point of the Season. 6 done and 6 more to go! Hopefully you've been having a good year. We know one person for sure is. Our current points leader Lee Brannon! He's a whole 20 points ahead of the pack and still going strong. Hasn't placed below a 5th place this season.
Way behind him is the rest of the pack in a tight knit race. Not that Lee has won it all yet but the focus has to shift to the next 3 spots. Jere Jaillite is sitting in Second with 104 points. Jere started out the season strong but has been placing below sixth in the past couple of tournaments. On the other hand Buddy Yates who's now only 2 points behind Jere has been steadily charging up the leader board. His three 2nd place finishes in the last 4 months has brought him all the way up to 3rd in the AOY Standings.
Just 5 points behind Buddy is Jeff Weaver whose had a couple of 4th place finishes this month but I wouldn't count him out.
Moving up a couple of spots from 7th last month to 5th this month is Dave Bock who by the was this month's winner Brian Nall's boater. Dave and Brian had found over 47 pounds of fish for the 18 fish they weighed in at Lake Jordan.
Rounding out our Top Six is our only non-boater in the pack, Brian Nall. Brian's fresh win at Jordan jumps him up over Mack Cramer and Dave Dyess who are now tied for 7th. But don't count them out either has they are only 1 point out of the Top Six.

So here's the point spread of the Top Six:

1st - Lee Brannon - 124 pts
2nd - Jere Jaillite - 104 pts
3rd - Buddy Yates - 102 pts
4th - Jeff Weaver - 97 pts
5th - Dave Bock - 87 pts
6th - Brian Nall - 81 pts
7th Tie - Mack Cramer - 80 pts - 31 fish
7th Tie - Dave Dyess - 80 pts - 30 fish

Great job to the Top Six!

CO-AOY Analysis:

Moving on to the Co-Anglers we have a new leader taking over. Brian Nall now claims the top Gold position with 81 points. All weekend Brian told me all he cared about was beating his Co-Angler competition of Dave Nason and Bill Armstrong. Little did he know he would have is best tournament ever catching over 28 pounds to beat us all. Great Job Brian.
In the 2nd place Silver position is Dave Nason with 69 points and dropping down to the 3rd place Bronze position is Thom Labelle who missed out on the fun we had over the weekend. Dave Dyess was really looking forward to fishing with him again. Anyway Thom still has 63 points.
Still a lot of fishing left to settle this one.

Tournament Standings:

Lake Jordan @ Boy Scout Landing

1st – Brian Nall - 10 fish – 28.31 lbs
2nd – Buddy Yates - 10 fish – 27.21 lbs
3rd – John Russell Buck - 10 fish – 27.14 lbs
4th – Lee Brannon - 10 fish – 24.40 lbs
5th – Pete Potter - 8 fish – 20.23 lbs
6th – Dave Bock - 8 fish – 19.34 lbs
7th - Roger Helm - 8 fish - 18.73 lbs
8th – Jeff Weaver - 9 fish – 18.53 lbs
9th – Jere Jaillite – 10 fish - 17.71 lbs
10th - Kevin Simmons - 7 fish - 17.48 lbs
11th - Dave Nason - 9 fish - 16.15 lbs
12th - John Buck - 7 fish - 14.36 lbs
13th - Cliff Armstrong - 6 fish - 13.79 lbs
14th - Mack Cramer - 9 fish - 13.66 lbs
15th - Dave Hall - 10 fish - 12.84 lbs
16th - Terry Smith - 5 fish - 12.49 lbs
17th - Bill Armstrong - 5 fish - 11.82 lbs
18th - Bob Jones - 4 fish - 7.03 lbs
19th - Dave Dyess - 5 fish - 6.29 lbs
20th - John Schaeff - 4 fish - 6.04 lbs

Also Fished:

Hooyah! Everyone caught fish both days!

One thing to note....Dave Hall did a great job bringing in limits of fish on both days but only finished 15th place. Great job Dave...don't think we didn't notice on how you are improving!

For the Record:

Lake Jordan/Boy Scout Landing

Total Number Fished Tournament 20
Total Fish Caught 154
Total Dead Fish 4
Total Limits 21
Total Fish Weight 333.35 lbs
Big Fish: Buddy Yates 4.34 lbs
Saturday Big Fish: John Russell Buck 4.25 lbs

For the Year:

Total Number Fished For Year 113
Total Fish Caught 531
Total Dead Fish 6
Total Limits 64
Total Fish Weight 935.00 lbs
Big Fish 7.75 lbs
Lee Brannon
Apalachicola River - March

May Meeting

Location: Founaris Bros.
May 16, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm

May Tournament

May 19, 2018

Tournament Site:

Tensaw River
Scott's Landing

From the Daily Planner:

Sunrise: 5.52 am

Full Moon:

May 29

Tides

05/19/18

High: 5:48 pm
Low: 5:35 am

Any questions should be addressed to:

Dave Bock
E-Mail the Secretary