August 2019 Newsletter

Minutes of the Meeting:

: August’s meeting was called to order by President Jeff Weaver at 7:00pm August 21, 2019. We had 22 members present with one guest brought in by Kevin Simmons. His name was Quintin Mengerink. I hope he’s used to getting called by different nick names. Seems a sporty young chap who just retired from the U.S. military. Thanks you for your service Sir. Or is it Sur as John Buck pointed out to us.

Jeff's humor was something about snakes having no feet. They can move pretty fast without them that’s for sure.

Our Guest last month Roger Gomez was unanimously voted into the club this month. Welcome aboard Roger! Then to top it off….he wins the 50/50 draw! The real question is did he purchase it before or after becoming a member?

Old Business

The reading of the minutes from the July meeting was waived by the membership.

The Treasurer report was read and accepted.

The Booray winner now stands to win $448 for a 6-pound fish. Too bad Jere Jaillite isn’t fishing Tensaw with us this tournament. He says he’s caught a 6 plus pound fish over there sometime back in ’96.

New Business:

Your Alabama fishing license expires at the end of this month…but don’t purchase too early. They go on sale August 26th and here’s a link to get one.
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Click to purchase an Alabama License

Rule changes were due at the end of the meeting. No more proposed changes will be accepted. Here’s a link to see the proposed changes that were submitted.

Click to see Rule Change Index

Next month, September, we will discuss the changes in detail leaving no “what if” scenario unturned. It should be good entertainment for all. You want to get there early as we will start the meeting at 6:30pm just so the festivities can last longer. Everyone can participate in the discussion in August but only those members with at least 6 tournaments fished during the current season by the October meeting will be able to Vote on the Proposals in October. Also remember we need a 2/3’s majority vote of those qualified members Present to pass the change.

Also remember nominations for the 2020 E-board are coming due. Motivated professionals need to apply. No catching experience necessary. Just need club membership for a year.

I guess no one volunteered for the Program Director / Events Coordinator Committee Chairman so there will be no programs coming up in the next few months.

John Russell however volunteered to be the Sponsor Chairman for all new members contacting the club through our website. I’ll be sure to forward him any and all requests we get. Before you bring a prospective member to the club you should have at least fished with the person before recommending. Remember a new member fishing a guest tournament can’t draw his sponsor during the draw as we saw this time out of the hat.

The August Cookout is back on! Tony Boyett and his wife are willing to roll some weenies on the grill for us after our tournament. In the past it was paid for by an old club member but since he isn’t in the club anymore we passed a motion to pay for it out of the special fund. It was brought up that we aren’t having a cookout in September so we can afford it.

Brian Nall is going to check into our room reservation for the October Tournament. Hopefully we still have them after our Tournament Director change.

From the Tournament Director:

Payouts were handed out for the July Tournament at Perdido River.

Congrats to all those who received paychecks.

The draw was conducted with 16 members and 1 guest going in 9 boats for the one day tournament at Tensaw River.

August’s tournament was held over on the mighty Tensaw River out of Hubbard’s landing. We all met at the Publix’s on 9 mile road to caravan over at 4am. Well most of us anyway. John Buck picked his partner up and left early….probably to stop and get some of that cheap Alabama gas. Then Lee decided he wanted non-ethanol for his boat and left. Then at 4:00 everyone took off like a bat out of hell trying to catch up to Mack except Jeff who was still waiting for his partner. Seems his partner forgot his wallet. When did our caravan’s get so messy? And nobody talks on the CB radio anymore.

Okay once at the river we all launched our boats and everything went smoothly with no slammers to nominate. The Morning Prayer was held and our glorious flag was unfurled to the tune of the National Anthem. Mack as acting tournament director spoke his piece and then Dave Bock blasted us all off.

The weather was hot. It was August in the south you know. Water Temps were 85 degrees and some areas had a light fog over the river that dissipated quickly as the sun tried to come out. It was overcast all day but it didn’t rain at all.

At the 1:00 o’clock weigh in we has 12 out of 16 anglers with half smiles on their faces. No one was able to catch a limit of bass. Grennel maybe and google eye for sure but not bass. The final numbers tallied up to 23 bass weighing 34.64 pounds for a 1.50 pound average. Only one fish didn’t survive the ordeal bring our dead fish total to 14 out of the 549 fish we’ve caught this year.

Big Fish Honors went to John Schaeff! He caught a brute weighing in at 4.15 pounds. Nice fish John! Looking back through our records for the last 10 plus years this is the first time John has captured the Big Fish Title in one of our Hawg Hunter Tournaments. Great Job John!

After the weigh in we were all treated to some great hospitality and fellowship with a Hot Dog cook out. Special Thanks to Tony Boyett and his wife for all the hard work involved. We all got our bellies filled with a great meal and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Tournament Results:

Place	Hawg Hunter		Total Fish	Total Weight

Also Fished

Tournament Results:

1st Place

John only brought one fish to the scales but it was big enough to win the whole darn tournament. His one fish and big fish of the tournament tipped the scales at 4.15 pounds. This is John’s first time winning a Hawg Hunter Tournament and he did it with only 1 fish! Hooyah! There has been only one other time that one fish has won a tournament and it was done by Frank Kelly at Fish River back in February of 2014. Frank’s fish was 4.28 pounds. Now you ask what the smallest winning weight of a tournament was and that went to Jeff Weaver winning with only 3.87 pounds. Jeff’s 3 fish caught at Clairborne during the November 2015 tournament. So John may not have set any club record but he sure set personal records with his win at Tensaw.

Great job!

Congratulations John!

2nd Place

Lee is no stranger to the Bride’s maid position. This is his 3 time this season finishing in Second Place. He weighed in 3 fish totaling 4.11 pounds. Just .04 pounds behind John’s 1 fish weight. I would assume Lee caught all his fish on Slider head worms…at least that are what he would tell his sponsor…but a little bird told me he caught one a crankbait.

Great Job!

Congratulations Lee!

3rd Place

This is where it gets interesting. We started out with Randy and Kevin in a tie where both caught 3 fish weighing in at 3.91 pounds. By our rules we then drop it down to a tie breaker of he who has the biggest big fish. So weighing both their big fish separately it turns out they both had a 1.51 big fish. Back to the rule book on this one and next then becomes a “mere coin toss”. Well as you can see Randy was the lucky winner of the Coin Toss! So here sits Randy in Third Place while Kevin drops to Fourth. This is Randy’s first showing in the money slots this season.

Great Job!

Congratulations Randy!

4th Place

Kevin being not so lucky with the coin toss takes over Fourth Place. But still lucky enough to catch 3 fish as most of us only had one or two or even none. This is Kevin’s 2nd fourth place finish this year to add to a First at Lake Jordan in April and a Third at Fish River in January.

Great Job!

Congratulations Kevin!

AOY Analysis:

Place	Top Six Hawg Hunters		Points

Okay we now have 10 tournaments in the record books this season with only two more to go before we determine our 2019 Angler of the Year.

This month we find ourselves in a tie situation with Lee jumping up from Second last month to Tie Jeff Weaver this month. If the season were to end right now Lee would come away the winner as our rules state the tie breaker is most tournament fish weighed in over the season. Lee had 44 while Jeff has 42. There is only 15 more fish to be caught with 5 from Fish River and 10 from Lake Mitchell at the Fish Off. Lee could quite possibly become a back to back Angler of the Year like two other guys we know Jere Jaillite 2013/2014 and John Buck 2008/2009.

14 points behind them is John Russell Buck currently sitting in Third Place. John has had a couple of bad tournaments lately like 2 skunks in the last 3 tournaments. John Russell like all young Buck’s started out the season running hard but is slowing down during the long haul.

Staying in Fourth Place this month just one point behind John Russell is Mack Cramer with 145 points.

In Fifth again this month is Kevin Simmons with 141 points and he now has a 10 point lead over John Buck who sitting solid in Sixth Place with 131 points.

So it seems it’s still anybody’s guess as to how this season will end but it will probably go down to the wire.

Great job to the Top Six!

CO-AOY Analysis:

Place	CO-Angler of the Year Race	Points
Gold
Silver
Bronze

We have a Winner! John Russell Buck is our 2019 Season Co-Angler of the Years. There is no way for anybody in the Co-Angler ranks to get the 59 points needed to catch up to John Russell in the last two tournaments. John Russell dominated the co-anglers this year! One big key to his success was showing up for all the tournaments. In fact he’s one of only two people with perfect attendance so far. Another key was his season starting win at the first tournament back in November. John Russell has truly earned his coveted title as the 2019 Season Co-Angler of the Year. John it’s okay if you stay home now…but keep paying your entry fees.

Coming up slow and steady to the Silver Position is Terry Ferdinandt with 87 points. He’s participated in 7 of the last 8 tournaments and the participation points really stack up. .

Another Terry, Terry Smith brings up the rear in the Bonze position while Brain Nall drops down another notch off the radar. .

Yellow Ball Winner!

Terry Ferdinandt

This month we have another Yellow ball winner! Terry Ferdinandt was the lucky winner who drew the yellow ball. Not a big pot…but remember you can’t draw one if you aren’t there when the results are dished out. The whole purpose of the golf ball draw was to keep people at the weigh-in so you could congratulate the winners and choke on some humble pie like true sportsman.

Slammer Nominee:

Time to start thinking about who is going to win the coveted Slammer award this year. Nominations are still open all the way to the last day of the season.
Could it be you?