Pensacola Hawg Hunters

The February meeting of the Pensacola Hawg Hunters was brought to order at PoFolks Restaurant by our President Buddy Yates. We had 10 members present and two Spouses: Jan Bock and Lisa Yates with family members Trey and Tyler for Trey's Birthday. Happy Birthday Trey! Former Member Stacy Blackburn was also in the house.

Minutes from last month read and accepted

Treasuer report read and accepted

Booray Pot now stands at $692 for a 5lb pound bass

We decided on a name of the last tournament of the Season. From this day forward the Annual Fish off will be named the John Buck Pensacola Hawghunters Classic. This was to honor our Founding Father & Lifetime member John Buck who started our club that has survived for over 50 years. In another 50 years from now we'll add the "Memorial" portion to the name.

Cookouts

We attempted to get organized and prepared for the Cookouts for our upcoming 2 day tournaments. John who has been carrying the cooking box the last couple of years needed to hand it off as he now carries the weigh-in tools as his new Tournament Director job requires. I didn't catch who got the hot potato but good on you. As someone who's held on to and stored the fish cooker these past 10 years it's a commitment.

We Settled on Hamburgers and Hot Dogs for the March Tournament. John Russell says he'll get some through his connections while Terry Smith volunteered to cook them. We need a grill but Mack already has the propane bottle ready for use. We always enjoy the cookouts but it does require preplanning and lots of help to make it happen. No ride along to get along wanted here as we all need to put in a little effort to make great memories.

Fire Safety

Mack our never ending safety conscious retired law-enforcement officer brought up a potential problem if you have lithium batteries in your boat. Your hopefully current Coast Guard Approved fire extinguisher won't put out a lithium-ion battery fire. You need a fire extinguisher designed for lithium-ion battery fires, rapidly suppressing flames and reducing thermal runaway in electronics and marine battery systems. One such is a BurnBuster Lithium-Ion Battery Extinguisher that has an advanced cooling gel formula that clings to surfaces, cools hotspots instantly, and helps prevent reignition.

The webmaster is still trying to earn a better paycheck and has been going through our 20 plus years of digital photos. Dave has created picture books for viewing on our website. They are bunched into 5 different categories so trying to load 20 years of photos at one time won't overload your computer. All of these categories can be found on our Navigation bar located at the top of our webpage under the "Picture Books" Dropdown. They are listed as:

• 2026 Season Monthly Books
• Active Members
• AOY & Top Six Books
• Memorial Books
• Former Member Books

You can use these links as well but the navigation bar stays on every page viewed unless you step back in time through the Archive Gateway and see history when the late Jim Bailey Sr. started our webpage many years ago.

Getting back to the picture books, for now I've only categorized from 1997 thru 2010. I still have 15 more years of pictures to look through and add captions to when each picture was taken and who is in them. It has been a bitter sweet process because the pictures show good times with good friends present and past sparking memories. Hopefully they will do the same for you. One thing I am realizing is we are getting more deceased members and former members than we have active members. I guess that would be true with any club that has lasted 50 years.

The tournament director handed out the payouts for the January Tensaw River Tournament. Great job to those who received checks. The draw for the February tournament was conducted with 9 members participating

February saw us going back to Fish River this time of the year for the 13th time in February over the past 20 years. We had 8 members fishing our of 8 boats with 2 guests joining up for a fun day. The temps were up in the 70's with overcast and a light morning rain about an hour after blastoff. Just enough to get the rainsuit out then quit. The sun peaked though later in the day but for me the bite shutdown after I got to cull one fish sometime around noon. The only bite I had in the afternoon was a crab who didn't want to let go even after lifing him out of the water. I had to make him bite again to get back into the water but I did so without injuring myself.

At the weigh-in we had 29 fish for 50.40 pounds caught by all. Last month's hero Tom Buck only managed one fish this month but he beat his "famous" brother John who finished last.

New Club Record

We set a new Club record. Buddy Yates' 13.94 pound 5 fish limit sets a new Heaviest Stringer record for the club at Fish River. He beat Mack Cramer's 13.86 pound limit that was set 13 years ago in 2013. The .08 pound difference between Buddy's and Mack's weight equates to just 1.28 ounces. Mack had a 6.18 pound brute to anchor is bag while Buddy has a pair of 4 pounders to anchor his. Buddy also took Big Fish Honors with a 4.20 pound stud. Not big enough to overtake the Year to Date Big fish title currently held by Tom Buck but big enough to beat John Russell's 4.18 studete by .02 pounds which is equal to .32 ounces. Great Job Buddy!

Of couse Buddy would win the tournament after setting the club's lake record but it bears worth repeating. He weighed in 5 fish for 13.94 pounds just .96 ounces shy of 14 pounds. We've only had 4 other weights over 10 pounds at Fish River in the past 20 years.

This is also Buddy's First time win ever in the Club at Fish River and his first win for the 2026 Season.

Great Job!

Congratulations Buddy!

Kevin racks up another payday with a Second place win this month. Kevin with the help of his guest, Chuck Smith found 5 fish weighing 7.88 pounds. Now I'm saying his guest helped him catch fish but if not for his guest bringing his boat Kevin would have been swimming to catch fish. Actually his guest caught a nice 3.52 pound bass he brought to the scale and said if this would have been a team format Kevin and Chuck would of had close to 14 pounds too. Anyway for Kevin this is his 2nd time in the money slots.

Great Job!

Congratulations Kevin!

John Russell only found 3 keepers but anchored with a nice 4 pounder he took 3rd place with 7.20 pounds. John Russell has had two 4th place finishes this season and now finally jumped the hurdle to get to third place and take home some money.

Great Job!

Congratulations John Russell!

The Top Six

With four tournament complete we still have Kevin Izzi leading the Top Six with 112 points but I heard he may take next month off so the rest of us can catch up to him.

Jumping up to 2nd place is Buddy Yates after his record First Place win at Fish River. He is now just 6 points behind Kevin.

John Russell drops from tying with Buddy last month to sit in Third Place just one point behind Buddy with 105 points.

Tom Buck also drops one place to take the 4th place spot with 101 points. Tom only managed one fish for 2.26 pounds this month

Terry Smith maintains his 5th place spot with 97 points just 4 points back and only 15 points behind our AOY leader Kevin.

Jumping up from 8th last month to the Top Six's Sixth position is Mack Cramer. Mack finished 4th this month with limit of fish weighing 7.04 pounds

Next month we are going to Lay Lake on the Coosa River where the club has had a lot of history. We've been there 13 times but only 3 of them for a March Tournament. Normally we go to Lay Lake in October for the year-end tournament. 7 times it took more than 20 pounds to win the two day tournaments. John Buck has won there the most win 4 wins. Mack Cramer was last years winner during the October Fish Off for the 2025 fishing Season. The average fish count during the March tournaments was 8.5 fish per person with a 1.90 pound fish average. John Buck caught that impressive 7.55 pound monster during the March 2023 tournament there. It promises to be a great tournament. Hope to see you there!