HUB CITY BASSMASTERS

Monthly Newsletter

“LONG CASTS AND SHORT STRIKES”

MAY 2010

MAY CLUB MEETING – WILL BE HELD AT EUFAULA AFTER DAY ONE WEIGH IN THAT EVENING.

    A whole lot to cover this month so let’s go!!!!!

    HOLY COW, Can you believe the turn out we are having for our monthly meetings?? Members, wives, guests, prospective new members and kids. It is so cool. I am absolutely thrilled to be associated with our club and each one of you and your families. Won’t be long and we’ll have to start meeting at the football stadium at Crestview High.  Let’s keep it up. We have so much to be thankful for and proud of. Thank you all for the great turn out and participation. I think we should truly think about a Saturday family day with a little bank fishing and a cookout. What say you all?

    As many of you know and some may not, our own Ken Jordan is fighting with a bout of cancer right now. Ken has undergone surgery and is now receiving chemo therapy. We need to pray and keep Ken in our thoughts and let the GOOD LORD get him back out on the water with us. Hang in there Ken, we are thinking and praying for you. Thanks to all the members that have volunteered to help in so many ways.

    I want to thank Tony Bigot for bringing some of his Sponsor’s items to share with everybody. A really good chance to hold and look at new products and help in your decision if you wanted to buy any of them. I really want the Quantum KVD Series bait caster and Rod, matter of fact several of them, but also want to stay married, LOL,LOL.   If any of our other sponsored members would like to do the same, please let me know.

    Also Special THANKS to Dan Pike for attending our meeting and giving away some really great looking T-shirts. Dan is the owner of Inshore Angler, a Quantum Pro Staffer, TV Personality and well known inshore guide out of Fort Walton Beach. He has guided and filmed shows with Bill Dance and a slew of other well known personalities. Dan has already jumped on board to help sponsor the Spanish Trail Kids Fishing Derby with our club and we hope to get him back up to see us soon. You can visit his web sites now being shown on our own web page to order a T-shirt and check out a charter if you so desire. 

    WELCOME TO THE CLUB for two new members, Rick Hannefield and Terry Foley. Glad to have you guys with us and we’re looking forward to having you on the water with us.

    We had a brief discussion again concerning the way we do launch order drawings, who is drawn first etc.. I had received or heard some comments once again that those members that attend the regularly scheduled meeting  should be drawn first and then those that were not in attendance but  had called or e-mailed there notification should be drawn next. We have gone thru this before and made sure that our Tournament By-Laws reflected the desires of the membership. They do and again, a vote was taken to leave the way we conduct the drawings as is. I hope this will put that issue to rest for the remainder of the year.

    Well, we put together the tournament schedule for the remainder of the year as far as locations go. We did not try and pick any days so we will have to get that done at the next meeting. When I sent out an e-mail asking for locations from those that were not going to be able to attend the meeting, I received only two back with recommendations. All others were basically, wherever. I did make sure that those two individuals locations were announced and considered. Let me say this if I could guys. This schedule is a basic planning guide and not written in stone. We can change or amend it anytime we see fit and vote on it at a meeting. I understand that we already have some concerns about travel time, holidays etc., etc. We can get all of this squared away in time. My main goal was to get something down in writing so that everyone can look at their schedules, look for conflicts and then be able to present them as suggestions for change. I encourage all of you to look at your schedules as far out in advance as you possibly can, (for me that’s one day, LOL,LOL) and then be prepared to discuss these issues at the next meeting. With that being said, here is what was voted on approved for the rest of the year:

July – Lake Seminole, Seminole Lodge       

August – Apalachicola River, Jim Woodruff Dam, (NO LOCK THRU TO SEMINOLE ALLOWED)

September – Gantt Lake, Alabama

October – Lake Talquin, Ingram’s Marina

November – Miller’s Ferry, Alabama (2 Day)

December – Apalachicola River, White City

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but we did not vote for a night tournament this year??????????? 

    Man, what a great turn out for the kids casting competition at Bass Pro Shops Saturday March the 27^th. The club was well represented and I think all of us had a blast. There didn’t seem to be as many kids as there was last year and I think the location that they put us in may have had a little to do with it, however, we still had plenty of yungans and I think they all had a good time. Each winner in their age category received a $25.00 gift certificate from BPS and a hat, second place a $15.00 gift certificate and hat and third place a $10.00 gift certificate and hat.  All contestants received a very nice looking certificate from BASS for competing. Our own David “SIR BASSALOT” had his truck there, Greg was doing a little trick casting and our own “Michael Smith Who”, Shawn Odor Jr. took first place in his age category with a perfect score. Way to go Jr.. Great job guys, I want to personally thank the following members for participating:

Tony Bigot       Greg Prince      Matt McLoud      Jay Smith    Shawn Odor    Shawn Odor Jr.      Shannon Ard       Jeff Knight        Shane Denmon   Ron Whitman    Bob Miles    David Partridge

As a follow on to this event, Tony presented Shawn Jr. with a lure package from Mann’s Tackle Company, hat and a framed copy of his entry form at our club meeting. Junior is the first to receive a perfect score in the past 12 years I think Tony said and it’s only been done on two other occasions that they can find. Once again Junior, CONGRATULATIONS, WELL DONE!!!!!

    I attended a planning meeting on the 30^th of March with four other club representatives for the Annual County 6 man Tournament. The clubs that were represented were: Miracle Strip, Twin Cities, Crestview Bass Association, Renegades Bass club and of course Hub City. As you know, this is more of a bragging rights tournament than anything else. We all settled on the 31^st of July at Lake Seminole, Seminole Lodge. Our top six anglers from 2009 will be invited to participate and if one of them cannot fish we will go down the line in order of finish until we fill the team. This will be a team event, 3 boats 6 anglers with a total club weight for placing. We went over the tournament rules and made several changes from in the years past such as; no off limits periods, and boats on trailers prior to weigh in. Absolutely no alcohol until after the scales are closed. I will have more on this as info becomes available. Right now the top six from last year need to check there schedules and see if they will be able to fish so we can get the team locked in. 

    How about our club members Larry “STRETCH” Gaines and Michael Smith in the BASS Federation Nation Southern Divisional? You guys ROCK!!!!!! Congratulations to both of you on an outstanding job and representing the state of Florida as well as our club. Awesome pictures on Bassmasters.com of both of you and now also on our web site. Do we have some talent in this club or what??? Awesome I’m telling you, AWESOME….

    CONGRATULATIONS to our April Tournament winners and what a great turn out it was for Black Creek (30 Anglers). Had it not been for the Eglin Air show going on, I am sure we would have had several other members be able to attend. After laying out most of last year, Wesley Ard is coming back with a vengeance. Watch out Michael… LOL. It was a truly beautiful day on the water and even though it seemed to fish small, I think everyone had a good time. Here are the Top 6 and Big Fish winners, Supper effort guys. 

1^st Place – Wesley Ard – 6.00 Lbs.                           2^nd Place – Larry “Stretch” Gaines – 5.89 Lbs.

3^rd Place – Michael Smith – 5.80 Lbs.                      4^th Place – Greg Prince – 5.36 Lbs.

5^th Place – Eric Riffer – 4.68 Lbs.                              6^th Place – Bill Spencer – 3.88 Lbs.

Big Fish – Jason Hayes – 3.06 Lbs.

As a foot note, I still hate that launch ramp at Black Creek and would so very welcome a different place to launch. Even though we do not have it on the schedule again this year if any others feel the same, bring it up for discussion , or I will..

    We have ordered 50 of the white Hub City Bass Masters truck/boat decals. We have enough money in the bank to be able to give each member one decal free and still have a small reserve to be able to give any new members a free decal for joining. If there is a big enough interest or want for additional decals we can simply make another order. The more we order the less your cost will be.

    As we start into the HOT days of summer, we need to start thinking more about our fish care and livewells. Your April issue of Bass Master has an excellent short article, “TLC for livewell Bass”, and I hope you all took the time to read it. If not, please go back and read it. We cannot be too careful on how we treat our catch and we owe it to our future generations. One easy way I have found to cool my livewell is to freeze a couple of half gallon milk jugs and when loading up in the morning lay them in the bottom of the well. When I launch, I’ll go ahead and fill my well half full and the water is already cool should I be so lucky as to be able to add a fish or two. When I get home, back in the freezer and ready to go for the next outing.

    To go along with the above, I follow the Elite Series almost daily on ESPN Bass Elite Series on my computer. They have posted a couple of good articles here lately on battery care and maximizing your boat and money savings. We can all benefit from that I am sure...

    I will publish this before we head for Eufaula, and as a quick reminder, big water guys, PLEASE BE SAFE AND WEATHER CONSCIOUS. For those of us that fished last year, remember the thunderstorm that came in right close to the end of weigh in on day two. It only took about 20 minutes for the lake to start white capping with torrential rain and high winds.  Make sure you have a plan and know where a safe haven is close to where you are fishing if it’s early in the day.   I sure do not want to see anyone get hurt or loose there boat or expensive fishing gear.

    If you all didn’t know by now, I am a guy of numbers, didn’t say I was an extremist, but I do like to compare. I have expanded my data base for the club for this year because of necessity and interest. Here is a few numbers that you may find interesting for our club already this year compared to last year:

1.       Bass over 5 pounds weighed in 2009 – 10       1st Quarter 2010 over 5 pounds – 13

2.      Members and guests have already spent 624 hours on the water fishing tournaments with the club.

3.      There were 108 Bass weighed in during the first quarter of 2010, weighing 279.18 lbs

      4.   Already this year, we have one Bass over 10 pounds with none in 2009. (During tournaments)

      5.    (4) Members have brought five fish limits to the scale already this year. One member with a limit every tournament – (guess who)

      6.  We only lost 2 fish (dead) the first quarter out of 108 fish weighed in.

      7.  33 Members and 5 guests fished at least one Hub City Bass Master tournament in the 1^st quarter this year.

****** If you missed it at the top of the newsletter, our May meeting will be conducted at Lake Eufaula the evening after day one weigh in. If you are not going to be able to attend this tournament and you have tournament date suggestions for the rest of the year or any other issues that you want discussed, please make sure you e-mail or call me or one of the other officers of the club prior to the 28^th of this month.***************

       MAY TOURNAMENTS

1^st&2^nd – Hub City Bass Masters -Lake Eufaula – (2 Day) – Lake Point State Park—Yee Haw!!!!!!

           MOON PHASES FOR MAY

New Moon -- 5/13/2010 – 21:04 PM                                  Full Moon – 5/27/2010 – 19:07 PM