Fred Raby

"Fred's Club Report"
Covering The Panhandle Bass Club
Email fpraby@cox.net

The Panhandle Bass Club fished Lake Martin, Alexander City, Alabama for their April tournament. The turnout was good with sixteen members fishing. It was especially good to see some more attractive “fishermen” as two of our members brought their wives to fish with them.

Day one started with a crowd at Wind Creek as the annual Shriners tournament was being held the same day as ours. They had almost 200 boats and the ramp was very crowded.
We managed to get all of our crew launched and moved out to the ‘no wake buoys’ with one exception. Wayne Cox got lost in the crowd and was late getting off.

Talk was everyone had a different approach and headed a different direction. There was plenty of water but it seemed like the other tournament fishermen wanted to fish the same spots as we did.
I had five boats within 30 yards of me within 20 minutes after blastoff. At weigh in I managed just over fifteen pounds to have a slight lead for first over Chris Malena. As a club we had 10 limits on Saturday. I also managed a 5.22 lunker. A good day for the club. Sunday a weak front moved in and everything changed. The fish I had on top water disappeared. The points did not produce, so I moved back into the pockets and managed three fish on a spinner bait. I was not the only one with problems Sunday;
Chris Malena came in without his limit also. Rich Cornelius managed to put it together and brought in a limit to move ahead of me by just over a pound. Lunker on Sunday went to Cliff Armstrong.
Rich went south to Blue creek and caught his fish on a Stick-O.

All had a good time, even Lee Brannon after spending a couple of extra hours changing a hub on the way up. He had a bearing go out and it smoked the hub, luckily he had just put a spare in the truck (good idea).

As usual Lake Martin proved to be a great fishery, we posted 10 limits, 139 fish and almost 215 pounds for our tournament. I am sure it will show up on future tournament schedules.

Keep Your Line Wet !!

Fred