Panhandle Bass Club fished Tensaw River system for our June tournament. We were scheduled to launch at Hubbard's but high water on both the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers forced us south to Cliffs. The water rose over a foot at Barry Steam Plant in the last two days, thunderstorms were predicted and we were following a week of heavy rains. Not the best conditions to say the least.

We had seventeen boats and club members fishing and several guests. McReynolds Basin was a popular target as we launched in a medium heavy fog at safe daylight. A few boats headed north and a few headed south. I ran to Chucafee Bay where C J and I got on fish right away…they were just small, but we both managed one keeper before 7:00 a m. No topwater action for us, it was the junebug craw and jb finesse that our fish wanted. During the day we saw several other boaters who weren't doing anything. John Buck had 1 keeper, Walter zero, Jeff one, Mack zero that seemed to be the story.

We had a 2:00 p m. weigh in, thank goodness. The story was the same for most, 1 maybe 2 keepers per fisherman. As the weigh in progressed we found 14 fishermen had fish. There were four with 3 fish each, Billy Blackwell was third with 3 fish weighing 4.22 lbs., Wayne Cox second 3 at 4.54 lbs and Rich Cornelius finished first with 3 for 5.53 lbs and lunker a whopping 2.65 lbs. Fish were caught on everything…floating worm, buzz bait, crank bait, craws and worms. No real pattern for anyone, you just had to get lucky and put your bait on ones head to get a bite. That's fishing! All went well for almost everyone, except Cliff who found a third of his prop missing after recovering his boat. For anyone not familiar with Cliffs Landing there is a rock in the center of the ramp that has claimed a lot of props over the years so take a tip and move to the left or the right of the ramp when recovering your boat to miss that unfortunate incident.

Keep Your Line Wet!!
Fred