MAGAZINE - Crappie Masters

Transcription

All American Tour nament Trail
Inside
MAGAZINE
May - August 2010
Hooks
Crappie Masters TV
Packing For A Tournament
Tournament Results
www.crappiemasters.net
Crappie Masters Magazine • May - August 2010
CRAPPIE MASTERS
From the Editor
STAFF
President. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Alpers
Vice President. . . . . . . .Bobby Brown
Admin Assistant. . . . . . Betty Rutledge
Editor/Sr. Writer. . . . . . .Tim Huffman
Partner................................John Mason
Tim Huffman
Crappie Masters, Inc.
P.O. Box 989
Lebanon, MO 65536
web:www.crappiemasters.net
email:crappiemasters@gmail.com
Send tips/articles to:
articles@crappiemasters.net
Send ads to:ads@crappiemasters.net
Cover Photo: Power Pole
Wrap team Charlie and Travis Bunting show power pole
in action and explain how it
works to Paul Alpers photo
by Tim Huffman and Bobby
Brown
\
Copyright 2010
All rights reserved by this publication
and its writers/photographers. No parts
of this magazine may be reproduced in
any form without written permission.
Volume 18
May 2010
We only accept digital files and images
via email, CD, etc. Please do not send
actual photos or printed material.
7:20am. I’m reporting live from
the water on Lake Conway, Arkansas, Wednesday, March 24th, at
the shooting of a Crappie Masters
single pole jigging television show.
As we launch the boat I chuckle as
I think about the many times fishermen say to me, “When you arrive
with your camera the fish quit
biting.” Yesterday Mr. Bayles and I
fished a few hours in this same spot
and landed two fish that pushed
two pounds and lost a bigger one.
The fish are biting; I can’t be bad
luck. This television show will be
a snap. Today I’m an observer, will
take photos of the television shoot
but plan on spending most of my
time hoisting big fish into the boat.
For some reason, the others have
put me by myself in Paul’s boat.
8:15am. It’s still early. We
have two boats on the water. It is
windy but manageable. Conditions
should be right. For two weeks our
guest host has been catching quality crappie. Yesterday afternoon we
caught some fish. Our poles will be
bending at any time.
10:00am. Something is
wrong. The severe front that passed
overshadows current conditions
and the crappie have made a group
decision not to bite. Three of us
have fished and re-fished all the
stumps and logs in the area where
the crappie are holding. This may
take a while.
11:15am. We move to another part of the bay but still tough
fishing. Cameraman Steve Easom
has shot some great knot-tying tips,
downsizing tips and other good information but he now sits drooped
down in the back seat holding his
camera waiting for action. I’m not
sure but looking from a distance it
appears he is taking a nap.
12:15pm. We have to take a
break, run to town to meet some local sponsors and media for the media fish-off. As I head to the bank
the trolling motor suddenly hits
bottom and stops. I push off with a
paddle and raise the trolling motor.
I’m not sure whether it was hitting
bottom or one of the 300 underwater stumps I banged into but Paul’s
transducer is dangling below the
motor. I tell him that the swinging
back and forth will give him a sideimaging effect but he doesn’t seem
to buy that. I’m guessing my pay
will have a ‘transducer replacement
fee’ applied.
4:30pm. Fishing is still really tough. It’s now late in the day
when the group decides to make a
move to another part of the lake. I
decide head to the motel to transcribe interviews and to take away
their bad luck…haha.
7:50pm. (It’s dark now and
I get a call at the motel. They went
out and caught plenty of fish to finish their filming. Wow, maybe it is
me.)
I’ll be at several more
tournaments this year and I can’t
wait to come by your boat to take
photos. See you then.
Good fishin’ & God bless.
Tim
ALL AMERICAN TOURNAMENT TRAIL
CRAPPIE MASTER S
2010 Schedule
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TOURNAMENT LAKE
Harris Chain of Lakes
Florida State Championship
Tavares, Florida
Lakes Monroe Jessup Harney
Sanford, Florida
D AT E
Jan
29-30
Feb 6
Type
State
Champ
Major &
Grass
Roots
Lake Talquin
Tallahassee, Florida
Feb 13
Major &
Grass
Roots
Weiss Lake
Centre, Alabama
Feb 27
Major &
Grass
Roots
Reelfoot Lake
Tiptonville, Tennessee
Mar 13
Major &
Grass
Roots
Alabama River
Alabama Sate Championship
Millbrook, Alabama
Mar
19-20
Lake Conway
One Pole Ultimate Challange
Conway, Arkansas
Mar
26-27
State
Champ
Ultimate
Challenge
One pole
Grenada Lake
Mississippi State Championship
Grenada, MS
Apr 2-3
State
Champ
Stockton Lake
Stockton, MO
Apr 10
Major &
Grass
Roots
Lake of Ozarks
Missouri State Championship
Laurie, Missouri
April
16-17
State
Champ or
Major
April 30
May 1
State
Champ
Lake Wateree
SC State Championship
Camden, South Carolina
Kentucky Barkley Lake
Tennessee State Championship
Benton County, Tennessee
RescheduledMay
State
14-15
June 18 &
19
Champ
Lake Rathbun
Centerville, Iowa
June 5
Truman Lake
Clinton, Missouri
June 26
Major &
Grass
Roots
Mark Twain
Monroe City, MO
Aug
21
Major &
Grass
Roots
NATIONAL
CHAMPIONSHIP
Truman Lake
Clinton, MO
Oct 5-9
Major &
Grass
Roots
Classic
Crappie Masters
Television Show
Crappie Masters President,
Paul Alpers, has been instrumental
and persistent in making the new
crappie fishing television show a
reality. He says, “There are a lot
of bass and saltwater shows but
not much on
crappie fishing. We have
multiple goals
with one being
to promote our
tournaments
and we’ll be
promoting the
products of our
sponsors. A
more important
goal is to teach
more people
how they can
catch crappie.”
Alpers
says guests will
include several different national
sponsors. For example, Sam Heaton with Minn Kota/ Humminbird
explains how to use electronics to
find and catch crappie. Tournament
fishermen will include Whitey
Outlaw from South Carolina, Wade
Mansfield from Missouri, Bill
Braswell from Kentucky, Don and
Toni Collins from Florida and others to give you their best tips and
techniques.”
What’s been the most fun?
“I’m an avid crappie fisherman and
enjoy going when I have time so
I have really enjoyed fishing with
different people. It’s the camaraderie that’s fun. I’ve also enjoyed
fishing the different lakes with
different techniques. From a satisfaction standpoint, I’m proud to be
bringing a television show that I
think will help fishermen all across
the country catch more fish. It’s a
good feeling to be teaching anglers
how to become better fishermen.”
What’s not fun? “Being
away from home. All parts of my
job require me to spend a lot of
time away from my family. I don’t
like that. Also, I hate going door to
door asking people for money and
that’s the critical element to be able
to have the tournament trail or the
television show.”
What about filming the
show at Conway? “Weather can be
tough on fishing. We run into that
and it’s part of fishing. We ended
By Tim Huffman
up at the end of the day catching
about 15 fish but they weren’t the
quality we wanted. However, the
advantage of shooting at a tournament location is that we will get to
show the weigh-in and the quality
of crappie that the
lake is capable
of producing like
the 3.08-pound
slab brought
to the scales at
Conway. We
have to schedule our filming
dates in advance
and sometimes
the weather just
makes it difficult.
This Conway
Lake show does
give us the opportunity to teach
viewers that a
strong cold front really bothers
shallow fish and what they can do
when that happens, so it will be a
good teaching tool and that’s what
we are wanting.”
Steve Easom, Camera & Post-Production
Steve Easom brings 22
years of experience to the show
and has been filming segments with
Crappie Masters for four years for
the nationally televised show, Revive the Outdoors with Cody and
Cody. “The Crappie Masters show
has taken some time to develop but
Continued on next page
On the water filming the Bass Pro Shops Crappie Masters television show featuring Lake Conway and single pole vertical jigging.
now is a good time for the transition from being a segment to their
own how-to crappie show that will
focus upon not only tournament
fishing but one that gives basic
fishing tips for the weekend angler,” says Easom.
His job is to film the right
stuff so the show will be both
informative and fun to watch. One
show, 20 minutes of fishing, takes
about 40 hours of shot footage and
that may take up to 120 hours of
editing time. Shooting a quality
show takes time.
Easom says, “I have to plan
ahead to have the right technique
show on the right lake. I encourage
the fishermen to tell not only how
to tie a knot, but to tell why they
wet the knot so it’s tighter, stronger and lasts longer. Basic things
tournament fishermen take for
granted is what the weekend angler
needs to learn. Our show will have
advanced information but will also
help a beginning fishermen learn
the basics that he must know before
he can perform a technique.”
What do you enjoy most
about your job? “Overall, it has
been working with my son. He has
had the opportunity to learn the
reasons why character, integrity
and honesty are everything. And
that it takes discipline, knowledge
and the application of the right
principles in whatever you do in
life. It’s like Ronnie Capps and
Steve Coleman. When they come
to the weigh-in a lot of the fishermen wonder how they do well so
often no matter what lake or conditions. A day on the water with them
and it’s easy to see because they are
like machines out there and they go
full speed from start to finish. They
are intense and always working to
be better. I’ve got to share these
principles with my son and that has
been gratifying.”
What do you not like about
the job? “It’s the outside influences
that I can’t control. It might be
other people who are not prepared.
It’s the weather or the fish not biting. I always try to keep in mind
that it’s not about me but rather
getting a product completed so I’ve
tried to learn to be more patient.”
“Lake Conway is a good
example to discuss. The show is
only 20 minutes so it will look like
we were busy catching fish, but
we had a lot of difficulty catching
them. We’re not going to say we
caught a lot of fish, but perception
may look like we did. I hope we
come across with how tough it was
and being patient and persistent
with the technique we are teaching
is important; Things are not as easy
as they appear. I like to compare
our show with a successful hunting
show. We scout, hunt, kill, retrieve
and make it back to the house all in
30 minutes. I hope viewers understand that an interesting show has
action but it’s not as easy or quick
as it looks.”
The Fisherman
Dennis Bayles, Jr, calls
Conway Lake his home. He has
qualified and fished a Crappie Masters classic and is qualified to fish
at Truman this fall.
Pre-filming: “I’m nervous.
It’s my first time to do something
like this but I think we will do fine.
The fish have been doing good
here for about two weeks. We are
fishing shallow flats tightlining for
crappie. It’s late March but due to
the weather the fish are just now
coming in. The water temperature
is 58 degrees. We’ll hopefully find
the fish on a small drop in three to
five feet of water.”
Post-filming and post-tournament: “It’s been tough filming
and fishing the tournament. A cold
front moved through, put the fish
right on bottom and the fish got finicky. Yesterday on the first day of
the tournament we caught four and
on day two about 40. But the filming earlier in the week was really
hard and different than I expected.
I wish conditions had of been better
because this can be an outstanding
lake.”
Showtime!!!
Bass Pro Shops Crappie
Masters has been doing segments
for Revive the Outdoors for several
years. This year marks the beginning of our own show that will focus on teaching sportsmen around
the country how to catch crappie.
Shows will begin the last of
June and will appear on Direct TV,
the Pursuit channel, 608 and will
go out to over 23 million households. Show times are Wednesday
at 4:00 pm; Saturday at 6:00 pm;
and Sunday at 6:00 am eastern
times. It will also be streamed on
myoutdoortv.com on Crappie Masters.
Brian Sowers gets the thoughts of Kent Driscoll and John Harrison as they occupy the hot seats waiting for the final team to
come to the scales during the Lake Conway Ultimate Challenge.
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www.midsouthtackle.com
128 CR 108
Jonesboro, Arkansas 72404
Manufacture of quality tube skirts for over 30 years.
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10 Crappie Masters Magazine • May - August 2010
Tournament Results
Cantrell and Huff show some of the fish that made them the Florida State
Champions.
Harris Chain of Lakes, FL
used BnM and Wally Marshall
Florida State Championship
poles at speeds of 0.8 to 1.0 mph.
Jan 29, 30
Jig color wasn’t important and they
fished in 8 to 15 foot waters. The
Cantrell and Huff Florida State
teamed earned $4500 and finished
Champs
with second big fish.
The 2010 kick-off tourna
Second place was Joe
ment at Tavares, Florida showed
Miller and John Peyton. The team
that the crappie were abundant as
held second place after day one
anglers loaded their boat with fish.
with 10.78 pounds and were conThe good new is that fish weights
sistent with 10.20 on day two for a
were healthier and heavier than in
total of 20.98 pounds; only 2/100
previous years.
of a pound away from first. Miller
Day one leaders were John
and Peyton slow trolled in 13 feet
Boise and Larry Drunert with 11.14 of water using 16 foot BnM poles.
pounds with seven fish. Joe Miller
They used homemade jigs. The
and John Peyton took second place team won $2100.
with 10.78. The Road Runner team Third place was Danny
of Coy and Gilford Sipes had 10.41 Cannon and Billy Williams who
with other teams close behind. The moved from fifth to third place
big fish was 1.88 pounds caught by with 10.90 on day two. Their total
Charles Cantrell and Robbie Huff.
weight was 20.97 pounds 1/100
The Georgia team of
away from second. They slow
Cantrell and Huff weighed 11.10
trolled with Wally Marshall rods
pounds on day two for a total of
and black/blue jigs. They were also
21.00 pounds moving them from
using Humminbird electronics and
seventh place to first and title of
Minn Kota trolling motor. They
2010 Florida State Champions.
had big fish with 1.92. They earned
They caught a lot of fish during the $1322.
tournament by long lining. They
Media fish off winner was
Fish Hook Remover, Dr. Neil Saley
fishing with Bass Pro Shops pro
staff Jeanne and Rod Fry, with a
fish weighing 1.66 pounds. Second
place went to Realtor/Tavares Station’s Rick Gonzalez with a 1.58
crappie. He fished with Titelok pro
staff, Phil and Eva Rambo. Third
place was a tie between council
member Sandy Gamble and Linda
Charleston, The Reporter, and city
staff member Jay Masifes. Each
one caught a 1.56 pound fish. Gary
Yamamoto’s Bill Braswell and the
Power Pole team of Travis and
Charles Bunting gave the 50 plus
crowd a seminar on setting up a
boat, how to find and catch crappie,
and how to clean crappie.
The kid’s rodeo included 80
kids fishing for prizes and fun.
Total fish weighed was 627
with an average weight of 1.22
pounds. Average team weight was
16.25 pounds for two days.
Harris Chain Top 10
21.00 Cantrell/Huff
20.98 Miller/Peyton
20.97 Cannon/Williams
19.73 Boise/Drunert
19.65 Sipes/Sipes
19.24 Smith/White
19.11 Kinsler/Kinsler
18.78 Bunting/Bunting
18.66 Morgan/Watson
18.54 Fry/Fry
10.85 Schantz/Moore
Big Crappie
1.88 Cantrell/Huff
1.76 Boise/Drunert
Lake Monroe Jessup, FL
Feb 6
Parker and Cole Win at Monroe
Seasoned veterans George
11
Crappie Masters sponsors provided
great prizes for all kids.
Monroe Top 10
13.83 Parker/Cole
12.47 Hill
12.34 Bass/Outlaw
12.22 Morgan/Watson
11.32 Hill Sr/Hill Jr
10.64 Reppelius/Ruppelius
10.55 Davis/Davis
10.35 Payton/Miller
9.60 Stancil/Brink
9.53 Lutchka/Hess
George Parker and Daryl Cole won the Monroe Jessup Tournament.
Big Crappie
2.47 Morgan/Watson
2.33 Shelborn/Outlaw
2.33 Parker/Cole
Parker and Darryl Cole take first
his possum jig (brown/mint green)
place at Monroe, Florida. High
working good. They weighed 12.34
winds and cooler temperatures cre- pounds.
Lake Talquin, FL
ated by a strong front made fishing Big fish went to 2009 clasa challenge but it didn’t stop the
sic champs Matt Morgan and Kent Feb 13
top teams from scoring big.
Watson with a 2.47 monster.
Cannon & Williams Win Talquin
Parker and Cole fished the
Top adult/youth team was
Nothing pretty about cold,
St. Johns River by working the
Scott and Heather Finley with 6.64 rain, wind and freezing temedge of the river channel looking
pounds.
peratures following a cold front.
A whooping 214 kids took
for drop-offs. They fished 14 foot
Weather played a factor for many
drops where they found crappie
part in the kids fishing rodeo. All
laying on bottom. The bite was
the kids had a great time fishing the anglers but Danny Cannon and
Billy Williams met the challenge
slow but they caught big fish with
stocked pond at Ft. Melon Park.
with seven fish weiging 13.67
their best seven weighing 13.83
Bass Pro Shops of Orlando and
pounds. They fished minnows
using Wally Marshall rods, Humminbird electronics and Minn Kota
trolling motor.
Second place went to
Bobby Hill who fished alone and
weighed in 12.47 pounds with
seven fish. Hill caught his fish in
one area the size of a house. He
fished 18 to 20 foot waters and the
fish were right on bottom. He used
a variety of poles including Wally
Marshall, BnM, and Ozarks along
with Humminbird electronics and
Minn Kota trolling motor.
The AWD Baits team of
Dennis Outlaw and Shelborn Bass
took third. They fished on bottom
Danny Cannon and Billy Williams were first at Talquin
with AWD and Spike-It baits with
pounds. They won $4000 with the
Georgia team pushing Hal Fly jigs,
pink/chartreuse and green/chartreuse tipped with minnows. They
also used BnM and Wally Marshall
poles, Humminbird locator and
Minn Kota trolling motor.
Second place were Jamie Moore and Rangy Temples
from Georgia and members of the
Gerogia Slab Masters club. They
weighed in 13.47 pounds and took
big fish with 2.41. They tightlined
and fished some brush to catch fish.
They used Wally Marshall poles
with Road Runner red heads, AWD
jigs and black/chartreuse Sliders.
Third place went to Scott
Williams and Dewight English
from Georgia. They weighed 12.83
on seven crappie while fishing
10-12 feet deep. They were pushing using Popsicle color and chartreuse jigs tipped with minnows.
They used Vicious line and Wally
Marshall poles. Two of the top six
anglers have only recently started
fishing tournaments.
Adult/youth champs were a
local father/daughter team, Buddy
and Emilee Hosey. They won the
kids fishing rodeo drawing in 2009
winning a free entry to the 2010
tournament.
Top male/female team went
to Tom and Christy Sellers who
also finished 8th in the tournament
with 9.90 pounds.
with an average weight of 1.39
pounds.
Talquin Top 10
13.47 Moore/Temples
12.83 Williams/English
11.16 Davidson/Greene
10.59 Sipes/Sipes
10.42 Grantham/Manning
9.95 Leverette/Staton
9.90 Sellers/Sellers
9.31 Walker/Howard
8.73 Sheperd/Sheperd
Big Crappie
2.41 Moore/Temples
2.13 Sightler/Williams
Weiss Lake, AL
Feb 27
Parker Husband/Wife Team Best at
Weiss
Male/female teams have always been a strong part of the Bass
Pro Shops Crappie Masters tournament trail. The husband/wife team
face a falling lake, windy and cold
conditions causing a tough bite.
Parker and Parker spider
rigged with double-hook minnow rigs fishing super slow or
being still. They fished 12 foot
waters about 5 feet deep. Limber
BnM Poles helped keep baits still.
They also used Vicious Line and
Humminbird Side-Imaging. They
worked one small area all day
long. They weighed 10.55 pounds
being the only team to break the
10-pound mark. They won $4000.
They were also top male-female
team earning them $100 in Bass
Pro Shop gift cards.
Second place went to Joe
Husband wife team of Vanice and Larry Parkers win Lake Weiss.
of Larry and Vanice Parker lead the
team of competitors at the Weiss
one-day national qualifier. A special
guest dropped by and fished with
Crappie Masters anglers. Former
Atlanta Brave player, Ryan Klesko,
made a special appearance speaking to anglers at the seminar. Kesko
co-hosts ‘Hardcore Hunting’ on the
Pursuit Channel and works to raise
money and interest in his charity,
the ‘Blue Ryno Foundation’.
To make it to the weigh-in
at JR’s Marina the fishermen had to
Hayes and
Phil Trapp with 9.72 pounds. They,
too, fished a small area and were
very patient by fishing a 150 yard
stretch. Their fish were holding
tight to cover. They won $2000.
Jason Tucker and Chad
Hitchcock took third place by long
lining Little River 6-12 foot deep in
20 foot water. They used JR’s jigs
in blue/blue and blue/chartreuse.
They won $1000.
Big fish was 2.31 caught
by Elmo Wayne Adams and Glenn
Stewart who caught the fish on a
13
jig tipped with a minnow. A handful of kids weathered the cold to
fish for fun and prizes during the
Kids Fishing Rodeo.
Total fished weighed was
131 with an average weight of 1.18
pounds.
Weiss Top 10
10.55 Larry Parker/Vanice Parker
9.72 Joe Hayes/Phil Trapp
9.12 Jason Tucker/Chad Hitchcock
8.87 Scott Echols/Roger Echols
8.81 Ronnie Capps/Steve Coleman
8.67 Coy Sipes/Gilford Sipes
8.54 Elmo Wayne Adams/Glenn
Stewart
8.52 Adam Mobbs/Carlson Teague
8.46 Tim Blackley/Jackie VanCleave
8.40 Ned Rutledge/Donny Butler
Big Crappie
2.31 E.A. Adams/Glenn Stewart
2.05 Adam Mobbs/Carlton Teague
2.05 Jeff Ward/Mitzie Boswell
Reelfoot Lake, TN
March 13, 2010
Capps/Coleman Win at Reelfoot
Ronnie Capps and Steve
Coleman have won tournaments all
over the country but have struggled
getting to the winners circle on
their home lake. This year they
solved that jinks by besting a field
of good fishermen to finish more
than a pound and a half over the
rest of the field.
The bite had been very
good for several weeks but a strong
front brought bad weather a tough
bite. Tournament day brought cold,
drizzle and winds over 20mph.
“Steve gets all the credit,”
says Ronnie. “He’s been fishing
hard for over two months finding and keeping up with the fish.”
The team caught 13.32 pounds
14 Ronnie Capps and Steve Coleman won their home lake tournament for the first
time..
by combining casting with slow
trolling. Ronnie handled the long
poles while Steve made casts using
a cork. Casting paid off with three
good fish early. They caught 40 to
50 fish during the day using 1/16ounce hot pink jigheads with lime/
chartreuse jigs. They were fishing
about 6-inches deep in 30 inches of
water. Ronnie used 16-foot BnM
poles to keep baits away from the
boat. They were able to see most of
their bites. They won $4000.
Second place was the
husband/wife team of John and
Cindy Hagan from Grey’s Camp.
They had 11.67 pounds fishing
lime/chartreuse 1/8-ounce jigs with
floats in 4 to 5 foot waters right
off the end of Grey’s Camp Dock.
They used BnM poles. They also
won top Male/Female team paying
$100 in Bass Pro gift cards to go
with their $2500 for second place
in the tournament..
Third place was Tony and
Randal Hughes who weighed in
11.63 pounds. They tolled the north
end of the lake in 6 foot water
fishing 4 feet deep with MidSouth
jigs, white/chartreuse on 16 foot
Wally Marshall poles. They earned
$1250.
Big fish was a good 2.50
slab caught by Bruce Christian and
Chad McGowan.
Adult/youth winner was the
father/son team of Tim and Logan
Naifeh with 9.49 and 23rd overall
finish.
25 kids endured the windy
and cold morning to fish the Kids
Fishing Rodeo.
The total number of fish
weighed was 422 with an average
weight of 1.24.
Reelfoot Top 10
13.21 Capps/Coleman
11.67 Fagan/Fagan
11.63 Hughes/Hughes
11.56 Walters/Solomon
11.49 Jines/ Jines
11.16 Chappell/Sandage
11.07 Ramm/ Heathcott
10.92 Christian/McGowan
10.71 Hutchison/Adcock
10.64 Harber/Moody
Big Crappie
2.50 Christian/McGowan
2.25 Capps/Coleman
2.20 Hughes/Hughes
Weiss Lake, AL
March 19-20
Alabama State Championship
Whitey Outlaw & Mike Parrott
Take Alabama Title
Millbrook, Alabama, hosted
the 2010 state championship in the
fantastic fashion they are becoming
famous for with sponsors including
Bass Pro Shops, Southeast Toyota,
City of Millbrook, the Alabama
Wildlife Federation and others.
Pre-fishing week brought
the same weather as previous
tournaments with the coldest winter
in recent history. Most of the week
brought rain, wind and cold. The
river had strong current and was
dropping up three feet overnight.
However, this time the weather
cleared and brought two beautiful
days with temperatures in the 70’s.
Whitey Outlaw and Mike
Parrott had the top weight on day
two with 15.71 pounds and the top
overall weight of 30.12. Mike Parrott won the 2008 National Championship but Outlaw had never had
a win on the Crappie Masters trail.
The team took the state title by
fishing 4 feet deep in 18 to 20 foot
waters. They used lime and green
Bobby Garland Slab slayers tipped
with minnows on the lower river
early then moved up river. They
fished with BnM poles and Vicious
fishing line. They won $5500.
Second place went to day
one leaders Randy Jenkins and
Duard Hulgan. The team weighed
in 13.23 on day two for a total of
28.51. They won $2500 by fishing creeks 10 feet deep but caught
some from shallow water. They
used BnM Poles and Bass Pro
Shops line.
Third place went to Billy
and Scott Williams. They jumped
from 6th place on day one with a
total weight of 27.69. They tightlined in 8 to 10 feet of water in
creeks and a flat just off the main
river. They used BnM poles, Bass
Pro Shops line, Humminbird fish
finder and Minn Kota trolling motor.
Big fish was caught by
James Clark and Tracy Purdy at
2.81 pounds. Top adult-youth team
was Dennis Edmondson and Jordan
Houser with 20.36 pounds. Top
male-female team was Danny and
Beth Williamson and they had a
Whitey Outlaw and Mike Parrot became the Alabama State Champions.
5th-place overall finish.
There were 78 kids who
fished for fun a prizes.
with an average weight of 1.64. On
day one of the weigh-in 33 teams
had over 12 pounds.
Alabama Top 10
30.12 Outlaw/Parrott
28.51 Jenkins/Hulgan
27.69 Williams/Williams
27.03 Capps/Coleman
26.91 Williamson/Williamson
26.45 Braswell/Dannenmueller
26.40 Outlaw/Bass
26.28 Kendrick/Kendrick
26.16 Outlaw/Phibbs
26.02 Kinsler/Kinsler
Big Crappie
2.81 Clark/Purdy
2.61 Outlaw/Phibbs
2.60 Chappell/Sandage
Conway Arkansas
March 26, 27
2010 Ultimate Challenge
Blakley & Deckard Meet Challenge
The first ever Bass Pro
Shops Crappie Masters tournament Ultimate Challenge one
pole-artificial bait only tournament
at Lake Conway was attended by
160 fishermen from 13 states. First
during the tournament included:
first tournament in Arkansas; teams
weighing in less than the limit of
fish finished in the money; first
winning weight with less than the
limit of fish, the first 3-plus pound
crappie of the year. A cold front
with high winds hammered anglers
during the competition.
Don Blakley and Marvin
Deckard weighed in 13.33 on day
one with seven fish and brought
9.89 on day two for a total of 23.09
15
son
12.85 Bayles Sr/Scott Bayles
12.01 Bayles Jr/Weatherly
Big Crappie
3.08 Horsley/Simmons
2.94 German/German
Grenada, Mississippi
April 2 & 3
MS State Championship
Blakley and Deckard whipped the field at Conway with 23.09 lbs to become The
Ultimate Challenge Champions.
pounds. They earned the title of
2010 Ultimate Challenge along
with $6000. They fished in the
middle of the lake on day one and
jigged the trees in 7 to 8 foot waters saying the wind was the difference in day one and day two. Day
one they caught 15 fish and only
had 6 on day two.
Kent Driscoll and John
Harrison caught 18.43 pounds for
second place. They used Bobby
Garland Baby Shad and BnM poles
fishing 10 inches deep in 2 feet of
water in heavy grass. They fished
the big lake on day one but they
had to get out of the wind on day
two. They won $3000.
Third place was Marty
Snider and Jackie Albin with 18.07
pounds. They used Bass Pro Shops
yellow hair jigs and Wally Marshall Rods with Vicious line. They
moved from the big lake when the
wind got up. They earned $2000.
Big fish was 3.08 pounds
caught by Todd Horsley and Mike
Simmons.
Male-female team was Bass
Pro Shops team, Ton and Toni Collins.
16 Top adult-youth team was
father/son Jon and Mike Gillotte.
A total of 215 kids fished
the Kid’s Fishing Rodeo held at
Meadows Industrial Park Pond.
They braved a cold windy morning
to fish for fun and prized. They also
got to see special guest star Marsha
Gipson from the
former women’s
bass tour who was
on hand for autographs.
A total of
404 fish averaged
1.04 pounds.
Dooly-Roberts Take Mississippi
Title
Grenada Lake crappie broke
all the Crappie Masters records
including big fish, top one-day
weight and top two-day weight.
The tournament week brought
warm weather setting the ground
for big crappie moving shallow.
Freddie Dooly and Frank Roberts
brought in 35.05 pounds of crappie
beating the previous record from
the Alabama River set at 31.69.
Dooly and Roberts were in 10th
Conway Top 10
23.09 Blakley/
Deckard
18.42 Driscoll/
Harrison
18.07 Snider/Albin
15.55 Shaw/Shaw
15.33 Bunting/
Bunting
15.20 Huey/Huey
14.98 German/
German
14.49 Hartley/Wil- 3.08 lbs caught by Todd Horsley and Mike Simmons was
big fish of the year until Grenada!
17
placing them 15th overall and they
had second big fish at 3.13 pounds.
Top adult-youth team went
to Matt and Drew Morgan with
26.27 pounds.
711 fish averaged 2.03
pounds. Crappie Masters paid 13
places including $1000 for 8th
place and an additional five places
in prizes. There were 64 boats.
Dooly and Roberts came out on top at the Grenada Big Fish Battle!
place after day one with 16.06 on
seven fish. Day two they weighed
in 18.99 breaking the single day
record and becoming the 2010 Mississippi State Champions.
The winners caught most
of their fish in shallow water about
3 feet deep. They fished the same
place day two as they did day one.
They used Capps/Coleman lime/
chartreuse jigs stating they caught
every fish but one on those jigs.
The team used Wally Marshall rods
and Vicious fishing line. Minn Kota
trolling moto and Humminbird side
imager. They earned $5000.
Second place was Whitey
Outlaw and Mike Parrott moving
from 7th place on day one. They
had a total of 34.18 pounds. They
caught most of their fish in 4 to
5 foot depths. They used BnM
poles, Vicious line, Bobby Garland
electric chicken colored jigs, Minn
Kota and Humminbird. The bite
was slow in the morning and turned
on about lunch time when the wind
changed from the east to west.
They won $2500.
Patrick Stone and Brandon
Fulgham had the lead after day one
with 18.05 pounds. They caught
18 15.10 pounds on day two for a total
of 33.15 pounds. The Kirk Auto
team fished the grass in the morning and moved to 10 to 12 foot waters fishing about 4 to 6 feet deep
using BnM poles, Vicious line and
black/chartreuse jigs to earn $1250.
Big fish was 3.21 pounds
caught by Debbie Haynes and
Jimmy Haynes.
Top male-female team was
Show Down Jigs Danny and Beth
Williamson. The husband/wife
team weighed in 29.79 pounds
Grenada Top 10
35.05 Dooly/Roberts
34.18 Outlaw/Parrott
33.15 Stone/Fulgham
32.72 Blackley/VanCleave
32.09 Sipes/Sipes
31.89 Gregory/Gregory
31.43 Heathcott/Ramm
30.78 Pender/Nobles
30.77 Boise/Fernandez
30.59 Finkley/Howell
Big Crappie
3.21 Haynes/Haynes
3.13 Williamson/Williamson
3/10 Boise/Fernandez
3.07 Slape/Slape
3.06 Gregory/Gregory
3.03 Rambo/Rambo
3.02 Stone/Fulgham
3.01 Harrison/Driscoll
Jimmy Haynes show what he and Debbie caught, a 3.21 lb monster.
19
PROFILE
Crappie Masters Vice President,
Bobby Brown, grew up in southern Arkansas. He enjoyed fishing
ponds while growing up in the
country and in the city. It continued after he was married with him
and his wife spending a lot of time
fishing on Eufaula in Oklahoma
along with a few other lakes.
Bobby now resides in
Lebanon, Missouri. He is married
and has two daughters. His hobbies include guitar, karate, coaching and softball with softball being
the primary family hobby for the
past few years.
Who are your American
heroes? “I would have to say our
founding fathers who wrote the
Constitution. I admire them more
than anyone because they had the
foresight to write something important to protect individual rights.”
What are your pet peeves;
things that gripe you? “The number one thing is people who don’t
try. Hearing ‘I can’t’ just drives me
nuts whether sports, business or
anything else. If you don’t try you
won’t learn and won’t accomplish
a lot of things. It spills over into
every area of your life.”
Bobby doesn’t fall into the
‘I can’t’ category and hasn’t looked
for the easy road. He dropped
out of high school at 17, took his
GED and joined the Navy where
he worked on airplanes. He served
on the USS Kity Hawk and USS
Ranger. After the service he went to
pre-med school, earned a doctorate
in chiropractic and practiced that
for 15 years. He needed a change
so he learned communications and
became the systems administrator
for a multi-media company.
What enticed you to switch
to Crappie Masters? “I guess what
20 drew me when I first started in
2004 was the overall camaraderie
among the fishermen. There were
male-female teams and adult-youth
teams. Anyone could fish a crappie tournament. That’s what really
stood out and sparked my interest.”
What are your primary
responsibilities as Vice President?
With a chuckle he says, “I do anything Paul Aplers doesn’t do. I take
care of the website, accounting,
office work, magazine and now
video.
What are your strengths?
“It would have to be versatility.
I’ll tackle anything and will usually find a way to make it happen.”
Weakness? “That would be getting
impatient and sometimes I over
analyze things.”
Favorite part of the job?
“It’s definitely the tournaments. I
love the atmosphere, camaraderie
and the anglers I’ve met. I especially enjoy the Kids Rodeos where
you see the kids smiling and enjoying getting to fish.”
Least favorite? The off-season when it’s mostly office work,
putting the big magazine together
and getting-making ads.
Future of CM? “What
I’m proud of is that we’ve grown
during a down economy and we
survived $4.00 a gallon gas and the
brink of a depression. I believe if
the economy starts to grow we’ll
see this go to another level and
that’s what we want to do for the
anglers.”
When life’s over how
would you like to be remembered?
“As a good father, husband and a
person who loved life.”
NOTES: We are currently redsigning Crappiemasters.net. The new
site should be up by July to coinside with the Crappie Masters
television show. The tournaments
recorded will be shown in their entirety in the member section. This
site will be a membership site that
is well worth the value of membership targeting the crappie fishing
crowd that does not fish tournaments. It will be for the average
angler. We ask all current members
to keep an eye out for its launch
and then help spread the word to
other anglers. We want the end of
2010 into 2011 to be the largest
membership drive to date. It will
be up to us all to do our part.
21
Packing for a Tournament
Your mind is on fishing
and the upcoming tournament. Are
the fish going to be where they
were last year? Is the pattern going
to be similar or will the two-foot
rise from rains last week mess up
their movements? However, the
real chore of the day isn’t fishing…
it’s packing to go spend several
days to pre-fish and fish a tournament.
“We take a whole day to
pack,” says Coy Sipes. He and
cousin Gilford log-in thousands
of miles every year traveling the
Crappie Masters trail. “We like to
pack everything and have it ready
the motel we take stuff out of the
so whatever time we set to get up
bed of the truck so our motel room
the next morning we can just get up is full of fishing stuff. Actually, we
and leave. Everything is packed but could use a U-Haul to carry everyit usually takes us a full day to get
thing.”
ready.”
“Here’s the deal. We have
Packing is not just throwing to carry all of our clothes, fishing
stuff in the truck. The end result
equipment and extra stuff we may
doesn’t have to look pretty but it
need. For example, on our clothes
must be organized enough to get
when we start out in Florida we
everything in and to be able to find expect it to be t-shirt weather, but
it.
I have my heavy duck hunting
The Sipes team doesn’t
clothes because everyone who’s
leave anything at home. “We take
been there knows it may be terribly
an extra aerator for fish or mincold just like this year. You can’t
nows in case we have trouble with
just take what you think you might
our main aerators. We take an extra need, you have to take everything
battery charger and we have an
for every possible situation. You
extra transducer and anything that
don’t want to be freezing.”
might break on the boat. My one
It’s the same with their
piece of advice to someone is to
tackle. The team takes everything
be prepared for every problem you they have including all poles becan think of.”
cause they need to be prepared for
any technique change they need
What Goes Into the Truck?
to make to match what’s working.
Coy laughs and says, “We
Coy laughed and said they were
couldn’t carry a passenger in the
traveling light at Reelfoot because
truck because it’s packed solid in
they could leave their crankbait
the extended cab behind the seats
poles at home.
and the bed is full. When we get to
What else do they carry?
A toolbox to work on anything on
the boat and some things on the
truck. They also carry a drill. The
team has been fortunate not to
have many breakdowns on the road
probably due to keeping everything
in good working order.
The Boat
“We can’t pack anything
else in the boat,” says Coy, but
their packing actually begins after
the previous tournament. “We take
everything out of the boat after
each trip. Everything is checked,
dried out and repacked. This includes opening the lids on the boat.
Things will rust and mold if we
don’t. It’s a good time to see if we
are low on anything and restock.”
I asked Coy if the boat was
organized. “Never” followed by
another big laugh. I’ve been with
them a few times and can agree.
However, that’s not completely
right. They start the tournament
organized. “The one team that may
be worse than us on the trail is
Ronnie Capps and Steve Coleman.
The reason is simple. We don’t
want to lose any fishing time to
put stuff up. So as the day goes on
things get a little disorganized in
the boat. We just string everything
out all over the boat.” From my
observation the ‘little disorganized’
looks like a tornado hit.
Learn More
Whether you pack light,
carry everything you own, or somewhere in between it’s important to
be prepared. A good way to quickly
learn more is to ask one of the
Crappie Masters traveling teams
their advice and tips, then ask questions. You’ll find they’ll be glad to
share tips along with good and bad
experiences.
23
Missing hits or losing fish?
Bass Pro Shops Crappie Masters
tournament trail fishermen make
sure they have the best tools for the
job. Having the right hook, getting
the maximum number of hits, having a good bite-to-hookup ratio and
landing a hooked fish are all critical
elements. Without them everything
else really doesn’t mean much.
A hook is a hook, right?
Not really. There are so many different fishing situations along with
different hook styles, colors and
sizes to consider. However, in the
crappie fishing world, the Aberdeen
style hook has always dominated.
It’s long shank, large bend and light
wire makes it a great choice for
crappie. The light wire allows it to
be bent without breaking your line
(most of the time).
My age doesn’t take me
back to the King Tut era but his
hardware had not yet tarnished
when I was born. Straw hats and
overalls were popular. I remember
having nothing but cane poles,
heavy braided nylon line in black
or white, and gold Aberdeen hooks.
All items will still catch crappie but
only the hooks have withstood the
test of time for serious fishermen.
Our discussion begins with minnow hooks.
The Right Hook
By Tim Huffman
Hooks are simple yet come in many styles. You can select a color, size and special style to fit conditions and your fishing preference.
Minnow Hooks-Sizes: Tournament
trail fishermen seem to be happy
with a #2 or #1 hook. They may
downsize to a #4 in clear water
while others want a bigger 1/0.
However, most fishermen want
a #2 or #1 size believing that the
hook will catch and land all sizes
of crappie with the small gap creating fewer hang-ups.
Types: The gold Aberdeen
mentioned earlier still has a place
and time but the most popular
minnow hook is the Eagle Claw
214 EL. It’s bronze color and has
a much thinner wire than others.
The original Capps & Coleman rig
described in articles and a book
has been one reason for the hook’s
popularity. It’s advantages begin
with the extra-light wire that bends
easily without breaking even with
small diameter lines. The light
weight hook does less damage to
minnows and allows the minnow
to swim more actively. Whether
standard style or the extra-light
wire, the Aberdeen style is the most
popular crappie hook.
Circle hooks have a following with some of the fishermen on
the trail. Their advantage is that
they are basically self-hooking.
You can’t jerk. A little pressure is
all it takes to put the hook into the
lip. They have another big advantage of few fish hooked deep making it easier to keep tournament fish
alive. The complaints on the hook
are fewer hooked fish per bite and
when the hook does hang up you’ll
break off every time.
Rotating hooks including
the Tru-Turn, are extremely popular with most fishermen. A rotating
cam action automatically turns the
hook until the point finds skin to
penetrate. The primary negative
about this hook is twisting in the
water when being pulled.
Special hooks. The StandOut hook is designed to be used as
the top hook in a double-hook system or as a drop-shot hook. It keeps
its position making it good for live
or artificial bait.
TJ Stallings, Marketing
Specialist with TTI-Blakemore,
says, “Our number one selling
minnow hook is the Mr. Crappie
#2 and #1. Code Red is the number one color with gold coming in
a close second. Our overall best
selling hook is the Tru-Turn bronze
with traditional bluegill and crappie
fishermen using these.”
Concerning circle hooks,
Stalling says, “I’ve fished the
Daiichi Circle Hooks for crappie
and love the easy release. The hook
always seems to catch in the corner
of the mouth. The size number on
circle hooks can be misleading
with our size ‘1’ having the same
gap size as our size ‘4’ Mr. Crappie
hooks. So I recommend studying
the gap size instead of the size on
the package.
prefer. They want a good quality
hook that’s sized for crappie.”
Special: Jigs are often put
into cover so some fishermen use
a weedguard. It reduces hang-ups
but many believe it makes fish
harder to hook. Trimming some of
the weedguard strands reduces the
pressure required to collapse the
guard.
The Charlie Brewer Slider
head allows solid soft plastic baits
to be rigged Texas-style with the
hook point remaining in the plastic.
This allows the bait to be brought
through cover with fewer hang-ups.
Color-Color can make a difference.
Look at the Bandit crankbaits in the
boats of tournament fishermen and
you’ll likely see one or both trebles
hooks have been switched to red.
Most crankbait fishermen believe
it makes a difference in the number
of hits they get. Also, some say that
putting the red hook in front means
more hooked fish because the
crappie are hitting the bait further
toward the front.
Jig Hooks-Size: Jig hooks are often Minnow fishermen often
an overlooked item with a weekend prefer gold hooks. A lot has to do
fisherman but not with tournament
with a fisherman’s confidence in
anglers. For example, a 1/32-ounce a particular color. Most fishermen
jig may have a cheap #8 hook in
believe that presentation is much
it and be offered at a good price.
more important than the color of a
It looks good but is too small and
hook.
the wire is often large diameter and Sharpness-Not one fishermen I
spoke with sharpened their hooks.
brittle. Serious fishermen want a
sharp hook that’s the right diameter New hooks are much sharper now
and overall size.
than in the past. If a hook gets dull
“We noticed that fisherbefore it broken off during a hangmen preferred bigger hooks in
up, fishermen replace the hook with
their jigs,” says Wade Mansfield of a new one.
the Grizzly Jig Company. “Many
1/32-ounce jigs come with a #6
Comments and Tips-Don and Toni
hook. We pour our standard 1/32Collins from Florida are fishing all
ounce with a bigger #4 hook and
of the Crappie Masters tournament
the 1/16- and 1/8-ounce heads with this year. “For my minnow fishing
a #2 hook and that seems to betI use a #2, red, Tru-Turn hook,”
ter fit what most crappie fishermen says Don. “The cam action puts the
hook into the fishes mouth. I think
the hook makes a difference because it doesn’t take a hard hookset
and the point is usually in the upper
lip.”
“Jig hooks are Road Runners or Wally Marshall Slab Daddys with a #2 hook.”
“Concerning sharpness, the
Blakemore products are very sharp.
If they get dull I change them out.”
Coy Sipes says he and his
partner use a #1 or #2 Daiichi hook
with the baitkeeper (#4331). “The
reason we use it is that we can slide
a jig body up on it and it holds it.
They are the sharpest we’ve found
and I like the black color. The color
may not make a difference but it
works for me.”
Sipes says that jig hook size
is important. He uses a #2 hook on
small jigs, a #1 hook on 1/8-ounce
and 1/0 on a 1/4-ounce. “Most of
our jigheads are Road Runners with
a minnow hook head meaning no
barbed lead to hold plastic. We are
backwards because we use plastic
on the minnow hooks and with the
jigheads we just use a minnow. Our
jig hooks are red. We never do any
modifications to our hooks and we
change them when they get dull.”
Ronnie Capps and Steve
Coleman are six-time national
champs and winners of the 2010
Reelfoot tournament. They are
known for their Capps & Coleman
double-hook minnow rig produced
by BnM along with being tied by
fishermen all across the country.
“We basically do things like we’ve
always done them,” says Ronnie.
“We have made a few modifications but we still use the 214EL
hook. An exception would be when
we are in really bad brush with big
fish like last year at Grenada and
we switched to the standard 214.”
25
Charles and Travis Bunting have
found a fishing partner in the form
of two mechanical arms…called
Power Poles. “It holds you dead
still in the wind,” says Charles.
“It has hydraulics, switches in the
front and a remote control. It has
eight feet of adjustment so basically when you are in seven feet or
less you can drop them down and
they’ll hold you still in a 50 mph
wind. We used it at Reelfoot and
Conway Lakes a lot. We could get
into a hole quieter by just drifting
into the spot, not having to use our
trolling motor and then drop the
poles. We could fish quietly from
an anchored boat.”
“I love the poles,” says
Travis. “It’s changed our fishing
quite a bit because it allows us
to fish shallow water more consistently. It has also made a big
difference in deep water, too. We
use it when we drag a chain. It has
taken a lot of work out of it and our
fishing is more efficient because
we don’t have to leave our fishing
seats in front to adjust the pole. For
example, at Reelfoot Lake before
we got the Power Poles we would
have to drop a chain, adjust it, go to
the front to fish and go back to the
26 MORE THAN A SHALLOW WATER ANCHOR!
back to adjust it again and again.
Now we adjust it with a switch at
the front of the boat. Also, when it
gets hung up now we just lift the
pole and it breaks it free. We gain
a lot of extra fishing time during a
day of fishing.”
Buntings say that mounting
the poles on a glass boat requires
no drilling. A mounting plate goes
between the jackplate and boat
through pre-existing holes. On an
aluminum boat a plate must be
added.
Quiet shallow water fishing, adjusting a chain or windsock from the front of the boat
and giving yourself more fishing
time with less manual labor are all
advantages you can ask Charles or
Travis about when you see them at
the next tournament or talk to Phil
and Eva Rambo-Ron and Jeanne
Fry who are on the power pole pro
staff. They would be glad to answer
your questions.
Contact Power Pole at www.powerpole.com or call 813-689-9932.
Protecting Our Fish
Crappie Masters has always
been a leader in protecting crappie.
We’ve used a release boat many
times. When fish are in good shape
we always encourage fishermen to
release the fish back into the lake.
At Conway our tournament fishermen helped the Arkansas Game
and Fish Commission to not only
release good quality fish back into
the lake but to give them a good
number of fish for a study.
“We are taking the fish
caught by the anglers and tagging
them so we can do an exploitation
study,” says District Biologist, Matt
Schroeder. “The reason is that we
know the annual mortality rate on
the lake is about 70 percent of the
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission was present at Lake Conway to asfish on a given year. That’s pretty
consistent or normal for a system. sist in caring for and releasing the crappie but they were also tagging the fish
for a study.
We are trying to determine how
mine that. We give a reward for $5 alive until we tag them. We have
much of that is angler and how
to $100 dollars for each tag resome treatment we use along with
much of that is just dying off. A
ported.
Our
tank
here
keeps
the
fish
aeration and oxygen.”
tagging study will help us deter-
New Baits for Bandit
“Bandit Lures is known for its top quality
crankbaits in the bass fishing world,” says Bandit’s
Chris Armstrong. “Most don’t know that Bandit is
also the number one trolled crankbait for crappie.
We are not the hard bait sponsor for Crappie Masters, which is the number one crappie tournament
trail. Bandit is proud to announce that we have
been working closely with our crappie pro-staff
and BnM pro-staff manager Kent Driscoll on new
colors since early fall of 2009. The new colors are
just now becoming available and are ready to help you catch crappie this summer and fall.”
For more information on Bandit Lures, contact Bandit at 662-563-8450 or check them out
online at www.banditlures.com
Buck’s Gold Jig P o l e
New of 2010 is Buck’s Gold. The IM-8 graphite pole provides added durability, stiffness and sensitivity like no other rod on the market. DynaFlo spinning guides provide smooth casting and line retrieval and allow this rod to be used with
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rich gold color makes it easy to see on the water in any conditions.
BnM President, Jack Wells, says, “We build a rod for every fishing situation. Buck’s Gold is
another in our great BnM line-up of poles designed for fishermen.”
27
Crappie Angler Magazine
By Crappie Anglers
For Crappie Anglers
29
ANGLER ON TOUR
day. The fish were really small. As
a matter of fact, it was a two-day
tournament and I only caught two
fish the first day. When I weighed
in I only had one fish. What happened to my other fish? On day
two of the tournament I caught four
fish but when I weighed in I had
five. I determined that my missing fish was hiding in the plumbing of my livewell and on day two
when I turned on the recirculation
pump it spit the fish back into the
livewell. Now the people I was
teasing with this story seemed to
take me very seriously and I had to
fight the sudden urge to discuss the
offshore real estate I have for sale.
Anyway, now I don’t feel so bad
about seeing myself in the mirror in
Birmingham.
Warning, be on the lookout
for a vicious gar that is stalking the
Alabama River. Dan Dannenmueller and I teamed up and were competing on the Alabama River when
we started catching a lot of gar.
We all catch gar from time to time
so what’s the big deal? Well, there
was one enormous creature that
kept coming back. It became one of
those ‘We’re going to need a bigger
boat’ moments. The behemoth will
be easy to recognize because he
has a half dozen of our Yamamoto
tipped Road Runner jigs hanging in
his snout. It was an interesting trip
for rookie crappie fisherman, Dan.
Granada Lake tournament results can only be described
by “Wow”. There were nine fish
weighed that topped the 3-pound
mark and I personally know of
seven more caught earlier in the
week during pre-fishing. Paul told
me of six more he knew of that
were caught on Sunday following
the tournament. That’s a total of
22 fish weighing 3 pounds or more
caught in less than a week at Grenada. I’m sure there were several
more we didn’t know about. The
weather was great making it more
tolerable than the rain, wind, cold
and stumps we have dealt with so
far this year.
My intention from my first column
was to shed some light on the anglers as they travel on the tour and
to poke a little fun at the characters
I call my friends. So far I’ve had
fun writing about ‘them’. In all
fairness, I will step up to the plate
with a little story about myself.
The story takes place while
Crappie Masters President, Paul
Alpers, and I are in Birmingham,
Alabama, sharing a room at a local
motel. As with most old men of
our age it becomes necessary to
See Ya On Tour
make more frequent trips to the
bathroom during the night. Waking
up from a sound sleep I began my
first journey of the night toward
the bathroom. There was a dim
light in the room as a result of the
outside street lights and suddenly I
realize there is a third person in the
room coming toward me. My first
thought was we were being robbed
and now this person is going to
attack me for spoiling his night’s
work. May former career as a law
enforcement officer kicks in as I
position myself not only to defend
myself but to try to overtake and
apprehend my attacker at the same
time. Suddenly I realize there is a
full length mirror positioned perfectly on the wall between the beds
and I was seeing myself during this
ordeal. My attacker was me. I find
Once you feel the stopping power and boat control of a Power-Pole Shallow
in getting older we tend to become
Water Anchor you’ll want one on anything that moves. Complete systems
a little more gullible.
start at $895. Call 813.689.9932 or www.power-pole.com
Speaking of being gullible,
I was teasing some folks about
me being disqualified at a recent
tournament for having a fish in my
livewell that I did not catch that
31
PO Box 989
Lebanon, MO 65536
BP318527

MAGAZINE - Crappie Masters

Transcription

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