Mother Nature put a hold of the record catches for most teams; a cold front arrived on Thursday night and conveyed cold temperatures, high winds, sleet, and snow for the next two days of the Mississippi State Tournament. This didn’t stop the 108 teams competing from weighing some remarkable weights Grenada is known to deliver. We all consider Grenada the World’s number one rated crappie fishing lake. When you combine professionals from all over the country on a trophy lake ain’t but one thing can happen; they catch the giants Grenada is known to produce.
The Grenada Lake Guide Team of Kim Gray and Vic Finkley took the early lead on day one with a remarkable 18.75 pounds. Vic says, “Kim told me I better dress for a cold day on Saturday; I said it’s got to warm up, so I dressed kind of light. Boy did I regret that. I got so cold my teeth started to clatter. I got cold chills as soon as we started to fish. It was miserable fishing; I did warm up some when those big sows started to bite. We had most of our weigh in fish by 8:30am each morning. We had a 3 pound 11 ounce fish die in the live well on us the first day because of a deep hook. That stopped us from winning the big fish.” Oh well Vic, ain’t any need of being greedy.
Kim says, “This was the most work fishing I’ve ever done. We guide at least 200 days a year. It’s fun, but this was hard work. We pre-fished hard and we tournament fished hard. The weather was horrible. On day two we had a spotter in the boat; the guy liked to have frozen. He and Vic were glad when we said enough; we could have fished another hour but decided to call it quits early. Thank God we had enough to win.”
Vic says, “I didn’t think our spot would hold enough fish for two days; boy was I wrong. Day two started out with sleet, then snow. Between the wind and sleet we could hardly see our pole tips. The fish didn’t care; they were slamming the poles. I mean when they hit it was no doubt, half of the pole tip would be under water before you could get a hand on the pole.” I don’t know about Vic, but that would warm me up wearing short pants and a t-shirt in the snow.
I asked Vic what was the secret to their win, Vic says, “We knew the fish had moved back to the deep areas of the creek channel due to the cold front. We tried them in the flats on Thursday to no avail. We pulled out in the creek and criss-crossed back and forth. From one side to the other, when we’d hit the middle of the creek channel our poles would go down.” My next question was what was the lure of choice? Kim says, “We spider-rigged small Mid-South Black and Chartreuse tubes tipped with minnows two feet under the surface. The creek channel we fished was 8’ to 12’ deep with grass and weeds around the edge. The males were stacked in the weeds and grass; we know we had to have the females to win and that’s what we concentrated on.”
What other equipment did you guys use? Vic says, “We used 16’ 3” - B’n’M Pro Staff Poles with Capps and Coleman tips. We chose this setup because it gives us the perfect tip action with enough backbone to turn those big females on a short string. We turned off the Humminbird depth finders and eliminated as much noise as possible. When fishing shallow water for pre-spawn fish you’ve got to sneak up on them. These fish are really spooky. Kim and I use hand signals or nothing at all. We’ve fished together enough to know what to do when a fish hits without saying a word. If I see her grab a pole I instinctively grab the net.”
I asked Kim how you guys found these fish when others didn’t. Kim says, “We searched the lake for a week. We knew the front was coming; we had to find a protected area that the wind and fresh water wouldn’t be a major factor. The weekend before, we’d fished the MCC Tournament and not really did as good as we expected. We made up our minds to go for broke. We threw out all the areas we’d tried before and started searching new spots where no one else had considered. It took us almost 45 minutes to reach our spot. During practice we made one pass through the area and picked up 3 fish over 2.5 pounds. I told my partner this is our spot.”
So guys, how much prize money did the Crappie Master Mississippi State Championship pay? Vic says, “We received $7,000 which included a $500 bonus donated by the Missouri Corn Growers Association for using E10 gasoline in our outboard and a $100 Bass Pro gift card for the Male/Female Team.” Not too shabby for doing something you both enjoy.
All I can say is “Way to go Uncle Vic and Kim (Super Chicken)”. Don’t y’all tell Kim I called her that; it’s her high-school nick-name and don’t many people know it; she’ll choke me. On the serious side, if you need a world-class guide on any of the Big-Four (Grenada, Enid, Sardis or Arkabutla), don’t hesitate to call Vic at (662) 417-8690 or Kim at (662) 614-1371. Better call early, they book up fast and early.
Finally, I would like to say it’s a pleasure to write about my friends doing well and winning. I get almost as much of a thrill as they do telling their story. Vic and Kim both stated that this was a treasured moment. We all need these kinds of moments in our lives. I’m just delighted they let me tell their story. Bernard
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