Mississippi Fruit Jar Trip

I had only been home for two weeks when I started my second crappie.com fishing trip for 2011. The first trip was a 3 week tour through Alabama and Georgia, crappie fishing with some of the nicest folk ever. This trip would be a little different. This time I took my boat, and my best friend Tom. I would no longer rely on the generosity of others to get on the water. I'd have my own boat, and I'd have to figure how to catch Crappie using my own gear and my own techniques. Should be interesting.
So we packed up and drove down to Grenada Lake in Mississippi. The MS Crappie.com Forum was having a Fruit Jar Tournament down there and although we did not intend to participate in the tournament, we wanted to go down and meet everyone at the Weigh-in and subsequent Fish Fry. We thought about entering in the tournament, but we knew we could not hold a candle to those that have fished that lake before. Especially since I had not really fished out of this "new to me" Tracker boat that I had just purchased in the Fall.

When we arrived at the Grenada Lake North Abutment Campground many members had already been there for days and were all set up.
It was getting dark soon, so we rushed to set up our tent, and then proceeded to the 333 Restaurant where members had gathered for dinner the night before the tournament. That's where we first met some of the crappie.com guys and gals.

We had a great meal, with some really great people. It was a lot of fun. There's Wannabe... figuring out his portion of the bill!
The next day Tom and I took our time setting up the boat and getting out on Grenada Lake. We knew we were not competing and just wanted to catch a couple of those famed Slab Grenada Crappie.

We got on the water at Grenada Landing and motored to the "second cove on the right". The water was like chocolate milk, what's with that. How are the fish supposed to find anything in that muddy water.

But we soon found out they could still find our Jigs. It was hard fishing, and we ended up not catching anything at that first cove, but at the next cove (the third cove on the right), we laid into some nice Crappie. The above crappie was the first one caught. That's actually the first fish taken in this "new to me" boat.

Look at this Hog! Good job getting it in the boat Tom. Almost 16 inches long! Monster Crappie must like chocolate milk, or is it the chocolate milk that makes them monsters. Who knows! But I have to say, these Grenada Crappie are the biggest crappie I have seen to date. The water there was so muddy, it really looked like chocolate milk. You would mark fish left and right, but to get them to take the bait you essentially had to present your bait right in front of their nose the visibility was so bad. This muddy water is an obvious result of all the rain Mississippi and the rest of the south have received.
Afterwards, we attended the Fruit Jar event at Grenada Landing. Wannabe... quietly ran the event and the cooking was done by many.


The weigh in above.


And here are the results from the Fruit Jar:
1st Brandon Fulgham - 15.26...I think big fish was 3.29 or 3.30
2nd Trent Goss - G3 Troller - 15.06
3rd Harrison & Driskoll - 13.87
4th Jonathan Melton - 11.99

The food was great. On this occasion, we also had some Calamari (provided to us by Speck). Oh, I almost forgot to mention the Jalapeno Hush Puppies that Dondon made. I normally am not a big fan of hush puppies, but these were awesome. Doddon hand delivered me my first Hush Puppies and hooked me. I went back for many more! Somehow the hush puppies made down South are just so much better than the hush puppies I've had up North. Good work Doddon. Next time I'd love to try those Habenaro puppies you mentioned.
To give credit where credit is due, I've included a quote here from Wannabe... about who did what for the event.
"As always, the food was fantabulous....All hail the cooking team of Speck, Gene, Rip and DD. Ya'll are so good we're gonna hire you on full time. Special thanks to Andy for helping me clean the fish at the last minute. Didn't see if we ended up having leftovers, but judging by the bellies I saw, I'd say there was enough to go around.

A big hip-hip hooray for the door prizes. Driskol, Holic, G, Speck, and to Minner for the kick in at the last second for the youth prizes. You should have seen that little girls face (I think it was one of Rip's girls) when she saw the $ inside the hat. Hope I didn't leave anyone off the list. I was surprised we had the number of kids we did (I think 6-8 counting mine) but with y'all's help, we made everyone of 'em smile and hardly a one of their Mother's looked scared for them to be there. "
Just to finish up with the credits, I provided a BnM Pole for the raffle, some Crappie.com hats/shirts and gave away some Strike King Grubs.




EmptyStringer and Wannabe... were very proud to have receive the distinguished JADA award.


DuckHunter and DonDon whooping it up!



Torch - provided valuable fishing info during the fish fry the day before so that I was able to land this monster slab on Sunday. Thanks Torch.
Sorry I did not get to meet Creekslick
Here are some of those that I met at the MS Fruit Jar event. Everyone there were great people. As I've always said Crappie fishermen and women are the absolute best people. I'm sorry if I've missed anyone as I'm certain I could not remember everyone. PM me and I'll add you to the list if I have missed you.

• Wannabe...
• Speck
• Yikes
• Drfishjd
• Minnerman
• DonDon
• Nessa0629
• duckhunter
• majflyboy
• Bigger
• Midsouth Man
• Torch
• satdoc1
• EmptyStringer
• Mo' Money
• "G" - Great to meet my Super Mod in person. Thanks for keeping these guys in line, I know it can't be easy. lol
• Rip-a-lip
• Jeff White
• kit papermouth
• Beagle
• tritonman
• wilbur from WI
• jvg
• crappiholic
• hook one
• minnertroller
• Honey Bee
• easypoleholder

I want to thank everyone for all their hospitality, and for their participation at the event. Both Tom and I had an absolutely wonderful time. We are looking forward to our next visit to the great state of Mississippi to catch more of those slabs you all grow down there.