Our crappie USA classic tourney experience

[xraytrapper]

My fishing partner and I are fairly new to crappie fishing in general and tourney fishing. Just started crappie fishing three years ago and have Been doing local tourneys last few years. Our home lake is grand lake st Mary’s in Ohio and we fished that crappie USA super event last two years. We Qualified for the classic so decided to make a week long fishing trip out of it and give it a try. We did go down in the spring for couple days so was familiar with a few creeks but wasn’t sure what fish would be doing compared to catching some pre spawn shallow ones then.
Being mainly dock and pontoon shooters and single pole cork and jig fisherman , that’s how we started out. Well the fish were where we left them in the spring. Within 5 minutes Monday morning my buddy landed a nice one under the cork and more big ones came from shooting under pontoons. Every creek we tried we caught some nice fish. Thinking prior to the trip it would be great to just weigh a limit each day. we started thinking big picture with fish we were catching and if we could get them during tourney it could get interesting. We tried some spider rigging but results weren’t very good and smaller fish.
Fast forward to Friday morning and first day of two day event. We had 9 pounds on 7 fish by 9 am. We left that small marina alone for Saturday. Drove around to couple other creeks and upgraded a few fish. We ended day one in the lead in the amateur division with 10.39 pounds.
Well a storm front was moving in Friday afternoon thru all day Saturday. Calling from 2-5 inches of rain and 20-25 mph winds and gusts to 40. We were very nervous how day two would go. The fear was soon realized Saturday morning when the bite slowed way down and fish were less aggressive. Only could get three keepers and few shorts out of the same marina. So we left there and could only manage couple more keepers and more shorts. Fish were there but kept short striking the plastics. We only needed 8 pounds for the win and did that every day of the week. Ended the day with 5.25. Couldn’t get to another creek that was productive due to the wind. All In all it was a awesome trip and still ended up 7th fishing with the pros. Livescope is becoming mandatory to fish these events I think. We don’t have it yet , but I know at least 3 of the top 4 teams had it that we talked to. The winner was fishing deep brush and could see fish reacting to the baits and other teams shooting docks could see if fish under them and if active.
Our big fish and my personal best was 1.73 and we caught a bunch over 1.5 pounds. The black nose we found were big and aggressive and put up a battle. Wish we coulda won the new boat , but will be a trip that will be tough to beat.
We kept a few one night for a fish fry with some friends that were there also. Buddy told me after tourney that it’s bad luck to fry fish before. Oops. Lol.


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[xraytrapper]

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[xraytrapper]

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[xraytrapper]

Sitting in the hot seat was pretty cool. And the first pic can tell were a little disappointed not doing better on final day weigh in.



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[crappie4me2]

Sounds like a great trip and tournament even with the weather. congrats

[xraytrapper]

And forgot to add that everyone we talked was great. Crappie fishermen are some of the most down to earth people. Of course everyone lied about the fishing until after the tourney. Lol. And it was good to get the cheater out of the sport. Can’t believe he tried pulling that off. Finally caught him red handed. Sure most everyone has heard the story by now.


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[SuperDave336]

What a cool event to be part of. Things don’t always go like we wish but experience and memories will be there forever. Looks like you did catch some nice ones though. Congrats

[Slabprowler]

Congrats on a great trip! And a good finish !

[Mike1234]

Congratulations good job


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[ad1974]

Great report,congrats on the strong finish!