Crappie tournaments

[David Waters]

I also had my rear end handed to me on a plate this year at grenada. I love tournament fishing. I love the competitiveness involved, but am quick to not get to much in that direction. I have fished both crappie and bass tournaments, and by far the crappie tournaments just have better people involved period. The people running Crappie USA tournaments are extremely nice. They could easily get frustrated talking to the new guys who do not know what is going on, but they don't. They were very helpful to us. Even the other competiters were nice. A top notch group of people at Crappie USA. I was impressed so much that my buddy and I decided to start a crappie organization here in the Muscle Shoals area. Crappie fisherman are just good folks, who like to help you out, but just don't quite tell you everything

I did bring home two 3 pound fish to be put on my wall, though. Just needed 7 of those deformed fish to win.

[Crappie Chatt]

Fishers; I have been tourney fishing since 1989. First 5 years I paid & paid, then paid my dues. Would come close but, no checks. I have every excuse known to man why I didn't do better. Then, as I was at a sport show, attending a crappie seminar, I asked the speaker just what I needed to do. I said I could catch fish before the tourney with no problems but, tourney day,,,I SUCKED!!! He quized me and came to this. I was beating myself!!! I let the pressure of the tourney get to me. Run here, run there, run all over the place looking for the hot spots. Many times I left fish to find fish. Not a bad tactic when prefishin but death for tourney day. I now plan every move. Watch the weather and prefish accordingly. I want to have at least 5 spots that I can fish. I have put all my eggs in 1 spot before because of weather or simply not knowing any others. I try to fish the ways I like best because that's where my confidence lays. The more knowledge I have,,,the luckier I get! LOL. I run the roads back to the weigh-ins to see just how long it takes and get to know these routes.A lot of preparation before the tourney keeps your mind on fishing and not worring about others. I could go on & on but,,,the BEST thing about traveling around to all these tourneys,,,,you meet the NICEST people in the world and some have become the best of friends. Try your local tourneys first. Most are very affordable and on a lake you have confidence in. Remember this 'Fish the same way you like too'. Yes you'll get beat-up at times but it's better than trying something you have no skills in doing. If you like spider-rigging, do nothing else. Get real good at it before you go dipping trees and visa-versa. Look at how the past winners, won on that lake. Some are troller lakes, some are full of trees. I personally like dipping trees and probing brush-piles with long poles. I've tried spider-rigging and that is definally my weak spot. I have all the tools and had many of lessons from other trollers. My heart just isn't into mobile trot-lines but, I will do it! Hope this helps & checks are in the future! <*)}}}><

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

Tim, you coming down to Mark Twain this weekend for CAST? If you do let me know how you did, I hope you are not plaqued with all the small fish that have been caught lately. Good luck to ya.

Man I hope not too, but I do plan to fill some freezer bags while I am there anyway. I've also got a secret strategy for that problem too Ted. It involves a topo map, prayer, a dart, and a blindfold... :D Hope that water temp comes up in the next few days for it though. You guys ought to come over & get in it too.

I'm getting down there early Thursday AM. Dedicating 2 days to prefish for this one. We will no be in the typical tournament fishing areas, I can tell you that. We just need 15 or so "right bites" on T day! I'll give you a call when I get back.

GABoy, come on up. Us Northerners is easy! Heh Heh!

Moose, it would plain drive you nuts to fish as slow as we do during tournaments. Not much run & gun is even involved. Especially on waters like you are familiar with. Way too dangerous, and even more unproductive. Chatt summed that up well.

Full baskets to all!

<,"}/>{ Rippa

[Moose1am]

My john boat is so slow that they would have all the crashed boats plucked out of the water and all the debris cleaned up before I made it to that point in the lake. LOL. I get there a dime short and a day late every time running that old fishermarine with just a 35 hp on it.

I have seen boats flip over while they were going over 100 mph on the Ohio River. It's not a very pretty sight. I have seen hydroplanes crash that were going over 200 mph and that was a serious accident.

Once while on the river at night for a fourth of july fireworks display I was almost run over by 100 other boats of all sizes who were in a big hurry to get back to the boat ramp at Angle Mounts just a few miles upriver from the Evansville, IN riverfront. I had my boat tossed around as if I were out in the ocean during a big storm. I had a 60ft cabin cruiser on my port side and a racing speed boat following by about 50 water ski or pleasure craft boats. Talk about waves coming at me from all directions and all I had was a 300,000 candle powered spot light to show me the way. It was about 10:30 PM on a warm July 4th Night and I will never take my boat out on the river at night durning that event again. Now I may just take the boat out and set up a tent across the river on the sandbar or bank and stay there all night and go back to the boat ramp the next day. I was never as scared of water as I was in my little boat that night. I was afraid that my boat would capsize and that the 50 boats behind me would run over me and my wife and step daughter. Talk about puttin on a life jacket real fast. My boat is 16ft long and 70 something inches across at the top so it's not that little but it was not nearly big enought that night.

There is no blast offs for since you can be on the water anytime you wish, just cant start before a certain time. One nice thing about CAST, CrappieMasters, and CrappieUSA tournaments. Our club tournaments are like bass tournament, everyone takes off at the same time. Quite a fun deal with boats going each direction. Especially when they head the same direction you are, makes you wonder if they are headed to the same spot.

There is a spot on Truman Lake, if anyone is familar with it. Lots of bass tournaments go out of Bucksaw ramp. As you head down the lake there is a very narrow gap that you can use a short cut if you know the spot. It will cut about 5-10 minutes of your run. What is funny is some boats will fast idle through the spot, others try to run full tilt. Some near crashs happen at this spot, and it happens almost the same time every saturday morning during the summer.

[TAE73]

I would come up that way but I will be over at Truman cleaning the camper out and making sure no uninvited guest moved in during the winter. Hopefully nothing like your squirrel problem a few months back! And hope to maybe get a couple of hours of fishing in Saturday and Sunday. Looks like another good weekend of weather is instore! Good luck to ya!