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My summary of the Crappie Masters Tournament..
O.K. guys this might get long and I will apologize upfront, LOL. But after 5 months in the works, we finally got the tournament to Lake Conway through the help of way too many people to list but to name a few Stroud's Diner, Bates Field and Stream, Palarm Liquor, Colton's Steak House and the Conway Chamber of Commerce and of course Crappie Master's Tournament Trail.
Week prior to the tournament, BIG fish were being caught and several 13-15lb stringers were being reported and forecasted winning weights were around the 26-28 lb range for a two day total. But mother nature had other plans. She slammed the area with a major nasty cold front dropping the daytime highs by almost 30 degrees overnight just a few days before the tournament.
Prefishing during the week of the tournament was rough. The bigger fish took lock jaw and moved back to deeper water on the main lake. High wind conditions many days made it next to impossible to fish the main lake "living" trees where the hawg females were holding.
Tuesday, I spent the day doing an interview with Tim Huffman outdoors on the lake fishing. We slammed several nice 1 3/4-2lb fish by downsizing our jigs to 1/32 oz. and created a nice article that will be published later this year.
Wednesday, I spent the day with the Pursuit channel film crew, Hook and Hunt outdoors and Revive the Outdoors with Cody and Cody producer, Steve Easom and the President of Crappie Masters, Paul Alpers. Needless to say the bite was very slow but we managed to get some good footage. We finished late in the day at Dano's in the pond to showcase the family adventure side of Lake Conway with several youngsters in the pool fishing and catching some nice fish.
Thursday slammed us with more wind as we tried to fish the middle of the lake. We caught some nice fish but couldn't fight the wind. Mother nature had laid it on us again with a smaller cold front than the first.
Friday morning, finally tourny day. After meeting with the camera crew late, we finally got to start fishing around 8 a.m. 15 minutes later, their trolling motor was on the brink. After short repairs, we're back at it. Struggled to catch fish, as I now know the bite was right at daylight, but managed four fish in the Dix Creek area weighing in at around 4 1/2 lbs, sitting me and partner at 23rd place.
Saturday, brought much better conditions for me and Danny. We started catching fish at 7:01 and continued throughout the day. After culling fish, we ended the day with around 8 1/2 pounds which eventually gave us a comeback to 10th place and got us qualified with a nice check to boot.
In summary, several local did really great. Mr.Blakely and his partner winning the whole match did an oustanding job. CrappiePro and his partner managed limits both days finishing 14th I believe and did a fantastic job. Several other locals qualified as well and should be very proud.
Guys, after speaking with Capps and Coleman Friday night, 6 time national champions, they explained to me this past weekend was one of the toughest bites they have ever faced. But also explained, they had caught some of the largest females ever during prefishing.
The tournament was a huge success and it showcased the lake as having some monster slabs in it. It will bring additional fisherman to the area which will indeed help the economic situation in the area. It also provided some additional areas and techniques that some of us may have never tried.
Again, from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate each and everyone of you who supported the tournament and plans are already in work for next year which will no doubt be an even bigger and better event.
A special thanks to Dano and the Gold Creek area for providing all of the services you did for the tournament. Couldn't have done it without you buddy!!
I'll try to post some pics later on this same thread from the tourny. If I can be of any help to any of you, please feel free to call me at 1-501-231-3374.
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