My view of the Crappie Masters tournament...

[arkcrappie]

The championship was the 2nd Crappie Masters tournament the wife and I have fished and we knew it would be fun to see the "show". We had no idea what we were in for.
Wednesday night at the banquet was about what I expected with normal pre tournament stuff.
Thursday morning we hit Lake Ferguson and fished till noon and caught 1 fish. We picked up, got a Subway sandwich and headed to Whittington. We fished until 6 pm and caught one fish. Not exactly what I expected.
I knew the fishing would be tough due to the river falling and that was holding true. I had pre fished Washington and Lee, so I made the decision for us to fish Lee. That's where I had caught some good fish and I knew we just had to get in there and grind it out.
Friday morning found us on the water at 5:20 am amongst 25-30 other boats. What a sight! To see the boats come in and people you read about start unloading gear and boats was awesome! The lake and ramp was lit up like a city street and excitement filled the air. Christie and I were humbled by the sight of it all which was a good thing. It gave us something to talk about and kept our nerves down a little. By daylight, at least 50 boats were on the water ready to fish.
We started promptly at 7 am and caught our first fish at 8:45. By 10 am, we had a limit and were culling fish. What a relief just to know we would weigh fish in a national championship! We weighed in early as we both were spooked that we would have fish die so at 1:45 we hit the scales with 9.29 lbs.
we left the weigh in and went out the boat up and got a quick shower and came back to watch the biggest part of the weigh-in.
We watched as team by team weighed in. That was an honor to sit and watch!
Day 2 on Lee didn't find as many boats and the bite was slower. We had to make lots of adjustments through out the day to stay on fish. We had a few run ins with BRM and Meatgetter. Right off the bat on Saturday, they came by us at a slow idle and Bill yelled, "Get off my lake". I guess he thought id listen!
We had a decent day on Saturday and weighed in 8.7 and that gave us 17.99 for the tournament. That was good enough for 28th place.
I will mirror what others have said. The people in that tournament are crappie fishermen/women and they are the finest folks on the planet. I talked with several that I consider "Pros" and they were just good folks. Just like the folks you find here on C.C!
The good Lord bestowed many blessings on my wife and I during the week. The weather was fantastic, we got there and back safe and we shared some time with people I consider friends. A person just couldn't ask for anything better.

[Rees Guide]

Awesome trip, way to stick it out, got tuff Saturday for sure. Congrats to yall, hate we didn't get a chance to meet.

[RCC]

What a great tournament by team K C. I promise I listened when you were sharing a little "how to" over on the bleachers. Thanks for the tips and for answering my questions. I know luck plays a big roll in fishing, but it is these kinds of tournaments when you have to dig deep and use all the tricks you have learned over the years to help you catch fish. Good job and congratulations on the finish.

[ski trip]

Great post, Kent. My hat's off to you and Christie for finishing 28th in the National Championship in only your second Crappie Masters event! That is some fine fishing, considering the competition. I was told there were 173 teams fishing. It sure looked like it. So that's a high finishing position.

[l_tedford]

Excellent job.

[hawgdog]

Thanks for sharing Kent!! Congrats on a great weekend

[BigRiverMarine]

Congrats again on a great finish Kent!!!!!

Luvpt and Blue Thunder finished 23rd, and Meatgetter and I finished in a tie for 34th. I'd say we all represented both C.C and Arkansas well. Even with our modest finish, we thought we did OK. We did win 2100.00 in cash and prizes, so we were happy!!! Got the same money as 6th or 7th place. Hehehe

I doubt they write a book about us, but we all finished on page one!!! Whooohooooo!!!