Speck and Yikess made the May-August issue of the Crappie Masters Magazine
Speck wrote us up a little article to go along with the picture, here it is:
I've had a love and obsession of crappie fishing ever since I can remember. I would read everything I could find about crappie. I'd watch any videos I could find. Living in Southeast Missouri, I was kind of in no man's land as far a great crappie lakes. There was Wappapello that was over an hour from my house. Reelfoot Lake was about 2 hours away. However, the best crappie fishing in the world, in my opinion, is in Northern Mississippi which is only 3 hours away. I started fishing Enid and Sardis Mississippi several years ago.
I joined Crappie.com in March 2006. I loved reading the Missouri and Mississippi forums and getting to know everyone's personalities online.
In March 2007, Willsjwills and some other Mississippi Crappie.com guys organized a get together at Sardis, MS. Since I've been fishing Sardis and Enid for years, I couldn't wait to go. I met so many great folks there and made so many great friendships!!!
The first night of the first MS crappie camp, we all met at the Smokin M restaurant in Sardis. I sat at a table with some other guys who were talking crappie fishing. The guy across from me was Yikess. We talked fishing along with everyone else.
After that, every time I went fishing in Mississippi, I would call a couple of the guys I met at camp, including Yikess. I loved fishing in the summer, pulling crank baits. This is back when not a lot of folks were cranking yet. Yikess would usually be out there also. He would stop by the campground after fishing and we would cool off in the a/c while enjoying a cold beverage.
About 4 years ago or so, some of the MS folks put together a "Fruit Jar" tournament just for some friendly competition. I had fun reading about it. Well, about a week or two before the first tournament, Yikess called me and asked if I would be interested in fishing with him. I thought about it for about three tenths of a second and said "Heck Ya!!!"
Well, it turned out that we fished pretty well together. We had some success in the tournaments.
A couple of years later, we decided to join the Magnolia Crappie Club and fish some of their Northern tournaments. WOW!!!! What a great club and GREAT members!!! They made us feel welcome right from the start. They are also some GREAT fishermen!!! Those guys bring their "A" game every time. We fished a few times with MCC and came in tied for 2nd at Sardis in 2011. What a rush!!!!
Last winter, we saw the Crappie Masters schedule. We decided we would like to try it. What an amazing experience. Here are all the big names of crappie fishing at one tournament. At the pre tournament banquet, I talked to several Crappie masters members. Every one of them were awesome!!! The great thing about crappie fishermen and women are, they are friendly and helpful to everyone!!! I was so excited the night before day one, I could hardly sleep. We had some fish located day one, but Grenada had been pounded that spring by other tournaments and the pressure of spawn fishing. The bite was a little slow but we picked up a good one here and there. We didn't have a keeper in the boat until 10:00 in the morning. We caught our seventh keeper about an hour before quitting time. At the end of day one, we were about in the middle of the pack, right behind Capps and Coleman!!!! I couldn't believe we were hanging with the guys we always read about. That evening, we talked strategy.
We really didn't know what to do different or what to try. We had been fishing between Choctaw and Graysport. We didn't have much luck prefishing the Skuna side. We decided to stick to our original game plan for day two.
On the way to the lake on day two, we stopped by the bait shop to restock some minnows. We ran into Bo Hudson on the parking lot. We started talking to him and he said they had the same problem on day one. The bite was slow for most everyone. We felt a little better. Lol.
Day two was tougher yet. Those fish had been so pressured for so many weeks, we couldn't hardly buy a bite. We were thinking how bad it would be to go in to weigh in with only 3 or 4 fish. Well with about on hour left, we picked up a fifth keeper. Feeling slightly better, we started back toward to boat ramp. When we reached Grenada Landing, we still had some time to fish. Yikess said, "Lets make one pass up past the island before we call it quits." I say, "why not. We don't have anything to lose." We set out our trolling rods and push jigs and minnows up the creek. Almost immediately BAM, we catch a short fish. It was about 11 1/2 inches but it gave us hope that fish were in there. Time was running out as we trolled past a stake bed in the middle of the creek. As the baits got beside the stake bed, one of Yikess poles doubled into the water. he set the hook and a beautiful 15 inch crappie comes to the surface. I scoop it into the net and quickly put it the the livewell. That's number 6!!! Five minutes left!!!!! Maybe there's another one in there. WE ONLY NEED ONE MORE KEEPER!!!! We swept all around the stake bed but our luck and time ran out. We headed to the ramp with our 6 fish.
After everyone weighed in day two, we dropped several places from our day one standing. It was such an outstanding experience just seeing how the big boys fish!!! We learned so much fishing with Crappie Masters. the main thing we learned is we have a lot more to learn about tournament fishing.
In closing, I can't thank Slab enough for Crappie.com. The friendships made, the fellowship, the information and competition which has made me a better fisherman would have never happened if it hadn't been for his GREAT fishing site!!!
Thank You Slab and Crappie.com!!!!
I want to thank Speck and Yikes for their participation and contribution to crappie.com. I tell you, I was reading the above story and was thinking and hoping for that seventh fish. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to read that it was caught and they came in first. Well, you'll get that 7th one next time, and hopefully it'll take you over the top. Thanks guys.
BREAKING NEWS: I'm in conversation with Paul Alpers (president of Crappie Masters) right now trying to figure out how we can help Crappie.com members participate in more Crappie Masters Tournaments. Crappie Masters will very likely be providing some free entries into select 2013 tournaments for Crappie.com members. Many thanks to Paul for thinking about us here at Crappie.com. Stay tuned, additional details will be coming soon.
Visit CrappieMasters.net for more about the Crappie Masters.
Yikess with a Mississippi Slab wearing his Crappie.com Tournament shirt.
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