Classic Report

It was a Classic of missed opportunities for us on the TN Tom Bigbee waterway with over 6 inches of rain in two days that sent the waterway into a muddy rage and floating lily pad grass all over the place and dampening two days of pre-Fishing we desperately needed. Myself and my brother knew this was going to be a tough one to fish. Not to mention how hard it was to get around without tearing up your boat. It was the kind of lake/river system where if you got off any channel just a little you would run a risk of damaging your boat and end up in less than two foot of water in a split second.


With two good days of pre-fishing available to us we tried as many productive looking spots as we could spider rigging and vertical jigging as many types of lures as we could, But it was the last day of pre fishing when we ran into a local named Step who pulled up along side of us in a creek with a minnow and slip bobber rig set at 8 feet deep and pulled out two nice keeper crappie very quickly right in front of us. He told us to try minnows in the creek mouths and runs coming into the main river channel.


Well with the last day of pre fishing we tried minnows and found two productive holes in timber in a main river channel in the Waverly section of Columbus lake. My brother caught a nice 1.5 lb fish and we eased him back in and had two places we knew were holding good fish..


Day One morning came and it was beautiful weather. We set up on our spot and quickly caught 3 one pound plus fish. We thought wow we are going to kick butt in this tourney as we had a seven fish limit by 8:30 AM. It was at this point things started to turn south on us quickly as one of our four big fish was hooked in the gill and dies on us by 9:30 AM. The rest of the day we could only manage 10-11 inch fish and would watch two more big fish get off on us.


Day Two the temps dropped 20 degrees and clouds set in with high winds, we went back too our holes thinking they would produce a few more fish which they did just not the size we needed. This sent us scrambling trying to find some bigger fish. We would find only one quality fish with 6 10 inch fish one of which would also die on us and had to only weigh in 6 fish. On day two with only 20 mines left in the Tourney I had two slabs hooked in heavy brush they both wrapped me badly and in deep water and could not get them out. I know those two were some good ones that would have helped us. It was a Classic of missed opportunities. I just wished we figured the minnow bite out earlier in heavy wooded cover and had the two more good pre fishing days to explore the Aliceville pool where the Tournament was won on just a naked hook and minnow in the river runs. We were on the right pattern just the wrong Lake.


I was very impressed with Columbus MS, Great town and friendly folks where ever we went. Even had a Shell Station attendant get in his vehicle and track us down when we forgot our minnows at the bait shop. I will haft to think long and hard tho if I would return to that waterway for a Tourney.


I think we finished in 73rd place with a little over 9 lbs of fish. I also was glad to bring in a few fish on waters we never fished before. My partner and brother fished hard and fished the whole tourney very sick with a bad cold or Flu. I was very proud of his effort even sick as a dog... he got up…he went… and he Fished.

Special Thanks to Midsouth Man those Ozark Rods are great trolling rods.


Whelp its on To Grenada MS for my next effort. Hope to see you all there.
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i know you gave your best russ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope ABH reads this report and takes notice about the minners, lol. Good job Russ. Sounds like y'all gave it a heck of a go.


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Good job, man! Sorry you didn't get on that pattern sooner and get to use it in the right place. Sounds like y'all fought hard though. I'm sure that drop in temps overnight didn't help either. Anyway, good job, Russ, and thanks for the report and pics.

It was a really slow week of fishing with hard fishing conditions. We had some fish found and did decent on day one and lost some we needed we were in 31 place on day one. Then the cold front came in sat and our fish were gone we ended up finishing 47 . Wasnt to bad for our first classic wish we could have had a few more holes to have fallen back on. It was good to see you and your brother there Russ a fellow crappieholic team. Hope we can lay it to them next time

Handi That's them ms crappie like minners. Hadn't needed em here in Arkansas

Well, if u go to Washington again and only fish jigs I'm going to call you bad words, lol.


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Pfft maybe someone will let me in on where da crappie are and I show they will bite my jigs lol. Only report I got from jerry was they were 7 fow and there is a lot of that.

now how many have you put me on !!!!!!!!!!!!! NONE,NONE AND NONE!!!!!

Great effort Russ , maybe things will be better next time. Sounds like you did best you could with the conditions.