Kansas Spring Crappie Camp 2014 is in the Books!

As I shared with the group Saturday evening, this was only the second crappie camp that I have attended. Two years ago on a whim I decided to attend one out at Glen Elder. Going in I didn’t know a soul there, but coming out I had made some good friends in whom I continue to talk to and fish with on a regular basis. Fishing maybe the vehicle that brings us together for these events but it’s the fellowship and friendships made that make the fishing pale in comparison and trust me, I love to fish! When it showed up on the board that it was Spring Crappie Camp time, I figured what the heck, I’ll try and organize one. How hard can it be? Trust me people; it’s not hard at all. Pick a lake, pick a campsite (preferably one with cabins) and pick a date, and make a few phone calls. I was fortunate enough to have KAG (Dave Hughes) help me with the event. He had good local knowledge of Milford, knew the folks at Thunderbird Marina, and most importantly one heck of a nice guy and GREAT cook! We just copied Shane’s list from the last crappie camp at ElDorado as a guide of things needed (Thanks Shane) and you will find people are more than happy to bring whatever is needed and a lot of it!!

I did learn a few things in organizing the camp:

You might want to ask someone to be in charge of taking some photos, I did take a few but not as many as I would have liked and should of got more fishing pics. I was fortunate that others did get some taken and have already posted them, Thanks! I also forgot to get a pic of the entire group. Sorry Guys!

Have a backup plan in case the fish aren’t biting. Dave and I both had brought hamburgers and hotdogs in case the fish bite wasn’t so great. We had originally intended on having a fish fry but instead everyone got to taste some of Dave’s great cheeseburgers! Also thanks to Don Ragnar for frying up some french fries.

Would like to thank all those who were able to attend and also thank you for all the food brought. I’m pretty sure we had enough food to feed 2 to 3 times the amount of people who were in attendance. It was great seeing old friends and making new ones.

Also special thanks to:

Thunderbird Marina
Lowrance (Chatt and Shane)
Arkie Lures (huge donation of cranks and jigs)
G3 Boats (donated a case of hats)
Shawn Dietrich – Waypoint Outifitters – (high quality jig heads)
Shawn lives in Spring Hill, if you are looking for some good jig heads check
out his website: waypointoutfitters.com

Slab (Ed Moes) – for some great T-shirts.

I'm sure I'm forgetting someone……..if so let me know.

The fishing wasn’t great, but the weather and conversation were! Hope to see ya all next time!

Created a photo album of my pics from camp on photo bucket. Please let me know if the link doesn't work. Also please read descriptions for each pic. If I spelled names wrong or got names wrong please let me know and I'll get them corrected.

Thanks,

Shawn

http://s730.photobucket.com/user/spe...Camp%20Milford

What a great weekend! Thanks for all the work Shawn!

Nice bunch of photos! Gives me a chance to relive the experience. Did I say that I had a great time!!! Thanks!!!!!

Thanx for the album, lots of years of fishing experience there, and hope to make it in the future.

Thanks to all again. I was truely impressed with thunderbird marina. Very friendly and accommodating folks. Prices a little high but good food. They donated stuff to make s'mores Friday night. Congrats to scouts out on his 14" crappie Friday night. Post it on lake records please. Also enjoyed meeting his father in law Tom. Thanks to brad's (scoutsout) wife, tim's (fishing Tim) wife, & Shane's (LLltec) girl friend for putting up with all of us. Going to try to bring my wife next time also.


I encourage all to come out and meet the other CDC'ers. Very friendly, fun, helpfull group. Fairly calm most of the time. Great stories and Fish tails.

Sure missed charlie368 and his guitar.

Don

Thanks Shawn for all you did to put this together...I vote to let you run it every year. Maybe meet up for an over nighter at the Glen this summer. I had a great time and the best was just sitting around talking with guys.

Dave, I couldn't of done any of it without your help!!! I don't know about running it every year but will sure do it again some time. Maybe Scoutsout, Skinner80, yourself and I could hook up over at Milford sometime. That would be fun!! As far as the Glen goes, we are planning on hitting a few weekends in June. I'll let you know when :-)

Anytime at Milford, sounds great! Hate to report, but they were biting hard last night:fish

Yeah I know, I figured that's how it would go. Skinner reported the same. Had camp a weekend to early!! Glad you got into em :-)

Looks like you guys had allot of fun and would have been nice to meet all of you but didn't end up having enough time. Hopefully can make it next time.