Who's interested in a Iowa Crappie Club

Ok anglers, here's what we are thinking. We would like to start an Iowa Crappie Club, with all of your help. Things we would like to be able to do with this club would be first and foremost, better crappie fishing in Iowa!!! Increase knowledge of structure, crappie patterns, tips and tricks. Promote being a good steward of our public and private waters.

We could:

--have a few tourneys each year (fun affordable tourneys)
--get together and build structure and habitat
--have crappie clinnics for youth or anyone interested
--build awarness about crappie fishing in Iowa
--influence policy with the DNR
--Invite bioligists with the Lakes and DNR to speak with our club


These are just some ideas I have thought of, any ideas that you have please post!!

I think it would be great to be able to achieve all of these things, and I truly believe we can. Let's make this happen, with enough support we can have a very educational and fun club. Make crappie fishing in Iowa better. Support each other, make some new friends.

Everyone interested post on this thread, We can start slowly putting together our guidelines, and what we want the club to achieve.

One thing that will help us get this going is to somehow generate more interest in communicating on this site. Every crappie-guy I talk to, I try to put a plug in for this site. I would love to see something good be generated similar to what the Missouri group has going. I have to believe that the more communication we get going, the better. Asking questions, helping with problems, sharing hotspots, or tips that have worked for each one of us. If we can add value, we will get more interest and participation. I'm a 2nd year fisherman, got started again by attending the spring camp that the Missouri guys have down at Truman. I got to know those guys down there, and got hooked on crappie fishing. Heck, I even have a Missouri crappie.com sticker on my Iowa truck. Would love to have an Iowa sticker join it.
jim

I have to agree with Gunner, we need some people on this board. I moved back to Iowa two years ago and was in Virginia. I would have to say they have a bunch more people on that board. We had get togethers, little tourneys and a whole lot of chatting about everyday life there. Shoer was the most full of crud guy on the board. But it was a great time metting other fisherman and fisherwoman from all over the state. I still have my VA crappie.com sticker on my boat and truck. I live up in the NW part of the state and I think we may have 2-3 from this area on here and not often. I would me more than happy to travel to the other parts of the state for gatherings a few times a year. Lets get the word out. Heck I may do more crappie fishing, instead of walleye then.

Sounds great guys. Let's gt the word out. Get people to post on here, we can start keeping a list of people interested. This would be a great start. Then have a few meetings online, to set some guidelines. We should talk to a few of the other states that have clubs already, get some dos and don'ts, and some general tips. I look forward to getting to know all you guys.


Brian

What do you think about starting to plan a spring "Crappie camp" like what the Missouri guys do. What lake in Iowa is normally a really good spawn lake. We could pick a "tentative date", put the word out that we are trying to get a count of interested people, and if the interest is there, we could firm up the plans. Would be a great way to meet everybody, do some fishing, bonfire and libations at night, etc.
jim

Sounds like a good idea I would most likely join but due to my job I have very little free time. One thing that concerns me is that we have so few members on this fourm, seems to me the first step would be trying to get more people to join the Iowa fourm and participate more. I guess my sugestion would be start out slowly like by trying to get a spring camp started like what the Mississippi and Missiori boards do.

That sounds reasonable to me. Hope people are more responsive than they have been in the past. But, if this doesn't pick up, I guess I'll keep going to truman in the spring as long as the Missouri guys will still take me. :-)

Hey guys, I would be interested. I've been a registered member on this site for about a year now, I think. I was just gettin' into Crappie fishing and was looking for tips, and man, the people on this sight sure are knowledgeable. And it only gets better, my brother just got a boat so I won't be limited to shore fishing anymore, woohoo! I know quite a few fishermen, and have referred them to this site as well, but I don't see much for results. I've been reading and checking this forum daily, just hadn't remembered my password to log in until today.

I am sure we will start small, but I truly believe we can grow over time. A Crappie Clinnic would be great. If you are familiar with the Mssouri one, that will be very useful info. I am open to any lake. I am close to Rathbun, but I will travel anywhere we decide as a group. I sent an email to the Iowa DNR and I would like to share it and the DNR's response with everyone:


My name is Brian Carter, a group of anglers and I are starting an Iowa Crappie Club. Our goals are to educate our members about crappie fishing. Promote safe fishing practices and generally help make Crappie Fishing better in Iowa. We would like to work with the Iowa DNR and it's officials to help make our club as educational and rewarding as possible. This way we could promote the DNR policies to our members, and hopefully build a working relationship with the Iowa DNR. Any support would be greatly appreciated. Are there any programs that may help to build our club? We are very serious about our intentons and hopes for our club. I hope this email receives you well and any information would be greatly appreciated. Please forward this email to the appropriate people.

Thank you for your time,

Sincerely
Brian Carter


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brian,

Thank you for your interest in crappie fishing in Iowa. With your location in Albia, you are close to some of the finest crappie fishing Iowa has to offer in Rathbun Lake. The Iowa DNR would be happy to assist you in your efforts to promote crappie fishing in Iowa, however, we do need some more detailed information regarding exactly what type of assistance you might request.

To start, I would suggest that you contact the local management biologist in your area. That person is Mark Flammang, and he works out of the fish hatchery at Lake Rathbun. The phone number at the hatchery is 641-647-2406. Mark is an outstanding resource.

I can assist you with navigating the DNR Special Events system, when or if you decide to host a club fishing tournament.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Sincerely,

Jeff Kopaska
Fisheries Research Biologist
Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources

Boone Wildlife Research Station
1436 255th St.
Boone, IA 50036
515-432-2823 X109


Sounds very receptive to me, hopefully a good start. I will work on some flyers we can distribute at the bait shops, Bass Pro, etc. If anyone has some mad flyer skills speak up, we could just have them sign up on Crappie.com and post. This should help get the word out. Also, what name sounds good to you guys (and any gals), I was thinking Iowa Crappie Club? But I wanted to throw that out there. We can build a very simple website with the clubs info.

I have no imagination (ask my wife), so "Iowa Crappie Club" sounds good to me. Good start Brian! thanks
jim

Looks like you have a good start and I already notice an incress of activity on here. Hopefully we can get more members and more of us will post up more. It is duck season now so I will not wet a line again till ice fishing, but I will try and get the word out. But if I keep seeing pic's like what perchjerker posted I may have to take a break from the ducks.

Yeah Prchjerker really had a nice mess!!! I have not been out for the past two weeks, I had a wedding and getting the lower unit repaired on my boat (Truman trees). It is killing me, Rathbun is really heating up. The word I have been getting is they have mved in shallow. I hope I can get out and see, shallow is my favorite depth.

I hope we can keep going forward with the Club, it seems to be a decent start.

Good Fishing to everybody!

I'm interested! I don't have much free time, but I am willing to help out with what I can.

this post seems to have died out but i can tell you that we have started a club here on lake rathbun crappie club had our first tournament 9/18/2011 and one more coming on 10/09/2011 still kinda small but we just started out only 5 teams entered last one but looks better for oct and we are trying to plan for one a month nexted year starting in april every 3rd sunday of the month all the way through to oct anyway if anyone is interested can call Frank at 641-895-4911 for more info

This is awesome I live in Northern Iowa but would be willing to travel a few times a year also. I think it is a great Idea to get this club a rolling. Maybe a good kick off for anyone interested would be a spring camp. I am a DNR Bow Hunter Education Instructor and have quite a few contacts there so anyway i can help count me in. I have fished Crappie tournaments in Minnestoa for about 20 years now so maybe could help with the camp setup. We have an annual Crappie challenge every spring a week after Walleye opener in Minnesota. We usualy have 20 to 25 boats 2 person teams and works out real well. Iowa Crappie Club sounds good to me for a start we could expand on it when we get a few member. Lets keep this going and see what happens. Count me in and Jim AKA gunner_1911 send me a p.m with your address I have 1 Iowa Crappie.com sticker left and your welcome to it.
Randy

Forgot to mention at our Archery shop we have a vinyl machine and I can make Club decals if we decide to go that way. Let me put something together next week to see what everybody thinks. Sound good! let me know.
Randy

looks like the weather is going to be GREAT and the fish are starting to bite again and if everyone who has called me or said they would be in shows up we could have close to 10 teams showing up so if you are interested give me a call and I will be glad to give you any other info you might need and even if you cant make this one keep us in mind cause nexted year we are going to try and hit the ground running in late april and diffenetly have at least one tourny a month all the way thru the year!!! Everyone talks about getting something going or why dont we have any tournys here in Iowa will here is your chance to be a part of it and show your support with more teams getting involed the more fun we can have and the more things we can do and the more ideas we will have anyway keep us in mind and call if you have any questions or need directions thanks again. FRANK 641-895-4911 or 641-724-3171