Mr.Crappie invitational discussion

Before this tournament was held I heard a few things about the lake choice that in my opinion would make it a way above average challenge . Then toss in some poor weather conditions and KABOOM !
The fishing has been very tough there from what I heard , so lets discuss what you would have done to stay in it . I know how a few of them are holding in there and its an outside the box pattern for a tournament angler . I found it interesting to see what happens when you put those kinds of conditions on a less than favorable crappie lake and send out the pro crappie crowd .
So lets hear what you think or would have done to stay in it :popcorn

Rotenone and crank telephone

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Easy peezy...... Find a protected bank with good depth and structure and work it over..... That day 1 of this tourney was a beast for most and the ones that didn't fight the wind showed up with a good bag......

yes sir , i hear tell its was tough , i saw a terribly high number of zero fish to weigh in on day one .
bet it was tough to stay on good fish , i know some of the Texas crowd used my favorite spank them good pattern .

Ok ketch!
Lower the KABOOM on us and share with us some them their secrets for when the bite is tuff!

I think it was the third place team said at final weigh in they shot docks 100% of the time. Everyone of the final day 25 teams used live scope...I was out by my truck when the convoy of teams was escorted back to the convention center for final weigh in, and not on of the boats had a rod holder on it...much to the dismay of one of the sponsors of the tournament...


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Here's the issue... Fishing tournaments have turned into video games -- everything is "pay to win".

15 years ago, if you wanted to fish in the wind, you had to have skill with a trolling motor or anchor up. Now, spend a few thousand on a 36v trolling motor and use spot lock.

15 years ago, side scan was fairly new. Now, everyone has side-scan and down imaging, and while side-scan requires some level of "reading", down imaging takes away a lot of the guess work. Add in livescope and anyone without it is at a huge disadvantage.

I'd like to see a tournament with a large creel limit, only basic depthfinders, and absolutely no livescope. I don't want to see who can bring in the 3 or 5 largest fish. I consider skill to be bringing in the 30 largest fish. A couple of big fish is luck. A bunch of big fish is skill.

Don't you know that fishing tournaments are advertising vehicles for the manufacturers?
Otherwise, they wouldn't sponsor them.
Wally is trying to make the crappie tournaments just like the BASS "show off the sponsors stuff" events. That's what he means by "grow the sport". Follow the money.
You're wishing for a big time fruit jar tournament.


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Except for when the tournament players aren’t using the sponsors products....should have two fields, one with and one without live scope with equal payouts...my 2cents worth...

You guys watch the Crappie Masters Mississippi trail this next June. A whole new format. One person, one pole, one bait. Spotter in the boat and fish weighed in the boat and immediately released. Major League Fishing format. No live bait and no net!
Electronics are here to stay and more advanced ones are on the way. The idea of dipping a jig around every stump to find a fish is a thing of the past for tournaments.

As far as Wally's tournament, there was a lot of variables thrown in. From temperature change, to wind to muddy water. That's a quick adapt each day. I don't think it was easy on any of the teams. I'm glad I was at home working on the duck blind lol

i am not sure what the winners did to win it , but they are well known in these parts for staying on crappie .
them guys are crappie ketchn on steroids .
always wanted to fish with them .
not sure about the final standings , i did hear docks were the place to be though

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Originally Posted by Schmoopie

Here's the issue... Fishing tournaments have turned into video games -- everything is "pay to win".

15 years ago, if you wanted to fish in the wind, you had to have skill with a trolling motor or anchor up. Now, spend a few thousand on a 36v trolling motor and use spot lock.

15 years ago, side scan was fairly new. Now, everyone has side-scan and down imaging, and while side-scan requires some level of "reading", down imaging takes away a lot of the guess work. Add in livescope and anyone without it is at a huge disadvantage.

I'd like to see a tournament with a large creel limit, only basic depthfinders, and absolutely no livescope. I don't want to see who can bring in the 3 or 5 largest fish. I consider skill to be bringing in the 30 largest fish. A couple of big fish is luck. A bunch of big fish is skill.

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book a trip down here with either of the 2 that won , you will get to see skill first hand and a pile of big fish too

Livescope doesn't make them bite. It's just a tool if you can't fish It's not going to help you much. I've fished with people that have it and it not the advantage that everyone thinks it is. I have a friend that has it and he can't catch a cold. Those same guys winning the tournament would have won anyway.

" Tiger woods is the best golfer no matter what clubs he uses "

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I was thinking Ronnie Capps was blast live scope, during his speech at the weigh-in......You can definitely tell he's not a big fan of live scope but he like the rest of us will have to adapt.....
If Humminbird don't hurry up and get something as good or better I'll be joining the live scope crowd and will fight into some of the bigger crappie tourneys soon.....

them guys that took it were ridiculous good WAY before livescope i promise .
i have lurked behind them 10 years always wishing for a phone call from one of them for a boat ride .
maybe some day i will be fortunate enough to fish with one of them ,who knows .
dont know either one of them personally ,but do know they stay on crappie like a dog on a bone in Texas .
that in itself interests me :highfive
heard tell they found the fish in deep water spread out on very deep timber ...btw

The winning team had barely over 7 lbs on day 1!

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Originally Posted by SKs Crappie Catching Adventures

Easy peezy...... Find a protected bank with good depth and structure and work it over..... That day 1 of this tourney was a beast for most and the ones that didn't fight the wind showed up with a good bag......

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Originally Posted by shadow

The winning team had barely over 7 lbs on day 1!

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You are totally right...... Those were the BIG BAGS considering what most showed up with......LOL

some of the anglers didnt even weigh in a single fish on day one .
i think i saw about a third of the board with a zero in the column .
some of those anglers have livescope for sure .
i heard tell the conditions were really tough .

Everyone fishing the tournament more than likely had Livescope. That isn’t what some of those guys are complaining about, Ronnie Capps I think runs two of them. The issue is Livescope is removing the skill it took to fish before its advent. That isn’t a slight to the guys that won, I am sure they were great fisherman before. But there are guys out there that weren’t even crappie fishermen before LS that are now a threat to win any tournament they enter. It has to be hard to swallow for guys that have spent tens of thousands of hours learning to be the best to watch technology circumvent the learning process. It’s obvious by looking at results of tournaments across the country that Livescope doesn’t make the fish bite but LS does bring people into the mix that never had a shot before.

To the ones saying Livescope isn’t that big of an advantage in a tournament over guys that do not have it, you must not follow tournament fishing very close. Please find tournament results from a major tournament the last couple years where the winner wasn’t using LS. Find a tournament that somebody won trolling crankbaits or long lining jigs. It won’t happen anymore.

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Originally Posted by pab1981

Everyone fishing the tournament more than likely had Livescope. That isn’t what some of those guys are complaining about, Ronnie Capps I think runs two of them. The issue is Livescope is removing the skill it took to fish before its advent. That isn’t a slight to the guys that won, I am sure they were great fisherman before. But there are guys out there that weren’t even crappie fishermen before LS that are now a threat to win any tournament they enter. It has to be hard to swallow for guys that have spent tens of thousands of hours learning to be the best to watch technology circumvent the learning process. It’s obvious by looking at results of tournaments across the country that Livescope doesn’t make the fish bite but LS does bring people into the mix that never had a shot before.

To the ones saying Livescope isn’t that big of an advantage in a tournament over guys that do not have it, you must not follow tournament fishing very close. Please find tournament results from a major tournament the last couple years where the winner wasn’t using LS. Find a tournament that somebody won trolling crankbaits or long lining jigs. It won’t happen anymore.

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I totally agree with what you've said here and I also totally agree with what Ronnie Capps said...... With LS there's no telling who will win any of the crappie tourneys right now as skills have almost zero to do with it...... It's all about finding the right fish and putting something in its face to entice it to bite.....
Yes some can say it take skills to run LS but it's a elevated leap from not being able to see a particular size fish and putting your bait which you can also see in a fish face.....
I get questioned by several why I don't reel my line up when I catch a fish, well that's a big part of those skills that we that don't have LS had to do to get back to the depth we caught the previous fish at...... All of that is gone in the wind and definitely not needed with LS......

I'll also add at this time LS is a must to compete in any crappie tourney to have hopes of winning......

Did they have a full tourney of 100 teams?

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Originally Posted by SKs Crappie Catching Adventures

You are totally right...... Those were the BIG BAGS considering what most showed up with......LOL

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Yes sir, it was rainy, windy and bitterly cold...as stated before, get out of the wind as much as possible. In my previous statement I did not imply that the ones with live scope couldn’t win without it. They all are accomplished fishermen. I’m saying, as well as have heard some fishermen themselves say, they drop the unit in the water scan around a bit, and if there are no large fish, they gone without even wetting a line...
One of the leading teams stated they didn’t know if they would make it back in time on the final day as they had ran a total of 100 miles that day. That struck me as odd, and with out doing just as described above, I don’t believe much,if any fishing would have been done. Rainy, cold and foggy mornings, coupled with the speeds the needed to accomplish this, my question is who wants to be the one to notify the next of kin, or pull someone’s corps out of the water. Slow down, put more skill back into it as stated in the couple of statements above. That’s all I’m saying...


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Yes I think they started with like 115 teams, 230 anglers. Somewhere right in that neighborhood...

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Originally Posted by Jamesdean

Yes I think they started with like 115 teams, 230 anglers. Somewhere right in that neighborhood...

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well that explains yours and my lack on an invite , they went way to far past the one hundred planned teams and ran out of stamps, i told you there was a good reason we didnt get invited Sk ......:crazy: :Rofl