Tillery and Badin Lakes, N.C. - April 26, 2008
Talk about
pretty weather. Calm wind, bright sunny skies and eighty degrees. For once
the combination that we dream up proved to be havoc for catching crappie.
Already in the post spawn mode, crappie that were in the back of creeks just
finishing up their spawn could be caught pretty easily the first of the week
when it was cooler and cloud cover for the past month had kept the fish in a
calm safe state of mind. But as Wednesday afternoon rolled around, the sun
came out an the water started to heat up. Almost crystal clear water got the
craps to moving to safer ground. Finding fish Wednesday, that weren't there
Thursday and so on. The situation made it nearly impossible to be exactly
where you wanted to be on tournament day. Anglers had about two hours of
fishing before the sun came up and the fish shut down. Some got lucky and
some missed out. All in all most of the 45 teams did manage to get their
limit and make it to the scales for a chance of $3800.00 in payback.
The Hickory
and Vale team of Randy Pope and Jerry Pruitt continued their rampage of
fishing events throughout the country by winning the regular event of the
year. In the past year, the dock shooters have won The Southern Crappie
Classic as well as The Crappie Masters national championship, not to mention
many other wins and top five finishes. The duo said to have struggled the
first couple of hours until they found a pattern with Lindy Fuzzy Grubs,
Lindy Little Nippers along with the invisible but strong Stren Microfusion
Line. These Products along with pure fishing skill helped them to land 11.68
pds of buck fish under docks and take home first place money and prizes
worth over $1100.00.
Taking
second was the State Road team of Brian Shore and Richard Boyd with 11.48pds
and a check for over $500.00. The two were slow trolling minnows in the
mouth of Creek and catching them by surprise as the fish moved past other
anglers who had them the day before.
Coming home
third was the team of Russell Riley and Alan Outlaw from Blythewood and
Camden S.C. The two were able to troll Mountain Creek and land the biggest
majority of their 10.70pds the first two hours and bring home close to
$400.00.
The Father
son team of Ellis and Jon Cannon (only Jon couldn't make so his mom took his
place) were one of only four teams that had chosen to fish Badin Lake on
Saturday. Only to find the same thing on Saturday, that the fish were gone.
Still though the two managed to catch the big Crappie of the event with a
2.05 post spawn hammer worth $268.00 bucks.
Official
Web Site of the Southern Crappie Tournament Trail (SCTT)
