It was a cool clear morning on High Rock Lake. Nineteen teams geared up for what they've been anticipating for many months...the first tournament of the 2011-2012 Southern Crappie Tournament Trail.  October is “transition time” when Crappie leave the deep water that they inhabit during the heat of the Summer and begin feeding on the large schools of baitfish on the water surface after it cools.  Proving that all of those fish breaking the surface this time of year are not always those of the Bass species, Nick Babin and Rick “Capp” Eudy took the First Place spot with a seven fish total weight of 9.62 pounds and the Big Fish of the tournament hawg weighing in at 2.20 pounds.  We caught up with Nick and Capp and here is what they had to say… (Nick) “It was a springtime flashback…I love spring fishing when the fish are so shallow you can see some of them.  This is what we were up against.  I pulled corks out of the back of the boat while Capp tight-lined double rigs up front.  We never caught a fish deeper than 6 foot.  I must say, it was an honor to fish with Mr. Eudy.  I never knew how knowledgeable and in tune to the habitual nature of Crappies he is until I got in the boat with him last year.  I look forward to fishing with him the rest of this SCTT season.  (Capp) “Babin is simply awesome!  I have been learning from Nick since that day years ago at Blewett Falls when he and his son Grant couldn’t keep their rods in the boat, they were catching fish so fast and I couldn’t buy a bite.  I thought to myself then…”that boy knows how to catch a Crappie” and he has proven it time and time again.  He pulled corks out of the back of my boat like nobody has…and he caught a lot of fish.  It’s usually tough to catch fish out of the back when the fish are shallow, but he managed to put 3 of our 7 weighing fish in the live well.  That’s the kind of partner you need.  One that can adapt and overcome and does whatever it takes to win.  He was a darn good net man too.  Sometime it seemed that before I got the rod out of the holder good he was standing over my shoulder waiting on the fish to surface.” 

Sneaking into second place at nearly ½ pound lighter were the tight-lining Male/Female team of David and Phernice Perrel.  They weren’t available for interview.