WOW! What a tournament full of big fish. The weather was a little nasty Fri with some rain and north winds, but Sat dawned clear and calm. Conditions were right for the fish to be biting and the big ones didn't disappoint. There were 29 fish over 2# weighed in and more than that were caught. After the leader board was showing 2.37 in 10th place, most people with a 2# fish opted to go for closest too. So don't know how many fish were caught that actually exceeded 2#.
This year saw another big increase in entries with 193 adults and 23 juniors; 216 total entries. Folks, in terms of entries, this years Crappie Fest is the largest ever big fish crappie tournament in the U.S. CAT hopes to grow this tournament large enough to be giving away a boat for big fish. CAT is working diligently in that direction.

There was a bonus award for any crappie over 3# and that money was claimed this year by Phillip Law with an impressive 3.2# crappie. That fish was worth $9K. Highest finishing CAT member was Donnie Holder in second place with another impressive 2.97# fish worth $3K.

There were 4 fish over 2# brought to the scales by the junior anglers. Langdon didn't get that 4 pounder but he did have a great 2.22# fish for big fish overall in the junior division for 10 and under just edging out Mason Tucker by .01#. In the 11-17 junior division, Stewart Turner had a 2.11# for first place. Congrats to all the junior anglers.

Bill Muntz will be adding pics later.

Here's pic of the leader board

congrats to all the participants and winners!

Man that was an awesome show CAT!! Good job guys!! Great turnout! Great weather!! And some monster crappie!!! Fished tournament with my dad for the first time in 12-13 years!! Haven't fished a tournament with him since Toledo Bend about the time I hung up my bass rods for good! Langdon learned about mail in kindergarten a month or so ago and he mailed a letter to Grampy telling him to come fish a crappie tournament with him and this was the perfect opportunity!! We kinda got a late start and folks were on a couple of the spots I was gonna start at so we finally stopped at a spot I liked and caught 5-6 crappie real quick. I was taking a crappie off the hook when I saw the Pro Angler rod jump in the Bee Ready and little man was right behind me so I hollered at him to grab the rod! I threw the fish on the floor of the boat just in time to slip the net under his pig!! The hook came out as soon as I did!!! So proud of little man. Maybe he will let his pops beat him sometime!! Grampy even got a check and I broke 2 fish off. No telling what they were. Wasted a couple hours trying to fish shallow. That's my cryptonite. I can probably count on my fingers and toes the crappie ive caught under a cork in my lifetime. Oh well!! Learned a lot and had a great time!! Little mans ready for next year so am I!!!

I'm going to have to try fishing this.

Congrats to all

Now that is one happy young man..Great job...you too dad, raisin' that boy right!!


Gman

You and about umpteen other folks!!! This tourney will grow substantially!!! Fork is a killer lake for this event! Jay Don told me to step back and get a picture of the crowd once and I COULDN"T GET FAR ENOUGH BACK!!!!!! Insane!!! I will go through the HUNDREDS of photos I have and get some uploaded. Folks from Illinois and Alabama!!!! AND THE $$$$$$$$$$!!! AND THE KIDS FACES!!!!!!!! Can't say enough about Jay Don and the CAT board on pulling this off and shooting for the stars!!!!!! Big thumbs up for Alec and Jana also!!!!
OH and a ........................3.20# sow!!!!!!!!

Awesome! I wish Chris Waters needed a net man. I was free all day. Next year! Congrats to the winners and to Little Man!

That's cool!

Beltonbanger when you get a chance grab some dimensions on that fish.I'm interested to see how wide she was across the belly.

She is froze now, going from some of the other fish I've done she is going to be 15"-16".

Congrats to all the winners!!

It was a Great turnout.

Great job C.A.T.!!!

Dad and I fished it but could not make weigh in...we caught a grand total of zero Crappie yesterday.
It was our first tournament together and it was great to be able to say we fished it.
I got to spend the day on the water with my father...Priceless.

You win some you lose some.

We finished the day out with Mexican and Margaritas last night.

Love the pictures!!

Still chasing the 3 pounder.

My net man sucked. He knocked 2 fish off. Both were over 3 lbs.

Just for the record....that wasnt me. lol Nice fish partner!