First 2017 tournament for CAT was held at Bob Sandlin/Cypress Springs. Great turnout for a January tournament. I think every team fished Bob Sandlin on tournament day. Some teams pre-fished Cypress Springs but had little success. Weather today was was not a hindrance as there were light winds, solid overcast skies and fog moved in and out most of the day. No rain and the temps were mild for January.
Typical January pattern for Sandlin with fish holding deep, 34-46 FOW. Spicer rigging was the method of choice for most people.
There were 16 teams in DIV II and 15 teams in DIV I. That soon to be legendary team of Froebe/Gann/Froebe won DIV II last year and had the honor of moving to DIV I. Now they can harass all the DIV I teams. And harass they did by winning DIV I with a total weight of 12.24 and big fish at 2.53. Looks like they've staked their claim as the team to beat in 2017.
There were some impressive weights with 9 teams in DIV I over 10 lbs.
Terry Pittman and Jeff Rogers ran away with DIV II with 11.34 lbs.
Here's the leader board

DIV II


DIV I

Sure do like seeing Rhonda Reeve back on the board! Congrats to all that fished!

I sure don't think we're the team to beat in 2017 but dang happy the way the day turned out! Friday I caught 2 crappie fishing straight jigs. Saw spider riggers catching some fish so I asked Cody how he rigged up his rods and went to Walmart Friday night for 1/2oz egg sinkers and minnow hooks. I can't imagine how some of those guys and gals troll 8 rods with 2 hooks a piece on them. It was all I could do to keep up with 4 and 1 hook a piece. Clay caught a huge sand bass that managed to tangle every rod I had in the water. Had to cut and retie all 4 poles. Also thanks to Mark with 4 Nails! I watched his YouTube video on how he rigs minnows! Staring at rod tips all day was like watching paint dry but it sure beats not catching fish!!

Not everyone Ken as ya see we got a big fat zero! Should have pre fished and done or homework we fished cypress and caught 5 crappie all day with only one being a keeper Owell. Congrats to the winners and time to work on ray Robert's see yall there.

What an experience for first time fishing a CAT tournament. Very humbling. I got two thumps all day long fishing jigs and missed them both. Weigh in was cool seeing all the nice fish brought to the scales and listening to how the guys caught them. Got of lot of learning still to do. Some very skilled and knowledgeable anglers in the the group. Congrats to all the winners!

congrats guys ! fishing was very slow for us, we had 10 keepers all caught on jigs. we were very surprised to take 3rd place with the 7 fish we weighed in, Im ready for this winter to be over !

Very neat. I don't know anything about how crappie tournaments work. Was 7 fish the maximum that could be weighed?

First off, it was great to see Rhonda and JayDon back on the water! Having those two involved always perks things up.


It wasn't fast paced fishing, but it wasn't too bad either. Like Todd, we were new to the concept of staring at rod tips all day. My job has always kept me from doing any deep water winter crappie fishing, but when in Rome....
Friday was the first time on the lake for my partner and I, and it was his first time to fish a tourney. So we were tickled with the 2nd Place D2 finish. We just adapted what we did know to the situation and picked the brains of some other crappie guys. Luckily it worked out.
All the fresh water and almost 2' rise in the lake level seemed to push the fish deeper and made the bite slow. For us the bite seemed to be a little better on Sat than Fri. We found fish in 40' water suspended over brush about 34-38' down. I two poled double minnow rigs, while my partner fished a single pole double minnow rig. All in all, a great tourney for us!

A big thanks to all the CAT officers that always put on a great tourney! I always meet and enjoy visiting with some great folks and great fishermen at these tourney. Come out and join us, if you've never been. You might just surprise yourself, and I promise you'll learn a lot!

Good to see new teams on the leader board. Glad you joined the fun.
ATM97, your statement about the weigh in is right on. There's a lot of sharing going on and fun times. When I first started these tournaments, I gained a wealth of knowledge at every weigh in. People were willing to share what they were doing and where the fish were. You begin building your knowledge base with all the helpful hints and finding these fish starts to become easier. If you haven't fished a tournament, join the fun. You meet a lot of great people who happen to be good crappie fishermen and ladies. At the top of that list is my inspiration, Rhonda Reeve.

Next up; Ray Roberts. Going to be interesting for sure.

If you haven't started making plans for Crappiefest, April 1, at Fork, start making plans now. I believe there's over $23,000 in prize money this year. And some new categories for prize awards. There will be a prize for lightest legal fish and 4 mystery fish weights which will be drawn at random. These 4 mystery weights will each get significant prize money. There will also be the same prize categories as last year and junior angler categories. Details coming soon
And the weigh in will be in Emory this year where we hope to have more room for parking.

Yes, 7 fish, must be alive, to weigh in.

You weigh 7 "keeper" fish, so they have to be legal. (10" in most Texas lakes)
These are 2 person "partner" tourneys, but you can fish solo if you like.
There is Division 1 for the seasoned crappie guys, and a Division 2 for "the rest of us".
Check it out at:
www.crappieanglersoftexas.com

Congrats fellas

Sure wish I could have been there... Maybe next month??

Yesterday was my first time fishing CAT. It was a very humbling experience to say the least. Tournament day was my 3rd time ever on the lake. The first time I went to the lake I spent several hours graphing and learning a little bit about the lake. I fished for maybe a hour total and caught fish at ever stop. 2nd scouting trip was not quite as good fishing but I was still able to boat a few fish for the amount of time I spend with my line in the water.
Tournament day was a whole new story. We fished brushpiles in 25-30 foot of water. This is the pattern that produced several nice fish prefishing. We were able to only boat 2 keeper crappie all day. This may be the worst day of catching crappie I have ever had.
On the bright side we had an opportunity to spend a nice day on the lake and meet several new people. I look forward to fishing another one. Hopefully we can have a better showing next time!

Congrats to all in the money!!