Considering the Championship was on Palestine this year, a lake that normally produces plenty of big fish, the fishing was tough. Everyone struggled to find big fish. Past years have seen multiple fish over 2 lbs come to the scales at any CAT tournament on this lake. There were plenty of fish caught but the big ones were hard to come by. Only one 2 lb fish was brought to the scales the first day and two the second day.
Fish were caught all over the lake. Some teams were fishing standing timber in 20-30 FOW, some fishing all brush piles and one team that placed in DIV II shot docks both days. All types of baits caught fish, but chartreuse, chart/blue. chart/black produced the most fish. Fish were caught about equal on jigs or jigs tipped with minnows. Lots of fish in the 11-12" range caught both days with some teams catching over 60 fish a day.
Todd and I managed to recover from our first day puny string and find some bigger fish the second day and big fish of the tournament at 2.07 lb. Moving up from 10th to finish 3rd did feel good.
DIV II had 22 teams and DIV I had 18 teams.
Congratulation to Kelly Satterwhite and Eric Walker for winning DIV II as State Champs.
And to Paul O'Bier and George Nelon for their 5 State Championship win in a row.
Paul O'Bier has teamed with two different partners to win Angler of the Year 9 of the 10 years CAT has held tournaments. That is an impressive record.
Crappie Anglers of Texas has finished 10 years of tournaments and monthly meetings and given several thousand dollars away in scholarships to some very deserving young men and women. And hosted several years of the junior angler tournaments. CAT is going strong and appreciates the support of TFF and all the members who enjoy a great club. The tournament trail for 2018 will be out sometime in late Nov.
And mark your calendars for the 2018 CRAPPIE FEST March 31st on Lake Fork. The prize money is growing and so are the prizes. Next year, CAT has partnered with National Ovarian Cancer Coalition to host CRAPPIE FEST. Details will be out in Jan 2018.
Here's the leader board for DIV II. My pic didn't capture the column for the 2 day total.
1) Kelly Satterwhite/Eric Walker 21.13 BF 2.00
2) Stuart Angelle/Max Dukes 19.31
3) Scott/Jody Bradshaw 18.73
4) Brandon Miles/Martin Klien 18.53
5) Ricky Griffin/Truston Hibdon 17.97
DIV II
DIV 1