Whirlwind couple weeks and even a Palestine Report!!!

Posted By: Slewfoot

Whirlwind couple weeks and even a Palestine Report!!! - 10/06/21 05:05 PM

What a wild couple weeks! Crappie Masters at Darbonne was tough as we expected. The fish there are really spooky. Fishing Grenada helps prepare you for Darbonne! Those crappie there are smart fish! We pitched 1/8 oz Slab Syndicate hand ties and some I make as well and shot 1/24oz hand ties I make on 6lb line to fish we couldn't make fire on the bigger jigs. We tried minnows but most fish spooked from the minnows flutter or the fish simply came and sucked the minnow off the jig. It's so hard to put 2 days together Nationally. We've been close a few times but fell short. We set our goal for this year at a trophy! While it took all season to get it we reached our goal! I remember sitting in the hot seat with 2 to weight in texting folks we came in 3rd and finally got our trophy so we sure were shocked when we came in second! We moved to one last spot with 15 minutes left to fish and culled up .2 to beat Eric Cagle by .1 pounds! We chased a fish around for 30 minutes we couldn't make bite that was 2.50 I bet. She fluttered on my 1/24oz twice but wasn't having any of it! Hard to pull off a fish that size but we did.

Crappie Expo is so awesome and we've been blessed to make the stage on day 3 at every one so far! Chris Jones is awesome! I enjoy talking with him every year. We through we had a good plan together. Had 2 oxbows we liked. One with bigger fish we didn't think had enough fish to beat on em hard and we hoped we could catch 7 there each day and leave and hit other spots! It's where we found the gator! When we went looking for the gator we found a ditch along the bank and the water went from 7-12' and we saw 6 good fish in that ditch in one pass! Stuck 2 kickers prefishing there and then put the rods down and got out of there! Other area had more fish but not the kickers we needed. Day one we had 11.04 and caught 3 fish in our gator ditch. Day 2 we had 10 on the nose and only caught 2 there! I knew we were gonna fall and we bailed with a couple hours left to fish on day 3 and hit a backup area to just put 7 fish together! We had 2 weight fish at 11 on day 3 and had to quit fishing at 120 to get back and be on the trailer by 2pm. Police escort though town is pretty sweet! I could get used to that! So awesome to see all the vendors there! I love seeing crappie fishing growing. I have several professional bass fishing buddies that make their living doing nothing but tournament fishing! That would be so cool to see crappie fishing get there in my lifetime! Wally has it headed the right direction for sure. Looking forward to Branson next year. Hope it's not cold and rainy this time! That was misserable!

Yesterday I took my mom's best friend Paula out to Palestine for a couple hours! She flew down to come watch us at the crappie expo and said Clay and I had a bunch of fans in Nebraska! Who knows. She's already text me to let her know the Branson dates so she can come there as well! SHe's never caught a crappie and I haven't been on the lake in a month so we fished a little bit of everything! Timber, brush, docks, even the bridge. We caught fish on all of it but if I was going back tomorrow I would fish main lake timber or the bridge if you just want some eaters! We used 1/8oz hand ties on the timber and brush and 1/16oz on docks and the bridge along with Lanes Thump Chubbies! If you like shooting docks you should check them out! As always we had the 11' Kevin Rogers Jenkos on board and the 7' Trick Sticks. If you've never tried shooting docks with a longer rod give it a try! Accuracy is better IMO and you have the leverage you need to get those fish out from around the pilings!

I had a cancellation for Oct 20th and looking at my schedule I could do a trip on the 26th as well! I'll get back on Fork and Pines this week as well. Looking forward to getting back to those 2 lakes for sure!!

Slew