Crappie USA - Fort Gibson,
OK - 10/04
Our first big
tournament was the Crappie USA Region 4 Qualifier at Fort
Gibson Lake in Oklahoma...October, 2004.
Neither of us
had ever fished this lake. We decided to get up there
at least 1 day before the tournament to pre-fish the lake.
So, we made the 5-6 hour drive North, spent the night,
and hit the lake at dawn the next morning.
We spent the
first several hours with our faces buried in the graph.
We had read some lake reports about fish being caught
in brush, on bluffs, and in a couple of the creek areas.
After marking
a few brush/rock piles, we decided to do some fishing
while we were at it. And so the day went...graphing, fishing
for a little, and marking the spot on the GPS if it was
a place we wanted to re-visit during the tournament. We
caught quite a few fish, and several over 1lb. I have
always loved to fish boat dock areas when I can, and this
lake had several docks. One of them we pre-fished would
prove to be the difference maker.
So, by the end
of the day we were feeling pretty confident about being
able to put 10lbs. of fish in the boat, and felt that
would be good enough to qualify for the Regional Tournament
in Arkansas the following June '05.
The morning of
the tournament arrives. Neither of us slept very well
that night, and we were eager to get to our first spot.
We had a plan on exactly where we would fish, and stuck
to it. After about 1.5 hours of fishing our first spot,
we did not have a fish in the boat...and we had just caught
some really good fish in this spot the day before.
We moved off
to spot #2 and it produced for us, to the tune of 7 keepers
by 10:30am. All we needed were 3 more and we could start
culling fish. Well, the #2 spot faded after 10:30, and
we decided to hit spot #3...no fish...spot #4...no fish.
By this time it was about 2:00pm, and we had to stop fishing
by 3:00pm.
Our spot #5 was
a boat dock that we had pulled a couple fish off the day
before. We decided to hit that dock and then call it a
day. We pulled up to the dock, I dropped a minnow overboard
and BAM...fish on...but it was a catfish. Wes had dropped
his minnow overboard, and was working the corner of the
dock and BAM...fish on...get the net...a beautiful 2.08lb
black crappie was landed and we were fired up!
That fish proved
to be the only keeper we pulled off that dock. We headed
to the weigh-in with only 8 fish (you could weigh in as
many as 10). Our 8 fish weighted 8.65lbs...good enough
for 10th place in the Amateur division, and the top-10
teams automatically qualify for the Crappie USA Regional
Tournament to be held at Lake Dardanelle, AR in June '05.
And, that 2.08lb fish...was the big fish for the tournament
and earned us a good check!
Needless to say,
we were quite pleased with our performance, and quickly
forgot about the fact that we were 2 fish short of our
limit.
Here is a photo
of Wes and I with our "big fish" and our Regional
Tournament Application:
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