Crappiethon winners

RonnieTurner and Roy Weaver…winners!

Ronnie Turner and Roy Weaver of Calhoun caught seven crappie that weighed 10.23 pounds to win the Crappiethon tournament on the Ouachita River and Bayou D’Arbonne out of Joe Bob’s Saturday. Their big fish was 1.97 pounds, a whopper by summer standards.

Mr. Sam

Sam Roberson of West Monroe fished alone, but came in second with 9.02 pounds, including a 1.61 big fish. Joshua Maxwell of Simsboro and Warren Maxwell of Columbia came in third with 6.10 and Dump Patrick of Marion and Steve Thurston of Linville  were fourth with 5.48.

Turner and Weaver started the day spider rigging the stump rows up the bayou in 5 -10 feet of water fishing shiners, then jigs. They fished tops, too, but it was slow. They caught a few fish, but didn’t really pick the good ones up until later in the day when they put shiners ON their jigs. Then they moved up in the creeks in 5-8 feet of water fishing about 3 feet deep. They caught about 20 doing that.

Sam was fishing in the bayou all day and worked the stump lines with black and chartreuse Glitter Critters and monkey milk colors. He as catching fish about 4 – 4.5 feet deep on the edges of the flats where current was coming across the channels. He said there were lots of fish being caught in the river recently, but they just didn’t have the size of the bayou fish. The lake drawdown on D’Arbonne is keeping a good current of fresh water coming down the bayou and that is making fishing there better than normal this time of year.

The Maxwells caught their fish up the bayou in 5-7 feet of water fishing 3 feet deep along stump rows. All their fish were caught on shiners rigged on gold hooks. They used 1/2 ounce weights because of the current.

Patrick and Thurston usually fish with different partners, but teamed up  for this one and went north up the river, instead of in the bayou. They fished hard, but didn’t find them biting in the old tops until 11 a.m. They caught fish in  8 to 10 feet of water on penny back and tadpole /chartreuse.

Team Maxwell

Patrick and Thurston