It’s on: Crappie Nationals

Chuck Morgan of Natchitoches and his dad/partner J.C. Morgan of Rocky Branch caught these nice Granada crappie in practice this week.

This weekend’s Crappie Masters National Championship on has more than its share of interest, especially in this area. That’s mainly because a slew of Louisiana anglers are fishing the event. And also because the tournament circuit’s Louisiana State Championship will be held right here on Lake D’Arbonne for the third time this coming spring.

The tournament is being held Friday and Saturday just three+ hours from here on Mississippi’s Grenada Lake, a lake with a 90,000 acre watershed that normally holds about 40,000 surface acres of water (because it is a flood control basin lake, water levels vary considerably).

There are several ways to qualify for the Crappie Masters National Championship — finish in the top ten of any regular season tournament or be the top finishing Male/Female team or Adult/Youth team; Fish in three regular season tournaments; finish high enough in the points race or through a club affiliation.

There will be 190 teams fishing this year. First prize is $30,000; second place is $10,000 and third is $5,000 cash. There are several thousand dollars available in bonus money for fishing particular products — all adding up to more than $100,000 in cash and prizes to be awarded. Crappie fishing has sure come a long way from a single cane pole, a red and white bobber and a penny shiner on a  #2 gold hook.

Louisiana teams:
James and Chuck Morgan
Steve Danna – Terry Morris
Brandon Jennings
Ron Nobles – Palmer Frost
Terry Richard – Casey Rayner
Lukas Herring – Jimmy Murphy
Chris Burnham – Ryan Harrison
Stuart and Tiffany Baum
Benny Freeman – Kerry Freeman

Grenada has long been reccognized as one of the top crappie lakes in the country and regularly produces three pound crappie, even in summer. The giant reservoir is just off I-55 about 80 miles north of Jackson and spans parts of three counties — Grenada, Calhoun, Yalobusha.

Many feel that fishing here is fantastic because of strict regulations on the fishery.  The daily limit is 15 fish per day and any fish 12 inches or shorter MUST be released immediately. No whole fryers there for me!  An angler can fish with no more than four poles with no more than two hooks on each pole.

Good luck to our local anglers!  We’ll have a report on the winners in next Monday’s lakedarbonnelife.com report.