Who will be Master of the Crappie?

Rising, muddy water. Swift current. Colder than normal water temperatures. Rain. Rain. Rain.  Either one of those messes fish up. Put them together and you’ve got a burnt roux for your gumbo. That’s what nearly 100 teams of local and touring crappie fishermen face Friday and Saturday in the Crappie Masters Louisiana State Championship on Lake D’Arbonne.

Daily weigh-in for the big event will be held at 3:30 p.m. at D’Arbonne Pointe. But even with the conditions listed above, don’t expect to see empty livewells. D’Arbonne is a fantastic fishery and these are some fantastic fishermen and fisherwomen here this week. Everybody may not load up, but somebody’s gonna get ’em and get ’em good.

Thursday’s official events kicked off with a Media Day featuring some of the pro teams taking representatives of local First Responder groups. LDWF Sgt. David Harrell took the slab of the day, a 2.05 pounder fishing with Josh Gowan and Alex Rude. Farmerville Fire Chief Billy Jung was second with a 1.98 pounder. He was fishing with David Cox and Steve Hockett.  Others fishing the event included Steve Williams of the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office, Kim Roberts of the West Monroe Fire Department and Lincoln Parish Fire Chief Kevin Reynolds. Union Sheriff Dusty Gates was unable to fish because of the emergency flooding situations this morning in the parish. Here’s an important note:  The First Responders only fished two hours, so their catches should give you some idea of what to expect this weekend when the pros get all day on the water.

I would write more, but a video would be much better, right? Roll that beautiful D’Arbonne fish footage…