Crappie USA & a word for today

Good news for fishermen on Lake D’Arbonne. A large majority of the lake’s hefty slab crappie have apparently already spawned.

That’s good news, because it means there are lots of crappie eggs laying around in nests by the cypress tree and shallow flat areas waiting to become the slabs of the future. That was evident at the Crappie USA Pro Crappie event on the lake Saturday. Anglers reported catching bunches of 1.50 and 1.70 pound crappie. A few weeks ago, many of those would have weighed over two pounds or better apiece.

One team found a couple of crappie that hadn’t spawned and those big belly females lifted Michael Vaughn and Michael Yates to the top prize with seven fish weighing 13.61 pounds. Vaughn is from Taylor, La. and Yates is from Lewisville, AR. Frank Haidusek of North Newton, KS, and Michael Parker of Grain Valley, MO were second with 120.40. West Monroe anglers Ronnie Turner and Terry Richard were third and fourth with 11.81 and 11.80 respectively. Vaughn and Yates also caught big fish of the day, a 2.39 pounder. Jason Morgan of Benton was fifth with 10.92.

Chris and Phil Hotzclaw of Ruston and Arcadia won the Amateur division with 12.04 pounds. Every team in the tournament weighed in a limit of seven fish.

The winners of Saturday’s tournament split $10,000 in prize money. There were a lot of other events going on Saturday and the newness of the circuit limited the number of boats, but 30 teams fished in the two divisions. It was Crappie USA’s first venture back to Lake D’Arbonne after more than 20 years of concentrating mostly on the crappie waters of the southeastern and midwestern United States. The Kentucky based group is planning to come back again next year for a pro crappie tournament and possibly an event on their pro catfish circuit as well.

CUSA will also host it’s Region 4 Regional Tournament in Lake D’Arbonne country:

“Look, folks have a wonderful fishery here and I hope they take steps to preserve it,” said Darrell Van Vactor
Operations Manager for CUSA. “This is a treasure right here that a lot of people would love to have. It could be utilized so much better for tourism. That’s never been more important than it is today for areas like this. The lake has a great reputation and the folks we worked with here were all great. I have to commend the fishermen, too. They took great care of the fish and that’s important for our circuit and the lake.”

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A WORD FOR TODAY:

Easter week is the time of year we celebrate God’s plan coming together. Nothing in our lives is more important. If you aren’t where you need to be in your spiritual life, there’s no better time to get there and join in the celebration!

“The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!'” – John 12:12-13