Telephone, Telegraph, or Tell-A-Friend; The Jeffries Are NCL National Champions

“Look at the color on them fish. They’ll be on the banks this week if the weather is right,” said John Paul Powell of Delhi, La. John Paul fishes Poverty Point Reservoir quite frequently and as fate would have it, I was fortunate enough to stand beside him during the final weigh-in for the Nation Crappie League’s National Tournament that was held at the Monroe Civic Center this past weekend. The tournament had two divisions, Open & Division 1, and they would all fish three different bodies of water in three days. The first two days were split between Caney Creek Reservoir, Lake Darbonne, and on day 3 they all would fish Poverty Point Reservoir. 

I learned more about Poverty Point during that final day weigh-in than any article or video could ever teach me. As each team would come up, John Paul would listen to what they’d say and add his own interpretation to the information shared. It reminded me of color analyst breaking down a football game. 

We stood there and watched as the Division 1 teams went first. Team after team talked about the rough water that the lake had that day. After he and his dad weighed in, I spoke with Bryce Acerman from Sterlington, La. He told me about their day and about a decision that had to be made. 

With the water being very rough, the duo wanted to change locations and go across the lake, but their light aluminum boat wasn’t handling the swells of water very well so they decided not to go where they wanted to fish. “It just wasn’t worth the risk,” he said. 

Later, John Paul told me that he was waiting on his friend to weigh and when Landon Bingham & his partner Chris Traylor walked around the corner, we could tell their bag was respectable. Their total weight allowed them to take the hot seat for a bit but in the end it was the guys from Horse Cave, Kentucky, Matthew Dennison and Brian Dennison who walk away with the Division 1 trophies with a three day total weight of 29.68. Their biggest sack of the tournament came on day 1 on Caney with a total weight of 10.33 and their biggest fish of the whole tournament also came on day 1 with a weight of 2.94. 

But the buzz around the crappie world was what would Hayden & Dan Jeffries bring to the scale? When the Open Division started, the first few total weights were average. That is, until Jordan Sanders and Jason Holleman came across the stage with a total 5 fish weight of 12.68, putting them in the hot seat. 

Not too long after that, the second place team walked around the corner and it was the climax of the event. Could the Jeffries come from a first day fifth place finish and win it on day 3?  

Their big fish was the first on the scale and when the weigh-master saw it, his reaction got the crowd’s attention; the scale only told the truth. Just before the scale leveled, a spectator added, “No cell phone needed!”  

“Three twenty six!!!” was proclaimed and then we waited for the scales to decide the fate of the tournament. What would the five fish total be?  “Fourteen twenty four! Fantastic!” and with that, the NCL National Tournament was pretty much done and done. 

When Hayden took the microphone to say a few words, he summed the experience up in one sentence. “I’m just gonna say that I had one thing to prove this weekend and I’m pretty sure that bag did that”. 

Earlier this year, another national crappie trail launched an investigation into alleged “communications” rules violations from 2023 events that included four angers, Jeffries being one. 

The Jeffries team’s won the tournament and the grand prize of $25,000 with a three day total weight of 35.42. The biggest fish of the tournament came on day 3 from Poverty Point and weighed in at 3.26 and gained them an additional $1,200. Their biggest bag also came from the final day at Poverty and weighed 14.24, making them the NCL National Champions