Siren,Ws tournament

[CrappieJohn]

Friday morning I left for a county-wide Crappie tournament in Siren Ws. Any lake within Bennett(?) County could be fished. The meet was held Saturday, but my co-angler and I fished Friday afternoon on Pokegama, just west of Pine City. Like the old saying goes..what a difference a day makes. We had flat out unreal luck on Pokie, boating a ton of dandy fish in less than four hours. Watertemp was sitting at 52 degrees in a navigation channel on the NW corner of the lake and we were setting smack in the middle of a serious bite in balmy 68 degree weather. Of the twenty-some odd+ different plastic baits that I carry, the Culprit Paddle Tail was the trooper to have tied on. We used six differen colors and found all of them to be hot. Switching to a twister or a tube was pure folly for the most part, although there was a half hour where only a tube of pink/white took fish. We never were in water over five feet deep and got the bulk of the fish from less than three! Now on to the tournament. Saturday we were greeted with 27 degrees, a 25 to 40 mph east/southeast wind and much cooler water temps....50 degrees was about average. The lake we chose to fish was Clam, both big and little. We knew that going in blind was a chancey thing and with the weather as it was, we should have pulled and found somewhere that had deeper water. It was the rumors of very large fish that kept us there. Should'a moved though. We saw action from everything but crappies and when we did locate a pod of fish, we could not keep the boat on track even by anchoring. The fish we found were NICE and had we been a bit better prepared for the wind I think we could have at least placed. We could not place ourselves in a postion that we could get a hookset in the wind! The lines had at least a five foot bow in it all the time and we could not anchor up in a different position without trespassing. The first place team took honors with a six fish limit that weighed in at 8.27 pounds....not a bad average! And that lake remains a mystery. 1.67lbs. took the largest fish. For those of you who know that the Ws limit on craps is 25, this particular tourney restricted the weigh-in limit to the six largest of your choice. It was a fun trip, but thank God for Pokegama! The once dwindling crappie poulation there is beginning to come back with very nice fish. The 14 we took home for din-din were all in the 10 1/2 to 12 inch range, clean and sassy. And you just gotta love sunburn, don't you?

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
[email protected]

[BDR]

Sounds like a pretty challenging day Sat. You and Matt J. have really made me a firm believer in Plastics. I havenot even bought minnow this spring. It would be fun just to follow you in a boat someday just to view how you handle the different conditions. I have learned alot from reading your posts and articles.

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I'd rather be skunked than follow the crowd!

Brian Rogers

JR's Tackle

[Matt Johnson]

Sounds like an interesting weekend to say the least. A little hot crappie action never hurt no one

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[CrappieJohn]

There were 48 teams in this event. Everyone had the same gripes...even the winners. The wind, cold water, and high pressure hit hard. It made no difference what lake was fished the tale was the same except those who could find some shelter and fish in the same spot won out. It's been a long time since I've been thrashed that bad by wind...usually I get off the water before it becomes a pain in the rump, but when the purse is 1000+ you tend to stick it out.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
[email protected]