National Crappie League Ross Barnett Wild Card Report
Category: Crappie Tournament
Oct 29th, 2023 by sworrall
Modified Oct 29th, 2023 at 12:47 PM
The National Crappie League Wild Card tournaments on Ross Barnett October 21 and 22, 2023 featured two-day events; a Division 1 and an Open.
The Open Division tournament was won by Hayden and Dan Jeffries taking home the first place trophies, $2700 for the win, and $300 for second Big Fish. They started in an area that looked promising but couldn’t get the big fish there to hit. Switching to one of their ‘honey holes’ paid off providing four of the winning fish before moving again to finish out their limit; all in all, excellent fishing results. The team posted 11.99 pounds the first day and 11.61 the second, for a total weight of 23.60 pounds.
Second went to Jojo Baker and Phillip Wilson fishing black crappie in 20’ of water. The bite was slow, but they managed to get the fish to eat in the last 45 minutes, upgrading 4. The payout was $1500 for a total weight of 22.13 pounds.
Travis Decker took third with 22.12 pounds, with a razor thin margin out of second, fishing a couple spots with minnows. He took home $1000 for his third-place finish.
The $2000.00 Carzone Big Fish Bonus went to Frank Haidusek & Eric Howard with an impressive 3.23 pound crappie. They caught the big fish at 11am on day two fishing up north in about 20 foot water. Chasing good ones around, they were finally able to get the bait to the big fish at the right time.
The NCL Division 1 tournament was won by Lee Turner for $1500 with a total weight of 20.29 pounds. Lee said catching fish was easy; the challenge was running across the right fish. He did say he had a couple he would have liked to have had out of the bag. He fished north and south, moving a lot. All his fish were caught on minnows.
Second place went to Mike Parks with 19.44 pounds. Most of his fish came in the morning on and orange jig tipped with a minnow fishing the 9 foot line day two and 16 feet on day one.
James Morris and Brian Turnbow took third with 19.06 pounds for $575.00. They couldn’t find big fish fishing 20 feet of water with jigs tipped with minnows. The fish were suspended, were spooky, and hard to approach.
The big fish was 2.45 pounds caught by Jason and Renee Clements winning $1000.00 using a small hair jig.
A huge thanks goes out to our sponsors and all the teams who fished the Wild Card!
Local National Crappie League Sponsors:
Ridgeland MS Tourism, Wingate by Wyndham, Cock of the Walk, McB’s Bar & Grill, Pelahatchie Bay Trading Post, Crab’s Seafood Shack, Shuckers Oyster Bar, Pelican Grill, RJ’s Outboard Sales and Service, Smith Marine, Van’s Sporting Goods and Papito’s Mexican Grill
National Crappie League National Sponsors:
Crappie Monster, Carson, Grenada Lake Resorts, HH Rod and Reels, Fisherman’s Haven, Power Pole, Rockport Rattler, Outlaw Lithium Batteries, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Pro Control, Morris Marine, Crappie Brakes, Ludwig Marine, Mid-South Tackle, Charlie Brewer Slider, Everhart’s Outdoors, BnM Poles, TTI Blakemore Lures/Team Crappie, Quality Plumbing & Heating, Swamp Gear, Hook n Bullet, Crappie Now, Crappie Magnet, Soremouth Tackle, Crappie Crazy Outdoors, Pro Designs, Crappie.com, Snacks Lures, Millennium Marine, Junk Fishing and Crappie Customs.