2023- 2024 Yadkin River Crappie Trail Championship was this past Saturday 3-9-24 on Badin Lake, NC and "Man" what a way to finish the season!
The tournament had 20 teams fishing off for the top prize of $4000 dollars and money being paid out to the top 5 teams. Not including additional prizes being giving to all teams that made the Championship.
The forecast for the day of the tournament called for 100% rain for most of the day and for the first time in history the weatherman got it right. The day started off with heavy rain and 9 mile per hour winds with even heavier gust at times. You would think the rain and the wind would have stopped the crappie from biting, but it "Definitely Did Not"!
My partner and I started off at the upper end of the lake in open water about 25 ft deep.
Fighting the wind and rain we were able to put about 9lbs in the boat with in about an hour and a half. All the fish seem to be the same size though 1.5 to 1.6 lbs. The big ones just never moved up for us at that spot. The rain let up around 11:30 so Ken and I decided to move down the lake where we had put 14.55 pounds in the boat just a few weeks prior. Soon as I put the trolling motor down, I saw the big "Fire Balls". Boom first cast 2.21lb, second cast 1.92lbs, and a short time after that another 2.01lb crappie came in the boat. We upgraded our smaller fish a few more times but, no more 2 plus pound fish. We finished the day at that spot, knowing we had about 13 plus pounds to take to the scales.
When we arrived at Alcoa boat ramp to weigh in, one of the guys in the tournament was putting his fish back in the lake and said, " Boys you better having 15 plus pounds cause that's what is leading". I thought to myself wow that's a bag of crappie for the weather conditions we fished just fished in. Ken and I weighed our fish in and had 13.93lbs. As they wrote our weight down on the board I looked over and saw the weight of 15.97lbs leading and the name beside it "Chris Miller"! Just behind him with15.09lbs was team "Montgomery and Mccabe". Also, both teams had a big fish of the exact weight of 2.79 lbs.
When it was all said and done Chris Miller won the 2023-2024 Yadkin River Crappie Championship with the 15.97lbs, followed up by team Montgomery and Mccabe 15.09, 3rd place team Dowda and Steen with 14.29lbs, Ken and I finished 4th with 13.93, and last spot in the money was Kevin Blevins with13.57lbs. Those weights are amazing for a crappie tournament considering the 10 top teams all had over 13lbs and were with in ounces of each other for the tops spots.
I had the opportunity to speak with my friend Chris Miller after the tournament and he shared his day with me. Chris said he focused on staging points and pockets in the beginning of creek channels. He said he was using an Old Timer 16th oz black and blue hair jig with an 8ft Todd Huckbee Rod. Chris mentioned he covered a lot of water and made changes on his livescope from 16ft down to 20ft deep helping him determine the size of the fish faster and not wasting time on the smaller fish. He mentioned that he had ran into Montgomery and Mccabe later in the day and they told him "Chris, you better have them because we have some good ones today". Chris knew all his fish were over 2 pounds except one and he needed to get rid of that one to possibly have a great chance of winning the tournament. So, he made the call to run back to the spot where he had caught his 2.79 crappie earlier in the day to see if there was possibly one more 2 plus pound fish in the area.
The run paid off! He said he put his livescope down looked around and there was a big "Fire Ball' sitting high in the water column. He said he took his 8ft Todd Huckebee rod and casted over the fish and she turned and slammed the black and blue Old Timer hair jig. He weighed that fish, and it was a 2.16lb crappie putting all his fish over 2 plus pounds.
That last minute decision to make a run back paid off "Big"!
Congratulations to Chris Miller on the win and congratulation to everyone that fished the tournament. Nobody went home without a prize!
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"Sea You On The Water!!!
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