Crappie USA Classic

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CLASSIC CHAMPS SHOOT DOCKS TO WIN
by Steve McCadams
www.stevemccadams.com
October 19th, 2007

The hunting season was open. So two North Carolina anglers by the name of Randy Pope and Jerry Pruitt shot their way to the top of the sport of crappie fishing last Saturday on Kentucky Lake during the Crappie USA Classic.

How did they best a field of the nation’s best crappie fishermen in this competitive event? You could say they “danced with the one that brought them”. That is, using a technique they’re familiar with at their home lakes known as “shooting the docks”.

“We look for boat houses where a combination of shade or submerged structure might be there but you don’t really have to have brushpiles around them as the fish seem to relate to the floating docks that have baitfish around them,” said a hungry Jerry Pruitt as he stood barefoot in the parking lot and munched on a peanut butter cracker. “Only thing I’ve had to eat all day.”

Pruitt and Pope have been fishing buddies for fifteen years and also work in the upholstery business, which is how they first met.

Their two-day catch of 21.98 pounds topped a field of 194 teams. Each day they weighed in a 7-fish limit taken from relatively shallow water.

“Most people seemed to be fishing deeper water and overlooked these shallow fish,” continued Pruitt. “Wednesday was the first time we’ve been on the lake and we ran to bays looking for boatdocks. After trying some in Leatherwood, Cypress and up to Blood River and Jonathan Creek we found the best fish up north. Some came from two feet of water.”

Pruitt and Pope used 1/32-ounce Lindy jigs in a variety of colors with credit going to white and blue, along with some white and red. The Lindy Little-Joe feather jig worked well as did others known as Fuzzy Grubs and a Little Nipper. The duo indicated as many as 100 fish were caught on the first day of competition.

Using relatively light action rods and light monofilament line, the technique allows the angler to shoot the bait up under docks and around those hard to reach spots where normal casting presentations might not be practical. Then, a slow sinking jig entices a finicky crappie as strikes are often seen and not felt. Watching the bow in the line is the key as a strike will “pop” the line long before the user feels the fish bite.

“Sometimes we’d catch fish off a dock and when they stopped biting go off to another one and them come back. The fish would resume biting after letting them rest a spell.”

Some of the docks had deeper water and we caught fish off the corners that seemed to be suspended around the dock and a few times after we worked it over we even went up to it and dropped jigs vertically down around the deeper structure and caught fish.

Pruitt and Pope have been shooting docks on their home reservoir at Lake Norman and at other deep and clear reservoirs across the eastern region of the crappie fishing world. The hefty fish taken here remind them of a good crappie lake in North Carolina known as Bugg’s Island and Kerr Lake.

“I talked to some people here and no one seemed to use the “dock shooting” technique,” said Pope. “Most everyone we asked looked at us funny as they were either fishing deep water structure, trolling or spider rigging.”

Yet Pruitt and Pope showed their favorite fishing style will work here and anywhere when a lake shoreline has boat docks and piers. Even in warm weather the fish sometimes relate to these floating refuges where algae and plankton often draw bait fish, not to mention offering shade and submerged structure at times.

It’s common for waterfront homes to have boat houses and sink brush and other cover around the piers or walkways. Pruitt and Pope especially like to see an older boat house with a fish dressing table and other vertical pipes in the water. The older ones just seem to be better, said the winning duo.

So a new technique was used by some nonresident anglers to beat several local teams that were catching fish on tried and true methods. There were a lot of good stringers taken too but the North Carolina duo put the other methods in their review mirror and implemented their style of fishing to take the win.

In addition to the title of national champs and a lot of recognition, the duo won a fully rigged Ranger boat, Suzuki outboard, Hummingbird electronics and Minn-Kota trolling motor, along with $3,000 cash.

Big fish if the event was a 2.31-pound slab taken by Phil and Eva Rambo of Bloomington, IN which earned them $1,000. There were only seven fish that eclipsed the two-pound mark during the two day event.

Taking the top spot in the amateur division was the team of Matthew Tosh of Rutherford and William Johnson of Milan who weighed in 18.57 pounds to win a fully rigged boat as well.

For a complete listing of teams, weights and paybacks visit www.crappieusa.com.

Steve McCadams is a professional hunting and fishing guide here in the Paris Landing area. He has also contributed many outdoor oriented articles to various national publications.

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