Crappie USA visited Lake Harding, an impoundment on the Georgia border north of Phenix City, last weekend. As usual the pro anglers came away with some impressive catches. While the crappie circuits don’t draw nearly the public acclaim of major bass tournaments, the success of the expert anglers who fish them can be very useful to weekend anglers in search of a fish fry.
The top spot in the event went to South Carolina anglers Matthew Williams and Nick Dowda, with a seven-fish bag that went 10.54 pounds. According to Williams, the anglers located suspended fish at 10 feet and deeper, hanging over a creek channel where depth was 30 to 40 feet.
The team used a combination of Slab Slayer Jigs Willow Tail and Crappie Magnet jigs in small sizes. They indicated gray-colored combinations performed best.
“We started out fishing towards the back of Halawakee Creek,” reported Dowda. “We were catching a lot of small fish. Around 12 o’clock we moved out towards the mouth in 30-40 feet of water and caught all our weigh-in fish after lunch.”
“The fish were suspended all the way from 5 feet down to 30 feet,” added Dowda. “We used a mixture of jigs over the day. Anything grey worked and we caught some on straight minnows.”
As is often the case in all tournaments these days, the winners relied heavily on the latest electronics—they spotted their fish on a Garmin LiveScope system before presenting baits to them. The investment in top-end sonar has almost become a requirement to win in competitive fishing in recent years.
The runner-up spot went to Forrest Walker and Jacob Walker from Byron, GA. They caught a 9.96-pound bag of crappie to claim the second-place cash award of $1,500.00.
They also found their fish in Halawakee Creek. They reported fishing hair jigs in natural colors, and catching fish suspended around 8 feet over the 30 to 50 foot depths of the creek channel.
“The best bite was early morning,” reported Jacob. “We caught about 20-25 fish on the day.”
Morristown, Tennessee angler Scott Bunch teamed up with Neal Alvis from Rogersville, Tennessee to earn the third-place award of $500. The Crappie Magnet team’s tournament day bag weighed 8.95 pounds.
Bunch and Alvis also fished Halawakee Creek, finding the fish suspended at about 20-30 feet deep in 30-50 feet of water. They fished Crappie Magnets on a heavy jighead. An assortment of colors did the trick to catch a total of 20-30 crappie on the day.
Richard Malcom from Madison, GA, and Joey Dickens from Waynesboro, GA brought 10.31 pounds to the scales to claim the top spot in the Amateur Division. They also weighed in the largest crappie of the event, a 2.01 pound slab.
Malcom and Dickens also fished Halawakee Creek. Like the other top finishers, they caught crappie suspended at about 12 feet over 30 foot depths and more, most on black and gray Jiffy Jigs.
The takeaway from the event is that winter crappie fishermen can score big if they have the right sonar to find fish offshore. That’s a situation that won’t change for the rest of this month. Fortunately, by early March the spring warmup will send these fish to the shoreline brushpiles, blowdowns and docks, giving anglers without the high-dollar electronics a good chance to load up as well.
The Link LonkFebruary 17, 2021 at 03:03PM
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