| Crappie Masters fishing tourney returns to Reelfoot |
|
Posted: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 8:26 pm
|
For the first time since 2011, the Bass Pro Shops Crappie Masters All Amer-ican Tournament Trail is returning to Reelfoot Lake.
The one-day crappie tournament will be held Saturday and the top five teams will qualify for this fall’s national tournament.
Saturday’s one-day na-tional qualifier is the first of two crappie tournaments planned at Reelfoot Lake this year. The second tournament will be held April 27.
The two crappie tournaments are being sponsored by the Reelfoot Lake Tourism Council, Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Marine, Hummingbird, Minn Kota and Mercury Motors.
This weekend’s tournament at Reelfoot Lake is the third in a series of 16 crappie tournaments scheduled at lakes and rivers across the Mid-South. The tournament trail includes stops in Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Iowa and Missouri.
Only six of the 16 tournament stops are national qualifiers. Both Reelfoot Lake tournaments are listed as national qualifiers.
The 2013 Bass Pro Shops Crappie Masters National Championship will be held Sept. 25-28 at Grenada Lake in Mississippi.
Paul Alpers is the owner of Crappie Masters and will be on the water Saturday at Reelfoot Lake, along with a television crew covering the tournament.
State parks naturalist David Haggard is working with Crappie Masters officials and will be joining Alpers on the lake Saturday.
“When we were there in 2011, we had 69 boats in the tournament,” Alpers told The Messenger. He said the turnout was relatively low that year because of frigid weather conditions and strong winds.
“Reelfoot Lake is one of the top fisheries in the country,” he said. “We really like it there.”
Those entered in Sat-urday’s tournament will be competing for a $10,000 purse (cash and prizes) and those who qualify for the national tournament will be competing for $170,000 in cash and prizes, according to Alpers.
Fishermen competing in Saturday’s tournament will be briefed at a meeting Friday evening at Ellington Assembly Hall.
At 7 a.m. Saturday, the two-man teams in the tournament will hit the water in search of crappie. Anglers will fish until 3:30 p.m. Saturday with the weigh-in at the tourism council off Highway 21 East.
Also on Saturday morning, there will be a free kids fishing rodeo. Youngsters will register for the rodeo from 8-9 a.m. at the Reelfoot Tourism Council and will fish from 9-11 a.m.
The fishing rodeo is open to youngsters 15 and younger and they must bring their own fishing poles and bait for the two-hour event.
“Every kid will win a prize,” Alpers said.
For more information about the Crappie Masters tournament or the kids fishing rodeo, contact the Reelfoot Lake Tourism Council at (731) 253-2007.
Published in The Messenger 2.26.13 |
|
Printer-friendly format
|
|
