The most prolific and highest paying tournament in the history of the crappie industry concluded over the weekend, punctuating the inaugural season of the American Crappie Trail and laying the foundation for a new era in tournament crappie fishing. A total payout of $124,300 was awarded in front of a huge crowd on Saturday at the live-broadcasted drive-through weigh-in at Captain Ron’s on the Lake of the Ozarks.
The elite field of anglers who passed the stringent qualification process through the regular season arrived to find an active bite throughout the 54,000-acre lake. The professional fishermen employed a variation of tactics from dock shooting to vertical jigging, spider rigging, and pulling crankbaits throughout the practice week, and found success across the board, making a solid prediction for the winning methodology impossible.