7/10/21 Crappie Masters Missouri Trail

A 31 boat field took the waters of Truman Lake Saturday, July 10th at the next to last stop for the 2021 Crappie Masters Missouri Crappie Trail sponsored by Captain Ron’s at the Lake of the Ozarks. Going into tournament day, the consensus seemed to be that the big fish bite was hard to find with fish scattered and the lake 10 feet high. However with a high powered field it was inevitable that some of those teams would find quality fish to bring to the scale which included the eventual winning team of Darin Lankford and Hunter Bowling who topped the rest of the field weighing in 11.03 pounds, the only team to weigh 11 plus pounds. Lankford and Bowling stuck to their game plan even in high winds and morning thunderstorms which hampered many of the teams. The team fished the Grand Arm in a normally popular area. With Bowling on the trolling motor in strong winds and high waves, and Lankford targeting the fish, teamwork was a huge key. The team made two key decisions which led to their win. One was committing to minnows and most important was upgrading to a 1 ounce weight so they could get the bait in front of the fish quicker which showed immediate returns with those bigger fish aggressive with the bite when you could get the bait in front of the fish. In the end, 11.03 pounds was .06 better than the second place team on Mike Vallentine and Jesse Shoemake who weighed in 10.97 pounds and kept their streak of either finishing first or second in all of the Missouri Crappie Trail tournaments this season while increasing their stronghold on the Angler Team of the Year race. The team also weighed in the big fish of the tournament, a 1.72 pound summer time Truman dandy. Unlike Lankford and Bowling, Vallentine and Shoemake put around 70 miles on the boat chasing down the fish they thought they would need to win. Vallentine and Shoemake stayed generally with hair jigs but did have to go to minnows to coax a couple of their bites. The team stayed in the Grand Arm to catch their fish in various depths of water at times up to 30 feet.

Third place went to the familiar team of Barry Morrow and Chad Maupin who made an appearance back to where they are used to, near the top! Morrow and Maupin weighed in 10.73 pounds, and moved into the top five in the Angler Team of the Year race.

Fourth place went to the team of Kyle and Clint Judd who weighed in 10.40 pounds.

Rounding out the top 5 was Billy Don Surface who weighed in 10.15 pounds, the last team in the 10 plus pound category.

The last check went to Gary Filbeck who weighed in 9.95 pounds.

Fish USA and crappiecentral gave away two $50 dollar product cards to the team first out of the money, and the top Male/Female team. Those went to the teams of Weylin Shanks and Matt Wareham, and Jack and Holly Linton respectively.

Tiny’s Bait and Tackle gave away 2 certificates for custom made hair jigs to the 2nd big fish of the tournament and the team with the lowest weight weighing in. Those certificates went to the teams of Kyle and Clint Judd with a 1.69 pounder, and Willie Schrader Jr. and Brian Dick.

A big thanks goes out to Bucksaw Resort and Marina for their continued support as weigh in host and host of the upcoming Missouri Crappie Trail State Championship Tournament in September. Also thanks to the local Truman Lake sponsors including Dietz Family Buffet, Sluggers 66, Hawthorn Bank, and the Missouri Pork Association.

The next and final regular season tournament will take place on Saturday, August 14th at Mark Twain Lake. Weigh in will be at Chigger Hill Bait and Tackle.