10-17-2014, 09:00 AM
Sorry for the late post guys, so much going on just couldn&#39;t get to it until now. We try to do all the tournaments but we don&#39;t<br />miss the big ones like the Forgotten Child Fund. The guys at the Chattanooga Crappie Club and Kelly Simmons with the <br />Forgotten Child Fund (and many others that helped) did an outstanding job getting everything together to make this <br />tournament such a success. There were 29 boats that fished, lots of donations brought for the children and a lot of <br />volunteers helping cook burgers/hot dogs to feed everybody once weigh in was finished. KZ106 did a great job along<br />with Benny Hull as emcee. Can&#39;t leave out the Sale Creek Anglers Club for helping out as boats came in and taking some <br />fish with them before they left too. Couldn&#39;t have asked for better! Great job everybody.<br /><br />I was planning to do this one with my new wife Tina (of almost 1 month) but that didn&#39;t work out for this tournament. I <br />called in my faithful partner David East (Crappie King) and though it looked gloomy all day the rain held off until everything<br />was over. I had (1) good pre-fish day last week, I found one remote dock that held quality fish. I left it alone and that was<br />my go-to deep water spot. Made a couple of quick stops on our way to this dock but that resulted in nothing. Before I could<br />set the trolling motor down, East tells me to get the net and we caught the majority of our keeper fish here. <br /><br />We used Outlaw Special 1/32oz. jigs (of course) and they were the ticket! I was retrieving my jig on a 3-count quickly. The<br />fishing slowed, we went on rapid-fire trying other docks with little results but we were culling fish by 9am. As our deadline <br />approached, we decided to make a long run to 1 specific dock, it resulted in nothing. After scanning a deep brush pile, it <br />showed very little however we backed off and fished it anyway. After several casts, nothing then a huge ball of minnows <br />went over the pile. I ran my 1/16oz jig under the pile, got crushed and started screaming for the net. It was a 1lb white <br />Crappie and was the fish we needed for the win. Our 6lb 15oz bag I thought might be a top 5 placing but to win would <br />be very lucky. We decided if we won we would give the price money back for the children and that&#39;s exactly what we did. <br />We still walked away with a 1yr membership to Towboat USA (each) and a goody bag. <br /><br />The Chattanooga Crappie Club has all the specific results on their Facebook page and DK posted winners (including us) <br />here the forum. I was proud to see we had several young kids fishing this TX and learning to fish even when it&#39;s not a <br />perfect day. Congrats to all the winners which includes everyone that fished and gave for this great cause. <br /><br />Dave &quot;Hippie&quot; Ohms was recognized for his 10 yrs of volunteer service to the Forgotten Child Fund and was presented <br />with a plaque (seen in last picture) by Kelly Simmons. He has been putting on these tournaments for as long as I can<br />remember and it&#39;s very cool to see him get recognized for his efforts. This was a very memorable moment for the day.<br />