The regular season for members of the Richmond Crappie Club has come to an end with the final qualifying event of the year held June 9 on Lake Chesdin.
Thirteen teams convened on the 3,100-acre lake created by the damming of the Appomattox River just west of Petersburg. The resulting lake offers a clear, lower end and a more stained, shallow upper end filled with rocks, stumps and aquatic vegetation.
The weather was great on tournament day and lots of fish were caught, but the big ones were elusive and the limits showed that. It was a tournament of dinks.
Making a big swing at Team of the Year was Craig Lee and Rick Weaver, who took first with a seven-fish limit at 5.16 pounds. They tied second place team Josh and Farah-Dale Morris but had the big fish at 1.20 pounds for the tie breaker.
Mark (Wood Duck) Wood was third with 5.13 pounds and David Fay had the event big fish at 1.27 pounds.
So why were only small fish caught at Chesdin? Morris has his suspisions.
“I think it’s a lack of small baitfish. We caught a white crappie in practice that was 14 inches that barely weighed a pound! When you clean fish from Chesdin they also only have baby bluegill in them. We find big fish by themselves usually where there is not competition,” he explained.
Also, this was a single rod, artificial bait tournament, and that could have made a difference, too.
Morris noted most folks were fishing docks at Chesdin, while a few were fishing brushpiles. The docks had fewer fish but bigger fish.
“The day before I looked at about every dock on that lake. I had 21 docks to hit. Come tournament day there were five boats on the docks so I had 16 left. Of those, five had tournament fish (12” or larger) on them,” Morris told W2.
The expert freckle fisherman noted he and his partner caught all their fish on the Bobby Garland Baby Shad in Monkey Milk with a 1/32-oz. jig head and six-pound test.
After the five qualifying tourneys, the points race was extremely close. Congratulations to Jack Bellamy and James Lehman who amassed 137 points (41.64 pounds) and bested 2023 Team Of The Year Josh and Farah-Dale Morris) by a single point… until the worst tournament was dropped.
When the worst tournament was dropped per RCC rules the Morris’ had 119 points and Jack and James had 112. So, the Morris’ retained the title!
Craig Lee and Rick Weaver battled two other teams and took third place with 110 points. Jeff Poston and Cameron Ayers and Mark Wood (a.k.a. Wood Duck) tied for fourth with 107 points.
Eleven teams that fished all five derbies auto-qualified for the Classic, while the next five teams qualified based on their points totals.
Tournament Director Josh Morris determines where the November 2-3 Classic will be held based on the suggestions of the qualified teams. Each is asked for their top three choices and the bodies of water could differ from Day 1 to Day 2.
After all the votes were tallied the teams will be fishing the North Landing River out of North Landing Beach Campground. The Classic will offer 100% payback.
Morris wanted to thank the Richmond Crappie Club family of sponsors for another good season of fishing that averaged 16 teams per event.
“Thanks again to all of our sponsors and in particular Catch The Fever for donating a jig rod, Trippy Stix for donating several handtied jigs, Propeller Dynamics for donating a gift certificate, NicTaylor Jigs for donating several hand-tied jigs, Crappie Coffin Custom Jigs for a jig prize pack, Jack with Ace Glass for donating stickers, Lake Country Baits for donating baits, Woods & Waters Magazine for donating hats, Stephanie Lee with Waffle House for donating a large amount of hash browns, Reactive fishing line for several spools of braided line, and Nick with Silent Assassin baits.
“We’d also like to thank Altizer Lawn & Landscape LLC for donating the kids big fish prize pack, plus all of our sponsors like Dance’s Sporting Goods, Aaron Ball, All Smiles Roof Cleaning, Chickahominy Crappie, LegalShield/IDShield, Frank with a pink cancer ribbon, Ace Glass, Craven Electrical Services, On Time Performance Mobile Detailing, and Creative Office Solutions that helped us purchase so many great prizes.”
