The Anatomy of a Successful Event

In the past, we have used this page to give fishing tips and timely information but I feel the need to tell you about an event that was completed last Saturday. For the past five years, I have had the privilege of helping at an event called the Pell City Kids Catfish Rodeo. The event falls during the week of National Fishing and Boating Week every year. This year, Gary Kendrick and the Coosa Crappie Club asked to become more involved in the planning and hosting of the event and were eagerly granted that by the Pell City Alabama Park and Recreation Department. I must tell you that Gary Kendrick and his wife, Barbara are some of the most giving people whom I have ever known.

In the words of the great Paul Harvey, “Now for the rest of the story.” While this event only lasted a few hours, Gary Kendrick and many others spent countless hours of planning, calling in favors, and begging to make what I feel was the greatest Kids Catfish Rodeo ever in its nine year history. As I regularly do, I started contacting my friends last year in an effort to get their support for this event. Larry Harper of Porcupine Fish Attractors committed to this event long before gas prices started reaching the $4.00 per gallon mark. Larry showed up on the Wednesday before the event, ready to do whatever was needed. He took hundreds of pictures, helped with preparing the fishing area, helped kids fish, and then finished up by being there for a group that is special in my heart, Veterans who have lost or are losing their sight. Larry has a heart as big as anyone I know and for that I am thankful to call him a friend.

I must tell you about others who dedicated so much of themselves to make this event the success that it was. Russ Bailey and Jeff Toben of Midwest Crappie signed on for this event, many months ago. They both showed up on Thursday, ready to do what it took to make this event a success. Russ came bearing gifts for the kids as well as doing a great job at the scales and being the “Master of Ceremonies.” Jeff did whatever was needed to provide a helping hand and you will not believe the video he shot of a 4 year old kid catching a huge Catfish.

This year, Gary Kendrick came up with a new idea to tag some of the fish and if a child was lucky enough to catch one of these tagged fish, the child would receive a lifetime fishing license. Folks, lifetime fishing license in Alabama are not cheap. Again, Gary contacted several businesses and was able to have Metro Bank of Pell City underwrite one Lifetime Fishing License if their tagged fish was caught. As expected, when our friend Jerry Culberson, best known as the founder of Anglers Unlimited was asked if he would like to help, He stepped up and underwrote two lifetime fishing license tags through his company, Preferred Health Care.

The great Catfish Tournament Team of Phil King and Tim Haynie showed up early with as much enthusiasm as I have ever seen. Spending a few days around these guys brought the perspective of why we were doing this event. Phil and Tim made one of the most valid points when the reminded all of us that this was about the kids. Kids don’t care what they catch, just as long as they catch something. On Saturday morning, I also saw that it was also about the parents, the single mom making sure her kid was there to fish or the grandparent that has stepped in to make sure that their grandchild has the same shot they did.

Phil and Tim made sure that with the support of their sponsors like Cabela’s, Triton Boats, SeaArk Boats, Pure Fishing, and Kimberly Clark, no child left this event without something. They brought a ton of prizes and worked well into the night before bagging up gifts for those kids to show up. The neatest attraction at the Catfish Rodeo was the mount of Phil’s 103 pound catfish that he had just got back from the Taxidermist. The kids were blown away when they saw this monster hanging from a tree.

Sonny and Coy Sipes who are sponsored by Blakemore Bait and B and M Poles have been on board for five years and just as expected, they showed up on Thursday morning and assisted in placing the net in place and doing whatever had to be done. On Saturday, these two showed up with sponsor products and their fish cleaning skills. I have never seen anyone clean catfish like Sonny and Coy. They are two amazing guys. BJ’S Bait donated several rod and reels as well as other tackle that was given away. Thanks to my dad, Joe Thomas Sr, several prizes were donated by the Governors Office and the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. He also convince Frank Daniel’s wife, Hayley, to show up and do face painting for the kids once they grew tired of fishing. We cannot forget the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for their help in placing the net as well as the Conservation Officers who showed up on Saturday to assist the kids Something as simple as bags to put the kids prizes in became a challenge. My friends at Simmons Sporting Goods in Bessemer, Alabama stepped up to the plate as they have done so many times before and gave us all the bags we needed.

So my friends you can see, an event of this kind does not just happen. It takes people and companies that are not so worried about the bottom line but about the future of our country and the future of the kids that participated. I am forever grateful for the generosity of others to make this event a huge success. Until next time, keep a tight line and consider taking a kid fishing.

Thanks,

Joe

Hi folks, welcome to Richard Williams Outdoors. The predicted lake level at Kentucky Lake for this weekend is going to be 359.6. And the surface temperatures have finally come up into the lower 70’s.

A lot of good numbers of crappie are still being caught in just about all depths of water. The larger ones are being caught out of 12 to 14 feet of water with the baits right off the bottom.

The blue gill and the catfish are spawning hot and heavy right now and you can catch just about all of these fish that you want. The blue gill are bedding in two to three feet of water and can be caught on crickets, wax worms, red worms, or just about any kind of bait that resembles any type of bug. If you don’t want to use any kind of live bait, Southern Pro has all kinds of little blue gill baits. You can look at them at www.southernpro.com.

A lot of catfish are being caught at the rocks at the Paris Landing Bridge, at the rock wall just south of the power lines, or around catfish island south of the power lines. The best baits for the catfish that I have heard of this week have been cut shad, night crawlers, shrimp, or chicken livers.

Bass Pro Shops Crappie Masters Tournament Trail had their qualifying tournament last Saturday at Buchanan Resort here on Kentucky Lake. There were 134 anglers from 10 different states that entered the tournament and they gave away $12,000 dollars cash plus a lot and I mean a lot of other prizes.

Coming in at first place was the team of John Woods and Tracey McIntosh with a weight of 11.91 pounds. They won $5,000 dollars for taking first place and they also had the big fish of the tournament with a 2.58 pound crappie. They also won the Nitro Boat Bonus. All in all, this team won $8,500 for a day of crappie fishing. That’s a pretty good payday.

Taking second place was the team of Shawn Gore and Mike Smith with a weight of 11.77 pounds. They won $2,500.

Third place went to the team of Keith Cone and Harvey Freeman with a weight of 10.7 pounds. They won $1,250 for third place. They paid down to around 15 places. And qualified 20 teams to their National Championship that will be held at Harris Chain of lakes in Florida. That tournament will be in October of this year and will be worth over $175,000 dollars in cash and prizes.

Well, that about all the time we have for this week.

See ya on the water folks.

Fishing report for the Lake of the Ozarks

Lake of the Ozarks is heating up. The water temperatures are rising at a fast pace with the water still being murky and high temperatures. The fishing has went from tough to excellent in the last week or so. We had a chance to fish a Crappie Master Major event this past weekend on the Lake of the Ozarks and the weights that came in where amazing for that body of water. We took 3rd with 9.49 lbs in seven fish and it took 9.67 lb's to win. We caught somewhere between 100 and 150 crappie spider rigging over Porcupine Fish Attractors. Once again we were able to cover a lot more water fishing the Porcupines because we wasted no time with tying on hooks. We used 12 B-n-M poles slow trolling Southern Pro 2" tubes. The color didn't seem to make a huge difference in the bite. We did catch most of our larger fish on brighter colors. We also used Vicious Pan Fish series line which is a high vise line. The line made a huge difference in the amount of bites that we were able to see. A lot of the fish would side swipe the bait or push the bait instead of going downward with it. By this weekend the males should move to the banks searching for spawning areas while the larger females should move to shallow flats and remain in 6 to 10 feet of water on the cut banks. Good luck on your next fishing trip.

Travis and Charles Bunting

Fishing Report for Weiss Lake 01/28/08

Crappie fishing is good!! - The cold front from the past week has slowed the long line trolling bite down a little - it should pickup by this coming weekend as we are getting warmer weather coming! But there is still good stringers of crappie coming from using different techniques. Still good stringers of crappie are coming from Spider Rigging river channel ledges in 12 to 14 feet of water from Three Mile all the way up to Riverside. If you are not setup to spider rig use the bottom bumping technique in the same areas - use a 1/2 oz weight come up 20 inches and tie on a Eagle Claw #2 snelled hook and your ready to go. Working ledges in 12 to 14 feet of water slowly will produce good catches with this technique. With the cooler water temps good stringers of crappie are being caught shooting shallow water docks in 4 to 6 feet of water using a 1/24 oz lead head with a Southern Pro Stinger in Blue/Chartreuse color. Good crappies are also being caught at Cowan Creek tight lining minnows close to the bridge. I look for the trolling bite to really get going over the next few days as the water temperature continues to warm. "Good Fishin" – Kelly

60 keeper crappie with 85+ crappie caught with Larry Clipper and John Garby from Midland Michigan

November 30, 2007

Greetings from the Coosa River in Alabama.

We have had very little rainfall for yet another month. The fishing has not been hurt if you can find a place to get a boat in. All of the Coosa River impoundments are low and you have to be very careful when running. I have spent the last three weekends on Lay Lake, which is just below Logan Martin Lake on the Coosa River. Lay is down about three feet and it is difficult to get a boat in at some of the launches. The water temperature continues to fall and it is currently in the low 60’s. We have found the majority of our fish on the main river channel. The first week we caught them in 12-15 feet of water. The last two weeks we have found that the fish are still near the ledge but on top of it in as shallow as three feet. The crappie we caught were in the 1 ¼ to 1 ½ pound range and we caught several spotted bass in the range of 3 pounds. The first five attractors I have put out on lay lake have now been out for 4 months. I have fished them two times and have caught multiple bass each time. I am in the process of putting some more out in different locations to see if I can get the right species (Crappie) to them! Below is a picture of my friend “Bam Bam” after his first experience of slow trolling for crappie on Lay Lake last week. Hope every one has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Joe Thomas
Porcupine Fishing Attractor Pro Staff

Bam Bam with two Lay Lake Slabs
 

November 7, 2007

We’ll its back to the work routine after a great week of fishing on Weiss and Neely Henry Lakes in Alabama. Jerry Culberson and his staff of volunteers put on a great 2nd Annual Alabama Championship. We were able to pre-fish on Weiss on Wednesday, November 1, 2007. During practice, we found some decent fish on the lower end of the lake near Bay Springs. We fished the river channel and caught several fish but the bite was slow. We found that you had to be in heavy cover and the presentation had to be extremely slow. On the first tournament day, we managed to catch only 8 fish all day. Our largest 7 weighed only 6.02 lbs. This placed us in 17th place, 4 pounds behind the leaders, Moody and Blackburn. David did manage to hook a 45 lb catfish and we got it to the boat before it broke the 6 pound test line. Not to give up, we were on Neely Henry before daylight waiting for the clock to strike seven. David had pre fished on Neely Henry the week before and had caught some nice fish in the area where we fished. After the tournament began, we had 7 keepers in the box within the first 15 minutes. For the next 4 hours, the bite was fast and furious. We must have caught 50 or 60 crappie along with catfish, stripes, and spotted bass. Culling our stringer was a constant job and we had to again weigh fish at the weigh in. We managed to bring in 7 crappie weighing 10 lbs even. This brought us up to a tenth place finish. We would like to congratulate Moody and Blackburn for the second win in the second annual Alabama Championship. They brought in a two day total of 21.36 lbs. The top 10 are listed below. After the weigh in, draw prized were awarded to the participants. Larry Harper of Porcupine Fish Attractors was present to hand out some attractors as door prizes as well as answer many questions from the participants. Larry even got the opportunity to fish a little while with Russ Bailey. When Russ told Larry they were going to shoot some docks, Larry showed up with a shotgun! They managed to catch a lot of fish and Larry was able to get a two pounder on his first outing of dock shooting.

2007 Alabama Championship Results

Russ Bailey and the 2007 Alabama Championship Winners
Brent Moody and Greg Blackburn

After the weigh in was over, Russ Bailey, host of Midwest Crappie, and I started a project that I think will be beneficial to his viewers as well as anyone interested in Porcupine Fish Attractors. We shot the first half of a show that will air in the 08-09 season. We took the time to explain how to assemble and put out the attractors. We are going to shoot the second half of the show in the spring of 2008 and go fish on the attractors we put out. I think this will give a unique view of how well these attractors work. Until next time, keep a tight line.

Russ and Joe placing an attractor in Neely Henry Lake

Joe Thomas
Porcupine Fishing Attractor Pro Staff
 

October 31, 2007

We recently went on a two week marathon of Crappie Fishing in Tennessee. We were lucky enough to qualify this year for the Crappie USA Classic on Kentucky Lake, as well as the Bass Pro Shop Crappiemasters Classic on Reelfoot Lake. The first week we traveled to Paris Landing, Tennessee for the Crappie USA Classic. For us, the conditions were tough and we did not fare well. However, we had the opportunity to spend some time with Larry Harper of Porcupine Fish Attractors. A friendship was born and for that I am thankful. Although we didn’t do to well in the Crappie USA Classic, many anglers found the fish in shallow water and we would like to congratulate the Semi-Pro team of Randy Pope and Jerry Pruitt of North Carolina and the Amateur Team of Matthew Tosh and William Johnson of Tennessee for being this years Crappie USA Classic Champions.

While we were at Kentucky Lake, my wife Melinda and I had an opportunity to see Fort Donelson and visit Land between the Lakes. We did see the Bison and Elk and my wife was fortunate enough to hear the bugle of an elk.

The following week we traveled to Tiptonville, Tennessee and found Reelfoot lake to be one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen as well as the hardest to navigate. Due to low water conditions, we decided to return home to Alabama and swap boats. My smaller boat proved to be almost idea for navigating this shallow stumpy lake. Larry Harper joined me for a day of fishing early in the week and showed me his techniques for fishing Reelfoot as well as teaching me the “Reelfoot Rock”, a maneuver that came in handy in getting my boat off the stumps. While at Reelfoot, we were pleased to find several good places to eat. We also had the opportunity to travel to Grizzly Jig Company in Caruthersville, Missouri. They have one of the best stores for Crappie fisherman I have ever seen. They also carry the Porcupine Fish Attractor! We did not do to well in this tournament either, but we did learn from this trip. Our techniques were not so productive but we did learn late in the second day that the fish were holding tight to the stumps and you had to just wait on the bite. We would have done much better if we had used one pole and been patient. That’s why they call it fishing. We would like to congratulate the team of Allen Chappell and Jason Sandage of Bloomfield, Missouri for winning the 2007 Bass Pro Shop Crappiemasters Classic.

This week we will be back on Weiss and Neely Henry Lakes in Alabama for the second annual Alabama Championship. The first day of the competition will be held on Weiss Lake which is currently about 6 feet below summer pool. Reports are that fish are biting well on the river and creek ledges. We will give it our best shot. The second day of competition will be held just down the Coosa chain on Neely Henry Lake. Neely Henry is also suffering from the drought but is only about 3 feet down. We are expecting to find fish in the same type locations in 10-15 feet off water. We are also planning on shooting an upcoming Midwest Crappie with Russ Bailey. You can look forward to an in depth look at assembling and putting out the attractors. We hope to shoot some underwater video for this show. We will bring you up to date in the next report. Until then, keep a tight line.

(the one that got away)

Joe Thomas
Porcupine Fishing Attractor Pro Staff

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RICHARD WILLIAMS - KENTUCKY LAKE CRAPPIE GUIDE

Richard Williams is a full time guide on Kentucky Lake and is on the water around 200 days per year. He writes fishing articles for outdoor magazines, and a few fishing web sites. He has been mentioned in several magazines like Crappie World, Cabela’s Outdoor Journal, Ohio’s Outdoor Guide, and in Tim Huffman’s book “Monster Crappie”. Richard is a regular guest on the Midwest Crappie TV shows with Russ Bailey, and is working on more shows with Russ and other anglers across the nation. He has also done shows with Dan Larson with the North American Media Group for North American Fisherman which airs on The Outdoor Channel and OLN. He qualified for the crappieusa classic in 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and was awarded Sportsman of the Year at the 2002 Crappie USA Classic. He also had his own line of signature series crappie poles by Crappie Wizard Co. B&M Pole Co. and Crappie Wizard Co. joined forces in the fall of 2006 and his line of fishing poles are now made by B&M Pole Co. Richard joined Crappie USA as a tournament director in 2001 and is the national tournament director for the Cabela’s King Kat Tournament Trail, which launched in 2003.

Richard has been fishing tournaments across the country since 1997. The 2002 tournament season has been his best, year to date. With all of the finishes in the top 20, and four finishes in the top 5. The top 5 finishes include,

Weiss Lake, AL. 2000 Crappie USA Qualifier—1st place
Grenada, MS 2002 Crappie USA Qualifier--5th place
Neely Henry, 2002 Crappie USA Regional--2nd place
Pickwick/Wilson, 2002 Crappie USA Classic--5th place
Kentucky/Barkley, 2002 Crappie USA Fall--3rd place

Richard Williams is proud to be a part of competitive crappie fishing and believes in getting kids hooked on fishing and keeping them off the streets. He donates several guide trips a year to various youth organizations. Going out on the road, meeting people, and making new friends has been an experience of a lifetime.

Current sponsors are: Southern Pro Tackle, Grubco Bait Co., Pure Fishing, (Berkley Trilene, Mitchell) MinnKota, Humminbird, Crappie Wizard Co, Mansard Island Resort, Drift Master Rod Holders, Keel Shield, Porcupine Fish Attractor’s and B&M Pole Co.

Richard has retired from tournament fishing so he can devote more time promoting his sponsors products to the many people from all over the country he takes fishing through out the year.

For more information or to contact Richard Williams, You can contact him at 731-644-3793 at home. Cell number is 731-336-3550. Email address is 1weezer@bellsouth.net 

For more information email lharper@fishattractor.net

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