CAT recently held its 3rd Annual Crappiefest Tournament on Lake Fork on April 2, 2016, and it was a day for the record books! A record total of 216 anglers (192 Adult Anglers & 24 Junior Anglers) participated in a great day of fishing filled with fun, fellowship and plenty of excitement! This tournament was a “big fish” tournament, so each angler weighed-in only one big crappie. The weather was nearly perfect for early spring, the big fish were on the prowl, and the result was some very big fish and some very excited anglers!!! Here are the results:

First place went to Phillip Law (Arlington, TX) with a "Monster Crappie" weighing in at 3.20 pounds!! Phillip’s giant crappie netted him a record total of $9,000. This is the largest purse for a single crappie in the history of crappie tournament fishing in Texas. Donny Holder (Terrell, TX) came in 2nd place with a 2.97 pound slab crappie worth $2,000. Donny was also the Top Finishing CAT Member, so he added another $1,000 to his winnings. Doug Broadway (Joshua, TX) won 3rd place and a check for $1,500 for his crappie weighing in at 2.84 pounds. Paul O'Bier (Gunter, TX) took home $1,000 for his 4th place crappie weighing in at 2.80 pounds. Fifth place went to Carl Ellis (Arlington, TX) weighing in a 2.68 pound slab worth $750. Kasey Copeland (Dekalb, TX) took 6th place and a check for $600 with a big slab weighing 2.61 pounds. Seventh place was won by Craig Carpenter (Wylie, TX), which netted him a check for $400.00. Eighth & Ninth place was a tie with both Donna Miller (Livingston, TX) and Chris Waters (Denton, TX) weighing in a 2.56 pound crappie. For their efforts, they each took home a check for $275. Rounding out the top ten with a check for $200 was Richard James (Wylie, TX) with a 2.48 pound crappie.

All top ten anglers qualified for the Texas State Crappie Championship.

Closest to 1.00, 1.25, 1.50 and 1.75 Awards

One of the most exciting, and tightly contested, challenges of CAT’s Crappiefest is the “Closest to” awards. CAT gives out big cash money for the anglers weighing in a crappie that weighs the closest to (without going over) 1.00 pounds, 1.25 pounds, 1.50 pounds and 1.75 pounds. Here are the results:

Blake Clark (Arlington, TX), came closest to the 1.00 pound mark with his .98 crappie and took home a check for $250. Charles Froebe (Tyler, TX) netted $250 for his crappie that came closest 1.25 pounds. Jack Linton (Carlyle, IL) came closest to the 1.50 pound crappie with his 1.49 pound fish and collected $250. And last but not least, Johnny Fuentes (Grapevine, TX) received $250 for weighing in a 1.71 pound crappie coming closest to a 1.75 pound crappie.

Junior Angler 10 & under division:

Not to be outdone by the adults, the youngest crappie anglers in the contest really put on a show. First place was won by Langdon Froebe with a monstrous crappie tipping the scale at 2.22 pounds. Langdon won $50 cash and tickets to Six Flags. Mason Tucker took home second place and Medieval Times tickets for his 2.21 pound crappie. Wyatt Standridge rounded out the top three with his crappie tilting the scale at 2.07 pounds. Wyatt won a family pack of tickets to the Dallas Zoo.

Junior Angler 11 – 17 division:

The older kids cashed in as well. Stewart Tanner won first place with a weight of 2.11 pounds. Stewart won $50 cash and tickets to Six Flags. Weldon Hunter came in 2nd place and netted 2 tickets to Medieval Times with his crappie weighing 1.98 pounds. Kaden Roger took third place and a family pack of tickets to the Dallas Zoo with his 1.84 pound crappie.

All of the Junior Anglers took home tackle goodie bags valued at over $50.00 each. Our Junior Anglers took home awards and prizes valued at over $1,700!
The total payout for the 2016 Crappiefest was over $20,000 in cash and prizes!! We are already looking forward to next year.

Crappie Anglers of Texas would like to thank our 2016 Crappiefest Sponsors for your support. We really appreciate YOU! This year’s sponsors were: Star Industries; The Minnow Bucket; City of Emory; Aflac Insurance; Allied Employer Group; B/A Products Co.; Frost Bank; Graphic Solutions; Graystone Insurance Agency; HE & M Saw; Meridian Propane; Riverbend Bank; Texas Motor Cars; WasteQuip; YRC Freight; and Wells Fargo Advisors.