Deland residents Stephen and Jennifer Edwards live about 5 minutes from the St. Johns River. “We fish here every weekend for dinner,” said Jenifer. The husband/wife crappie team were the first anglers to weigh in at Friday’s day-one of the Crappie Masters event on the St. Johns River. The interesting part of the story is that on Thursday they had no idea they would be fishing the tournament.

Stephen had talked to Brian Sowers on Thursday and Sowers, the Voice of Crappie Masters, suggested that Stephen fish the tournament. Stephen and Jenifer decided to do it. The only problem was, that they first thought it was Saturday and Sunday.
“When we first signed up we were thinking it was Saturday and Sunday,” recalled Jennifer. “When Stephen said it was Friday I was freaking out. I had to see to some patients and had to work until 11:30. So I met him at about 12:45 pm. He had most of the fish caught. I added a couple. Thank God, I get to fish all day tomorrow.”
Stephen had fish near the boat launch at Ed Stone Park, the site of the weigh-in. “I just fished close by,” said Stephen. “I had to wait on her. It wasn’t fair to her for me to go on.”
At the end of the day the team had weighed in a respectable 7.42 pounds in their first ever crappie tournament. They will be back on day-two and both will get to fish all day.

Last year’s winners Larry Durden and Steve Durden weighed in a whopping 12.79 pounds to take the lead on day-one as they defended their 2016 championship. Their weight include big fish at 2.41 pounds. They were followed by Troy Theil and Ricky Willis with 11.65 pounds.
The remaining top ten included Chuck Collier and Brian Townsend (11.42); Vick Finley and Kim Gray (11.14); George Parker and Tim Eberly (10.97); Dan Dannenmueller and Garrett Steele (10.77); Eric and Leann Howard (10.07); Don Collins and Rusty Booth (10.02); Rick Howard and Steve Deason (9.81); and Brian Davis and Brian Davis Jr (9.76).
Day-two fishing begins again at 7:00 am and ends at 3:30 pm on Saturday, January 28th. Anglers must be in line by 4:30 at Ed Stone Park Boat Ramp for the weigh-in. The public is invited and welcome to attend the weigh-in. The address is 2990 W State Rd 44, Deland, FL 32724.
For more information on Crappie Masters visit their website at www.crappiemasters.net, or visit their Facebook page.
For more information on the Deland area visit the website at http://visitwestvolusia.com/ or their Facebook page at Visit West Volusia.