by Tim Huffman
A great place to learn, have fun and connect with local fishermen is club tournaments. A relatively new club that has been very successful is the Central Alabama Crappie Club. A trip on Lake Jordan with the husband wife duo of Alex and Jenni Johnson was enjoyable and they shared their personal views on club competition.
“Jonathan Phillips and Dan Dannenmueller helped us by talking to people about forming a club,” says Alex. “We wanted to keep it local to help people learn and to help encourage more people to fish Crappie Masters who comes here to the Alabama River and Jordan. We have close to 100 members in our club in just a couple of years.”
The club goes where members request. Miller’s Ferry, Lay Lake and other nearby waters are included. There are many great fishing waters within an hour or so drive in central Alabama.
“What the club has done for me is make me a better fisherman,” says Alex. “It forces me to go fishing when I otherwise wouldn’t have gone because of conditions. It’s been good for learning.”
Jenni Johnson, secretary/treasurer of the club, (and cover photo for this issue) agrees. “It forces us to become better fishermen and we’ve made some great friends. It’s fun to have friends who like to fish. The members are good about talking to each other so everybody learns. There are a few other fisher-women in the club and I hope more will start fishing.
“We like to cast or shoot docks. The club tournaments have forced us to learn how to spider rig. We’ve caught some good fish with this technique that is very different for us.
“If you put pressure on yourself because it’s a tournament it would not be the same. We fish a lot together so we go out to have a fun day of fishing even though it’s a tournament. It works better for us that way.”
Take a look in the back of CrappieNow Magazine to see the many local and regional clubs to find one near you.
