by Richard Simms
Matthew Rogers shared a unique secret that he said helped him win a $25,000 boat in the ACT Lake Grenada tournament.
GRENADA, Miss. – The 2019 American Crappie Trail tournament on Lake Grenada was originally scheduled for May but massive flooding forced the tournament to be delayed until October 25-26. Matthew Rogers is probably happy about that.
The young man fought back tears in the winner’s circle as he explained why this win was sweet redemption.
“I wanted to win an ACT really bad,” explained Rogers. “I went to Kentucky and I made a mistake. I brought eight fish to the dock and didn’t have my first day weight. To come back and do this, it’s a dream come true.”
Fishing by himself, Rogers found himself in 9th place with seven crappie weighing 13.54 lbs. after Day One. However, a huge string on Day Two, weighing 17.66 lbs., catapulted the young man into first place. Rogers was only 0.7 lbs. ahead of 2nd Place anglers, Josh Reynolds and Josh Jones.
Anglers were forced to deal with heavy rains and high winds on both days of the tournament, a factor that may have hampered many anglers. Rogers, however, said he concentrated on working a very small area very methodically to find his big fish that AVERAGED 2.5 lbs. each on Day Two.
Rogers also shared another secret that he believed tipped the scales in his favor. He said that rather than using the standard of hooking his minnows through the lips to keep them alive, he was actually running the hook down into the minnow’s gullet and out the minnow’s side.
“To come back and do this, it’s a dream come true.” ~ Matthew Rogers, ACT Lake Grenada Winner
“When they short strike it they get the hook in their mouth,” explained Rogers. “That makes a huge difference.”
Rogers won a $25,000 Ranger RT188C boat outfitted with an Evinrude 115 outboard for the win.
The overall Big Fish during the tournament weighed 2.96 lbs. and was caught by Daniel Porter and Jeremy Aldridge. The pair came in 5th in the tournament with a total payout of $4,985.
Ronnie Capps and Steve Coleman came in 14th in the October tournament however the pair held onto the overall lead in the 2019 ACT Angler Team of the Year standings.
The next ACT event will be the 2019 National Championship on Mississippi’s Sardis Lake March 26-28, 2020.
