Indiana Slab Masters
Established in November 2010 For Fun And Friendly Competition in a Club Environment
Tanners Creek, Ohio River Tournament Story 2013
This years Tanners Creek, Ohio River Tournament had all the makings of one of the best events in club history. A lot of big fish being caught during practice and rumors of a possible 10lb. stringer for the winning weight. The conditions were just about perfect for the practice day on Friday, but on tournament day the river dropped over a foot and caught some of our members off guard and changed a lot of plans. In the end there were some very nice fish caught along with very heavy stringers for still mid-summer conditions. If you have never fished this area, it is one of Indiana's best crappie fisheries!
As expected, the Ohio teams ruled this event and the always tough team of Larry Yates and Doug Allen came out on top with an impressive total weight of 8.40 lbs. Larry and Doug were swimming Southern Pro black and chartreuse jigs over stumps in 6-12' of water to capture their first Indiana Slab Masters win of the 2013 season. Larry and Doug have a vast knowledge of the river and showed they were worthy champions! Congratulations on the win men!
Finishing in a very close 2nd was another very good Ohio team of Tom and Troy Allen with a total weight of 8.36 lbs. Tom and Troy were also swimming jigs in 6-12' of water over stumps, covering a lot of water to catch this very impressive stringer. Great job on a tough day men!
Finishing in 3rd place was the team of Jim Raymer and Doug Sikora with a total weight of 7.85 lbs. Doug and Jim were vertical jigging Southern Pro orange and chartreuse tubes and Bobby Garland Slab Slayers with their 11' Sam's Super Sensitive crappie poles tipped with minnows in 6-12' of water on stumps. Jim and Doug would like to thank Jack Wells from B'n'M Poles, Freddie Coggins from Southern Pro, along with Gary Dollahan from Bobby Garland for their support.
Finishing in 4th place was the always tough team of John Quinn and Gale Risner with a total weight of 6.68 lbs. John and Gale was spider rigging Southern Pro and Lake Fork baits scented with Juiced Up Baits in 8-12' of water. John and Gale also had the Big Fish of the tournament That John caught, a 1.63 lb. Slab. John and Gale have been solid competitors this year and seem to be hitting their stride at the right time. Great job men!
Rounding out the top 5 is last year's points champions Tom Hankins and Glenn Gill with a total weight of 6.12 lbs. Tom and Glenn were spider rigging and vertical jigging in the 6-12' range using Lake Fork Baits. Great Job with another solid finish!
In closing, The Indiana Slab Masters B'n'M Points Race is definitely worth mentioning. With one tournament remaining in the regular season at Raccoon Lake we have a tie for the points race lead between Tom Hankins / Glenn Gill and Charlie / Paul Hildreth. Charlie and Paul were the Indiana Slab Masters 1st year points champs, and Tom and Glenn were points champs last year. There are 4 other teams within striking distance of the lead. So, it all comes down to the last regular season tournament at Raccoon Lake on September 21st. This lake has a population of crappie that are cookie cutter fish and the top teams will most likely only be separated by hundredths of a pound. This makes it very much anyone's race, and may the best team win! This is exactly what the points race is all about, coming down to the wire with the best teams in the club battling it out at the final regular season event. If you are a member, this will be a very fun tournament to witness and participate in.
The awards banquet will be on the night before our two day classic (October 12th-13th) and all members will be welcome. This year's banquet will be on October 11th at Morse Park Beach at a beautiful facility that is right on the water. We are still finalizing all the details and as soon as they are all ready I will be putting all the Classic information on the website, so stay tuned.
I also want to thank each and every member for making the Indiana Slab Masters a successful organization! Because of your participation, and loyalty attending club events allows us to put on a low cost competitive club that is still exciting. We are still committed first and foremost to teaching and making our members better fishermen/ladies. Last winter, we had two seminars during the off season. Our B'n'M Points champs put on a seminar on spider rigging, and we also had a seminar on side imaging and electronics. We hope to have even more seminars this off season to help make each person that fishes with our club better competitors. If you are a club member these seminars are always free. The Raccoon Lake Tournament is on September 21st and I hope to see you all there! Until then, good fishin'