Well the Spring Crappie Fest 2023 is in the books! Thank you all for attending and making the event what it is! I will say fishing was tough to say the least. We had 14 teams in the tournament and only 2 teams caught fish. 1st place ($336) went to Team Zach and Mac with 2 fish totaling 3.07 lbs. They also won the Wild Willie Biggest Crappie at 1.93 lbs ($280 lbs). They caught their fish in shallow 3 ft of water. 2nd place went to 3 Amigos (Randy, Cameron, and Matthew) with 1 fish caught early in the morning weighing 1.42 lbs ($224). Fishing at Alamo has been tough like this for at least 2 weeks as this is similar results as the Arizona Mule Deer Org crappie tournament 2 weeks ago. The Corn Belt Crappie Trail state championship is April 22-23, 2023 also at Alamo Lake, hopefully things improve by then. Side note, I measured 59 degree water temp in the morning in some places and also saw it reach 62 degrees later in the day, and I heard from another they read higher temps.
For more details about fishing report at Alamo lake and many other lakes right now, be sure to tune into the the live feed on Facebook this Monday at 7:30pm on Crappie fisherman of arizona (
https://www.facebook.com/groups/169460015028474). As usual, you can get great information about fishing for crappie at many of the Arizona lakes with details ranging from recent fish catches, water levels, and water temperatures, plus there is often information about upcoming events shared in that live feed.
AZCA Members can view all of the SCF and BHCC tournament history results here:
http://www.azcrappie.com/forum/index.php?topic=2236After the weighin, we held the 1st meeting of this new season and I will post those meeting minutes shortly. Following the meeting, we held the raffle with one of the best participation in the raffle ever. Raffle funds as you know not only help pay for the raffle prizes but also help pay for the camping fees for members for both SCF and BHCC events, as well as pay for various club fees like event liability insurance, Tonto permits, trophies, etc. So thank you all for purchasing raffle tickets to help pay for those expenses. For the raffle, we gave away many prizes including a guided trip with AZ Crappie Sniper Guide services, a propane firepit, gift certificates to The Minnow Bucket (donated by Robert & Paula Swindle), hand tied jigs and plastics by The Crappie Whisperer (donated by Cameron), AZ Leadworks beanies and jigs, Crappie fishing gear by Get Out and Fish (Richard Johnson), Liars Korner $25 gift card, AZGFD habitats waypoint chip/card, AZCA drinkware, AZCA shirts, and several other items.
We sold lots of AZCA koozies, drinkware, and shirts -- those we sell at cost and not used to raise club funds but they do help raise club awareness though. We also gave away some AZCA stickers. We have some drinkware, shirts, and stickers available so I'll be bringing them to future events.
AZCA members did vote for the Bob Hirsch Crappie Classic fall event to be held October 7th at Roosevelt Lake, so mark off your calendars and be sure to attend that event it's sure to be a fun one for sure. I'll be booking a group campsite at Grapevine for Thur-Sun Oct 5-8 and working with TNF to obtain the permit. Stay tuned to this website for more details on the BHCC as they become available.
After the raffle, believe it or not we still held the fish fry. Proper planning and great members expected tough fishing and therefore brought some fish from their freezers. Crappie fish fry with a multitude of great sides and desserts were top notch. Thanks James Rollins (Rollo) for stepping up and doing the fish fry and thank you to everyone who brought extras to make the potluck great.
We finished off the night around the campfire all talking about the one that got away (not really). The Arizona Crappie Association officers and its members are looking forward to a great 2023-2024 season and we hope to see you at our upcoming events.