CRACKERFEST 06 RESULTS!!!!

[JSV]

We had a great morning of fishing and fellowship. I hope the weighins went well and to everyone's liking!!!!! I first would like to thank Hamilton's Sport and Tackle for their donations!!! Hamilton's was the only store in the Chattanooga area which contributed to our Cracker fest!!!! If any members are in there and you should visit them, tell them thanks on behalf of CFF. Hamilton's also gives CFF Members a 10% discount. I would also like to thank CLAY (SWAMP DONKEY) HE DONATED $50 for the kids as well as CHURLY for getting the shirts and with those donations and a little added to it, we were able to give items out to all the kids which fished!! Thanks to TNDOE for helping me also and lending her boat to me, Tennessee Talker, my wife (Stephanie) and Daughter (Ashley)!! Flip1up (our CFF Weigh Master) done the weighing of the fish and done (as usual) a great job!!! Thanks Dhaun for the help and a great forum and a place for us common folks to fellowship and get together!!!

RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!! ! FLIP1UP AND FAMILY........1ST.....5.58LBS....$75
FISHFIRE & FISHINGFOOL..2ND....5.39LBS....$45
CHURLEY and Partner........3rd......5.04LBS.....$30
DRUMKING........................4TH 4.95LBS
BAITBUCKET....................5TH 4.34LBS

I have a lot more to post and some pretty good stories from Cracker fest but I have a wedding to attend this evening and about 500 Fish to clean afterwards!! I will post more at a later time. I hope everyone who participated had a good & enjoyable time!!!!!!!
THANKS,
JASON (JSV)

 

[DHaun]

This event was a Great Success and was organized perfectly with some very kind donations. 7:30-1pm worked out great. Thanks to JSV for thinking of the idea and doing such a great job as the coordinator making sure the kids had a good time. Also to Churly for all those "I survived CrackerFest 2006" T-Shirts. I hope you got enough cash from some of us to help with the costs - at 6 bucks a piece, that can add up quick. Also, thanks to all the others Hamilton's and SwampDonkey who donated their time, cash and effort for the prizes. The result was a bunch of huge grins on these kids (both big and small) and long-lasting childhood memories for many! Mine certainly had a blast and they are already both crashed-out napping on the couch.

Congrats to the Flip1Up Team on their well-deserved win at the first CFF CrackerFest. The boys from the winning team showed a lot of class letting the other kids have a chance at winning a donated prize when their names were pulled from the hat. FishnFire, Churly, Drumking, BaitBucket and the other close bags looked to have almost an exact replica of ShellCrackers that flip1up had, they just weighed a few ounces less. There were some fine looking sacks of ShellCrackers weighed in today. All the fish were placed on ice in a cooler and I bet JSV had close to 100lbs of fish to take home and clean!

The DHaun team of 2 adults and 2 kids started off going into a couple sloughs near Harrison Bay State Park looking for bedding fish and it quickly turned into a snagged-up fire drill for me to handle with bobbers getting tangled in cover and kids lines getting twisted together. After running back and forth over the boat 4-5 times helping everyone with tangles and retying jigs, I decided to remove all the bobbers and add a split-shot to our waxworm tipped squirrel-tail jigs and head for some rock bluffs where there was deeper water and a place to anchor and relax. We found a nice spot where the kids could fish or swim and ended up with 47 bluegill all weighing 8.5lbs, the biggest ten weighed 3.05lbs. Almost all were caught on bottom jigging off the side of the boat in 17-30 ft deep. My sweetie said it's the most fish she has ever caught and the kids had a blast fishing, swimming, and eating snacks on the boat. We decided to go back to the ramp after it got hot close to noon. I can't wait until the next one!

Pics in order they were taken are located here at this link and also shown below:

http://www.maxxcode.com/picview/Default.aspx?PicDir=album\CFF CrackerFest 5-27-2006

 

[TennesseeTalker]

Well ... what a BLAST we had and I'm sorry all you OTHER CFF members couldn't make it. Drumking beat me there to the dock at Chester Frost ... but I was 2nd!!! Arriving at 6:30ish for the 1st of what I hope will be ... an annual event of Crackerfest Fishing.

The list of attendees will be posted later by JSV I'm sure ... who you should start feeling sorry for immediately!!! HE .. has the task of cleaning a LOT of fish!!! I don't know the final count .. but well over 200 because EVERYONE .. except two MIA's who didn't get back for weigh in ... caught ALOT of fish.

The kids had fun, I didn't hear ONE single complaint ... and the big kids had just as much fun on a hot ... and HUMID (at least in the morning) Saturday. By weigh in that annoying truck music from the popsickle man was welcomed and cheered for sure.

Well let's get to business ... with fishing reports!!

Started the morning off by arriving at Chester Frost at 6:30 AM ... DrumKing beat me, if you can believe that!! I fished with JSV in a boat, and TNDoe and her cousin fished in another. Once we got put in and on the way the four of us ventured over to ???? and started with the fish catchin'. The water was 75 degrees and about 5 or so feet deep. TNDoe and her cousin were armed with redworms, crickets and meal worms. We had all that PLUS nightcrawlers. The compadres fishing were using corks and so was I until I noticed JSV was catching fish almost every cast by bottom fishing. So being the copy cat that I am .. I yanked my cork off and followed suit. Sure enough .. fish started hitting my line. I put on a nightcrawler and caught the first bonefide Shell Cracker!! It was a nice one ... must have been about 3 pounds. My fishing partners watched me reel her in .. boat her ... take her off the hook! I was really big I'm sure. I was getting congrats for catching the first NICE shell cracker ... and then ... dropped it on the deck. THEN ... flop ... flop ... flop to the edge of the boat. Seemed like slo mo ... but I leaned over to catch her before she ...

Dang ... gone. Back into the drink she went. I heard several sighs from the group of fishing buddies. Oh well ... lived to see another day.

But being the trouper that I am ... back to fishing I went. We caught Blue gills way more than anything else. We moved up the water to ???? where TnDoe and her cousin ventured to. JSV had the secret method ... crickets on the bottom. That fella musta outfished us ... 10 to one. You know me and crickets (ICKY). Well I finally thought I was brave enough to try them after he had me open the live well 15 TIMES to toss in his fish. So off with the worm .. grabbed the cricket bucket, closed my eyes and snatched out some .. one two .. three don't know how many and when I opened my eyes to put them on my hook .. they were on my hand crawling around and next thing I knew .. there were crickets all over in the boat and well .. let's just say another lesson learned. If you want your crickets in that silly cricket box and I'm fishing with you ... guess you better put them on my hook! emoLaugh

Okay I promise to practice that ...

Anyway ... we left our spot and headed back to Chester Frost around 10:30 to pick up JSV's daughter and wifie. Nice folks those two!!! I hopped out of the boat under protest ... and decided to finish the Crackerfest from the bank. They hopped in and away they went.

I drove to McDonald's and got something to drink ... used the facilities and cooled off. It was HOT HOT HOT ... HUMID too. Drove back over to Chester Frost and found a little spot where I pulled out the deck chair and fishing gear for the next hour until weigh in. I thought .. wow wouldn't it be neat to come back from bank fishing and win the tourney. Of COURSE .. that didn't happen but I managed to keep myself entertained with a few dinky blue gills ... might have caught the same 3 incher about 5 times for all I know!!!emoLaugh emoLaugh

1 PM found me standing at the weigh in ... listening to that silly ice cream truck music ... thanking God for it and the friends on CFF. It was a blast. I'm sitting here all showered up wearing with pride .. MY CFF T-Shirt ... I survived!! Thanks Churly.

JSV has a lot of fish to clean ... hope he counts to see what the total combined number was!!! Just kidding ... it's well over 200 though for the group of us.

Nice job .. nice meeting everyone .. can't wait until next year's event. I'm going to practice on the cricket bait!

Maybe.

TT

 

[churly]

I would have to say that the Crackerfest was a success!! I was glad to see that all of the kids were able to get something. I think just about everyone ended up with a shirt, I hope so because I handed them all out! JSV I think the weigh-in went well, great job! REPORT: My partner and I put in up past Sale Creek on the main river. When we arrived at the spot I caught them last week there were already 2 boats on top of the hole. So we spent the next few hours bumping around trying different spots with no luck. I felt bad because I had really talked the hole up to my buddy who fished with me. Finally at about 11:00, we found a bed of big ole mean shellcrackers back in Sale Creek, and finished out the bait. All were caught on litle pieces of night crawler. I used the the simple hook and splitshot method and we ran out of bait at 12:00 and had to boggie woogie to get back to Chester by 1:00. It was a beautiful day to be on the water. That was my buddy, Adam's first tourney ever and he kept talking about how great of a time he had! Thanks to all!!!

 

[flip1up]

Well, we have had some really good tournaments in the past. Is it just me or do they get better every time? Crackerfest was another great one. Just look at the smiles on the faces on those children. Jsv, thank you, you did a great job and we are all glad that you had the vision to think that this would be a good time and a way to include our families in the fun. Great to again meet new members and folks that I hadnt yet met. Thanks Churly, the kids are still wearing their Ts.

I had no idea where to catch shellcrackers or bluegill. We went straight across the river and into the back of the first slough we came to. And thats where we caught every fish we brought in, about 30-40 I recon. We fished in 1-2 foot of water with wax worms. There were 2 little spots that the better fish were on. If you got away from those spots you would catch 3" fish. Man, was it hot. I feel a little guilty about jsv taking all those fish home to filet. Like I say, "a little guilty". That big cooler was filled to the brim with crackers, I could barely get any ice in it, I'm going to say there were more like 300 or better in there. Many of them being real nice pan fish.

 

[Davo]

Wow, sounds like everyone had a great time. It's always great to get kids started early. I have about 3-4 years before my son will be able to join me. I thought I saw you, Flip, but I wasn't totally sure and didn't want to run into that tiny cove to see. I was just out from you fishing that long point. Hmm, I wonder how much that secret cracker hole will be worth

 

[fisherpal2k]

JSV, I think you started something GREAT!!!!! Sounds like everyone had a very GOOD TIME and enjoyed it. Thanks for all the reports and the updates. Enjoyed reading it almost as much as if I had been there.

Great pics Dhaun!! My daughter loved Sweeties hat!! Now you have to tell me where to get one... emoLaugh .. Looks like yer kids had the right idea by stayin in the water to cool off.. Thanks for the pics.

Everyone sounds like they had fun and best of all wants to do it again. emoThumbsup ... Hi=5 to all the participants..

Thanks to all the contributors also. Not gonna name names cause I would surely leave one or more out.. But many thanks to all who helped out and donated.. There is only so many things one can do to keep children off the streets but if they get hooked on fishing and having a good time like has been described. They will be hooked for life. Thanks to all!!!

 

[Fat Albert]

It looks as if you all had a great time. You pictures show it the best. all the kids and grown ups too, surely had a wonderful time.... I was up at Walker Valley high school calling a couple of tournament baseball games and boy was it ever HOT. I bet a lost a few pounds..... again, great shots of the kids....emoSmile emoBigsmile

 

[tink1603]

I am DHauns daughter, and I had a great time at crackerfest! I would like to thank everyone who helped to make this possible! It was great and I really thought that the T-shirts were a great idea! Thank you all!



-Annie-emoParty

 

[Fishin Fool]

We had a HECK of a lot of fun at this event. Special thanks to JSV and Dhaun for helping put this together. I hope next year to get involved and help out with some donations and so on. Fishin Fire and I got out real early in the morning but the crackers weren't where they normally are. We spent a lot of the morning just scouting around until we finally found fish. From what I understand we were real close to first place and we were honored to take second! I am diabetic so just as we pulled in the driveway with the boat I began to have low blood sugar really bad and could't make the weigh in. Fishin Fire (Mike) and a buddy, Steve, (he didn't fish) went on over with the fish to weigh in. Both were soooooooooooo impressed with the friendly folks and the fun everyone seemed to be having. Steve and Mike both said it was just like going to visit family! Let's work next year to make this even better. The kids seemed to have fun and this is something that can really make them appreciate fishing and sportsmanship. I talked to JSV on the phone the other night and he seems like a really nice, honest type of guy. Sorry I missed you folks but I promise to be at the next event. Until then all I can say is GREAT JOB!!!! That goes for everyone! (by the way, I think the t shirts are cool as heck!)

 

[flip1up]

Davo, If you were fishing that same point that you caught the fish on the spook during the CFF T, yes, I was in that little slough back in there. There were a bunch of crackers in there, they quit biting about 10.

 

[RangerRob]

I really hate that we didn't get to join everyone ... yes, we're home safe and sound. It looks like a good time was had by all. Lot's of smiles in those above pics and that's what it's really all about.

 

[Bprice]

Its great to see all them youngins' having such a great time! I hope to join in on the next one!

 

[drumking]

I just got back from my granddaughter's dance recital at the Tivoli, so I'm sorry for the late report.

I started off fishing a shellcracker bed behind the islands near Island Cove. I caught 2 shellcrackers on the first 3 casts. I had 7 in about 10 minutes and thought that I would have it made. Then they turned off as quickly as they turned on. I did manage to catch about 4 bluegills there to make at least 10 fish for me. Then I ran to Harrison Bay and tried 1 place that has been good in the past years for me, but the fish were no shows today at that place.

Two other beds yielded a couple more bluegills, so I decided to Crappie fish for a while to provide some fish for the cookout. I caught 1 keeper, several short Crappie and then thought to myself - "You're fishing the Crackerfest tournament. What in the world are you doing fishing for Crappie?" I talk to myself like that a lot these days.

Left Savannah creek and stopped under the power lines in Wolftever creek and stayed there in 2 feet of water and really hit the crackers pretty good. I caught about 20 total, about 10 bluegill, 2 bass, and 1 yellow perch. All my fish were caught on 1" pumpkinseed Squirming grubs and 1/32 oz bleeding hook jigs. I'm not sure that I weighed my heaviest 10 crackers, but I didn't care. Seeing the smiles on the faces of those children made the tournament worth while. Thanks again to Churly for the shirts for the folks.

I had a wonderful time and the tournament was handled very well by JSV. Thank you all for being so giving of your time and efforts to put on such an enjoyable tournament, especially for the kids. I wish we had more tournaments like this that the kids could enjoy while they are out of school.

 

[fishing fire]

Hey everybody I would just like to say that I'm pleased that the crackerfest turned out great.
Also I had a great time and it was good to see everyone else did as well. Hope next year its
an even bigger event and even more fun if possible. Well keep your lines wet and happy fishing
And thanks to all that make cracker fest possible.

 

[rsimms]

I wasn't there but this was obviously a GREAT thing! What more can you say? I've posted the Crackerfest Group Shot on http://www.Chattanoogan.com/Outdoors

 

[JerDog]

I too had a great time on the water today with my 2 boys. The boys fished hard and were so excited to have their names called off when the prizes were given out. I'd like to say thanks because I know an event like this takes a lot of hard work and time to organize. For those that did not make it and have children, I highly recommend fishing in next years tournament.

 

[swamp donkey]

First I want to say, darn I should have been there. I'm sitting in NC and just got threw veiwing all the pic's from the crackerfest and the smiles on everyone's face. These kind of events are what I want to be involved with. I'm so excited that the kids enjoyed fishing and I still remember the days my grandfather took me fishing. Memories I'll never forget and think of often. Great Job JSV!
Bring some of those crackers with you to guntersville and we'll put them in some grease. Thanks, Swamp Donkey

 

[Zunker]

Thanks to everyone that helped to put this together. My daughter and her friend had a great time. We did not catch to many fish they spent more time in the water than fishing but they had a great time and it was a great day on the water.

 

[messier49]

the pictures speak a thousand words, those are absolutely great pics of the kids with huge smiles on their faces. i contemplated signing up for the crackerfest very late fri night but i wasn't sure if i could make it. i ended up having my grandson-in-law who is 4 for a few hours on saturday morning but his dad was picking him up at 10:30 and he wanted to fish so bad so as usual he was up around 5:30 am and wanted to go fishing right then so we got ready and were at chester frost at 6 am, put in and headed up to sequoyah area. he caught about 10 nice bluegill, we left there and headed up to pinky's point and we caught a few more there then it was time to head back to chesterfrost so he could meet up with his dad at around 10 am and i had to head to atlanta to visit with my daughter. i think i might have past a few of you guys out on the lake as i headed to pinky's but really wasn't sure who was who since i've never met any members yet. anyhow i wished i could've stayed out longer and met you all and from the pics it looks as though eveyone one had a great time. i am sorry that i missed the crackerfest, hopefully i can make the next one.