Crappie Masters once again started out their season in the sunshine state of Florida this year hosted by Gaston County TDC with the kickoff event being held on Lake Talquin in Gadsen County Florida. This was an exciting stop for Crappie Masters anglers because it has been several years since our last tournament on this amazing fishery.
Many teams headed south from all over the country in hopes of finding warmer weather, but this was not the case here in 2024. Anglers were faced with lows in the 30’s and highs creeping up into the low 50’s for most of the week and a constant north wind all week.
Day one of weigh in was full of excitement as there was a big crowd on hand at Ingram’s Marina to watch our anglers cross the stage showing off beautiful black crappie that were found in this fishery. Team Nipper of Brayden, Mike and Ethan took the lead on day one with a weight of 11.25 lbs.
Following closely behind in second place was Dustin Shields who fished the event alone with a weight of 11 pounds even and being the only other team to break the 11lb mark. Shields also was in control of the Big Fish with his 2.56 lb giant Lake Talquin black crappie.
Rounding out the top 5 were Les and Jamie Standstipher with a weight of 10.88, Zach Minnix and Bill Hunt with a weight of 10.23 and Binh Nguyen and Joey Mullis with a weight of 10.06 lbs.
Excitement of Championship Saturday was in the air waiting for the anglers to cross the stage. The team of Ethan, Brayden and Mike Nipper were the last team to weigh in and had the largest bag of the tournament with a weight of 11.87. This made them the wire-to-wire champions for the first 2024 Crappie Masters tournament. They also won big fish for the tournament with a weight of 2.63. For their winnings of overall Champions, Big Fish Champions and Adult Youth Champions they went home with $8,200.00. Team Nipper discussed on stage following the weigh in that they focused on using forward facing sonar and casting a variety of plastics to get the winning fish in the boat for both days.
Binh Nguyen and Joey Mullis took second place with a total weight of 21.41lbs and received $3,500.00. Ben and Joey made a jump up the leaderboard after coming into championship Saturday in fifth place.
Les and Jamie Standstipher took third place with a total weight of 21.33 lbs and were also the top finishing male/female team and received a check for $2,700.00 for their work.
Take a look below for the full results from stop number one on Lake Talquin. Crappie Masters Tournament Director Blake Jackson would like to thank Gadsen County TDC for hosting this event in 2024 along with the entire staff from Ingram’s marina for hosting our registration and weigh in for this event.
