The most recent Fishin’ Blues tournament was held on March 23rd and 24th out of Ralph’s Resort, Elgin, OK. Anglers had to be back at the weigh-in by 4:00 pm on Saturday and 3:00 pm on Sunday. The tournament featured boat and bank fishing and paid the top 3 places and big fish.
First Place
B’n’M Poles pro-staffer, Adam Shriver, described his weekend of fishing the Fishin’ Blues as “Epic.” He and his partner, Terry Alexander weighed a two-day total of 165 pounds to claim the top spot.
“What an epic weekend of fishing and putting the B’n’M Poles to work,” reported Shriver. “Day one was a riot with rain and hail, high winds. We also had a rod pulled in and I was dumb enough to dive in after it. I caught the rod and handed to Terry and he got the fish landed for us.”
Shriver and Alexander stayed on good fish all day. They managed 100 pounds on Saturday and gave them a good lead going into day two. They wasted no time heading back up north to the area where they left big fish biting on Saturday. They continued fishing shallow water on the rope. They target a mud flat with some vegetation using fresh gizzard shad for bait.
“We were in hopes that the fish were still where we left them,” offered Shriver. “We got set up and within 30 minutes we boated a 38-pounder. We knew then that we had made a good move and just needed to be patient. We waited it out for another big bite, which paid off.”
“Our struggle on day two was finding unders,” concluded Shriver. “That’s not always a bad thing. We hit the scales with another 65 pounds to make our two-day total 165.00 pounds. It was good enough to pull off first place and big fish.”
Shriver thanked his family and friends for their support. He also thanked B’n’M Poles and Tackling Kats for their support.
Second Place
The runner-up spot went to Chris and Kyli Baldwin. The Oklahoma City team weighed in 63.15 pounds on day one to put them in the second spot. They brought an additional 42.09 on day two for a total of 106.08 pounds and held on to the second-place spot.
“Day one we got a late start waiting for some storms to clear out,” reported Kyli. “We started fishing anchored down in about a foot of water. “Right off the bat, we landed a 34-pounder. Unfortunately, that was the only big fish to come that day. We caught tons of fish that day ranging from 3 to 8 pounds. We weighed in about 63 pounds, all in about 1 to 2 feet of water and all on cut shad.”
Following day one Team Baldwin went back to the water to catch some fresh bait. After a little searching, they found bait sitting on the slopes going up to the shallows. They loaded up for day two.
“On the second day we made the decision to go right back to the spot we landed our big fish on day one,” continued Kyli. “But we only caught a few small ones. It seemed that the storms moved the fish because we didn’t catch as many as we did on Saturday.”
They moved a few more times before setting up on the rope again. They landed a 20-pounder in the new spot before making another decision to try something different.
“We also pulled 2 hooks on what seemed like some big fish,” said Kyli. “And we also had a 50-pound leader break on us. Next, we moved to deeper water and pulling boards in the hope of finding some bigger fish. Nothing. We ended the day with 42 pounds which kept us in second place.”
Third Place
The final team in the money was Evan S. and Lane Davis. They brought 26.03 pounds to the scales on Saturday and 24.04 on Sunday to claim their spot with a total weight of 50.07 pounds. And they did it with no electronics.
“The best part of all is that Chris and Kyli Baldwin, along with Adam Shriver, were there to see us get the plaque,” said Evan Davis. “Chris is the reason we got into catfishing tournaments. I’ve spent hours and hours talking to the three of them about catfishing techniques, patterns, setups, and learning from their years of knowledge, and advise. Just knowing that we fished and finish in the money with them was such a great accomplishment for us.”
Rounding out the Top Five
4th Place – Mike and Pam Orr – 44.13
5th Place – Ridge McClure and Jared and Cassidy Young – 41.14
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