Twisted Cat Win at New Madrid Goes to David Shipman and Phil King
by Ron Presley,
Photos courtesy of Twisted Cat Outdoors by Tom Stolze
Twisted Cat Outdoors ended their regular season on the Big Muddy at New Madrid, MO.
Twisted Cat Outdoors (TCO) completed their regular season competition at New Madrid, MO on the Mississippi River. The event took place on October 7, 2023, during the New Madrid Fall Festival. New Madrid is known for its support of catfishing and the festival provides an added level of excitement to the tournament as it attracts a lot of spectators to the downtown area for the weigh-in.
A non-mandatory Captains Meeting began the tournament festivities at the Mill Street Community Building in New Madrid. The tournament began the following morning with a boat check and registration from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. when fishing legally began.
Moore’s Landing was the northernmost ramp and Caruthersville, MO was the Southernmost ramp that could be used by the anglers. A legal bag was 3 fish consisting of channel cat, blue cat, or flathead with no size limit. Anglers could fish until 3:00 p.m. and had to be back in the weigh-in line by 4:30 p.m. in downtown New Madrid.
In a unique on-the-water event, ACA brought its ACA Live broadcast to the Twisted Cat Outdoors event. The broadcast went live at 9 am EST and ran until 1 pm. Team Draggin Master (Bryan St Ama and Coia Snead), Team MRM (George Young Jr and Tim Spencer), and Team Dewitt (Nooner Hall, Les Thompson, and Trenton Thompson)joined Glen Thomas with reports from the water. Glen also visited with Alex and Liz Nagy about the New Madrid tournament.
Forty-nine teams representing 112 anglers registered to fish the final event of the TCO regular season.
First Place
David Shipman and Phil King claimed the top spot with a total weight of 137.63 pounds. Their efforts earned them a check for $$6,534.
With the cold front conditions, the team expected a tough bite. They got fresh skipjack on Thursday for the Saturday tournament. While prefishing they discovered an area with a lot of submerged wood where they started fishing on tournament day. It was a cool 42 degrees at daylight.
“We expected a tough bite because of the cold front,” revealed David Shipman following the tournament. “We found an area with a lot of scattered wood and a few trees. It was a big area of this stuff so we decided to just fish all the different stumps and stuff all day and hope for the best”
The area they chose had a few drops and rises also. It was relatively shallow water, ranging from 20 to 35 feet deep.
“Most of the fish we caught were in 25 feet,” recounted David. “It surprised us that they were in that shallow of water.”
The team reported a slow starting bite as they bumped for an hour without success. They attributed the slow bite to cool water temperatures caused by the cold front that came through the area.
“I caught our big fish around 8:00 a.m.,” reported David. “It was after the sun came up good. We did not have a bite before then. With scattered wood all over we just made long bumping drifts taking a different line each time.”
So it was mostly a mid-morning bite for David, Phil, and Hunter. The water temperature had dropped a few degrees over the last few days settling in around 75 degrees. They described the bumping as “easy” with a relatively slow current moving downriver at about .3 mph.
“We had about 3 or 4 bites after noon,” continued David. “Phil caught one of the 35-pound fish around 1:00 p.m. The 1st hour or so we didn’t have any bites at all so we kind of worried. But when that bright sun got up good they started. I think that was the key!”
“We want to thank the city of New Madrid for always making the fishermen feel so welcome,” concluded David. “Special thanks also to B’n’M Fishing, Driftmaster Rod Holders, Daiichi Hooks, and Pure Fishing for their support. Finally, thanks to Alex Nagy for always doing a great job with the Twisted Cat Tournaments.”
Second Place and Big Fish
The runner-up spot went to Mike Davis, Larry Davis, and Charles LaPlant. They teamed up to bring 134.19 pounds to the scales to claim the second-place check of $3,266. Their bag included Big Fish of the tournament at 79.07 pounds to add $500 to their payday for the Castaway Customs MWSC Big Fish of the tournament.
Mike, Larry, and Charles set their tournament strategy by prefishing the area. They are among the anglers who like to prefish without hooks to locate potential fish spots. They rig up with a snap swivel instead of a hook. The swivel is used to clip a skipjack through the nose and avoid “catching” the fish. This allows them to look for big pulls to locate a better class of fish.
“We found our fish the day before the tournament while prefishing,” revealed Laplant. “We clipped on bait with no hooks and had some good pulls.”
“We had a good day of fishing,” continued Laplant. “We had sunny skies on tournament morning following a cold front. The water temp was about 75 degrees. Our big fish came out of 35 feet right along with all the rest. All of our fish were caught from a 100-yard stretch of revetment mats.”
The team caught all their fishing bumping in current that was running about 3 mph. They described the bite as a “morning bite.” The Big Fish of the tournament didn’t come until about 10:00 a.m. on skipjack.
“We are pro-staff for Whisker Seeker Tackle,” concluded Laplant. “We want to thank them for their support. They are a great sponsor.”
Third Place
Third place went to Tom Petrowski, Alex Petrowski, and Damien Clark
They teamed up to bring 120.02 pounds to the scales and earn the third-place check for $1,960.
The team set their strategy based on Tom’s prefishing. Unfortunately, the fish he found were small ones and the cold front left them wondering what to expect.
“We started our day not knowing what to expect,” reported Clark. “The cold front was the first of the fall season and we expected the fishing to be tough. Tom prefished the day before. He found a bunch of fish but they were just small ones.”
The team decided to start where Tom found the fish. They hoped to just fish through them in hopes of getting lucky and pick off some good ones.
“We didn’t catch a bunch of fish in the first half of the day,” continued Clark. “Ther was nothing over 18 pounds. We moved to another spot and only got bit twice.”
They decided to make a drastic change and went to a revetment bank where Tom had some success before.
“We made a move and ran about 40 miles,” revealed Clark. “It’s about 1 p.m. when we get to the new spot. The big fish were there. The 1st fish was a tank and I lost it right at the boat.”
In an effort to not be discouraged, the team just kept grinding as they bumped the 20 to 25-foot deep water with skipjack.
“I busted a 40-pounder about 5 minutes later,” said Clark. “Then Tom busted a 56-pounder and then a 24. In 18 minutes our whole day changed!”
Final Thoughts
This tournament was especially important for the anglers chasing points. It was their last chance to qualify for the year-ending championship on Lake Ouachita, AR. The top 50 anglers of the season, based on their best 4 events, qualify for the no-entry-fee, invitation-only, TCO Championship presented by SeaArk Boats powered by Suzuki Marine to be held at Lake Ouachita, AR. Anglers will vie for $35,000 in payouts.
The 2023 Points Winners will be based on the top 4 finishes plus the Championship.
The Points Race leader following the New Madrid event is Mike Keuhl. A list of the 50 anglers qualifying for the TCO Championship can be found by clicking here.
For more information on Twisted Cat Outdoors visit their website or follow them on Facebook. Give Alex a call at 573-723-2127 if you have any questions.
