Jack and Holly’s first tournament.

 Good day everyone, this is Andy and I want to introduce the very first "Guest Blog" this is 
an article written by Jack and Holly Linton aka "The Green Machine". These 2 have fished many 
Crappie Masters tournaments and have grown a great following. I am proud to call these 2 good friends 
and they also happen to be a big part of the ACC Crappie Stix family. Thanks for your time.

     It was October 2014 and as Jack and I had planned we were in Grenada, MS. for our fishing vacation,
as always if we were going to go on vacation it is going to be a fishing vacation because this is our 
favorite thing to do together. This vacation was going to be different. We had talked about a few times 
and now we were going to give it a try. Crappie Masters was in town that week for the Fall early Bird
tournament to start the 2015 schedule. We had paid our entry fee and we were excited to see how this 
tournament fishing stuff works out.
     We "pre fished" as well as we knew how to that week and for not knowing Grenada lake we did catch some
nice Crappie. We were excited and nervous! As the week went on we met a few of the usual Crappie Masters
fisherman and found them all to be very friendly as they introduced us to other fisherman. As Thursday
night rolled around we attended seminar for registration and lining out all the rules.
     Friday morning we got started early and despite  some storms that day we managed to weigh 6 fish.
What a relief after day one this new team in the bright green boat was sitting in 11th place with 11 pounds.
what happens to be ironic about this is the next day was our 11th anniversary and it was Oct. 11th. 
It seemed like maybe we had a good thing going!
      As we got started the second day of the tournament our first fish was in the boat at 7:05 am.
Wohoo! it was all down hill from there. More storms moved in and sitting in torrential downpours was not very 
enjoyable. The wind was miserable and I was emotionally broken. To make matters worse, the fish were not
biting.
      Fishing tournament was not for me I was beginning to think. The theme of the 11's was just a silly 
coincidence as we only weighed 2 fish the second day and dropped to 23rd place. We were happy with 
that finish.
      We leaned a lot, but our biggest lesson is that tournament fishing is a very humbling sport.
This is something we continue to be shown. The first tournament we had ever fished was definitely 
an adventure. We had many nice people and came to realize how much more we had to learn.
       Tournament fishing requires a totally different way of thinking than the usual "fun fishing"
we were used to. If we were to continue to fish tournaments we would have to change the way we fish.
Also, I would have to toughen up emotionally. We had the whole next Winter to think about our tournament
fishing future.
  
       The next Spring we jumped back in with both feet and we haven't looked back! Tournament fishing
is definitely for me, the competition, the socialization and all the new people we meet makes all the
work worth it. Besides that I get to experience it with my best friend. Holly Linton.

    Well everyone, I thought that was a valuable insight into the world of fishing Crappie tournaments.
Jack and Holly are great ambassadors to the sport and will stop and help anyone that asks. Feel 
free to contact them on their Facebook pages or on their "Green Machine" page. Thanks Holly.