Day two at Bass Pro Shops Crappie Masters Florida State Championship started off with cool temperatures and high winds. Anglers were faced with the daunting task of dealing with the cold and wind all day long. The inclement weather influenced a lot of decisions about where to fish on the January 23, 2016 day. Lake Woodruff produced a lot of the winning fish stringers on day one but the lake was sparsely fished on day two.
A local team, Larry Durden and Steve Durden, used the hometown advantage to capture Crappie Masters Florida State Championship. The team of brothers weighed in a two-day total of 24.91 pounds to claim the title. Larry reported that the key to victory was patience, shallow water and minnows. “If we found the mudfish we found the specks,” said Larry. “We fished 4 to 5 foot of water. If you fished 3 foot you wouldn’t catch em’. If you fished 6 foot you wouldn’t catch em’.
Team Durden did change their tactics from day one to day two, but it was not to leave Lake Woodruff. “We had been catching fish at the mouth of Pitt Creek and Lake Woodruff,” reported Larry. “It was a little windy so we moved on into Pitt Creek and got on up to Dexter. We turned around and fished back down the south side of the creek. We fished through the rain and the wind and kept catching fish. The first day we fished one side of the creek. The second day you could not fish the south side. We fished the other side of the creek, out of the wind, fishing the pads. You do what the wind tells you and that’s the way it worked out for us.” Continue reading – http://www.examiner.com/article/local-anglers-larry-and-steve-durden-win-crappie-masters-on-the-st-johns-rive?CID=examiner_alerts_article