Sports

What do you do when you have 100 miles of the Ouachita River to fish to try and win $10,000 in a pro crappie tournament? Well, Jason Thomas and Shannon Porter won the Crappie Masters National Qualifier on the Ouachita River recently with a two day total of 14 crappie weighing 26.96 pounds to claim the $10,600 first prize check. Their secret? They just found some good fish and stayed with them until they could get enough bites to win.

Officials from ULM and Louisiana Tech made a huge announcement for the area on Friday. Louisiana Tech Director of Athletics Tommy McClelland, and ULM AD Scott McDonald both announced that the Bulldogs will play host to UL-Monroe at Independence Stadium on Saturday, November 21 on a one game contract.

Summer fishing is tough. It is hot, the weather is unpredictable, and the fish can be too.

Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have introduced legislation to amend the Nutria Eradication and Control Act.

Arron Sistrunk took first place (L-R) this weekend in the North Louisiana Crappie Trail tournament on Lake D’Arbonne. Sistrunk won $800 for finishing in first place, plus another $95 for having the biggest Crappie at 1.98 lbs. Josh Starkey took home $500 for second place and the team of Jared Riser and Chris Fields won $220 for third place. Submitted photos

The good news for top anglers on the American Crappie Trail is that several major tournaments, including the ACT Championship, have been rescheduled.

First of all, I’ll start this off by saying that I am very glad to be able to write a monthly outdoor column for the Farmerville Gazette at the request of editor Byron Avery. I think it’s vital for a community like Farmerville to have local news that they can depend on to be fair and accurate. And another great part is to help promote the community.

The Louisiana High School Coaches’ Association Executive Council recently held a Zoom meeting to discuss the 2020 LHSCA Coaches Convention. The event had been scheduled for July 21-22 at The Crown Plaza in Baton Rouge. Over a thousand coaches, athletic directors, administrators, and speakers were expected to be in attendance with the move back to Baton Rouge and back to its original spot on the calendar.

Jack Miner has been dead for more than half a century. Called the “Father of Conservation” for his pioneering work banding ducks and geese and in providing a sanctuary for migrating waterfowl, a statement attributed to him still rings as true today as it did then: “If I can get a child to love a bird, that child will love his fellow man.”

ULM women’s basketball junior guard/forward Whitney Goins has been selected to attend the Athletes in Action Virtual Leadership Academy for captains and emerging leaders running May 15-17.