Quail & Upland Wildlife Federation Benefit Crappie Tournament, Tuttle Creek Lake, Manhattan KS Oct 1st & 2nd

 Tuttle Creek is the 2nd largest Lake in the State of Kansas, and is surrounded by the beauty that only the Flint Hills Region of Kansas can offer.  I must admit I was a bit uneasy going into Tournament Weekend, I had never fished there before and to make it worse, I was to busy to squeeze in any Pre Fishing.
   Saturday morning was a bit on the Chilly side, with Temps in the low 50's and a think fog bank hanging over the Lake until 10:00 AM or so. I started of by fishing several different areas of standing timber that didn't give up a single fish, so by 11:30 I completely changed my approach and left the Timber in the 12 to 20 ft range, and went looking around near the Main Channel in almost 30 ft of water. 
  After scanning around for 15 mins or so, and much to my delight I might add, I found a stretch of submerged timber along the main channel in 30 to 38 Ft or so, and the tops of every single tree was just loaded with fish, and with about an hour left,...I had some good sized Slabs coming over the side of my boat, and settled for a 14 1/4 in Slab to take back to Weigh In for the Saturday Shootout, where it, and every other fish brought in by the Kansas Crappie Club Anglers was shot down in flames by Dustin Hobbs, who not only won the Shootout, but also won him the Top Spot in the KCC Big Fish of the Year Contest with a 2.04.
  As we went into Sunday, I was felling pretty good having found a good batch of fish, and was pretty confident we would be able to squeeze our way towards the top, and by 11:00 Am,  We were sitting pretty good. 
  After finishing out the day Spider rigging minnows over the tree tops, we headed to the ramp to get loaded up and on our way to the scales, where we placed 3rd. 
   It was a great time all around, and our Sponsors made it even better, Rockytop Ranch Outffiters supplied a Fully guided Hog Hunt for Two, Won by Todd Moresdorf for having the Big Fish on Sunday, as well as Rod Selby of Brushpile Fish Attractants and Andy Lehman of ACC Crappie Stix, we saw some solid fish all weekend long and learned quite a bit about Tuttle Creek Lake, and I must say, with Quality Slabs and all that the City of Manhattan, KS has to offer, we are really excited about hitting it again next year.

   Saturday Shootout- Dustin Hobbs/  2.04

  Sunday Regular- 
    1st Place- Wall/ Wall/ Moresdorf 9.43
    2nd Place- Team Bales 8.74
    3rd Place- Bragg/ Taunton/ Ireland 8.16