Teamwork is an important element of success in crappie tournaments. Ask any crappie tournament angler and he will praise his partner and emphasize the need to work together to be successful. Those same anglers are likely to reveal that both partners cannot always be at every tournament. In covering the crappie tournament circuits I have often ran across teams that were fishing together for the first time or at least fish infrequently together. Such was the case at the recent Bass Pro Shops Crappie Masters All American Tournament Trail two-day national qualifier on Grenada Lake, MS.
Two brand new partners, Brian Kelly and Brian Cleland, teamed up to win the Granada event. Although they both had experience on Grenada, they had never fished together.
“We had never fished a tournament together,” said Cleland. “Kelly has been a friend since 2011. We met at Grenada. He was fishing and not catching. We shared some information with him and he started catching some fish.” The duo have been friends ever since.
Cleland usually fishes with his son Duffy Cleland. “Our team was a thrown together team,” cajoled Cleland. “Duffy was unable to make it to Grenada. Then Brian Kelly’s partner had to cancel on him and we got together. It paid off and we had a great time.”
“My normal partner is Chris Horton,” explained Kelly. “Brian fishes normally with his son Duffy. We are all really good friends and fish together. We always travel together to tournaments and talk all the time. So, we know each other pretty well. That was the first tournament that Brian and I fished together.”
Brian Cleland’s jovial nature came through as he described the team’s day on the water. “I made Kelly do Duffy’s duties,” joked Cleland. “Duffy usually does a lot of the necessary changing of things. Changing depth, color, minnows, drift socks, chains, anything that will allow me to watch trolling motor speed and poles while he is doing his duty. Kelly did very well at everyone of them.”
It was obvious that the wind was going to be a problem at Grenada. “We put our heads together after Thursday’s prefishing day,” instructed Cleland. Continue reading – http://www.examiner.com/article/thrown-together-team-of-kelly-and-cleland-win-crappie-masters