PROFILE :
BRENT
CROW
HARTSELLE , ALABAMA
Brent Crow has had a lot of good days on the water , but none more memorable than the final day of the Toyota Series Championship on Pickwick Lake . The fishing guide and former FLW Tour pro put together over 23 pounds of smallmouths that day to move from 10th to first to pocket $ 247,500 for the win . Making the final-day cut via a tiebreaker with Randy Blaukat , Crow had a magical final day and perfect conditions for a wake bait in the Wilson Dam tailrace for just a few hours that morning – a few hours he ’ ll never forget .
QA &
That final morning was pretty intense . While nobody else was catching anything , ( MLF reporter ) Kyle Wood was texting the group chat with an update about a 4- pounder like every minute .
There ’ s a lot of different words to describe that hour . “ Chaotic ” was the first one that came to mind . “ Magical ” is another . And it really couldn ’ t have happened at a better time .
It was just chaos . I either caught one or hooked one briefly and it got off or had a big swirl or a blow-up every
By Jody White
PHOTO BY CHARLES WALDORF
cast for an hour . The best I can remember , the first one I caught was almost 5 ( pounds ), then I had a 4 1 / 2 , and then a 6 , and then a couple of 3s . I wasn ’ t even putting cull tags on them – and normally I do , but when they ’ re that big , you ain ’ t gotta cull them .
The key to that morning was the current running at only 35,000 CFS , which hadn ’ t been the case all tournament . Did you expect that to happen ? I was so frustrated . I knew what could happen – what would happen – if the conditions got right . That was the whole reason I fished the trail to try to make the championship , because I knew that if the conditions were right , they were going to have to beat me . [ The conditions ] weren ’ t right all fall , in
88 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | DECEMBER-JANUARY 2022