Johnson Reel Collectors Assn. (J.R.C.A.) since 10/10/14

Anybody else remember these Johnson Crappiethon USA Tournaments? It was a way for Johnson to SALE lots of stuff including the new "whatever" MILE reel every year. Customers sought the $5 badges to participate and purchased bait and specific tackle: If a person caught Tangle Free Tom - the top fish - with a certain Johnson reel or rod, their prize money increased by tens of thousands of dollars.

Johnson Reels' - Crappiethon USA Tournaments Are No More
Joe Williams of The Sentinel Staff
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
September 22, 1996, Leesburg

Johnson Reels' Crappiethon USA tournaments, which for the past 11 years have held both 60-day and one-day crappie fishing events on the Harris Chain of Lakes, will not be returning to Lake County next year.

And, none of its tournaments will be held nationally.

"They are not doing anymore Crappiethons," said Shirley Hopper, office manager of America Outdoors in Decatur, Ala., the parent company of Crappiethon USA and a subsidiary of Johnson Reels. "In fact, they are closing our doors here next Wednesday. We are all looking for work.

"Johnson Reels decided to get out of the promotions business. It was a business decision."

Johnson's decision leaves nine employees at America Outdoors out of work. The employees were informed of the decision about a month ago, Hopper said.

Darrell Van Vactor, national sales manager for America Outdoors, could not be reached at his Calvert City, Ky., office. John Sullivan and John Peters, the Harris Chain tournament directors, also could not be reached.

The number of tournaments Johnson had sponsored in Florida and across the nation dropped in the past couple of years. At one time, Florida was the site of four Crappiethons. Last year, the Harris Chain event was Florida's only Crappiethon.

Nationally, there were 38 Crappiethons held in 1994 with 48,000 tagged fish worth a total of as much as $6 million. In '95, there were 26 lake promotions with 35,000 crappie potentially worth a $4 million total. Those numbers rose slightly this year with 28 lakes, 40,000 prize fish and $6 million available.

The Harris Chain 60-day tournament generally began in mid- to late January and the one-day tournament was usually in February. The one-day tournament served as a qualifying tournament for the big-money Crappiethon USA Classic and brought in fishermen from around the country.

Fishermen entered the 60-day tournament by paying $3 for a tournament badge. The entry fee for the one-day tournament was $50 per two-person team.

For this year's Harris Chain tournament, there were 1,531 tagged crappie worth a total of $152,100, from both national and local sponsors. The big-money fish, called Tangle Free Tom, was worth $10,000 with a $40,000 bonus if the angler was using the sponsor's equipment.

The loss of the Crappiethon is disappointing to local chamber of commerce offices and tackle store owners, but it doesn't come as a total surprise.

"It has fallen off over the years," said Joan Puterbaugh, director of member services for the Leesburg Area Chamber of Commerce and a Crappiethon competitor for the past 10 years. "I mean, in terms or what the Crappiethon people were doing, they weren't doing as much to promote it as they used to.

"Three, four or five years ago they did a lot more. Last year, it was just a sign here and there. That doesn't do it."

As a local sponsor, nobody put more money into the Harris Chain Crappiethon this year than Allan Tedder of Allan's Bait and Tackle in Tavares. For the 60-day tournament, Tedder sponsored 200 tagged crappie worth a total of $6,500.

"I talked to John and John (Sullivan and Peters) and they said Johnson just didn't want to do it," Tedder said. "I think it is a detriment to fishing around here. There are a lot of people around here and around the state who looked forward to it. I really hate to see it go as hard as we tried to build it up.

"There will be a loss of money in the bait industry and I hope that something can be salvaged."

Tedder said he promotes a crappiethon locally, as do many other bait and tackle stores in the area. But those tournaments do nothing for attracting business or publicity to the area like Johnson's Crappiethon USA.

"I think it is a very big loss to the economy around here," Tedder said. "For the one-day tournament, people would come in from Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Texas to fish. We have lost out on all that."

Though exact numbers for fish caught and prizes paid out in this year's Crappiethon were not available, it is a generally accepted fact that the catch on the Harris Chain was down considerably.

"There has been an increase in the number of badges I have sold every year," Tedder said. "And I have gone down to where they put in the tagged fish so I can personally verify that the fish are where they said they were.

"I am sorry that there weren't that many (tagged) fish caught this year, but we had 18 major cold fronts come through and that really decimated the fishing."

The Crappiethon USA tournaments on the Harris Chain helped maintain national exposure on the chain after the Bass Anglers Sportsman's Society pulled its MegaBucks tournament from here after a five-year run (1986-1990).

"It didn't bring in the money that the bass tournaments did, but it brought in people from other areas of Central Florida for the (60-day) tournament," Puterbaugh said. "Even if they didn't stay overnight, they still had to eat and went to our (tackle) stores.

"Anytime we lose anything, it is a disappointment."