When 11-year-old Brandon Bennett was 8, he won a youth crappie fishing rodeo at Lake Wappapello. The official in charge asked Brandon whether he wanted to come back next year to defend his title.

"Nope," Brandon answered, "I'm ready for the big boys."

That response embarrassed his father, Bert, but Brandon knew what he was talking about. The two now compete as a team in semi-pro crappie tournaments, going against teams usually composed of two adults, and they do well. Four times they have qualified for the Crappie USA Classic, a tournament for the top anglers who follow the Crappie USA tournament trail, and they finished first in the 2002 North American Crappie Association Adult Youth tournament.

Bert Bennett says of his son, "He does catch most of our fish."

The Bennetts have been presenting seminars on crappie fishing this weekend at the 2003 Sports Show at the Show Me Center. More than 50 people attended their lecture Saturday afternoon. Their final talk is scheduled for 1 p.m. today.

The sports show opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. today. It offers other seminars, a fishing tank, a nine-hole miniature golf course and hunting, fishing, camping and boating equipment.

Pro techniques

Crappie fishing is not a fair-weather sport. The Bennetts, who live in Malden, Mo., fish year-round in as many as 13 weekend tournaments annually. Often Bert Bennett travels ahead to scout out the lake that is the next tournament site. Brandon and his mother, Michelle, follow after he gets out of school on Friday. Sometimes it's a 10- or 11-hour drive. She backs their boat into the water and they're off.

They spend eight hours out on lakes anywhere from Iowa to Louisiana with the goal of bringing their 10 best fish to the weigh-in. Sometimes the fishing goes pretty slowly, Brandon said. When that happens, "I eat and take a nap."

When the Bennetts are headed to a tournament, they may spend a week or two before poring over a topographical map. They are identifying the places crappie most likely will be found, paying particular attention to the creek channels in a lake.

"Crappie use creek channels just like you and I use a highway," Bert Bennett says.

During the seminar, Bert Bennett demonstrated the slow-trolling and vertical-jigging setups they use in competition. When slow trolling, they keep eight lines in the water and a total of 16 hooks.

The two discussed everything about crappie fishing from tying a jig to the use of depth finders, how to identify the two species of crappie, the color of fishing line they prefer, and the depth fish go to spawn. Fish find food through three methods, they said: sight, smell and by sensing vibrations.

Scent of success

Brandon is fond of using scent to lure the fish, a technique his father rarely employs. "He catches most of our fish because he's not hard-headed like I am," Bert Bennett said. "I was taught fish can't smell."

Bert set up a joke about a traveling fisherman who went into a restaurant in Mississippi because he was confused by the strange names of the state's counties. He asks a blonde waitress whether she could slowly tell him where he is.

A grinning Brandon timed the punch line perfectly: "Bur-ger King," he said.

The Bennetts have another budding fisherman, 7-year-old Eric, at home.

Though bass fishing gets most of the media attention, 14 million U.S. residents are crappie fishermen. Bert Bennett is a crappie fisherman because he primarily fished for crappie as a boy.

"I also like to eat them," he said. "They are the best eating fish."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182