When Charlie Crawford joined Westside Bass, in 1991, he wanted to learn how to catch bass. Ten years later he became the teacher. Now, the Arizona B.A.S.S. Federations "Top Dog", he has a chance to take his class to the next level. After the Arizona B.A.S.S. Federations January tournament, I had the pleasure to visit with Charlie as he prepares to go National.

Charlie is a native Arizonan who grew up in Benson before moving to Phoenix in 1981. He joined Westside ten years later and began fishing at the club level. He fished with them for two and a half years before he joined the Az. Outlaws with his good friend Charles Goslin. It wasn’t long after that he began to fish competitively. He fished the Allstar Bass circuit in 1994 and ended the year as the Superstar Champion. He was just beginning. In 1995-96, Charlie won two boats in the Wild West Circuit and qualified for their championship Fly Away in 1999, where he finished third. He continued to cement his name in the Arizona fishing community in 1999 by earning "Angler of the Year" honors in both the Arizona B.A.S.S. Federation and the American Bass Association. Charlie then fished his way to "Angler of the year" in the Hill and Sons, (USTFC), circuit in 2000, along with earning a spot on the Arizona B.A.S.S. Federations state team. This is where the bus to the nationals started changing gears. The state team traveled to Elephant Butte, New Mexico to compete with the other nine state teams in the Western Divisionals. Charlie finished the tournament as Arizona’s top finisher, which earned him a trip to the Nationals in Mobile, Alabama this coming April. He is now one step away from the 2001 Bassmaster Classic. To qualify for the Classic, Charlie will need to be the top finisher from the Western Division. Congratulations, we wish you the best of luck Charlie! When he gets back he has a chance to do it again as he has already qualified for the 2001 State Team.

Charlie considers himself a structure-oriented fisherman, often in search of outside drops associated with structure. "I don’t normally bang the shoreline," he added, "unless I’m at Alamo". He also likes to throw crankbaits. In fact he won his first tournament with a crankbait in 1994. He shared that experience with me and I thought I’d share it with you.

It was a two-day tournament for the Allstar Championship. The first day was to be fished at Roosevelt and the second at San Carlos. He figured to do well at Roosevelt and felt he had good water to get the job done. At the end of the day he came in empty-handed and found himself dead last in the tournament. At the start of day-two, he went to the single spot he had for San Carlos. After about two casts with a crankbait, he reels in a 2 ½ lb. bass. After removing the hook, he released the bass back into the lake. His observer looked at him in amazement and said,"What are you doing? You just threw away a 2 ½ lb. fish." He felt there was good fish in his spot and that it would take better fish than that to come back and win the tournament. By his estimation he would need about 34 lbs. to win. The next cast he catches a 5-6 lb. bass, shortly after an 8 lb., followed by a 6 lb. and an 11 ½ lb. bass a little while later. By his own scale he was bringing almost 30 lbs. to the weigh-in at this point. When it was time for the weigh-in he began retrieving the bass from his livewells. He unknowingly had one slip back in and preceeded to the scales with just four fish. After realizing what had happened and feeling he had no chance with the four fish, he began to leave. That’s when a guy came running up to him, letting him know that everyone was looking for him. He had won the tournament and came from last to first with a four fish bag of just under 31 lbs. It turns out he won by nearly 5 lbs. The 3 lb. fish that fell in the well was the smallest of the five and, luckily, it did not make a difference. To this day he considers San Carlos one of his favorite spots.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Charlie. He is a guy who came a long way in the past ten years, and who knows how far he can go from here. One thing I know for sure, is Arizona will be well represented at the National Tournament this year. Good luck and great fishing Charlie.

Kip Pollay

AZOD Fishing