While everyone else is filling out basketball tournament brackets, I’m browsing the winners from the bass tournaments held last weekend.

Such is the life of an outdoors writer.

In the Crappie USA event on the Columbus Pool, Steve Coleman of Tiptonville, Tenn., won the semi-pro division with 10.97 pounds. He was fishing the Aberdeen Lake area in 5.8 feet of water, using lime and chartreuse jigs. In the amateur division, Chuck Justice of Louisville, Miss., and Alton Reeves of Aberdeen, Miss., won with 9.8 pounds. They were also fishing Aberdeen Lake, using chartreuse and blue tubes with an orange jig head in 5.8 feet of water.

For complete Crappie USA results, click here.

In the Stren Series event on Alabama’s Lake Eufaula, Randall Tharp of Gardendale, Ala., won with a four-day total of 64 pounds, 3 ounces. He earned $25,000 and a fully rigged Ranger boat.

No one from the Mid-South really made much noise in the event. Lloyd Pickett, Jr., finished 90th with a three-day mark of 28-3. He failed to make the final-day cut.

In the Bassmaster Elite Series Citrus Slam on the Kissimmee Chain, Strike King pro Kevin Van Dam won with 59 pounds, 7 ounces of bass.

According to B.A.S.S. reports, Van Dam found a good, big-bass bite tossing a Strike King Red Eye Shad. He fished scattered hydrilla clumps located in 7-10 feet of water on Lake Toho.

B.A.S.S. said Van Dam was allowing the bait to drop all the way to the bottom, pulling it up rapidly, and then letting it fall to the bottom again.