Perry ? Terry Hinson and Gary Vestal used all the right angles to claim victory in the amateur division of the Crappie USA region 4 regional at Lake Perry on Saturday.

Hinson, an Ozawkie-native, and Vestal, a native of Easton, are no strangers to the waters of Lake Perry.

“We fish this lake all the time, and we do a lot of work on the lake,” Vestal said. “We participate in the habitat programs that the Corps of Engineers have. Plus, we have permits to put brush in for ourselves and everybody else. So we earned our keep today.”

The pair honed in on its familiar brush piles to bring in a load of 6.26 pounds and a $3,000 payday, which Vestal said would buy them a few more brush piles to add to the lake.

“It’s like rolling the dice – which one do you go to first and which one are you going to benefit from the most?” Hinson said. “And we just happened to hit the jackpot on a couple of them and did fairly well. It’s some pretty tough fishing right now. … It was a pretty tough start today, but we finished strong.”

Hinson and Vestal earned a birth to the 2006 Cabela’s Crappie USA Classic in Pickwick, Ala., in their first Crappie USA Regional Tournament.

Dennis Watters, of Moro, Ill., casts a line. Watters and his partner weighed their catch at 5.25 pounds.

“You hate to see people coming in from out of town and beating the local guys,” Vestal said. “We should know the lake better, so we (were) real happy to win.”

A couple of out-of-towners took first in the semi-pro division, but the father-son team of Charles and Travis Bunting had conquered the waters of Lake Perry before.

Charles and Travis, the 2005 Amateur Division Cabela’s Crappie USA Classic Champions, took first in the semi-pro division at the Crappie USA local event at Lake Perry in April.

Travis said the day started off slow for them as well, with things picking up as the 3 p.m. stop time neared, to bring in their 6.81 pounds.

“Probably, 11:30 to 2:30 was the best part of the day for us,” Travis, the younger Bunting, said. “We (were) able to capitalize on the amount of brush piles and increase our weight.”

He said it was good to see the success Hinson and Vestal had because he and his father started off their amateur career the same way.

Tournament director Bill Shackelford said the home-town anglers’ first-place would have great rewards for the local economy.

“It’s good for the public, it’s good for the whole economic area,” Shackelford said. “It’s a lot of help to the economic board here that helped put this tournament on, bringing future tournaments back out here again, because it’s a great facility.”