Brownlee Crappie Shootout 10 results

The 10th annual Brownlee Crappie Shootout kayak fishing tournament was a great success with 71 anglers fishing the event. We are happy to report everyone eventually made it back to the launch safely and a fun day on the water was had by all despite the challenging conditions, lost rods, lost phones, and lost people.

Thank you to all of the great sponsors and participants that make this event possible every year. Also a big Thank You to Sensei Noble and Pat Morinaka for doing all of the cooking, Hewitt Park Doni and staff, Graphix Wear for making the shirts, Travel Baker County/TLT Grant, Eastern Oregon Iron, all of the friends and family that helped out, and of course Justin for doing the mathing.

Special Thanks to Edna and Pete for representing the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Eastern Oregon and sharing what the program is all about.

Strategy

With the reservoir quickly on the rise as always, anglers must learn to find fish in areas not typically associated with specific species. Most fish were found either suspended over deep water or glued to the bottom. Mid water and the shallows were not as productive for some reason this year so finding a pattern was difficult. This changing of conditions makes for an even playing field for veteran BCS anglers and first timers alike. There is a 50/50 balance of local knowledge and sheer luck in winning the buckle that makes the event very exciting for everyone.

Categories

The largest Crappie were found in deep water and Randall Breedlove got his personal best at 14 inches on game day to win the largest Crappie category.

Darrin Roberts was one of only a few anglers to find a Large Mouth Bass but he made it worth is with a 15 incher.

The smallies were everywhere and the 8 inch clone army moved in early this year. Jed managed to find a 17.5 incher in the mix to win that category.

Swede Pearson found a giant Bluegill to blow the competition away for largest panfish with an 8.25 gill while Lauren Smith did the same in the Catfish category with a huge 27.5 specimen.

Travis Ash also had an impressive catch with a very large Yellow Perch stretching the tape to 13.5 inches.

Trout were elusive and no angler was fortunate enough to find this unicorn.

Carp were absolutely everywhere and many were logged for bonus points along with a few pike minnows.

Mack's Lure Challenge

The Mack's Lure Challenge winner was Bobby P! who landed a fair size crappie that was worth a pile of points. Bobby used the Mack's gear found in his SWAG bag to entice the crappie and will be ordering more gear soon!

The weather forecast for tournament day kept changing but promised anglers a challenge with any that proved to be true. Thankfully the morning dawned with a beautiful clear sky and no wind. Anglers knew they would have to make the most of this window before the forecasted wind and rain later in the morning. Despite the changing conditions many fish were caught making this a very close tournament with slim margins between scores.

Tournament results

The ladies division is always a battle but Christine Smith put up an impressive 711 points to win the Montana Silversmiths commemorative bracelet and bragging rights in the Smith household. Christine is a fierce competitor and put together a great stringer of fish to secure the win. Congratulations Christine!

The winner of the commemorative Montana Silversmiths belt buckle this year is Darrin Roberts. Congratulations!!! Along with the MS buckle to take home, we added a perpetual WWF style Champion Belt that lists the names of all the Brownlee Crappie Shootout champs.

This was Darrin's 5th Brownlee Crappie Shootout attendance and relied on prior years success and information gathered pre fishing the week leading up to the event to dial the fish in. The morning started off slow with a small crappie and a couple other species but picked up after a rain squall that shook up the lake. There were many anglers that  landed 5 species but Darrin was the only person to find a sixth species for a 976 point total

Second place went to Keith Mastikella with 877 points. Keith is a very good angler that fishes a lot on the West side of Oregon. He is constantly moving up the ladder and we expect he will get his hands on the buckle one day but for now it's a second place crying blankey for you lol.

Third place was captured by Randall Breedlove. Randall's 868 score was boosted by his category winning 14" crappie and a bunch of solid fish. Trailing second by only 9 points made for an exciting weigh in.

Donation

CASA of Easter Oregon received $2400 from the Brownlee Crappie Shootout this year.

Thanks again to all of the sponsors and attendees and we hope to see you all next year.

Brownlee Crappie Shootout

Places 4-11 is

4 James Reeher
5 Mark Pillejera
6 Ryan Layton
7 Wyatt Cox (minor)
8 Erik Plunkett
9 Travis Ash
10 Jim Davis
11 Jed

12 Christine Smith
13 Lauren Smith
14 Mark Veary
15 Caleb Ricker
16 Kristie Cronin
17 James Colgan
18 Brad Hole
19 Mike McCord

20 James Savage
21 Tim Durheim
22 Oscar Davis
23 Constantine Bolo
24 Ian Porteus
25 Guy Marsh
26 Bobby P!
27 Jeremy Jalali

28 William Riley
29 Allie Best
30 Jeff Rice
31 Ashley Lewis
32 Kelly Emery
33 Swede Pearson
34 Sherman Case
35 Josh Haley

everybody else

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