2014-April-19 HOI Crappie Tournament Results

Hello All,

What a great weekend for fishing, especially Crappie fishing. I had numerous pretournament reports about how the fish weren’t biting at Shovel Lake and we should fish the other lakes at Banner Marsh. I’ll have to admit, the day started out slow. My son was my fishing partner this tournament, it was great to spend the day fishing with him. We started in the first cove across from the ramp, marked some beautiful cover but no fish. We headed to the north end, started marking fish and ran into other competitors, however the reports were the same, nothing in the boat. We moved further north until we hit bottom and sheared the shear pin. 20 minutes later we were moving, got hung up on a sand bar. Managed to get free, had enough of the north side, headed south. 11:00 am we ended up fishing a log jam in 3’ of water on shore. First cast, pulled out a monster 15” Crappie (pic 1).

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Hot damn, we are on the board and have a real shot at big fish. Two minutes later pulled out another big fish, not as big as the first but things were going in the right direction. Over the next 45 minutes we pulled 5 Crappie out of that log jam. We lost about a dozen hooks to the trees, but it was worth every minute and retie. Tried other locations, but nothing was biting. 12:30- time to make our way to the ramp and weigh-in. Not going to be late today.

While waiting for the ramp we started bragging about big fish to the Whitecottons. Dan gave us that “I don’t think so look”, I pulled that monster out of the live well. Next thing I know we are on shore and Dan shows up with a balance beam and a monster Crappie of his own. Damn it’s going to be close.



3 of the 5 teams brought fish to the scales.

3rd place- Team of Keith & Alan Laible- 1 Crappie, 0 lb 8.0oz

2nd place- Team of Tim & Nick Hanauer- 5 Crappie, 3 lb 12.1oz (pic 2)

1st place- Team of Dan & Mark Whitecotton- 7 Crappie, 5 lb 10.0oz (pic 3)

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Congratulations Dan & Mark Whitecotton




Big Fish!

Close is an understatement

Dan & Mark Whitecotton- 1 lb 6.3oz (pic 4)

Tim & Nick Hanauer- 1 lb 5.3oz





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Congratulations Dan & Mark Whitecotton



It took a while to figure out the pattern. Talking to the Whitecottons’ after the tournament we both discovered the pattern about the same time. We were also within sight of each other. However with all the action in my boat I didn’t see what anyone else was doing. It was a great day of fishing.

See you at the club meeting Thursday May 1st @ Presley’s Outdoors 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm. More details about how the wining team found the fish. If you can’t make the meeting, see you at the next tournament- May 31st at Lake Evergreen, main ramp. See Larrysfishinghole.com for more information and registration forms.

Thanks everyone!