HOI Crappie Club Shelbyville Tournament results.

Hello All,

The weather was awesome. The sun was out, the winds were light and the temps were up. For most, the fishing was about average. I can’t speak for the other teams, however Chad and I did pretty good this tournament. We partnered up at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances and our typical fishing partners couldn’t attend. We stayed at Coon Creek Lodge and I was impressed with the accommodations. The room was clean and in good repair! The neighbors were a delight and we socialized around the campfire.

Let me back up a bit. Chad and I drove down to pre-fish on Friday. We marked a ton of fish in a variety of locations, all at the north end of the lake. The tournament was out of Wilborn, so we launched from there and scouted around Wilborn creek and south. Found a couple of coves and other areas holding fish. We didn’t drop a line and spent the couple hours we had just scouting. Chad had never been on Shelbyville before and I had only fished that end of the lake once several years ago during Crappie.com spring campout. Needless to say, a couple of newbies entered a Crappie tournament on an unfamiliar lake. Fortunately we are both Crappie university graduates, and did our homework before arriving on Friday.

Saturday morning was pretty uneventful. Got everyone registered, launched and we headed out ourselves. Blew by the first couple of spots figuring they would be full of other anglers in no time. At least two other Crappie Tournaments on Shelbyville that day. We settled on a cove and started spider trolling. We spent the whole day in that cove. Watched about 3 dozen other boats come and go while we were there. Most where two handed jigging with artificial bait and they didn’t seem to have much luck. We managed a bunch right off the bat and by 8am had 7 keepers in the boat. Then things slowed down. Chad was after keepers for a family fish fry so we keep most of what we caught. Seemed the average fish were 9.5” to 10.5”. Every once in a while we would catch an 11” Crappie. Eventually we had 7 11” Crappie for the scales and at least one kicker, over 13”. We had several that could have been kickers self-release at the boat. Overall, we managed a 2 man limit of overs and unders. Time to pull the plug and headed back to the ramp. Couple of teams had boat issues, they called and a determination was made that they could weigh fish.

1st place: Bedon & Davis- 7.46 lbs.
2nd place: Hanauer & Anderson- 5.62 lbs.
3rd place: Cleland & Whitecotton- 5.11 lbs.

Big Fish: Bedon & Davis- 1.48 lbs.

It was a great time and I look forward to the next tournament.
Upcoming activities:
Thursday May 3rd- HOI Crappie Club meeting Presley’s Outdoors in Bartonville.
Saturday May 5th- HOI Crappie Club tournament- Spring Lake North.

Tight lines,
Tim Hanr3

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