Brownlee Crappie Shootout 7

Sorry Mickey and Loretta  are going to miss another year.

Dang, going to miss you guys. Hope we can meet up at the next one.

I have a family emergency and will not be able to make it this time.
I look forward to seeing your pictures and reading the updates.

Hope everything works out Mr. Fisherman. We'll do our best to take some good pix.

Is there anyone attending this event, that I can give some HOW tackle donations to?

Well my truck decided it is time to quit working, at least the alternator, no shop in town can fix it until next week so I will miss this years event.  Good luck everyone looks like a great weekend there.

Dan_E

Hello all.  I just finished uploading 951 images of BCS7.  I think Jed might post something about it later.  If you haven't used smugmug before, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY IMAGES 

You can download any image that you want for free.  If you would like a print, you can buy those directly from the site.  We took a lot of photos, some good, some bad. 

There are a lot of photos from behind people.  Turns out, most people like to face the shore when fishing it.  Who knew?   I hope you can find something worth saving. 

Thanks again to everybody that came out to visit.  I hope you all enjoyed the event and come back again.

https://justinflynn.smugmug.com/Brownlee-Crappie-Shootout-7

One last thing.  I am not a professional photographer.  This is a new hobby for me.  Try not to be to judgmental on the quality.  I'm working on it.

Thank you for all you do! Also, thank you for posting all the pictures!

Thanks for all the work that you put in to support the BCS both this year and in years past Justin!

-Mark-

Many thanks to all who helped make the event possible, was a ton of fun.
Great people, great prizes, great food, great fishing...for some anyway, LOL!
The setting and tent camp sites were wonderful.
It was over a six hour drive for me, but most of it was really pretty.
Anyone who hasn't done BCS, should definitely try it next year!

The Brownlee Crappie Shootout 7 is in the books and everyone that participated had a great time. Huge thank you going out to the event sponsors, participants, Baker County, CASA of Eastern Oregon, Graphix Wear Ontario, Justin, and friends and family that helped out to make this happen. I am very thankful and appreciate the support.

The weather cooperated for the most part but a big thunderstorm rolled in at about 1. Anglers were already heading in to the check in area so it didn't have a huge impact. It wouldn't be a BCS without some crazy weather.

With the entry fees and raffle we were able to raise more than $2400 for a CASA of Eastern Oregon donation this year. This is the most we have ever been able to raise and we look forward to trying to match or beat it next year.

This year was set to be a tough year to win the coveted buckle, not because the fishing was bad but quite the opposite. Anglers that were pre fishing leading up to Saturday reported that the fish had not spawned yet due to the weather extremes we've been having coming out of Winter. Everything seemed to be at least a month behind schedule but this made for some great fishing for everyone.

It seemed like all species were staging right at the drop offs near the shallows and were on the feed. Crappie were large this year with the average fish being 12 to 13 inches and some in the 15" range were landed prior to the event. The boat anglers at the camp were catching massive specimens in the 17 inch range. Bass were staged and crushed lures and baits at full speed. We even saw an abundance of yellow perch throughout the venue that were averaging 11 inches or so. The only drawbacks we saw were a small class of catfish in the 13" range and very few trout during pre fishing with no one catching any on game day.

This year's winner was an angler that attended all seven Brownlee Crappie Shootout tournaments and finally put everything together on event day. Congratulations to Mark Veary on winning this year. He has always been hovering near the top of the finishers list and put together a great score this year.

Second place went to Evan Merz. Evan is a past BCS winner and is another angler that is figuring out the reservoir. He consistently places well and is always trying to be the first two time winner. Evan won a prize pick and a second coping blankie donated by Jurissah Naive.

Third place went to last years winner Mike Ragland. Mike has his own style of fishing where he takes a stroll with some plugs and returns with some great fish. I believe he will have some company tailing him next year.

Rounding out the top 10 anglers were a mix of BCS veterans and some first timers to the event. With the multi species format it's always a toss up to see who will win and anyone has a chance to take home the buckle.

Category winners:

Crappie- 14.5" Darrin Roberts

Small Mouth Bass- 17.5" Jesse Burgess

Large Mouth Bass- 17.75" Chris Bordes

Catfish- 24.25" Kevin Redden

Yellow Perch- 13" Hoku Lau

Panfish- 7" Evan Merz

Our Mack's Lure Challenge winner was Jim Davis for the highest points fish on Mack's gear.

Our AOTY co op winner was Evan Merz with the top placement from within the NWKA AOTY participant pool.

Justin took a bunch of pictures that you can view at https://justinflynn.smugmug.com/Brownlee-Crappie-Shootout-7

Huge THANK YOU to everyone and hope to see you next year- jed

Such a cool event.  Good news for CASA.  Thanks to everyone involved who makes it possible.  If you've never participated, put it on the calendar for next year.  You won't be disappointed.