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National Crappie League
NCL Media Contact: Bobby Brown Bobby@nationalcrappieleague.com
The National Crappie League held an Open Division tournament of 2024 at Lake of the Ozarks on April 12th and 13th. The event was hosted by the Tri-County Lodging Association and the Business District of Morgan County, Miller County, and Camden County. Anglers were given the opportunity to qualify for the 2024-25 National Championship and compete for a payback of $20,000.
Windy conditions affected the competition on both days, with sunny skies and warm weather. Anglers faced changing water conditions from day one to day two, as most of them found it more challenging to locate fish during the second day of the competition.
Brian Scott and Trevor Warlen emerged as the top winners of the tournament, having moved up from fifth place on day one with 8.36 lbs to secure the title with a combined two-day weight of 17.93 lbs. They weighed in 9.57 lbs on day two, which was the largest weight for that day. The team earned $7400.00 for their efforts.
The winning duo shared that they had a good plan on day two, but they had to adjust it after the first 15 minutes. They said, “We had two 30-minute sessions of good fishing and made them count. We didn’t miss fish today like they did on day one.”
Mike Valentine and Matthew Beckman held the second position with 9.69 lbs after day one. However, they weighed in 7.69 lbs on day two, giving them a total of 17.38 lbs in the tournament and keeping them in second place overall. They earned $3,200.00 for second place and an extra $300.00 for the second-biggest fish, which was a 2.20 lbs crappie.
The team stated that they had high hopes for the tournament, and everything during the pre-fishing week was working out well. However, they didn’t see the fish they expected during day two competition. They got on a pattern in the afternoon on day one that helped them, and they thought they could run their morning pattern first on day two and have a fallback, but neither worked. The team said they could see the fish on the move, but they only found one big fish, and they couldn’t catch it.
Tim Malloy and Nick Stupka secured the third place finish. The team was in first place with 9.84 lbs after day one. They weighed in 7.21 lbs on day two, giving them a total weight of 17.05 lbs. The team earned $2,400.00 for their finish and an additional $1,000.00 for the biggest fish, which weighed 2.40 lbs.
The team used plastics and fished up north, on the river. They caught their biggest fish off the bottom on day one, but the fish on day two on the bottom weren’t big. They only found two big fish on day two, and neither would bite.
Dillion Meyer and Glenn Meyer secured the fourth position with 16.56 lbs, winning $1,400.00. Jake Wyatt finished fifth and won $1,100.00, while Jon and Mike Gillotte secured the sixth position with 16.40 lbs, winning $750.00. Frank Haidusek followed in seventh place with 16.39 lbs, winning $650.00. Charlie Bunting and Mike Baker took eighth place, earning $550.00 plus $200.00 for the top senior team with their 15.24 lb weight. Brock Shaw and Thomas Schuch finished ninth, earning $450.00 by weighing in 14.94 lbs. Jim Clary and Jerry Vanderpool rounded out the top ten with 14.46 lbs, earning $400.00. The top male-female team was JJ and Tanya Watters with 12.70 lbs, earning $200.00.
Special thanks to all local sponsors including, Tri-County Lodging Association, Business District of Camden County, Business District of Miller County, Business District of Morgan County, Captins Ron’s on the Lake, Frontier Metal, Lake House Inn, Branding Iron Restaurant, Town & Country Supermarket, Truck Country, Chances R Restaurant, Rock Harbor Resort & Motel, Outdoor Addiction, Hawhtorn Ban Warsaw, Ozark Bait & Tackle, KS 95.1 Radio, Lake TV, Veracruz Mexican Restaurant, Bay Bridge Resort, Walmart Supercenter, Bryant’s Osage Outdoors, Whiskey Dick’s Bar & Grill, The Bank of Versailles and Bryants Osage Outdoors.
Thanks to our national sponsors including Carzone, Power-Pole, Rockport Rattler, O’Reilly Auto Parts, DMF Bait Co., Compass LIthium, Pro Control, Engel Coolers, Crappie Brakes, Midsouth Tackle, Slider, Everharts Outdoors, Amped Outdoors Lithium, BnM Poles, ATX Lues, K9 Fishing, Black Speck Fishing, Prodezigns, Crappie Nows, Crappie.com, Nothead Tackle, Top Notch Interiors, Quality Plumbing Heating, and Jenko Fishing.
Upcoming Division I Events for the 2024 tournament season.
Division I events are a minimum $10,000.00 payback.
Apr 26 & 27, 2024 • Division I • Patoka Lake, IN
May 4, 2024 • Division I • Lake Carlyle, IL
May 18, 2024 • Division I • Lake Salamonie/Mississinewa, IN
Oct 12, 2024 • Division I • Lake of the Ozarks, MO
Upcoming Open Division Events for 2024.
Open Division events are a $20,000.00 minimum payback.
June 7 & 8, 2024 • Open Division • Ross Barnett, MS
June 14 & 15, 2024 • Open Division • Truman Lake, MO
June 28 & 29, 2024 • Open Division • Sardis Lake, MS
Oct 18 & 19, 2024 • Open Division • Grenada Lake, MS
Upcoming Wild Card events. Wild Card events are guaranteed 100% payback. Both Division I and Open Division compete. Division I competes on Saturdays, and Open Division teams compete both Friday and Saturday.
May 10 & 11, 2024 • Wild Card • Kentucky Lake, KY
Sept 13 & 14, 2024 • Wild Card • Clinton Lake, KS
(NCL)
The tournament details can be found at www.nationalcrappieleague.com/2024-lake-of-the-ozarks-open-2/
Rules and more information can be found at www.nationalcrappieleague.com
For more information call Paul Alpers 573-280-8020
