National Crappie League Division 1 – Lake D’Arbonne Report
Category: Crappie Tournament
Oct 17th, 2023 by sworrall
Modified Oct 17th, 2023 at 12:18 PM
The National Crappie League D’Arbonne LA Division 1 tournament produced some impressive crappie and good total weights despite classic cold front conditions including high North winds and cloudless skies. Several teams commented on the tough bite and windy conditions causing the fish to be skittish and difficult to approach, so many of the fish were caught pitching jigs as far as 25′. It took 8.79# to win, and 6.90# or better to take home top ten money and hardware.
TOP FIVE: Travis Brown and Leslie Johnson took the win with 8.79# and a 1.79# big fish taking home first place money at $3000. They reported that that it was a rough day due to wind, but but by covering channels all day flipping to skittish fish, they got the bites needed to win while catching a lot of crappie!
Second were Mark Strunk and April Hamilton just a fraction back from the lead with 8.48#, the big fish of the event at 2.33# and the top Male/Female team for a total of $2500.00. They were fishing a comminity spot seeing good fish but couldn’t get them to eat, so they took a gamble and moved. Despite fighting the wind, they found enough good fish and got them to bite. They felt blessed to be able to fish the event after a harrowing trailer-related event that could have caused a lot of damage to their rig…. but miraculously didn’t. Watch the weigh-in video on the NCL Facebook page to hear the full story.
Bill Ruby took third for $1000 (7.99#) “just out fishing for fun”. He was casting most of the day due to spooky fish from all the wave action and noise.
Nick Dewolf and Bill Glover took fourth and 2nd big fish for $900 (7.98#), and Brandon Horne and Justin Rich took fifth for $500 (7.89#). Top Senior was Phil Holtzclaw for $400.
The event paid out a total of $10,000.
We’d like to thank all of our National and Local sponsors for supporting the National Crappie League!
Next up is the Ross Barnett Res. Ridgeland MS Wild Card this coming weekend featuring 2-day Division 1 and Open parallel events. Sign up on the NCL website HERE!