The Ultimate Guide to the Ninth Annual Brownlee Crappie Shootout: A Fishing Enthusiast’s Dream

The ninth annual Brownlee Crappie Shootout was held on May 18 ^th, and I was fortunate enough to attend this years tournament. The structure of the Shootout is simple, there’s a number of different fish species available for points, with different numbers of points per inch for each species. Being a crappie tournament, they’re worth the most points per inch.

Against my better judgement, I opted to leave for Richland, OR after work on a Friday, with plans of sleeping in my car. Thankfully, the six-hour drive went by quite quickly and I arrived at my parking spot around 10:30pm the night before the tournament. I moved some of my fishing gear around to accommodate the Crash Pad by Rocky Mountain Rafts in the back of my Forester. Truthfully, it served its purpose quite well and I was comfortable all through the night. Bringing along my inflatable Aeros Premium Pillow from Sea to Summit was an excellent call as well. Neither of these things took up much room in my car and gave me the best shot at a decent night’s sleep. The next morning, I woke up a bit earlier than planned and made full use of my JetBoil Minimo and made plenty of coffee for the day, I was grateful for the built-in ignitor since I forgot my lighter at home that morning—it would’ve been a very rough day to be without coffee!

Due to several factors, not knowing the area, limited phone service, arriving late, etc. I didn’t end up getting my card to submit fish for the tournament, not the biggest deal to me, I was more interested in catching fish and the camaraderie anyway. I launched a bit later than most people, sometime around 6am and immediately headed up the Powder River Arm of Brownlee Reservoir. My usual plan for these events is to see where everyone else is fishing, pass them, and search for more untouched water. The Old Town Bigwater 132PDL is certainly one of the faster kayaks out there (which will become relevant later) and made quick work of passing everyone along the way.

I started fishing similar to how everyone else was, some kind of crappie jig simply tied to the end of the line and casting it towards the bank in anywhere from 2 to 7 feet of water. The first fish of the day came doing this, it was a pretty small but feisty smallmouth bass, certainly not the intended quarry but a good start. I picked up a few more micro smallmouth this way but I never felt like it was particularly effective. After three or four fish, I decided to switch techniques slightly and add a float to my setup, around four feet above the hook, and this changed my day around. Crappie have slightly upturned eyes, which allows them to easily look for prey items above them, so, in this writer’s opinion, it’s almost always best to err on the side of fishing too high in the water column for them. Plus, if for no other reason, it’s fun to watch a fish sink your float. This proved to drastically change my day.

I started picking up fish frequently, and in several cases, back-to-back. The smallmouth was plentiful and aggressive, though the size was lacking—the largest of the day taped out to about 14”. Coincidentally, the other two species of fish I caught that day, crappie, and largemouth bass, both had a maximum size of 14”, which is a really decent crappie, but largemouth, not so much. Most of the fish came on some form of a two-toned crappie jig, generally with some chartreuse involved, fished very slowly, attempting to cover the water as best I could. At this point, I certainly regretted not entering the contest after all!

After a few hours of smashing fish, I found a buddy of mine who was working a different section of the lake, he’s now local to the area and figured we would fish together while catching up. He knows the area quite well and I enjoyed having a bit of local knowledge. The area we ended up fishing was markedly different than the section I had been fishing. Where it was sort of clear water (probably 2-3 feet of visibility), now dropped to one foot of visibility and the water took on a green hue. Not necessarily the worst thing, particularly if you’re targeting multiple species, like catfish and bass. However, in this case, it wasn’t idea. The bite more or less began to subside. I was shocked to pull nothing out of fishy looking areas. Eventually, we found a cove where a creek dumped in and consequently had a little cleaner water, we picked up a few fish, me a decent crappie and a couple smallmouth, him a few smallmouth and a yellow perch. We ended up keeping a few of these to give to an older gentleman who fishes on the dock nearly every day—up until this point I had been purely catch and release.

In an entertaining turn of events, the steering on his kayak from a brand that shall not be named gave out on the way back to the dock. After a little creative rigging, I managed to get his kayak attached to mine, and he got an easy tow back into the dock. We learned the Old Town Bigwater is a remarkably fast and powerful kayak, I was able to comfortably tow him and his 14’ kayak back into the dock while maintaining 3.5mph.

The awards went very smoothly and there were an absolute ton of prizes given out. Camp stoves, every kayak accessory you can think of, high end custom rods, and so much more were given out to all the contestants. The winner of the event overall was none other than the organizer for the Winter Walleye Social, Jim Davis, who managed to get one of each of the target species. 

Now for the most important part of the entire tournament. Jed Rivera, the organizer of the tournament, had one of his kids graduate high school that week, and so they prepared an absolute feast for the participants of the tournament, which included a whole roasted pig. I am easily swayed by food, and this meal was something else. Part of me regretted eating as much as I did, since I drove back to the Portland area immediately after, but I could not stop eating. All the food was lovingly prepared by Jed’s extended family, the roasted pork was exceptional, perfectly tender after cooking all morning, and the lau lau was something to behold. After the morning of catching fish and catching up with friends, when I think back to the event, the first thing I think about is the meal, and I am thrilled to head back to Brownlee next year, for the tenth annual Crappie Shootout.