BCC crappie tournament held at Deer Creek

The results of the recent BCC crappie tournament held at Deer Creek Lake near Circleville Ohio, along with pictures of the winning teams:

The Buckeye Crappie Challenge Tournament Series held its third crappie fishing tournament of the year on May 11, 2013 at Deer Creek Lake just south of Columbus. This was the circuit’s first time on the lake and tournament officials were impressed with the size of the crappie.

“On the Thursday before the tournament, my partner and I were catching a significant number of legitimate 13 and 14 inch fish, which is unusual given our inexperience with the lake. Another circuit member showed me a picture of a 15+ inch fish caught the same day—that’s something we just don’t see too often,” said Frank Dimos, one of the tournament directors.

However, by Saturday, heavy rains caused a good portion of the upper lake to turn muddy and drove shallow fish out of the backs of stream-fed coves, resulting in lower weights than expected.

Despite the conditions, two local men, Roger Thacker and Brian Sowers of Circleville, turned in a solid weight 7.49 pounds on an 8 fish limit, winning the tournament and taking home $624. In second place, Jeff Tobin and "Weasel" Zimmerman of St Mary's tied with the team of Jeff Lang, Sr and Jeff Lang, Jr of California, Ky. with a weight of 6.94 pounds. Each team received $258. Jim and Jason Harrison, a father and son team from Hillsboro, Ohio won the big fish pot with a 1.21 pound specimen, taking home $200.

Despite a 7th place finish, the team of Frank Dimos of Lebanon Ohio and Bill Hora of New Paris Ohio took over the lead in the all around point standings for the circuit with 406 total points for the year, just edging out their closest competitor by a single point.

The circuit will sponsor 4 more tournaments in 2013, including its next event on May 18th at CJ Brown in Springfield Ohio. After the September conclusion of all 7 regular circuit events, qualifying teams will compete in a final Classic event in October at Rocky Fork Lake near Hillsboro Ohio, with thousands of dollars of cash and prizes at stake. You must fish at least 4 tournaments to be eligible to participate in the Classic event, and teams that fish 6 or more tournaments have the best chance to win the circuit’s award for the top all-around team.

The Buckeye Crappie Challenge tournament trail was started in 2002 and is Ohio’s largest crappie tournament series, focusing on Central and Southwest Ohio with occasional tournaments in other parts of the state.

Still to come, the regular schedule has upcoming events on Deer Creek Lake (05/11/13), CJ Brown Reservoir (05/18/13), Caesars Creek Lake (08/03/13), Paint Creek Lake (09/14/13), East Fork Lake (09/28/13), and Indian Lake (1st tournament for 2014--11/02/13).

These are two person team events and 100% of the entry fees are paid back to circuit members, with 80% of the entry fees paid to winners of the related lake tournament and 20% held back to be paid to teams that place in the Classic tournament. The circuit generally pays 1 place for every 5 paid entry fees, so that a 30 team field would result in payments to 6 teams. Entry Fees are $75 per team, with an optional Big Fish entry fee of $10.

For more information or entry forms, visit BuckeyeCrappieChallenge.com or call Frank Dimos at 513-335-3291.