So, how much is a big crappie worth? For Dave Dzurik, it’s $50,000.
That’s how much Dzurik won when he caught a 2.37-pound crappie, the largest weighed in during the Big Crappie Challenge held March 28-29 at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks.
Dzurik also went home with one heck of a fish story that he doubts he’ll ever forget.
A Championship with Character
Just about every aspect of Dzurik’s championship performance in the big-fish event put on by Midwest Fish Tournaments was out of the ordinary.
For one, it’s doubtful anyone else in the tournament used his lure of choice, a bright-colored Lindy River Rocker. It’s the same crankbait he saw fishing legend Al Lindner use on one of his television shows years ago. The cherry on top: Dzurik coated the crankbaits he used with Hawg Jam, the fish attractant that he makes.
While some in the field of 800 used forward-facing sonar, high-dollar rods and reels, and high-powered boats, Dzurik took an old-fashioned approach. He trolled. He fashions himself as a trolling specialist, drawing on years of fishing for not only crappies but also walleyes, salmon, white bass, among other species.
The Mad Dash to Victory
Until the final hour of the big-crappie tournament, Dzurik and Adam Bliss, his fishing partner and longtime friend from the Chicago area, had little to show for their hours of fishing. They didn’t weigh a crappie on Saturday and didn’t really start catching fish until the final hour of the tournament.
Dzurik pulled off some last-minute heroics when he caught his big crappie at 2:20 p.m. March 29 — the last day of the tournament — and made a mad dash for one of the weigh-in stations before the 3 p.m. cutoff. With tackle strewn all over, Dzurik pushed his fish and ski boat to the max to make a nine-mile ride from the back of the Gravois arm to the nearest weigh-in site.
Meanwhile, the winner of the 2025 Big Crappie Challenge, David Hartley, was on the verge of a two-peat. He caught a 2.26-pound crappie in the first time period Saturday, holding the lead until Dzurik’s last-minute heroics.
How’s that for drama?
“That’s my Cinderella story,” joked Dzurik, 65, who lives on the lake in Lake Ozark, Missouri.
Promising Growth of an Event
The event, now in its second year, was patterned after the Big Bass Bash that Midwest Fish Tournaments puts on each year. In both events, competition is split into time periods for two days, with the top placers receiving paybacks. The honor everyone targets is the biggest overall crappie caught.
“We’ve run the Big Bass Bash for 20 years,” said Charlie Terrell, the tournament director for Midwest Fish Tournaments. “One of our sponsors suggested that we do something similar for crappie, and we tried it last year.
“We had 600 people enter that first year, and it went up to 800 this year. So, we ‘re excited about the way crappie fishermen are taking to this event.”
A Prime Fishing Location
Lake of the Ozarks, a 54,000-acre reservoir in central Missouri, is known nationwide for its bass and crappie fishing. Its populations of both species are annually impressive, attracting anglers from all over.
Dzurik is among the many avid anglers who consider themselves lucky to live there.
He and Bliss took the challenge of the big-crappie tournament seriously this year. Bliss travelled to Lake of the Ozarks early in the week, and he joined Dzurik for hours of pre-fishing.
“We fished all different parts of the lake, but we didn’t catch much,” Dzurik said.
But true fishermen stay confident to the end. And that’s what Dzurik and Bliss did. When they became frustrated fishing other parts of the big lake, they returned to the Gravois, where Dzurik felt most comfortable.
That’s where he caught the biggest crappie he has ever landed, a fish that will be long remembered.
“Right after we got that fish in the net, it flopped once and spit the hook,” Dzurik said. “So, I got lucky.”
Oh, and that $50,000 windfall? Dzurik split the prize with Bliss, and plans to spend part of his half on fishing trips and better electronics for his boat.
“It was quite a week,” he said.
