My First Kayak Bass Tournament of 2016
After a fantastic kayak season last year including a huge Kayak Wars win, I decided I was going to mix things up this year. Try new water
and experiences. So I decided to join the Kayak Bass League. I will be fishing
four tournaments this year just for bass which is not the multi-species
experiences I have become accustomed to.
I was a hardcore bass fanatic in the past but since I have
not been chasing them constantly I was honestly nervous about my ability to go
toe to toe with guys living and breathing bass.
The tournament was at Jim Edgar Panther Creek. I was hoping
to practice with a day of pre-fishing but a better option came along as I
watched my beautiful little niece get her first communion. Our family are Irish
Catholics and this is not a thing you miss.
My good friend Josh was fishing the tourney as well and we
decided we would fish together and share and info that may give us an edge on
the competition. Josh got the chance to pre-fish an unfortunately found the fish
to be on beds and not in a biting mood. After I got this bothersome news I
stopped at a sports store and bought baits for us we thought would help in this
situation.
I drove the three hours down to Panther Creek the night
before and we stayed at a wonderful lodge called Ghost Hollow Lodge. Jc a staff
member for KBL hooked us up with this wonderful place only minutes away from
the launch. We spent the night laughing and trading stories with the KBL guys.
Including the story of the snake that visited Josh's kayak!! Which he thought
was no big deal. I DID.
We had our morning checks and meeting and we left for the
farthest corner of the lake. With my asthma going against the wind, paddling long
distances, and being able to keep up is becoming an issue so peddles or a
trolling motor may have to be a change I make if I continue to fish big water.
I am not getting any younger.
We were pre-pared to fish bass beds the whole day every rod
rigged differently with the same goals either to get them mad or get them to
remove our baits off their clean nesting spots. However a strange thing
happened our beds were empty!!!
What the heck do we do now? Josh started throwing a small
crank and scored several fish with just 2 just big enough to count. Then I
started finesse fishing plastic and started catching fish I caught about
thirteen for the day on this technique seven or 8 came on a Crabby Bass Lures
Zipper Worm! But they were all just to small.
We looked back to the beds and a few fish were back! But for
some reason they wouldn’t stay on them. It was like the were just swimming by
every few minutes to check on them. These big fish were not playing today and
refuse to even notice anything we put out.
I decided to go up into the shallowest water with piles of
dead wood and weeds. On my way I fan casted with a custom chatter frog keeping
it just under the surface. That is when I struck gold! SMACK! “Fish on!” I yelled.
I grab the net frantically and landed the 16.75 inch bass as fast as I could.
Things happened so fast I forgot to turn on my Pivothead Glasses! Another
couple of casts and in less then a foot of water SPLASH!!! A second 16 inch
fish came shooting out of the water!! After that fish I made so many casts I
broke a blood vessel in my finger.
We ran out of time and each with only two fish we thought we
would be at the bottom of the leader board. When they said bring in your fish I
noticed not many guys walked up and yet I thought I would be the last. They
called the second place winner and called my name!! Holy %$#@!!! I GOT
SECOND!!!! It was awesome!!!
What is great about Kayak bass tournaments is you don’t need
thousands of dollars in boats and motors. The average angler can afford a kayak
and for a small entry fee can go get their own tournament angling adventure.
I would like to thank my sponsors Pivothead, Notchgear, and
Daves Tangle Free Weights and for this adventure a special thanks goes to GillzFishing Apparel and Lori Gosewisch for getting me my custom jersey just in time
! I LOVE IT!! Also to Crabby Bass for always coming through and catching fish
even if they were short. I caught a decent amount of fish when many fisherman
came up empty.
