Got to hit the lake on Friday. Mild temps, and low humidity. It was a great day. We lost count of exactly how many largemouth we caught, but it was over 30. We also hit a school of white bass, and had fun catching 10-12 of those in a matter of minutes. We caught the largemouth on Ned rigs (only red worked), Yum Dingers (only watermelon worked), lipless (see pic below), but our lure of the day was the trick worm. The color didn't seem to matter with the trick worms. Green pumpkin, brown, white, chartreuse, didn't matter. They hit every color we threw when we found the right spot. It was incredibly fun.

 

We didn't catch anything big, but as a pond fisherman who's trying to learn how to fish in bigger water it felt pretty good to pick the right spots, and unlock the bite patterns as they changed throughout the day. I attribute a lot of our success to what I've read since I joined this site about a year ago, and to the things I've learned from fishing with @roadwarrior.

 

So thanks to all of you who share your wealth of knowledge on BassResource. Y'all are awesome. You helped me and my friend put 40+ fish in the boat in one day. It's the most bass I've caught in a single day in a long time...maybe ever.

 

We didn't get many picture worthy fish, but I took one picture I wanted to share. This poor little guy got snagged as I was fishing around a bait ball. This is what we're competing against. I thought it was interesting to see how the real deal looks in comparison to some of the lures we use.

Lost my fishing day today due to pet health problems but will hit the water tomorrow bright and early to see whats biting. Big ones are feeding as weeds are going away, just got to work the cover and current brakes slow and w/ finesse. We'll see what I get for my work.....got a lot of confidence lures and colors tied on.

I love buzzbait bass! 

 

Threw my black Cavitron buzzbait beside a big log running from the bank way out into the water and about halfway down she sucked it under. 

 

Micro-Chatterbait has been slaying it lately.

Had my championship tournament for my kayak club this past weekend. It was on a lake I've fished a lot and was really good last year but has been tough this year. I only fished it twice very early in the year, so I was not sure how it was doing as of late. Went out to the lake Thursday morning and prefished all day Thursday and Friday. Caught very few fish in the 15" range and only one large fish that went 19". I was thinking about 80" a day would win, so those 15" fish were about the bare minimum I was looking for and they were proving to be difficult to find. Also, I had planned on targeting smallmouth. In 2 days, I had found 4, none of which measured 15". 

 

Saturday morning during the Captain's meeting, I decided I was going to go to the area I'd caught my biggest fish in prefishing because I'd also caught several fish there. My hopes were to at least catch a limit and then maybe try to move areas to fish for the (normally), bigger smallmouth. Of the 16 people in the tournament, I was 1 of 2 that went to the area I'd decided to fish, so I knew I at least had first crack at a lot of fish. As I stood at the ramp looking at the water and decided how to start, I made a last minute change to my lineup. My bladed jig rod was still in the truck. I'd caught no fish with it in prefishing, never had a bite, but something told me in the early morning darkness, I needed it. Grabbed it and tied on one of my homemade blue bladed jigs and decided that's what I was starting with. It didn't take long to get my first bite, looked to be a good 15-18 inch fish, jumped and tossed the bait. Landed the next one, little over 16". Caught a 12" fish about 5 minutes later before I ran into the marina walkway and had to turn around and work back the way I came. Right as I got to where I caught my first fish, I hooked another 15-18 inch fish. Grabbed the net, it jumped and tossed it right at the kayak, not a good start. Fished the rest of the way down the bridge riprap and about halfway down the back side. I'd been snagged several times and was thinking maybe that bite window was over, when my bait stopped right at the start of my retrieve. Just as fast, a massive fish was jumping, and jumping, and jumping. I've never seen a fish that size so determined to jump so many times. I was sure I was going to lose her, but after much begging and pleading, she slid into my net and I found the hook buried firmly into the roof of her jaw. The tournament was only an hour into the first morning, and I felt pretty confident I had big bass wrapped up. At 22" and 6.92lbs, she was my new kayak PB, new lake PB, and new PB on one of my bladed jigs and gave me a massive boost in confidence.

 

And that was the last bite I got from a bass on that bait the rest of the day. I almost stopped throwing it a few minutes earlier, sure glad I didn't. At the end of the riprap, it got shallower and fish were popping shad. 2 cast in a row with a Bullet Pop produced a 13" and 11.75" fish, so I had my limit by about 7:15. I scored one more 13.25" fish on the Bullet pop to cull the 11.75" before I had a long lull of non-bass species and short fish. Finally popped a fat 15 incher out from under a dock swimming a White Lightning TRD for a solid cull. About a hour later, I made a pretty good pedal to a short area between 2 long marina docks (not allowed to fish the docks themselves but you can fish the banks behind them). I was second guessing myself the whole way there because I hadn't fished it before and wasn't sure what it was like but I was running out of ideas other than going to target smallmouth and that required loading up the kayak and moving areas. Very first cast with a swinging football head and a Rage Bug resulted it a 15.75" fish and a another good cull. I still had a 13.25" fish in my bag though and really wanted to get rid of it, so with about 2 hours left in the day, I loaded up to go search for brown fish I never found in practice. 

 

This area had several other fishermen on it that had been working the area all day, so I did what I do best, found the ugliest areas and went fishing. First was an overlooked pocket I knew from previous experience. It looks like a mud/sand pocket but it's a lot of big rock mixed in out in the water a ways. I picked that apart with the white Ned rig and scored a 16.25" smallmouth, a huge 3" cull late in the day. With 30 minutes left, I knew the next cove over had a similar pocket, but I'd never fished it. Nothing really to lose at this point so I made the jump over. Same deal, swimming a white Ned when it just took off. A brown football was in the air immediately and then again before it dug deep for what felt like forever. My hands started cramping and I even felt like I was losing my grip on the rod at one point. The fish eventually gave up and I put 17" of brown bass in the net, another 2" upgrade.

I worked that area a little more but day 1 was over. I ended with 87.25", second and third were tight at 73.5 and 73.25 inches, then it dropped all the way to 65.5". I figured going into day 2, all I needed to do was catch about 70" and it would be pretty impossible for someone to catch me with the way the lake was fishing.

 

35 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Had my championship tournament for my kayak club this past weekend. It was on a lake I've fished a lot and was really good last year but has been tough this year. I only fished it twice very early in the year, so I was not sure how it was doing as of late. Went out to the lake Thursday morning and prefished all day Thursday and Friday. Caught very few fish in the 15" range and only one large fish that went 19". I was thinking about 80" a day would win, so those 15" fish were about the bare minimum I was looking for and they were proving to be difficult to find. Also, I had planned on targeting smallmouth. In 2 days, I had found 4, none of which measured 15". 

 

Saturday morning during the Captain's meeting, I decided I was going to go to the area I'd caught my biggest fish in prefishing because I'd also caught several fish there. My hopes were to at least catch a limit and then maybe try to move areas to fish for the (normally), bigger smallmouth. Of the 16 people in the tournament, I was 1 of 2 that went to the area I'd decided to fish, so I knew I at least had first crack at a lot of fish. As I stood at the ramp looking at the water and decided how to start, I made a last minute change to my lineup. My bladed jig rod was still in the truck. I'd caught no fish with it in prefishing, never had a bite, but something told me in the early morning darkness, I needed it. Grabbed it and tied on one of my homemade blue bladed jigs and decided that's what I was starting with. It didn't take long to get my first bite, looked to be a good 15-18 inch fish, jumped and tossed the bait. Landed the next one, little over 16". Caught a 12" fish about 5 minutes later before I ran into the marina walkway and had to turn around and work back the way I came. Right as I got to where I caught my first fish, I hooked another 15-18 inch fish. Grabbed the net, it jumped and tossed it right at the kayak, not a good start. Fished the rest of the way down the bridge riprap and about halfway down the back side. I'd been snagged several times and was thinking maybe that bite window was over, when my bait stopped right at the start of my retrieve. Just as fast, a massive fish was jumping, and jumping, and jumping. I've never seen a fish that size so determined to jump so many times. I was sure I was going to lose her, but after much begging and pleading, she slid into my net and I found the hook buried firmly into the roof of her jaw. The tournament was only an hour into the first morning, and I felt pretty confident I had big bass wrapped up. At 22" and 6.92lbs, she was my new kayak PB, new lake PB, and new PB on one of my bladed jigs and gave me a massive boost in confidence.

 

And that was the last bite I got from a bass on that bait the rest of the day. I almost stopped throwing it a few minutes earlier, sure glad I didn't. At the end of the riprap, it got shallower and fish were popping shad. 2 cast in a row with a Bullet Pop produced a 13" and 11.75" fish, so I had my limit by about 7:15. I scored one more 13.25" fish on the Bullet pop to cull the 11.75" before I had a long lull of non-bass species and short fish. Finally popped a fat 15 incher out from under a dock swimming a White Lightning TRD for a solid cull. About a hour later, I made a pretty good pedal to a short area between 2 long marina docks (not allowed to fish the docks themselves but you can fish the banks behind them). I was second guessing myself the whole way there because I hadn't fished it before and wasn't sure what it was like but I was running out of ideas other than going to target smallmouth and that required loading up the kayak and moving areas. Very first cast with a swinging football head and a Rage Bug resulted it a 15.75" fish and a another good cull. I still had a 13.25" fish in my bag though and really wanted to get rid of it, so with about 2 hours left in the day, I loaded up to go search for brown fish I never found in practice. 

 

This area had several other fishermen on it that had been working the area all day, so I did what I do best, found the ugliest areas and went fishing. First was an overlooked pocket I knew from previous experience. It looks like a mud/sand pocket but it's a lot of big rock mixed in out in the water a ways. I picked that apart with the white Ned rig and scored a 16.25" smallmouth, a huge 3" cull late in the day. With 30 minutes left, I knew the next cove over had a similar pocket, but I'd never fished it. Nothing really to lose at this point so I made the jump over. Same deal, swimming a white Ned when it just took off. A brown football was in the air immediately and then again before it dug deep for what felt like forever. My hands started cramping and I even felt like I was losing my grip on the rod at one point. The fish eventually gave up and I put 17" of brown bass in the net, another 2" upgrade. I worked that area a little more but day 1 was over. I ended with 87.25", second and third were tight at 73.5 and 73.25 inches, then it dropped all the way to 65.5". I figured going into day 2, all I needed to do was catch about 70" and it would be pretty impossible for someone to catch me with the way the lake was fishing.

 

Great write up. Felt like I was there. ?

On 9/11/2021 at 5:41 PM, TnRiver46 said:

Last hoorah up north 

 

Please tell me you were wading.

38 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

 

Please tell me you were wading.

Haha! Yep. You can walk most of the rivers up there, it's crazy

Montana B.A.S.S. Nation returned to Fort Peck for the first time in a decade, and it showed off big time!

It took nearly 26 pounds a day to win, with big fish going 7.42 pounds!

I finished third, broke my PB smallie with a 5.96, and qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Western Championship for my 4th consecutive season.

 

If you ever get the chance to go here, I cannot recommend it enough!

3 minutes ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Montana B.A.S.S. Nation returned to Fort Peck for the first time in a decade, and it showed off big time!

It took nearly 26 pounds a day to win, with big fish going 7.42 pounds!

I finished third, broke my PB smallie with a 5.96, and qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Western Championship for my 4th consecutive season.

 

If you ever get the chance to go here, I cannot recommend it enough!

Congrats!!!

24 minutes ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Montana B.A.S.S. Nation returned to Fort Peck for the first time in a decade, and it showed off big time!

It took nearly 26 pounds a day to win, with big fish going 7.42 pounds!

I finished third, broke my PB smallie with a 5.96, and qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Western Championship for my 4th consecutive season.

 

If you ever get the chance to go here, I cannot recommend it enough!

Great Job!!!

29 minutes ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Montana B.A.S.S. Nation returned to Fort Peck for the first time in a decade, and it showed off big time!

It took nearly 26 pounds a day to win, with big fish going 7.42 pounds!

I finished third, broke my PB smallie with a 5.96, and qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Western Championship for my 4th consecutive season.

 

If you ever get the chance to go here, I cannot recommend it enough!

Congrats… Nice pics..

 

I caught my new PB Smallmouth Bass kayak fishing today! 
 

The dam at my local section of river was closed so I decided to fish the upper river. I am so glad I did. I caught a nice Largemouth early in the trip on a wacky rigged Senko. I figured she was 4lbs so I reached for my life jacket pocket to get my scale…

 

I forgot my dang scale. Oh well I thought. Won’t be a problem unless I catch a PB…

 

Less than a half hour later I put away the Senko and reached for a Texas rigged TRD TicklerZ. I found a current break between 2 downed trees, cast just inside and felt a thunk. I reeled up the slack and set the hook. The initial run told me this is something big. Then she jumped…

 

I thought she was a Largemouth at first and was going to give my 5.26 Largemouth PB a run for the money. Then she jumped again and I got a better look at the brown coloration…

 

This was my PB for sure and my “don’t come off, don’t come off” mantra kicked in. She wrapped my line around my rod holder and bashed herself jumping by my kayak before I could net her.

 

The reality of the no scale really hit me when I lifted her up. My old PB Smallmouth was 4lbs exactly and I know this fish was more than that. Exactly how much I will never know. I took a bunch of pics and some video and released her.

 

When I called it a day and got back to shore I was packing up my kayak and took out my removable seat. While folding it I noticed the brand new Wilderness systems pouch on the back and in the pouch was my scale…

 

I had it the whole time. I forgot I moved it to the pouch from my life jacket.

 

1 hour ago, NYWayfarer said:

 

I caught my new PB Smallmouth Bass kayak fishing today! 
 

The dam at my local section of river was closed so I decided to fish the upper river. I am so glad I did. I caught a nice Largemouth early in the trip on a wacky rigged Senko. I figured she was 4lbs so I reached for my life jacket pocket to get my scale…

 

I forgot my dang scale. Oh well I thought. Won’t be a problem unless I catch a PB…

 

Less than a half hour later I put away the Senko and reached for a Texas rigged TRD TicklerZ. I found a current break between 2 downed trees, cast just inside and felt a thunk. I reeled up the slack and set the hook. The initial run told me this is something big. Then she jumped…

 

I thought she was a Largemouth at first and was going to give my 5.26 Largemouth PB a run for the money. Then she jumped again and I got a better look at the brown coloration…

 

This was my PB for sure and my “don’t come off, don’t come off” mantra kicked in. She wrapped my line around my rod holder and bashed herself jumping by my kayak before I could net her.

 

The reality of the no scale really hit me when I lifted her up. My old PB Smallmouth was 4lbs exactly and I know this fish was more than that. Exactly how much I will never know. I took a bunch of pics and some video and released her.

 

When I called it a day and got back to shore I was packing up my kayak and took out my removable seat. While folding it I noticed the brand new Wilderness systems pouch on the back and in the pouch was my scale…

 

I had it the whole time. I forgot I moved it to the pouch from my life jacket.

 

Nice!!! Congrats

1 hour ago, NYWayfarer said:

 

I caught my new PB Smallmouth Bass kayak fishing today! 
 

The dam at my local section of river was closed so I decided to fish the upper river. I am so glad I did. I caught a nice Largemouth early in the trip on a wacky rigged Senko. I figured she was 4lbs so I reached for my life jacket pocket to get my scale…

 

I forgot my dang scale. Oh well I thought. Won’t be a problem unless I catch a PB…

 

Less than a half hour later I put away the Senko and reached for a Texas rigged TRD TicklerZ. I found a current break between 2 downed trees, cast just inside and felt a thunk. I reeled up the slack and set the hook. The initial run told me this is something big. Then she jumped…

 

I thought she was a Largemouth at first and was going to give my 5.26 Largemouth PB a run for the money. Then she jumped again and I got a better look at the brown coloration…

 

This was my PB for sure and my “don’t come off, don’t come off” mantra kicked in. She wrapped my line around my rod holder and bashed herself jumping by my kayak before I could net her.

 

The reality of the no scale really hit me when I lifted her up. My old PB Smallmouth was 4lbs exactly and I know this fish was more than that. Exactly how much I will never know. I took a bunch of pics and some video and released her.

 

When I called it a day and got back to shore I was packing up my kayak and took out my removable seat. While folding it I noticed the brand new Wilderness systems pouch on the back and in the pouch was my scale…

 

I had it the whole time. I forgot I moved it to the pouch from my life jacket.

 

Congrats on your new PB. ?

11 hours ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Montana B.A.S.S. Nation returned to Fort Peck for the first time in a decade, and it showed off big time!

It took nearly 26 pounds a day to win, with big fish going 7.42 pounds!

I finished third, broke my PB smallie with a 5.96, and qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Western Championship for my 4th consecutive season.

 

If you ever get the chance to go here, I cannot recommend it enough!

Big congrats on a job well done. That’s a sweet PB. 

19 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Had my championship tournament for my kayak club this past weekend. It was on a lake I've fished a lot and was really good last year but has been tough this year. I only fished it twice very early in the year, so I was not sure how it was doing as of late. Went out to the lake Thursday morning and prefished all day Thursday and Friday. Caught very few fish in the 15" range and only one large fish that went 19". I was thinking about 80" a day would win, so those 15" fish were about the bare minimum I was looking for and they were proving to be difficult to find. Also, I had planned on targeting smallmouth. In 2 days, I had found 4, none of which measured 15". 

 

Saturday morning during the Captain's meeting, I decided I was going to go to the area I'd caught my biggest fish in prefishing because I'd also caught several fish there. My hopes were to at least catch a limit and then maybe try to move areas to fish for the (normally), bigger smallmouth. Of the 16 people in the tournament, I was 1 of 2 that went to the area I'd decided to fish, so I knew I at least had first crack at a lot of fish. As I stood at the ramp looking at the water and decided how to start, I made a last minute change to my lineup. My bladed jig rod was still in the truck. I'd caught no fish with it in prefishing, never had a bite, but something told me in the early morning darkness, I needed it. Grabbed it and tied on one of my homemade blue bladed jigs and decided that's what I was starting with. It didn't take long to get my first bite, looked to be a good 15-18 inch fish, jumped and tossed the bait. Landed the next one, little over 16". Caught a 12" fish about 5 minutes later before I ran into the marina walkway and had to turn around and work back the way I came. Right as I got to where I caught my first fish, I hooked another 15-18 inch fish. Grabbed the net, it jumped and tossed it right at the kayak, not a good start. Fished the rest of the way down the bridge riprap and about halfway down the back side. I'd been snagged several times and was thinking maybe that bite window was over, when my bait stopped right at the start of my retrieve. Just as fast, a massive fish was jumping, and jumping, and jumping. I've never seen a fish that size so determined to jump so many times. I was sure I was going to lose her, but after much begging and pleading, she slid into my net and I found the hook buried firmly into the roof of her jaw. The tournament was only an hour into the first morning, and I felt pretty confident I had big bass wrapped up. At 22" and 6.92lbs, she was my new kayak PB, new lake PB, and new PB on one of my bladed jigs and gave me a massive boost in confidence.

 

And that was the last bite I got from a bass on that bait the rest of the day. I almost stopped throwing it a few minutes earlier, sure glad I didn't. At the end of the riprap, it got shallower and fish were popping shad. 2 cast in a row with a Bullet Pop produced a 13" and 11.75" fish, so I had my limit by about 7:15. I scored one more 13.25" fish on the Bullet pop to cull the 11.75" before I had a long lull of non-bass species and short fish. Finally popped a fat 15 incher out from under a dock swimming a White Lightning TRD for a solid cull. About a hour later, I made a pretty good pedal to a short area between 2 long marina docks (not allowed to fish the docks themselves but you can fish the banks behind them). I was second guessing myself the whole way there because I hadn't fished it before and wasn't sure what it was like but I was running out of ideas other than going to target smallmouth and that required loading up the kayak and moving areas. Very first cast with a swinging football head and a Rage Bug resulted it a 15.75" fish and a another good cull. I still had a 13.25" fish in my bag though and really wanted to get rid of it, so with about 2 hours left in the day, I loaded up to go search for brown fish I never found in practice. 

 

This area had several other fishermen on it that had been working the area all day, so I did what I do best, found the ugliest areas and went fishing. First was an overlooked pocket I knew from previous experience. It looks like a mud/sand pocket but it's a lot of big rock mixed in out in the water a ways. I picked that apart with the white Ned rig and scored a 16.25" smallmouth, a huge 3" cull late in the day. With 30 minutes left, I knew the next cove over had a similar pocket, but I'd never fished it. Nothing really to lose at this point so I made the jump over. Same deal, swimming a white Ned when it just took off. A brown football was in the air immediately and then again before it dug deep for what felt like forever. My hands started cramping and I even felt like I was losing my grip on the rod at one point. The fish eventually gave up and I put 17" of brown bass in the net, another 2" upgrade. I worked that area a little more but day 1 was over. I ended with 87.25", second and third were tight at 73.5 and 73.25 inches, then it dropped all the way to 65.5". I figured going into day 2, all I needed to do was catch about 70" and it would be pretty impossible for someone to catch me with the way the lake was fishing.

 

Great job! I'd say you had a very exceptional yak season! Congratulations! That 7lber is a beast!

16 hours ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Montana B.A.S.S. Nation returned to Fort Peck for the first time in a decade, and it showed off big time!

It took nearly 26 pounds a day to win, with big fish going 7.42 pounds!

I finished third, broke my PB smallie with a 5.96, and qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Western Championship for my 4th consecutive season.

 

If you ever get the chance to go here, I cannot recommend it enough!

Those are some hefty fish! Congratulations!

Just got done with my one spot for awhile, high water and junk floating so bad the fishing was terrible. Have these sometimes so gotta say it was a bad one. No pics just some dinks and a hammer handle pickerel to show for 6 hours ☹️ can't be all good or we would want a challenge.

Approaching the end of my ProjectZ challenge. Hopefully wrap things up by the weekend and be able to give a more detailed post/report. Here's a couple more from the past two days - just solid chunks.

 

 

I caught 4 Largemouth Bass kayak fishing yesterday. This was the best one.

 

8 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Approaching the end of my ProjectZ challenge. Hopefully wrap things up by the weekend and be able to give a more detailed post/report. Here's a couple more from the past two days - just solid chunks.

 

 

Looking forward to a detail heavy write up.

Day 2 of the kayak series championship. Not surprisingly, there were several more kayaks fishing the area I fished on day 1 on the morning of the second day. We all talked at the ramp and everyone was generous in letting me decide where I was going to start since I was leading. I started the same spot I did on day 1 and started very similarly, dumping a fish on one of my first cast with the bladed jig. My very next cast back, I caught my first of the morning at 13.5". I continued down the bank and had no more bites. When I got to the marina dock walkway, I'd made an adjustment from day 1, swapping my 6th Sense Flush out for a black and blue Strike King Ocho to fish in the more stained water around the docks. It paid off with 2 keepers out from under the walkway, a 13" and 13.75" fish. Working back out from behind the docks, I decided to switch from fishing the bladed jig to a black and red Booyah Covert spinnerbait. It took 2 cast for a 15" fish to smash it. When I got past the point I'd started at, I switched back to the bladed jig and was actually daydreaming pretty badly because I'd caught no fish on that stretch all day the day before. Thankfully, the 15.75" fish that was there really stopped my bait hard so there was no way for me to miss the bite. 7:23AM, not even an hour into the morning and I had my 5th fish. Wasn't a big limit, but it was in the low 70's like I thought I'd need at a minimum to make it so someone would really have to work to overtake me. From that point on, it was a serious dink fest. I caught one more 13.25" fish on a spinnerbait to cull up 1/4" to 71.25" on the day, and lost a couple I think would have helped, but otherwise I caught a bunch of fish I didn't even have to measure to tell if they were bigger than 13.25". I did have a bass break me off on the hook set with the Ocho, then immediately eat the same bait when I retied and cast back in. Got my lost bait and hook back. I also had a white bass that I caught, and when I tossed it back in the water, it jumped right back into my kayak. It was a difficult day for everyone though and at the end of the day, my 158.5 total inches was still well ahead of second at 145.75 inches and my big fish was 4" bigger than any other caught. So I wrapped up championship weekend with first place, big bass, and also got my AOY award for the regular season. Really enjoyed the kayak tournaments a lot and met a lot of good people this year doing them. 

 

51 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Day 2 of the kayak series championship. Not surprisingly, there were several more kayaks fishing the area I fished on day 1 on the morning of the second day. We all talked at the ramp and everyone was generous in letting me decide where I was going to start since I was leading. I started the same spot I did on day 1 and started very similarly, dumping a fish on one of my first cast with the bladed jig. My very next cast back, I caught my first of the morning at 13.5". I continued down the bank and had no more bites. When I got to the marina dock walkway, I'd made an adjustment from day 1, swapping my 6th Sense Flush out for a black and blue Strike King Ocho to fish in the more stained water around the docks. It paid off with 2 keepers out from under the walkway, a 13" and 13.75" fish. Working back out from behind the docks, I decided to switch from fishing the bladed jig to a black and red Booyah Covert spinnerbait. It took 2 cast for a 15" fish to smash it. When I got past the point I'd started at, I switched back to the bladed jig and was actually daydreaming pretty badly because I'd caught no fish on that stretch all day the day before. Thankfully, the 15.75" fish that was there really stopped my bait hard so there was no way for me to miss the bite. 7:23AM, not even an hour into the morning and I had my 5th fish. Wasn't a big limit, but it was in the low 70's like I thought I'd need at a minimum to make it so someone would really have to work to overtake me. From that point on, it was a serious dink fest. I caught one more 13.25" fish on a spinnerbait to cull up 1/4" to 71.25" on the day, and lost a couple I think would have helped, but otherwise I caught a bunch of fish I didn't even have to measure to tell if they were bigger than 13.25". I did have a bass break me off on the hook set with the Ocho, then immediately eat the same bait when I retied and cast back in. Got my lost bait and hook back. I also had a white bass that I caught, and when I tossed it back in the water, it jumped right back into my kayak. It was a difficult day for everyone though and at the end of the day, my 158.5 total inches was still well ahead of second at 145.75 inches and my big fish was 4" bigger than any other caught. So I wrapped up championship weekend with first place, big bass, and also got my AOY award for the regular season. Really enjoyed the kayak tournaments a lot and met a lot of good people this year doing them. 

 

Congratulations…..  Fantastic year you had with a great finish..

 

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

 I wrapped up championship weekend with first place, big bass, and also got my AOY award for the regular season. Really enjoyed the kayak tournaments a lot and met a lot of good people this year doing them. 

Was there ever any doubt ?

#nope

Congrats Sir.

btw - your exploits really do deserve their own thread, just saying. 

A-Jay