After catching my 8.5 pound PB at Eufala last week, I was excited for my GA Bass Nation Kayak tournament there this week. It proved to be an interesting day.

I live two hours from the ramp where I launch from, and launch time was 6:30 am (5:30 central) with first cast at 6:45 am. So that meant waking up at 3:15 in the morning to get showered, eat, pack food and drink, and hitch up my trailer. From the ramp I had a 45 minute run to my first waypoint (dang slow kayaks!), and in order to try and eke out an extra tenth of a miler or two per hour I pared down my gear. In particular, I left a lot of soft plastics and a few tackle trays at home. I also ditched my spinning gear and brought 6 baitcasters ready to go. I set up a T-rig rod for either Flux Gills or Senkos, a swim jig, a punching jig, a bladed jig rod, a spinnerbait rod, and a frog rod for a small hollow bodied frog popper. I had also planned to try a Teckel Sprinker frog on that rod.

I've been having problems with my GoPro lately, and it seems to be a voltage issue. I never had that problem before running it off my 100Ah accessories battery. But then again, I'm running more things off that battery including Livescope, two UHD93 graphs, heading sensor, deck lights, bow lights, a USB port, and a Helix 7which I did not bring today. I did go into the firmware and tell it to ignore voltage warnings and it worked in my garage but not in the parking lot today when I was setting up. That's too bad, because it would have been great to get the footage today.

I got to the lake and the ramp was packed. Last week there weren't a lot of boats there, but today there must have been 90. Luckily, most were on the already water, though I was 7th in line when I was ready. With that, I hit the water 8 minutes after our set launch time and with the long run that meant less time actually fishing. I was headed to the north fork of Cowikee Creek and there were only a few boats and no kayaks headed that way. Was I a genius or a sucker?

About 1/4 mile from my first waypoint I saw bass blowing up along some grass mats. I can't tell you what kind of grass is what, but Eufala has 3 distinct aquatic shoreline grasses that I had seen before. With two of them, I never found bass. But where they were blowing up was similar to my first waypoint. Last week I caught my PB and some other bass on my frog popper, so that's what I dug out first. It was almost comical as the bass were crashing baits fish all around me, but I couldn't get them to bite on that frog, a spinnerbait, or a swim jig. So I decided to move on to my first waypoint.

I was fishing that frog about 500 feet south of where I caught that PB last week when I got a blowup pulling it over some grass. My first problem was that I had made a fairly long cast to start with, because I had purposely casted beyond the mat I was targeting. So, when the fish hit, I had to do a bit more reeling than I would have liked. Remember, in a kayak you have very little leverage when you're seated and unlike when you're in a boat, a decent sized fish can pull your kayak around.

Anyway, the fish hits, the rod bends a lot, and I know it's a good one. I set the hook and start bringing her in and she comes to the surface and she turns and goes under. She's big. Very big. I feel her go down, move towards me and slack the line, so I'm cranking to try and keep her pinned. I get tension back on the line and I'm guessing she's 50 feet away at this point. This is where I make a critical error that will haunt me for quite some time.

I took my left hand off the rod and started to turn and reach back for my net that I keep in the rod holder behind and left of my seat. She turns down again but she can't go deep in shallow water, so she turns and once again heads towards my kayak. I feel the line slack. Again, I'm one handed on the rod with it in my right hand, and because it's RH retrieve I first need to transfer it back to my left hand to start cranking. Too late. I can't keep her pinned under the water and she breaches the surface big time. That is when I got a good look at her.

From belly to dorsal she was wide. Wide like a fat woman on one of those electric scooters at Walmart wide. She had a big head and a big bucket mouth. And when she breached and slacked the line some more, that big bucket mouth was spitting my frog. Now, normally I'm not one to cuss, but I let out a string of F-bombs that I'm sure people could hear back at the ramp. She was a double digit for sure. I'd guess about 11-12 pounds. She made that 8.5 I caught last week look like bait. I was crushed.

What I should have done was fight the fish longer, tire it out, bring it to the boat, and then net it. Dumb move on my part.

That was obviously frustrating, but so was the rest of the day. I only landed two fish and finished in the middle of the pack. But what was frustrating is that I was around bass all day. I had Livescope fired up for maybe 10 minutes all day. Most of the day I had that graph shut off. Bass swiped at my frog and missed. They grabbed the trailers on my spinnerbaits but not the hooks. I took of the trailers and got nothing. Maybe some of these were male bass guarding nests. But I had the right area of the lake with lots of bass around and just couldn't land them. And in the parking lot I remembered I had brought a Teckel but forgot to use it on the lake. Maybe that's better. It probably would have just attracted the little nuisance gators.

In that stretch where I fished I heard some distinct baby gator noises coming from the woods area and at one point two very, very loud and long wood boats came ripping through there with some Bubbas who stopped long enough to brag to each other how they were running over alligators. Anyway, after their loud rumbles, big old 11 foot mamma came out and she kept chasing me out of that area for a lot of the rest of the day. She hung out in that narrow channel then would come towards me if I stopped to fish. It's funny, because I never saw anyone else fish that stretch where I fished. The all fish the opposite side of that creek channel.

On the day, the winner tallied only 88", and only 9 anglers caught a limit. Biggest fish landed was under 21". I talked to a bunch of boaters out there including those in a HS tournament and no one was catching anything. I guess I should be happy with the two I caught.

I still had fun out there, but losing that DD will haunt me for a while. But I do like Eufala and I'm going to head out there again sometime, even if it is a 2 hour drive.

I'm supposed to fish a tournament at Guntersville next week, but I think I'm going to pass. It's a 5 hour drive to get out there and work is too busy for me to take time off. Initially I was supposed to be at Caddo next week for the Bassmaster event, but again, I'm too busy to take an extra day for Guntersville so there's no way I can take a week off for Caddo. That's a long day with 10 hours of driving and 5 hours of fishing. I think I'll pass and just fish the Bassmaster Kayak event at Santee Copper next month. But I'll spend the week there and practice before the tournament. If anyone else is going to fish that event, let me know and maybe we can share an AirBnb.

8 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

Remember, in a kayak you have very little leverage when you're seated and unlike when you're in a boat, a decent sized fish can pull your kayak around.

So true. My 32-pound Kevlar canoe is even worse.

8 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

This is where I make a critical error that will haunt me for quite some time.

I took my left hand off the rod and started to turn and reach back for my net that I keep in the rod holder behind and left of my seat.

I've made the same mistake many times.

8 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

Wide like a fat woman on one of those electric scooters at Walmart wide.

Funny!

8 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

I was crushed.

You're not alone. We've all walked your sad path.

8 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

there with some Bubbas who stopped long enough to brag to each other how they were running over alligators.

"It it is illegal to intentionally run over or otherwise kill an alligator in Georgia except under very specific legal conditions. Alligators are protected by both state and federal law, and unauthorized killing is prosecuted under wildlife and animal cruelty statutes."

If there's a next time, get their boat numbers and call the cops on those criminals.

8 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

I still had fun out there, but losing that DD will haunt me for a while.

I hear ya and I understand.

I’ve been there many times Koz - I don’t think you really did anything wrong. Those big fish are good at coming off.

Maybe in the future try to get a system where the net is easier to grab without switching hands and maybe try to lift her and get her to the boat as quickly as possible if she’s thrashing like that.

Sometimes a fish just is coming in and you’ve gotta get her in and there’s not really like a way to land her gracefully - especially really big ones.

It sounds counter intuitive but I just lean on them and try to keep them moving - basically don’t play them at all - works pretty well.

Thanks for the great write-up.

18 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Thanks for the great write-up.

It was, wasn't it?!

21 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I’ve been there many times Koz - I don’t think you really did anything wrong. Those big fish are good at coming off.

I appreciate that, but I did mess up. I need to get the fish close to the boat before I go one handed and risk slacking the line. I got too excited and forgot that. Lesson learned.

6 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

It was, wasn't it?!

You're the writer here!

But why not tell a story and try to keep people engaged? Then again, I suppose that I could have shortened the whole thing to "$#@&%" and got my point across 😀

I’m bummed for you man. To be that close and lose a huge bass, oof . That’s rough.

Koz, I almost did the same thing today. My last bass was nowhere near the size of yours, but in my inflatable it easily pulled my boat. I keep my net in the front of the boat, but I was gripping the rod in my right hand as I was reaching for the net. Just then it made a dive under the boat and the line went slightly slack. Luckily (for me, not the bass), it was hooked deep and wasn’t throwing that hook any time soon.

Being low to the water in a light boat does make for a challenge at times.

I never managed to net well in a kayak. I stopped using one years ago. Never once regretted it.

18 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

I never managed to net well in a kayak. I stopped using one years ago. Never once regretted it.

I didn't use a net for a while, but a few things changed my mind. One of those is clearing a fish over the dual 9" Garmin's on the captain's bridge.

But more important, one day I lost 3 fish in a tournament that flopped of my Ketch board. THREE in one tournament. Dang spotted bass all hopped up like they are on meth. So now I prop the net up along the left side when I go to measure and photo fish so chances are if they try and flop off they hit the net and bounce back on the deck.

8 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

I didn't use a net for a while, but a few things changed my mind. One of those is clearing a fish over the dual 9" Garmin's on the captain's bridge.

But more important, one day I lost 3 fish in a tournament that flopped of my Ketch board. THREE in one tournament. Dang spotted bass all hopped up like they are on meth. So now I prop the net up along the left side when I go to measure and photo fish so chances are if they try and flop off they hit the net and bounce back on the deck.

Agreed. For a while, I continued to use a net only as a backstop on the board. Land it by hand, put it on grips/leash, and then set up board with net.

On 4/12/2026 at 7:13 AM, Swamp Girl said:

  On 4/11/2026 at 10:30 PM, Kayak Koz said:

there with some Bubbas who stopped long enough to brag to each other how they were running over alligators.

"It it is illegal to intentionally run over or otherwise kill an alligator in Georgia except under very specific legal conditions. Alligators are protected by both state and federal law, and unauthorized killing is prosecuted under wildlife and animal cruelty statutes."

If there's a next time, get their boat numbers and call the cops on those criminals.

@Swamp Girl He did say, "Bubbas". I don't know about Maine, but down here in the south that explains everything we need to know. 🤣

Awesome write up Koz. Sorry about the big one that got away, but to hook two giants on consecutive trips means you're doing something right, my friend.