2013 Kayak Wars

Last spring Amanda, Rylan, and I decided to get rid of our small jon boat and buy kayaks. Money wasn't necessarily flowing in enough to support both my fishing habit and a boat payment, so we made a compromise and we each got our own kayak. I bought Amanda a $499 Ascend fs12t and I got myself a $700 Malibu x-13. Less than two weeks later I ran across a few guys on a forum who were talking about kayak wars, an online kayak tournament. I went to the website and started reading through the rules and regulations. It was an online kayak tournament that awarded points for species of fish over a set length. Photos were taken of the fish on a measuring device and then submitted for points. It was simple enough, so I started persuading everyone to make a team and compete. After a week or so we started our very own team. It was now mid March and we were a month and a half behind. At this point we were two people short of a full team. I went back to the forum and announced that we were in the tournament and looking for a couple members. A week later I was contacted by Russ Mcdonald and Tyler Nelson. Tyler was pretty excited at the opportunity but Russ seemed to have reservations. He kept telling me that he wasn't sure he could contribute enough to the team.....after a little persuasion we reeled him in too.

A few weeks later Tyler Nelson made a few posts on the forum about selling his kayak. I didn't think much about it, but that was the last we heard from him. For the first month and a half I lead the team by a substantial margin.  I believe at one point I hit 500 points and Amanda, Rylan, and Russ  had somewhere around 200. One month later I went to submit a few pictures and I noticed that Russ had not only caught up, but even passed me in points. All I could think about was his comments, " I don't know how much I'll be able to contribute to the team".....yea sure.  I made it a point to go out every evening and try to gain a substantial lead on him. We went back and forth for about a month and then he eventually pulled away. He found a hot channel catfish bite, and even managed to find a few gar. He stole the lead and never looked back. Along the way he set 3 regional records, a 42" Flathead Catfish, a 50" Gar, and a 15.5" Goldeye.

As a team we ended up with 3,065 total points of which Russ had 1,210 points, I had 935, Rylan had 580, and Amanda had 340. 3,065 points was good enough to land us in 22nd place in the world wide freshwater standings and 6th in our regional freshwater standings. Not to bad for a team of four from southern Ohio.

Here's a few pictures from our 2013 Kayak War season....I limited it to two per angler, but I could have put up a dozen incredible catches each.

Russ Mcdonald 1,210 Points

17.25" Smallmouth, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

42" Flathead Catfish, THE CURRENT KAYAK WARS RECORD (NorthEast Region)

Sean Stone 935 Points

21.5" Largemouth Bass, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

41" Flathead Catfish, MOST MEMORABLE KAYAK BATTLE

Rylan Hayes 580 Points

27.5" Buffalo, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

15" Crappie, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

Amanda Jones 340 Points

A MONSTER 9.75" Green Sunfish

19" Smallmouth Bass, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

I also want to Congratulate Jeff Bennett and Rob Orr of "UP A CREEK" for placing 23rd in the world wide freshwater standings and 7th in our region. They both had an amazing year as well, but didn't have the all around support they needed to pass us up. Here's a couple pictures from their 2013 season.

Rob Orr 1,370 Points

40" Paddlefish

26" Hybrid Striped Bass

Jeff Bennett 1,290 Points

31" Northern Pike

14.5" Crappie

 All in all everyone had a pretty good year. Just wanted to congratulate everyone on an amazing year and a good effort. Rumor has it that there may be a regional "All Star" team in the works for next year. It should make for an interesting 2014 season.


Check out each team and our individual stats here:

Our team
UP A CREEK