2013 Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail: Perspective from the Angler of the Year

By: Jeff Bennet

In the early part of 2013 I came upon some talk of a kayak fishing trail on Ohio Game Fishing, an online fishing forum. It intrigued me, though at the time I was fishing from a 14’ canoe.  As Neil Farley, one of the founders of BKFT, continued to push the idea on the forum I realized that I had to get into a kayak. I would need to have one by spring so I could fish the trail. I have fished for a very long time but had never fished a tournament. I liked the idea of a tournament because I am very competitive person. I quickly sold my canoe to a few duck hunters and immediately went to Dunham’s to purchase a kayak. I ended up with a Future Beach Angler 144, a sit on top model that offered great stability. I quickly fell in love with the SOT platform and purchased my second yak less than a month later, an Ascend DS12T from Bass Pro. I was ready to fish the trail!

Indian Lake: Big Slab Crappie Challenge               

Indian Lake is a lake I am very familiar with, in which I spend the early part of each spring crappie fishing. I was thinking I’m good to go and I had begun to get pumped for the event.  I even planed a day to do a little pre fishing before the tournament. At this point I let my wife know that I would be unavailable during the date of the tournament…..she told me that I couldn’t fish the event because I had to be at my daughters dance recital. I was Bummed! After this incident I grabed the BKFT schedule and mad sure she knew that I would not be available on those dates unless it was an absolute must.

Three Lake Throwdown: Berlin Lake, Lake Milton, Deer Creek Reservior

As the event approached the weather turned south as a massive cold front blew in the day before the tournament. I still decide to make the 3 hour drive to the event and make the best of it. As I arrived at the check-in I was greeted by other anglers that had also decided to brave the elements. I didn’t have a game plan at this point so I asked other competitors if they had fished any of the lakes before, hoping to get a little info before the event. Everyone was happy to share any info they had, which has become common place at all BKFT events. I struck up conversation with Dick Nauta, he informed me that he had planned to fish Deer Creek Reservoir. He then told me that I was welcome to join him If I would like. I followed Dick over to the reservoir where we ran into a few other anglers who have all become great friends throughout the trail. Long story short, it was cold and windy all day and I couldn’t get a single bite. I stuck it out and met up with the rest of the anglers at the measure-in. At the measure-in it seemed that very few people had success on the water, which helped to ease my pain. A group of anglers whom had made their way in from Pennsylvania found success on Berlin Lake. Noah Heck had taken 1^st, Logan Estep 2^nd, Donald Corbett 3^rd. I had tied for last with a handful of other anglers.

   

Kiser Kayak Classic: Kiser Lake

The third stop on the trail was Kiser Lake.  Kiser is loaded with beds of lily pads, so I had tied a on a hollow body frog and began working it down the banks looking for some topwater action. The strikes came quick but I failed to hook many of the fish that had tried to eat my frog, and the ones that I did hook were only on for short while. It didn’t take long before I made the switch to a spinnerbait. At that point it was game on, I quickly had my limit of fish in the 12-14” range. I continued to work the spinnerbait along the edge of the lily pads catching many fish,  and losing a few including a nice largemouth that would have went 17” or more. As the day progressed the spinnerbait bite slowly died, so I switched up to a 4” Zoom Baby Brush Hog. On my  irst cast, BAM!, a 16.5” fish followed by another 14” fish. On the following cast I hooked into something with weight to it and before the fish surfaces the line snaps. I reach back to the crate to grab my box of terminal tackle and as I turn back to retie I fumble the box down to a watery grave. Now I was sitting there with a hot bite and not a single worm hook to re-rig. I decided to go in after it. After searching around in the muck for a few minutes I come back up empty handed. Luckily, Dick Nauta saw me climbing back onto the top of my yak and paddled over to save the day.  He gave me a few hooks and sinkers so that I could continue fishing. I continued to fish the brush hog the rest of the day. I only landed  a few more small fish, the monsters had eluded me. I finished the tournament with a 16.5”, 14”, and 14” fish, which was good enough for 5^th place.

          

Unofficial Kiser Lake Rematch:

Next on the schedule was the Dayton river event but due to high waters it was postponed until a later date. After many anglers expressed thier disappointment about not being able to fish the tournament we settled on meeting up for an unofficial event at Kiser Lake.  The weather was nice the morning of the tournament but the weather forecast for the afternoon called for  high winds.  High winds in a kayak make fishing much more difficult, so I knew if I wanted to have a chance at a win I needed to get my fish early. At the end of the last Kiser event I had left the fish biting and I was certain that I could find them pretty quickly if I headed back to where I had lost a few of the nicer fish in the previous tournament. I made a bolt toward the section of lake that I had planned to fish but soon realized that all the other anglers had headed the other way. I decided that I would slow down and fish some of the bank on the way to my spot. I rigged up a Texas rigged chigger craw and started working the bank. I quickly had my 3 fish limit, a 16.5”, 14”, and 13” largemouth. I was happy with my start but knew I had to be in the high 40” range to have a shot at winning. I rounded the bend to the spot I had missed a good fish the previous tournament and saw a couple competitors fishing in the lily pads. I continued to fish the outside edge and just as I was within casting distance of Jim Martin, Bam!, my line shoots under the yak. I reel up the slack and set the hook on a good fish. After a few seconds of an intense battle it was over, and  I have the 20” bass in the yak. At this point I have 50.5” and I feel I have a good shot at winning, but I know I have some tough competition on the water so I keep fishing.  The bite had either died, or my heart is racing so fast that I was pulling the bait out of their mouth. After a few long minutes I settle down and try to get my head back in the game. I notice a shad flip next to the edge of the pads, I throw on it, and quickly land a nice 15.5” fish. It is still pretty early in the morning but the wind is picking up so I decided that it was time to explore the lake a little more since it’s only my second time fishing it. I didn’t land many fish after the wind picked up so I decide to head back to the weigh in early, exhausted from battling the wind. At the weigh in my total holds up 52” with a 20” big bass, which good enough for my first tournament win.

               

Summer Slam: Online Event

 I decided that for this event I would take the family camping at Kiser Lake. I had good success at Kiser and it is also a beautiful place to visit. Friday morning was beautiful so I loaded the kids up and headed to the lake. I spent most the morning setting up camp and didn’t get to hit the water till the late afternoon. There I meet up with a few other anglers that were fishing the BKFT event and we fished till dark. Even though I hooked quite a few fish I only managed to land 1 13” fish. That evening it began to rain and then continued to rain for the next 14 hours. At this point everything was drenched in the tent so I decided to head back home with my family. Saturday was shot so I planned to meet up with my cousin and fellow competitor Brian Britton to fish a little honey hole of ours Sunday morning. Killdeer Plains is not a very big lake, but it offers an abundance of really nice largemouth. After just 4 hours into our trip I had a good limit. Good enough for a 7^th place tie.

Columbus Rumble on the River: Columbus Regional Rivers

                The next event was the Columbus Rumble on the River. I felt pretty good about this event; after all I cut my teeth fishing for smallmouth in the Scioto. Chigger Craw, Chigger Craw, Chigger Craw...... I had developed a strategy that involved the Big Darby and a chigger craw. I knew I had a winning combo. However, a few days before the tourney my hopes and dreams were crushed by another angler who wanted to fish with us. He wanted to float a stretch of the Darby that was unfamiliar to me. I was lost, didn't know what to do. So Friday night I loaded my SUV with chigger craws and kayaks. ……mostly chigger craws. I soon arrived at check in and told the my friend the location of the pickup vehicle and away I went. The morning started out slow, I drug my kayak through shallow rapid after shallow rapid. After an hour I reached fishable water and soon had a 12" smallie. I floated around this short stretch of fishable water waiting on my fishing partner to join me so we could drag our kayaks around together…….. Oh the fun we had (Sarcasm in case you missed it). We only found about 5 spots of fishable water in which I pulled out a 15, 15.5, and 16 inch smallies. At this point the only other fish we had seen were 12" or smaller. I thought I had a chance at a win. Then came a text from Larry 44" and culling. I tried to find bigger fish but only caught 13" fish and smaller fish. Measure-in was at Roosters so I grabbed a pitcher of beer and awaited the results.  After the dust settled 46.5” was good enough for a 2^nd place finish.

               

Buckeye Open: Online Event

The next BKFT online event was August 30^th to September 2^nd. I scheduled off work with the plans of putting in long hours to find 3 quality fish. Each morning started the same, at Upper Sandusky Reservoir at sun up then over to Killdeer Plains by 10am. I fished with my cousin Brian each day. The first day we both were in the mid 40” range. On day two we arrived at Upper Sandusky and Brian nailed a 20.25” largemouth before sunrise. Upper failed to yield any more monsters. We headed over to Killdeer Plains and shortly before noon I hooked up with a 19.75” hog.  

We each finished the morning in the low 50” range. We then decided to hit the Scioto River that afternoon and landed quite a few 15” and smaller smallmouth, but not the monsters we were looking for. On day 3 we headed back to Upper Sandusky where Brian landed a 2^nd 20” largemouth before sunrise. Just a few casts after his I had a huge blow up on my jitterbug but failed to get a good hook set. As the sun rose the action died. We headed over to Killdeer Plains and started working the KVD sexy frogs across the scum. Brian soon lands his 3^rd keeper at 18”. I continued to fish hard well behind him at this point and just before we call it a day I landed a 17” largemouth, which was good enough to cull one of my smaller bass. On day 4 Brian decides to stay home feeling confident that he has a good enough total to finish near the top. So I headed out for Killdeer Plains to try to find one more fish to up my total. I arrived well before sunrise and began to work the frog over the scum. In the dark I hear a blow up near my frog; I waited until I felt some weight on the end of the line and set the hook. With little to no resistance I reeled in the bass that took the frog. To my surprise I look down to see an 18” largemouth that looked severely obese. I snapped the pic and continued to fish till sunrise. At this point I’m exhausted so I decided to head home. I submitted my 3 fish and awaited the results. After a few hours I find out that I have finished 4^th on the BKFT tourney and 5^th on the Kayak Anglers of Western PA tourney.

            

Fall Finale: Nettle Lake

Nettle was quite a drive from central Ohio, so my day started at 1:30am. I hit McDonald's on the way to pick up Brian Britton, I would soon discover that this was a very bad decision. While there, the lady at the window offered me free apple and pumpkin pies so I politely asked her to throw a couple in the bag to take with me. I'll finish that story in a minute.  A few hours later we arrived at Nettle Lake, upon arriving we had seen that Rylan Hayes had arrived early too. We chatted while we waited for the rest of the competitors to arrive. By 7:30am everyone had showed up, signed waivers, and we hit the river. Brian and I worked our way down the west bank toward the north end if the lake. About half way down the lake I hooked up with a small northern. I quickly landed the fish and the we continued  down the bank. Next I hooked into a decent bass off a lay down, and after a few jumps he spit the hook. The next cast on the very same lay down I hooked into a nice northern pike. It didn't take but a few seconds for him to slice through the line. Eventually we arrived at the cove at the north end of the lake. At this point we were discouraged but hadn't completely given up. Brian soon found a 12" bass at the entrance to the cove. I tossed my chigger craw to the same spot and landed my first 14" bass. We worked back to the northern most part of the cove and I landed 2 more fish at 10.75” and 10.25”. At this point Brian put down the chigger craw and started tossing a strike king sexy frog. After a couple minutes he started getting a few strikes, but it was difficult to get the frog down thru the thick pads. I started chucking the frog high into the air so it would crash thru the pads. This was producing strikes. I quickly landed 2 more 14" bass on the frog. At this point I'm at 42" and feel that I will finish well. Sean then paddles back into the cove. I paddled over to see how his day is going when he tells me,  “not too well. ” At this point I'm starting to feel really good because he is a serious competitor. With no other hits I leave Sean to fish the cove while I head to the main lake. Now back to the apple pies. This was a bad idea because my stomach began ache and cramp. I then spent the rest of the day choking back down partially digested apple pies. The wind soon picked up and started howling across the lake. We fish the main lake for an hour and then head back to the cove up north. This time around Neil occupies the northern cove which kind of discourages me because I'm sure he has spooked all the big fish. He tells me that he just lost a nice fish on a worm (which I'm sure was exaggerated). I cast my frog to the pads to the left of me and get a good strike, set the hook but missed the fish. I toss it back for round 2, the fish strikes yet again; I wait a second and then slam the hooks home. This time I connect with a nice bass 18.5".  I tried the frog for another 15 minutes without another strike. While I'm talking with Neil, I had drifted into the pads. I put the frog down and pick up the chigger craw. I drop it into a hole in the pads and get a strike, another 14” bass. I continue this method the rest of the day and upgrade my smallest bass to 14.75”. I end the day with horrible stomach cramps, 47.25", and managed to hold onto 1^st place.

Dayton Kayak Fishing Experience: Dayton Regional Rivers

                The final event of the year was the Dayton Kayak Fishing Experience which was held during the Midwest Outdoor Experience. For this event we had the choice to fish the Greater Miami River, the Little Miami River, or Stillwater River. Having never fished any of these rivers before I decided on fishing the LMR after hearing it was a lot like the stretch of the Scioto River that I fish near my home. Brian and I hit the river at about 7 am and begin our journey. We quickly noticed that fishing this river required a lot of portaging around obstacles that blocked the path of the river. The first portage went smoothly and we continued to fish our way down the river. We soon arrived at the second portage and drug our yaks out of the river, up a hill, and thru the woods. We arrived back at the river to be greeted by a 6’ mud slope back down into the river. Being the genius that I am I decided I would sit in my yak at the top of the hill and ride it down the slope into the water. I thought that I would skim across the top of the water and continue fishing…… Boy was I wrong. My yak torpedoed under the water and rolled leaving me standing in waist deep water scrambling to gather my gear. I was able to recover most everything from the water except for a few bottles of Gatorade and my cell phone. After a good laugh we continued to fish and I landed my first measurable fish at 14”. We continued down the river and I managed 2 more measurable fish by the end of the day.  Soon we were back at the measure-in, after a little wait I found out I had placed 6^th in the event. I considered it a pretty good finish given the day that I had just had. Being the last tournament of the year we waited for the announcement of the Yak Ohio winners and angler of the year. Neil tallied the points and began with Yak Ohio awards. I had tied Rylan Hayes in the crappie category for the Yak Ohio award with a 14.5” crappie and received a nice trophy and some lures. Rylan Hayes also took the trophy for biggest largemouth at 22", Larry Haines took the smallmouth category with a 19.25" smallie, Mike Lyon took home the Saugeye/walleye trophy with his 19.25" saugeye, Russ Mcdonald took the catfish category with his 42" flathead, Neil won the rockbass/panfish Yak Ohio with his 10" rock bass, and Tim Sylvester II took the home the musky/pike category with his 35.5" musky. Next up was the coveted AOY award.  After a little confusion Neil announced the winners. 10th place went to Chase Bateson, 9th Larry Haines, 8th went to Brian Britton, 7th/6th tie went to Amanda Jones, 7th/6th tie Neil Farley, 5^th place went to Travis Belcher, 4^th place Logan Estep, 3^rd place Sean Stone and a tie for first between Rylan Hayes and I. Neil had decided the previous week that should this occur there would be a fish off.

Fish OFF: Kiser Lake

                This event took place mid-October and in Ohio. As fall of the year arrives in Ohio, the weather patterns can become unpredictable, as was the case during this event.  More on that later. The weekend before the fish off I met up with Neil and Sean to pre-fish for the event. The weather was beautiful and the fish were more than willing to bite. The following weekend the weather turned cold, rainy, and the wind was unrelenting. The day of the event we met at the launch at 8am where we had a brief meeting and then hit the water. I decided to hit an area that I had success the previous weekend. I started out with a flitterbait, a blade bait that Sean had given me the week before.  I had caught most of my fish the week before on the flitterbait so I figured it was a good lure to start with. I worked the flitterbait around the edges of the lily pad beds and wasn’t able to get the same reaction bite I had the week before. I switched over to a Texas rigged baby brush hog and quickly found my first bite, a nice 15” largemouth out of a pocket in the lily pads. The first bite was the only bite I had for the next hour. I worked my way down the bank and soon came across Neil who had a few but nothing much to brag about. I found a log stuck in the mud in a hole in the pads that just looked like something big should be laying there. I tossed the brush hog to the log and boom, fish on, a 12” monster.

I headed back the other direction and ran across Travis Belcher who was on a hot bite. He was catching schooling fish on a spinnerbait. He invited me to toss a line so threw the flitter bait at the boils of schooling fish. Soon I had my third keeper, another nice 15” largemouth. The bite died and I headed on down the bank sticking with the Texas rig and a buzzbait most of the way. The weather continued to worsen and many anglers considered throwing in the towel ….and some did. I had a lot on the line so I continued to fish. Soon Brian Britton landed a few nice fish next to me on a buzzbait, it appeared that the fishing was picking up. He quickly passed my total of 42” and it was looking like he may have a tournament win in the very near future.We continued fishing and were able to land quite a few fish in the next few hours. With about an hour left in the tournament and only 42” stringer I was starting to get nervous. I had not seen Rylan or heard how he was doing the entire day. I worked toward the spot where I had caught the 20” largemouth during the unofficial event. I casted to the “spot” and bam, fish on.  Lightning struck twice with a 21” largemouth that would help to seal the deal on angler of the year.

I learned a lot fishing the Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail this year and also met lots of great people whom I enjoy fishing with. I’ve been prepping for next year and I’m excited to get back on the water. I can’t wait to see friends and meet new anglers…….oh yeah and of course hopefully land some big fish.