KFA Kayak Angler Chronicles: Event #3 Tourney Wrap up - Hook1 River vs. Lake Challenge

The Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail wrapped up event #3 and new addition to the trail this year the Hook1 River vs. Lake Challenge this past weekend. First things first, mother nature doesn't like kayak anglers in Ohio, or at least it sure seems like it. This is the 2nd river event in as many years that we had to make changes because of high water. With massive storms hitting southern Ohio the days leading up to the tournament the rivers were all blown out and unfishable. In the area of Ohio the event took place all water flows south (or at least eventually) and this picture of a local mall taken a couple days prier was located only about 45 minutes north of our river locations.

So drastic measures had to be made and the River vs. Lake Challenge became the Lake vs. Lake Challenge by taking out the rivers and adding East Fork Lake to the lake already slated for the tournament; Winton Woods. With terrible weather leading up to the event and even a big downpour the night before the Trail still saw 26 anglers show up in the early morning fog Saturday.

Besides mother nature the BKFT team also faced a lot of challenges for this particular event. There were multiple check-in locations as well as a central measure in location located at the very popular outdoor festival in Ohio known as Paddlefest.

After registration anglers were off to find some big bass and a few found some nice hawgs early on at Winton Woods. The anglers over at East Fork Lake found a pretty massive algae bloom that really made fishing tough, but a few of them were able to still locate some bass.

After all the chips fell, the anglers over at Winton Woods nearly swept the top 10 with Bob Lauber being the only East Fork angler to ruin the sweep. The top 10 all measured in above 40" and the top spot ended up being a TIE. Both Larry Haines and Jeff Bennett notched a 3 fish total of 47.75".