Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail's Kiser Kayak Classic

Last Friday Russ, Amanda, and I drove up to St. Paris and set up camp with a few of our fellow kayak anglers. A dozen or more anglers had spent the day pre-fishing for the tournament, while others decided to simply kick back and relax. Jim Martin found success early in the day landing a three good fish, including a 21.5" tank . Other anglers weren't as fortunate however....Shawn Skidmore, leader of the BKFT Big Bass Challenge with a five fish average of 21",  came off of the water with his head down and confidence broken.

We arrived at the campground around 7pm and decided not to hit the water. Our game plan was simple, not to make a game plan. Now it wasn't because we didn't know the lake or that we were too lazy to pre-fish, but rather because of the sheer numbers of anglers anticipated to fish the tournament in the morning. On several occasions I had heard that there would be an excess of 50 anglers at the event Saturday morning. Fifty anglers on a 300 acre lake would surely make finding spots pretty tough.

Friday night we sat around the campfire, had a few drinks, and talked to our fellow kayak anglers. Stories of killer beaver (Russ) and killer swans (Chase) were repeated for the second and even third times, which even ignited the great debate of Swan versus Beaver. The debate became, which would be worse to encounter in a kayak a beaver or swan?  "You saw what that goose did to Drew Gregory right?......A swan is three times bigger than a goose!"......."Oh yea, well a Beaver can chew a tree down......imagine what it could do to your leg!" In the end I think the beaver edged out the swan as many anglers agreed that having a swan attack you in a kayak would be more preferable than having a beaver armed with razor sharp teeth and a bone crushing tail climb into your yak. At 1am we all retired to our tents and set our alarms for the next morning.

Anglers began rolling out of their sleeping bags around 6am. Some anglers began tinkering with rods and tackle while others hit the snooze button several times. I woke Amanda up around 6am and then proceeded to unload our kayaks and gear. Russ rolled out of his sleeping bag around 6:40, with less than 20 minutes to check in. At 6:45 we walked over to the check in location near the beach to find several dozen cars unloading their kayaks.

With nearly 20 kayaks on the water at the campground and nearly 30 kayaks on the ground near the beach it appeared we had exceeded 50 anglers. I walked around and found a few familiar faces, I took pictures, shook hands, etc. A little after 7 we had our brief captains meeting which highlighted the tournament rules, check in times, etc.  Ten minutes later the meeting was over and everyone took off from the beach. Kayaks started heading every direction, and those fortunate enough to have a peddle powered yak set the pace.

Russ, Amanda, and I casually walked back over to the campground and made our final preparations. We launched from the campground and began scouting the shoreline for any available openings. Straight across from the campground we found a spot that spanned  50 yards between two kayak anglers, with no better options available we paddled over. We tucked into the pads and began working frogs, poppers, creature baits, etc. Russ quickly picked up a couple small fish by fishing shad schools on the main lake. Amanda and I worked the lily pads, but failed to find any fish early. Eventually the kayak anglers in front of us decided to paddle across the lake, which opened up a rather large section of lily pads for Russ, Amanda, and I. We paddled up the lake to the next section of pads and I quickly caught a 13" bass on a Texas rigged creature bait just outside of the pad edge. A few minutes later Amanda got her first fish as well, also a 13" bass. Now these weren't fish that we were too particularly proud of, but with the given conditions (constantly fishing behind people) I figured that 43-45" would get us in the top ten and possibly get our entry fee back. We continued to work down the shoreline and at one point we had caught back up to a group of kayak anglers. We sat around for a while and tried to decide whether or not to pass them or just stay where we were when all of a sudden they took off paddling across the lake as well. This was the second time this had happened, which had me thinking that someone on the other side of the lake had caught a few fish and the word had gotten out. Either way I was happy to continue working down the bank and flipping the lily pads.

At this point is was nearly 11am and we were struggling to find fish. Russ had two fish for 27" and Amanda and I each had one at 13". We paddled 30 yards up the lake and started fishing again. After a couple casts Neil showed up and started talking to Joel Hains about fishing. He then paddled down to us and started talking as well. I asked if he had heard of any big fish yet and he said that he had heard of at least one 17" fish and a couple people in the mid 40" range with their three fish total. I told him that we were struggling to find our first three fish.  He wished us luck and paddled back down the lake. Within minutes I picked up a 15" and a 14" fish on creature baits while working the pad edges. Amanda started getting bites on her creature bait as well. She was tired of switching back and forth between the Texas rigged creature bait and a hollow body frog so she chose to employ a new technique. She was tossing her Texas rigged chigger craw into the pads and bringing it across them like she would a hollow body frog, as she came to pockets of open water she would let her bait fall to the bottom. I had used this technique in the past with a weightless plastic on thick vegetation mats, but never before with any weight. She quickly caught a 14" bass on this technique about 10 yards behind me.

We only had one Hawg Trough (Measuring Board) between the two of us so I paddled down to her and helped her take a picture of her fish. I then paddled 30 yards up the lake, around Joel and Russ, when I heard her say she had hooked another one. At this point I had just spent 8 minutes or better paddling to her, helping her get a picture of her fish, paddling back up the lake to my spot, and now I had to paddle back to her again. I was not happy to say the least. I turned around to see her rod doubled over but not moving. She was surely snagged, so I sat and waited for her to tell me it was just a snag. However, she was persistent that the fish was still on the line and wrapped up in the lily pads. I paddled 30 yards down the bank, mumbling not so nice comments under my breath, watching her rod for movements the whole time. I eventually pulled up beside her and asked if she still had a fish on, to which she replied, "I don't know." I paddled into the pads 10 yards and grabbed her line where it entered the water. I felt a lot of weight but it felt too heavy to be a fish. I could move it off of bottom a foot before the braided line started to cut my hand. At this point I looked back at her and said, "I think you've snagged a tree branch." I gave it another strong tug to see if I could pull the limb close enough to the surface to grab it and untangle her line. As I pulled the line it began to cut my hand again so I dropped my hand let the line go slack, and that's when I felt something tug back. "He's still on there" I told her. I grabbed the line again and started pulling from different directions when all of a sudden I felt something break free. I could pull now pull another 6-8" of slack out of the line. I began pulling the slack up and that's when I saw it. Wrapped around 2 lily pad stems was the giant head of a largemouth. He wasn't moving at all, to be fair he didn't have an inch of line to play with.  I didn't do anything at first, quite frankly because I didn't know what to do. It was a foot under the water so I'd have to put some pressure on it to get it up and close enough to the surface to grab the fish, and at that point the line would most certainly break. I had a net that I could use but I was afraid that if I touched the net to the fish that he/she would start thrashing around and throw the hook. I looked over to Amanda and gave her the, "You've got to be kidding me" look. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "What." I just shook my head and said, "Its a big bass." At that point she perked up in her seat and started watching every move I made. The best plan I could come up with was to grab the fish without spooking it. If I pulled the line to hard it would break. If I tried to break the lily pad stems by hand the fish could work itself free and possibly jump and throw the hook. If I touched it with a net I could spook it.  I took a deep breath and started pulling her line up toward the surface once again. I got the fish within sight and slowly lowered my arm into the water. I tried to move very slowly as not to freak the fish out. I buried my arm up to my elbow before I felt the fishes mouth. I slid my thumb into the corner of its mouth and it went nuts. I kept a firm grip and pulled it out of the water, snapping the lily pad stems along the way. It was a big bass, but now the question was how big? The answer.....22.25"

At this point we began crunching the numbers.....there were 59 anglers, maybe 50 of which payed into big fish. Give or take this fish would be worth around $250. I then told her that if she could upgrade her 13" fish to a 16" fish she would have a shot at winning first place as well as big fish! From that point on she was in it to win it. She stood up and made every cast count, stomping her feet the floor of her kayak when she missed a fish.

It was just the spark that Russ and I needed as well, we also got back into the grove of things. Russ finally picked up his third fish of the day on a frog....which happened to be his first frog bass ever. A solid bass at 17"

Ten minutes later I picked up a 16.25" to bring my three fish to 14", 15", 16.25".

I felt pretty confident about cracking into the top ten with my three fish but to be honest I had my sights set on Amanda's three fish total. All I needed was a decent fish to give Amanda a run for her money.  She had 49.25 with her three fish total, which meant I needed a 19" fish or two 17" fish to tie her. It wasn't impossible but very unlikely. About an hour later Russ yelled over and said, "The words out!" I turned and looked across the lake to see at a minimum of 15 kayaks heading our way. We debated on letting everyone have our spot, one we had sat on for the better part of an hour and a half, and then heading across the lake to the spots they had just left from. We ended up waiting for the boats to arrive and talked to a few of the anglers. Each one of them had asked about Amanda's big fish and even told us how they were doing. Most guys were struggling to find fish over 14", they had three fish but very few of them had any size. Things were starting to look up for Amanda, maybe she could pull off a first place finish with one big bass and two small ones. Eventually, Jeff Bennett came from around the bend and started talking with us. He had around 45" and was looking to upgrade a 13" fish. We told him what we had caught and how it all happened. After talking with everyone for 20 minutes we all decided to paddle down the lake and fish back to the campground.

Along the way I picked up another decent fish to add to my three fish total, a 16" fish.

At this point I knew that all I needed was a 17" fish now to beat Amanda, which I felt was rather attainable. Russ, Amanda, and I worked our way down to the campground, eventually making our way into a crowd of 15 anglers sitting 30 yards from the campground. It was a little after 2, we had slept very little the night before, had ate nothing all day, and it was now raining lightly and windy.........we were ready to get off the water. So 45 minutes early, we pulled our kayaks out of the water....a decision that I later discovered would turn out to bite us in the butt. As we started walking toward the check in I heard Neil say,  "You quit too early...... Two anglers landed 20" fish 20 yards from the campground with less than thirty minutes to spare." Persistence had rewarded those tough enough to stay on the water.

We walked over to the measure in site and began taking peoples badges and SD cards. After 40 minutes of measuring fish we all waited to hear the results. (I'll hit the highlights here but be sure to check out all of the results at the Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail website.) Russ had placed 12th and won his entry fee back. Shawn Skidmore landed a 20" bass with 30 minutes to go which propelled him into seventh place. Larry Haines landed 2 small fish and a nearly 18" fish to propel him into 5th. Jeff Bennett had three decent fish which was good enough for 4th. I took third with my three decent fish and won $150. In 2nd was Aaron Stiger with 2 of his top three fish coming 20 yards from the campground with 45 minutes to go, including one 20" fish. Both Shawn and Aaron earned their money with persistence. And finally in first place with the big fish pot was Amanda.

  She ended up with 49.25" in three fish and walked away with two trophies and over $500 in cash. (The largest payout in BKFT history.)

All in all everyone had a good time. We wanna thank everyone who came out to this event, and our sponsors who made it all possible. If you haven't checked out Smack Tackle, KFA Sponsor and BKFT Sponsor, please do so. http://www.smacktackle.com