Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail Wrap Up

This year Amanda and I competed in Buckeye Kayak Fishing's Tournament Trail. It was our first year with our new kayaks so we had no idea what we were getting into. We initially decided that we were going to go to a few events and then dominate the Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trial's Yak Ohio categories. (The largest fish of each specie.) I was fairly certain that we would have a pretty good shot at taking the crappie and the catfish categories, with a small chance of taking the panfish and largemouth categories. The rules stated that in order to receive an award for Yak Ohio's you must compete in two events. Therefore, our plan was to compete in the crappie event which was held at Indian Lake, and then compete in an online tournament to fulfill those requirements. We had already committed to another online Kayak Tournament called Kayak Wars, and we wanted to do well in it foremost. I figured that we had a much better shot at beating guys online (Kayak Wars) by fishing the waters we knew locally, than we did at beating guys on water we had never even seen before. (Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail) So that was our game plan and we didn't stick to it very well.

For the first event of the year we made the three hour drive to Indian Lake and arrived over an hour early. We sat at the bait-shop anxiously awaiting other competitors arrival. It was our first real tournament so we were pretty excited/nervous. As the competitors began to arrive we had no idea what to do or say. We were new to kayak fishing so we decided to stay off on our own. Occasionally someone would come over and introduce themselves but no one stuck around and talked for very long. Soon enough the wait was over and we had a brief meeting. After the meeting we rushed out of the parking lot and started heading toward our fishing spot. We fished areas we felt would hold fish, and we ended up getting a limit of three fish fairly quick. We had no preconceived notions that we would do well. All we knew was that we had our limit of fish at our first kayak tournament. We made our way back to the measure in and awaited the results. While the results were tallied we stayed to ourselves once again. After a ten minute wait the results were in, I had tied for fourth and Amanda had took 3rd place. Now here's where our original plan fell to pieces, Amanda and I had won money. I came no where near breaking even on the trip....3 hours and 125 miles isn't cheap, but Amanda on the other hand pocketed 70 or 80 dollars. She saw it as a way to make a little money, and I knew I couldn't end with her beating me.

We ended up skipping the Three Lake Throwdown since it was a 5+ hour drive and the weather was predicted to be awful. A month or so later, we made our way up to Kiser Lake. It was now my shot at redemption. I wasn't aiming to beat the others, I just needed to settle a score with Amanda. We arrived early once again, so we sat around and waited for everyone to arrive. We were a little more comfortable this time around. I had spoke to Neil a few times through emails so I talked with him a little. Larry had brought his dog along for the trip, which Amanda found to be quite entertaining. She ended up playing with his dog and I got to talk to him while we waited for everyone to arrive. We had our brief meeting, and then Amanda and I hit the water once again. I quickly got a limit of three fish, but Amanda had a hard time landing hers. The measure in came soon enough and we awaited the results. Once the results were announced it wasn't long until I heard my name....."In tenth place, Sean Stone". I didn't do as well as I had expected, but I did manage to settle my score with Amanda so I was happy. A week later Neil invited us to come up and fish with him. With nothing better to do, we made our way up to Kiser Lake. We ended up catching a ton of fish, and having a pretty good time. Kiser was starting to become one of my favorite lakes to fish.

The next event was an online event, and it was the one I was waiting for. I knew we had some good water to fish, and no one knew it better than I did. It was a three day event and I had every intention of fishing all three days in order to place well. Day one was rough for me, I did manage three fish but I didn't have one over 16". I knew that I was capable of much better than that so I was pretty upset with my results. Day two on the other hand was probably one of the best days of bass fishing I have ever had. I managed 4 fish over 18" with the largest being a personal best 21.5".

 I finished the day by picking up a 19.75" bass and a 19" bass.....like I said before, probably one of my best days of bass fishing ever. I ended up taking first in the tourney, and Amanda took 12th. At this point I had tied for fourth, placed 10th, and took a 1rst place in the tournament trail. This had put me in the running for angler of the year, something that I had never expected to happen. From that point onward I made up my mind that I was going to attend every event in order to stay in contention for Angler of the Year.

The next event was to be the Dayton River event, but due to high water the event was rescheduled. However, due to popular demand we had an unofficial event at Kiser Lake. Even though it was an unofficial event we decided to head up and fish it anyway. Russ had the weekend off of work so he drove up with us and attended his first BKFT event. We had met Russ earlier in the year when we started our KayakWars team in the early spring. We got to Kiser lake, had our brief meeting, and hit the water. I quickly landed 3 solid fish in the 15-16" range. The wind had picked up by 9am and was making it very difficult for the other anglers. I thought that maybe I had a shot of winning it at this point. An hour or so later Neil and Jeff pass by and ask me how I'm doing? I tell them what I have and then they tell me what they have. This was my first run in with Jeff, and to be honest I wasn't too fond of him. He was probably one of the most cocky people I have ever met.... and I'm pretty arrogant at times myself.  It didn't help that he had 51" in three fish, which shattered my hopes of first. Measure in time came soon enough and I patiently awaited the results. I had placed 5th, Amanda had placed 12th or something along those lines. Of course Jeff managed to take first. My opinion of Jeff at this point was pretty much unchanged, he was as cocky off the water as he was on the water. (Of course as I fished with him more often, I realized he wasn't quite as bad as he seemed.)

The next event was the Columbus Rumble on the River event. As always we made the 2+ hour trip up to the check in and had our brief captains meeting. We soon departed and hit the water. I struggled during this event, failing to land a single fish in the first 3 hours. However, Amanda was on a roll landing 3 fish over 12" before I had the chance to land my first fish. My luck soon changed and I landed a couple fish in the 14-16" range. As we got within sight of the take out I had Amanda beat by 4" or more. With 30 minutes to go and less than 20 yards to our take out she lands a 17.25" smallmouth that pushed her past me in total inches.

We got back to the measure in and awaited the results. As we were waiting for the results we sat down and talked with Joel and Mike about our day of fishing. Results were soon announced and Amanda had placed 4th,  I placed 5th.  (I know at this point your probably wondering why this blog is choppy, jumping from one subject to another. I promise you there is a point here.)


Sometime between the Columbus River event and the Nettle Lake event, Amanda and I fished with Neil and Aaron on the Great Miami River in Dayton, Ohio. We floated a 7 mile stretch of river in 8 hours. We caught a ton of fish, picked up a stray cat, played with a baby beaver, etc. Needless to say we had a pretty good time. I actually caught my biggest smallmouth of the year during this trip, and Aaron was kind enough to snap a few pictures. Here's my 18.25"er. 

 








The next event was held at Nettle Lake. This event was a nearly 6 hour drive from the house so we decided to head up the day before and set up camp. I took work off Friday and met up with Neil in Dayton. From there we decided to fish a few spots along the way up, which turned out to be a bust. 
We got to the campground at Nettle Lake and set up our tents. With an hour before dark we decided to paddle around the lake and check things out. When we got back to the campground other anglers had arrived and had began setting up their tents. Everyone sat around and told stories, made fun of others,.....typical camping stuff. In the morning we loaded our gear up and hit the lake. The wind was brutal, forcing most anglers into secluded coves. I got onto 3 fish late in the tourney by downsizing baits and working a wind blown weed line. Amanda disappeared early in the tournament and I later found out that she spent most of the time napping in the tent. At the measure in my fish were good enough for a second place finish. Luke, Travis, Amanda , I decided to stay the night and make the long drive home Sunday morning. We went out to grab a bite to eat after the tourney and then hit the water until dark. It turned out to be a very rewarding trip for me. I ended up landing 4 bass in two hours with the largest being a 21.25" largemouth. Travis even got in on the picture just to show everyone else that the lake he had chose for the tournament did have big bass in it.Travis, Luke, Amanda, and I then grilled some food, shot some pool, shot darts, told a few stories, and called it a night.




The final event of the year was held in Dayton in conjunction with the Midwest Outdoor Experience. Since Amanda and I had such a good time camping at the Nettle Lake event we decided to camp the Friday night before this event as well. We met up with Russ, Neil, and Chase and then walked around the Midwest Outdoor Experience for a little while. At about 10pm we decided to head back to our vehicles and start setting up our tents. There we met up with Travis, Logan, and Jim. We conversed about our game plans for the morning, shared fishing stories, and I'm pretty sure at one point we even talked about killer swans. We crashed around 1am and woke up ready to fish the tournament in the morning.....well almost all of us did anyway. Amanda and I fished with Travis, Luke, and Russ the whole tourney. Travis and Amanda both caught monster smallies during our trip. Travis caught a 18.75"er, and Amanda topped him with a 19" smallmouth. At the end of the day Amanda took 2nd place, and I took 5th. 

After the last event of the year I had the opportunity to fish with Neil, Jeff, and Brian on Kiser Lake. We developed a pretty good pattern, one that we hadn't spent much time focusing on all year long.....schooling baitfish.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the tournament trail I had fell short of Angler of the year by 5 points. I took 3rd over all in the trail and Amanda took 6th. We hadn't quite dominated the Yak Ohio categories either. However, if there were prizes for second place we would have had a clean sweep. I took 2nd in the largemouth category with my 21.5" bass from the online tournament, I took 2nd in the saugeye/walleye category with an 18.5" saugeye, and 2nd in the catfish category with a 41" flathead.
 Amanda had took 2nd in the smallmouth category with her 19" smallmouth during the Dayton River event. All that we didnt take 2nd in was the musky/pike category.

As impressive as all of that sounds there is something even more impressive to be said about our time spent fishing the tournament trail this year. That being, that in this blog I have mentioned fishing with, and or, hanging out with 13 anglers I now consider friends. (In order that they appeared in the blog....not of importance.)

• Neil
• Larry
• Russ
• Jeff
• Joel
• Mike
• Aaron
• Luke 
• Travis
• Chase
• Logan 
• Jim
• Brian

That is thirteen people that I did not know before the start of the 2013 fishing season. Whats even more surprising is that I could probably extend this blog and add 10 more names of people whom I have had a few conversations with on forums, facebook, txt messages etc. Tim, Dick, Chris, Kurt, Brad, Brian, Quinton, etc... the list goes on and on but you get my point. For me, making those friendships outweighs any prize that can be raffled, any trophy that can be given, and money that can be won.

Smack Tackle

We would like to introduce one of our blog sponsors for the 2014 season, Smack Tackle.

Smack Tackle is a local lure manufacturing company founded by Scott Smith and Todd McCollister. Scott and Todd met a little over a decade ago and have began creating hand made lures ever since. In the last decade they have mastered the craft and are manufacturing one of the most realistic shad crankbaits on the market today.

Many of their lures have been manufactured specifically for hybrid stripers and striped bass, but have started to recently find their place in the largemouth and smallmouth scene as well. While many tournament anglers have tried to keep these baits as their own little secret, others have made sure that these baits get the respect and attention they deserve. We are glad to have them on board for the 2014 season. Look for their baits on the 2014 Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail. 

Check them out.

Web:       Http://www.smacktackle.com

Facebook:         https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smack-Tackle/150666758313251

Whitewater Warehouse

We would like to introduce one of our blog sponsors, Whitewater Warehouse. 

Whitewater Warehouse has been serving Dayton since 1994 and is ran by Bernie Farley and Jeryl Yantis. Whitewater Warehouse is a Paddlesports Specialty store located on the Mad River in Dayton, Ohio.  They offer a wide range of paddlesport boats including touring kayaks, whitewater kayaks, fishing kayaks, and stand up paddleboards. Not only do Bernie and Jeryl sell merchandise, they also offer educational programs and events, guided river floats, rentals, and demos. As a kayak angler I highly recommend that anyone demo a kayak before making the commitment and buying one. There is no better place to start your search than at Whitewater Warehouse. The Mad River and the Great Miami River just down stream of the shop offers some of the best fishing in the Dayton area. Here is a smallie that I caught this year while floating that section of river.

Kayak demos, excellent fishing, and friendly service.....whats not to like. If your looking for a kayak this is definitely the place to be.

Check them out:

Web:     http://www.kayakdayton.com

Facebook:     https://www.facebook.com/pages/Whitewater-Warehouse/125077979199
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kayakdayton

Neil Farley

Author: Neil Farley
Location: Southwest Ohio

Growing up in Southwest Ohio I learned how to fish for smallmouth bass in local rivers from a very early age.  Most days in the summer were spent wading or canoeing the Great Miami, Little Miami, Stillwater, and Mad Rivers for smallmouth and the occasional saugeye or walleye.


Living in the Dayton, OH area you fish for smallmouth because there are very few flat water spots that are under a 30 minute drive. Occasionally trips to local ponds would produce a nice largemouth here and there, but why waste time catching largemouth when you could catch smallmouth the same size or bigger!


Once in college at the Ohio State University I began to fish and learn new river systems that included the Olentangy, Scioto, Alum Creek, and the Big & Little Darby.  While in Columbus I started to also fish flat water a bit more and species more accustomed to flat water including crappie and largemouth bass, but was still sold on moving water.

While growing up my father was addicted to whitewater kayaking as much as I was to fishing.  Often times I was traveling during my grade school and high school years to West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Canada, or other whitewater kayaking destinations.  Admittedly, most of the travels during these years were made under protest. As any young kid I wanted to hang out with friends and not a bunch of "old" people at a campground.  As the years moved on I began to appreciate the fact that I visited places like the New River, Gauley River, and Meadow Creek, or places with strange names like the Youghiogheny, Obed-Emory,  Chatooga, Nantahala, Ocoee, and Pukaskwa.

By the early 90's my father followed his passion and opened what was at the time a small whitewater kayak shop in Dayton, OH,  Whitewater Warehouse.  At the time I had no idea how this event would affect the rest of my future fishing adventures.  With a ton of hours fishing from canoe or wading I found a new tool to help catch fish...the kayak.  I bought one of the first ever sit on top kayaks on the market, a Dagger Pegasus. When I was ready to buy the kayak the only one available was purple or I could wait a month or two and hope another color was available.  This sit on top kayak was designed for whitewater and was outfitted with things like thigh straps. (The pegasus was since re-released as a different kayak entirely that was geared for the recreational kayaker).  I was now a proud owner of a purple whitewater kayak and soon to be fishing kayak! It was about 5 years later the kayak manufacturers started to see a market they needed to design kayaks for: the kayak angler.  Since that first kayak I can't remember all of the kayaks I have used to stalk fish not to mention keep up with all the kayaks now on the market.

In 2011 I found out about an online kayak tournament called Kayak Wars.  This website first introduced me to the idea of competitive, but fun kayak fishing.  Previously, it was always just a goal to catch more fish than the person I was fishing with that particular day.  After participating in Kayak Wars in 2012 I began to pay closer attention to species of fish that I would normally not be interested in targeting.  I mean who gets in a kayak and says, "Let's go catch an 11" perch" in February?  I always envisioned perch fisherman sitting up on shore on a 5 gallon bucket with a coffee can full of worms in one hand and rod in the other (sorry grandpa!).  What I didn't realize is how hard it is to land certain species of fish that had a minimum size limit.  Kayak Wars opened up a whole new element of kayak fishing.

While participating in Kayak Wars I met a group of anglers I began to fish with more often. After a year of kayak fishing together we decided to organize our own tournament.  The more I got into the planning stages of a tournament the more I was leaning towards a full blown tournament schedule.  Within days we went from organizing a single tournament to the birth of the Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail.   The trail gathered a lot of interest and became a tool for many anglers to meet others (in Ohio and surrounding states) with the same passion.  It also helped anglers learn new fishing techniques, different ways to outfit fishing kayaks, and for some anglers the opportunity to become a pro-staff member with a company.  The greatest part of the Trail for me was to see anglers have a very difficult time catching fish in their first few events, but then competing for top places in later events just by learning new fishing techniques from other anglers.

While I have yet to slime a kayak in saltwater I have also had the opportunity to fish in the Carolina's and the Gulf of Mexico for saltwater species. Some of those catches include yellow-fin tuna, dolphin fish, gag grouper, speckled trout, redfish, snapper, flounder, sea bass, black tip shark, spanish mackerel, king mackerel, pompano, flounder, and triggerfish.  If I started to make a bucket list one of the top items on the list would be to catch all those species in a yak.

I hope my kayak fishing experiences contained within this blog help promote kayak fishing and provide a spark for other kayak anglers to get out on the water!

Be sure to check back often as you never know what kind of blog posts will be showing up...

-Neil

Sean Stone

Author:
Sean Stone

Location:
 Southern Ohio

Education:
 Peebles High School, Miami University of Ohio Graduate of 2012: Bachelors Degrees in Envrionmental Science and Geography

Work:
Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator in Peebles, Ohio

Fishing Career:

  I spent much of my childhood on the banks of local lakes fishing for carp and catfish. I guess its what most people would have called our "family night out." We'd grab a few nightcrawlers, box of wheaties, and a bottle of vanilla extract. (Some of you carp guys will get that one.)We'd spend the evening and most of the night on the bank waiting for action. Some nights were better than others, and to be honest at that point in my career carp were my favorite species to target. No other fish grew as large and were as numerous as carp.  On occasion I would get the opportunity to fish my great grandparents pond for bass and bluegill. Those adventures were your typical red and white bobber and night crawler trips. Bluegill were numerous during these trips and the potential of hooking a good bass (at the time a 2lb bass was a monster) was fairly high. 

When I turned 16 and got my first car my fishing style changed tremendously. At that point my fishing became pretty experimental. One day I would fish a creek for smallmouth, the next I would fish for largemouth in a state forest pond, and on the weekend we would fish for catfish at the local lake. I still had no idea what I was doing, but I was having fun doing it. Between 17 and 18 I spent a lot of time on the water chasing the largest species of fish I could, which meant going back to the banks of local lakes and rivers. I would sit all evening with a couple rods out, waiting for a large catfish or carp to swim by. This is where I started to grow as an angler.  Instead of doing what we did as a family during my childhood, I ventured out of my comfort zone and started experimenting with baits, rigs, equipment, etc.  It was this experimentation that took my fishing level beyond what I had learned as a child. At the age of 17 I met Amanda which changed fishing as I knew it. Fishing had went from an "I" sport to a "Us" sport.

Once I hit 19 and started college my fishing became pretty limited to the weekends. However, my college experience was really crucial to how I would continue my fishing career. The study habits that I developed in college carried over into my hobbies. Long nights spent doing research papers had finally served some purpose. I bought nearly every publication of In-Fisherman, Ohio Game and Fish, etc. and spent countless hours on the internet researching each species of fish. I studied life cycles, habitat preference, local fishing reports, distribution ranges, etc. It gave me a broad understanding as to how fish behave, and to some extent allowed me to make educated guesses as to where I could find them. I started to develop a pattern of fishing preference. I would target crappie in the spring during their spawn, after that I would focus on pre spawn largemouth and catfish, during the heat of summer we focused on carp and smallmouth, and in the fall we reverted back to largemouth bass, catfish, and then crappie in that order. It kept us on decent fishing year round and allowed us to hone our skills for each species. The excessive writing that I had done in college had given me a foundation to build upon and share my passion for fishing with others. A friend and I created a blog and my passion seemed to show through my writings.

At the age of 22 I got my first boat, a 14 foot aluminum jon boat. Being able to get to places that other people on the bank couldn't, had a tremendous impact on our fishing. We caught more and larger fish than we had ever in the past. At this point carp took a back seat, bass and crappie would steal the show during the day and catfish would rule the night.

Since catfishing was primarily a night event, and 50 percent of the weekends were night it was safe to say that we spent most of our time chasing catfish during this time frame. It was a very steep learning curve but we managed to find a few nice cats along the way.

In the beginning of 2013, 23 years of age, I had gotten pretty tired of fishing out of a jon boat. Most trips were spent with 3 people cramped in a small 14' boat, which was way over its maximum weight capacity. When it came to bass fishing, I always got the short end of the stick. Being the third person in the boat meant that I had to fish behind the other two. I tried everything I could to overcome the pressure of fishing spots after they had seen 2 baits already. I experimented with baits, but once I found a pattern it seemed that the anglers in the front of the boat quickly caught on. Soon enough I was fishing third, behind two people throwing the same baits I was. After a year and a half of doing this I was ready for a change. This is where I shifted my attention to kayaks. Getting a larger boat was an option at this point, but it didn't eliminate my problem while bass fishing. I ended up selling my jon boat in the spring of 2013 and buying three kayaks. It opened up nearly 200 miles of streams and rivers that we couldn't fish with the jon boat. It allowed me to fish separately from the group and introduced me to a style of fishing that I had yet to experience. Kayaks have been a great way to get into spots that are rarely pressured, so our fishing success increased. The jon boat took us away from heavy hit bank spots which increased catch rates, kayaks took us even further away from pressured water. Kayaking in the last year has really changed our style of fishing. We started the year in March fishing for crappie. From there we focused 80 percent of our fishing efforts on bass, partially because we got involved with Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail's tournament series. Although we had deep roots in catfishing, we only spent a little over a dozen trips specifically fishing for cats. Kayaking this year has really opened up smallmouth fishing for us. Before this year, most of our smallmouth fishing was done withing a quarter mile of heavily pressured public access points. Kayaking and Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trial has opened up a lot of opportunities for us, including this blog.  I am pretty excited to be apart of it and I'm anxious to see where we go from here.

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Kayak Fishing Alliance

KAYAK FISHING ALLIANCE WEBSITE

The Kayak Fishing Alliance was created by kayak anglers for kayak anglers. This site is intended to be a resource for anglers while promoting the sport we love.

We hope to accomplish this by providing:

*A Home page that displays the latest news in the midwest kayak fishing community

*Informative blogs by individuals that spend more time on the water than behind a keyboard

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KFA Team