First tournament ever - Kayak Fishing

[patchtech]

Hey everyone!  Been mostly lurking the forums the past few years, but this year I finally get to achieve my goal of doing tournament fishing!  We have a low commitment kayak tournament circuit with an isolated enough region that I could reasonably drive to the launch point at every event on the schedule on the morning of.

 

My "goal" for the year is to be a contender for the rookie of the year spot.  This should, at a minimum, help me put in the work needed to actually learn.

 

I've got no shortage of research and understanding to do, but wanted to hop in and ask/chat about it.

 

I'm going motor first, as I already know my strength will lie more in covering water than reading the fish finder.  I find joy in cranking so just need to formulate an initial strategy of finding them with a crankbait, then what I need to do to follow up. 

 

Also, anyone have any tips on sight-reading water to dissect it from maps/visible conditions? 

 

[Choporoz]

Good luck!

Not sure I am much help with your specific question.  Are you not using any sonar?   Are you fishing with CKA?  I've fished with them a couple times, but never a full season.  Good club.  If so, you're looking at a good variety of water this year.   

    I am not nearly as good as a lot of hammers I fish with, but I hold my own the last 5 years largely through productive pre-fishing. Graphing, finding brush piles, structure and weed lines in advance of tournament day is the way I stay competitive and much of that work is with sonar and gps.  I'm lousy with a crankbait, so, I don't know.... you might well be able to accomplish much the same prefishing with crankbaits....old school  

[patchtech]

13 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Are you fishing with CKA?

CCKF, which keeps me around the greater Raleigh area for the most part.  The farthest lakes on the trail are about a 2 hours drive tops, over in the Greensboro area, but those long trips are fewer than CKA.
 

18 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Graphing, finding brush piles, structure and weed lines in advance of tournament day

 

Yeah, I imagine a lot of map studying and pre-fishing is gonna be in my future.  Doing the mental work to break it down and trial and error.  Figured it could only serve to improve my understanding of the sport.  I also prefer shallower water generally, so it shouldn't be too hard to see certain things on google maps, and stick to fallen trees and whatnot.  But def old-school fishing in my future.

 

And who knows, as the season goes on, I might be able to get some kind of simple graphing device connected at least.  Wiring and motorizing the kayak is just top priority at the moment for me.

[Koz]

Good luck out there this year. My suggestion is that if you're fishing bigger lakes, along with reading the maps go to every fishing report website you can and scour information over the past few years and find reports where the fish are biting.

 

I fished the MLF Phoenix Series last year as a co-angler, and while I plan to do 2-3 events in that this year I'm also planning on jumping off the deep end and fishing one or two Bassmaster Kayak events (Lake Murray and maybe Guntersville) this season in my new Old Town Autopilot.

 

I'll be studying maps and fishing reports, but with the limited range of the kayak I'm also going to rely on my electronics and Humminbird Smartstrike and a day of pre-fishing.

 

Yes, it's definitely nuts to jump into a big tournament for my first event, but I'm pushing 60 and this is more of a bucket list item than anything. Plus, as a co-angler last year in MLF I had a hard time being second banana and not being in control of where we fished and the tempo.

[WRB]

I suggest you study bass behavior to recognize activity levels during seasonal periods. Google search “The Cosmic Clock and Bass Calendar” will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Fast moving lures are good to catch very active feeding bass, about 10% of the population at any time. The second group of bass while you are fishing are active bass that may or may not be interested in chasing down your crank bait, another 10% of the population during your tournament time on the water. This leaves 80% of the population unwilling to strike a crank bait, poor odds for catching 5 bass weighing enough to place in the top 10.

The next group of bass are neutrally active and catchable when a lure is presented within their strike window representing something easy to eat. These bass usually are caught on soft plastics or jigs where those bass are located and represent about a lager % it the population while you are fishing. All the bass change activity level individually and trying to locate a small % of those bass by covering a lot of water may or may not work depending on the seasonal periods. 

At a minimum add a soft rigged soft plastic worm or creature bait to work the water column to to bottom in and around cover and structure.

Good luck,

Tom

 

 

[Susky River Rat]

How familiar are you with these bodies of water? I’m willing to bet you’ll be fishing against other anglers who already know some or most bodies of water since many repeat themselves. You’ll have to fish ways you don’t want to fish sometimes. 
 

You mentioned covering water. This is a very double edged sword and I recommend against it especially in a kayak . Time management is key. You want to spend as much time target fish with your line in the water not chasing where they could be. If you are covering water there needs to be a system to it. Find fish and stick on them is your best bet. 
 

google maps, Navonics, and fishing reports are great tools to help you find areas but this will never replace being on the water. I’ve looked at some very promising areas doing this and they have been busts. If you can get out and pre fish them do it.