Kayak Koz and the Lake Fork Adventure

[LrgmouthShad]

The field is up to 138 anglers now. That is pretty impressive. I ain’t even all the way packed yet. It’s been a busy week. I leave tomorrow after work. 

[GreenPig]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

The field is up to 138 anglers now. That is pretty impressive. I ain’t even all the way packed yet. It’s been a busy week. I leave tomorrow after work. 

Hurry up! There's fish waiting on you.😁

[Koz]

Woke up at 5 this morning to get to the ramp early and saw it is 38 degrees outside. I’m not going to rush to the ramp.

 

I did bring thermals, heavy socks, warm layers, and winter fishing gloves with me, but I’ll be at the ramp at 7:30 instead of 6.

[Swamp Girl]

Brrrrrr! I've fished those 38 degree mornings. They're hard on my hands and feet, as both get wet.

[casts_by_fly]

18 hours ago, JHoss said:

Pull the plug and hit the throttle!

 

 

This thread reminds me that I should probably replace the CO2 cartridge I accidentally deployed 18 months ago. 

 

Not if you're beached on a stump you're not!

 

3 hours ago, Koz said:

Woke up at 5 this morning to get to the ramp early and saw it is 38 degrees outside. I’m not going to rush to the ramp.

 

I did bring thermals, heavy socks, warm layers, and winter fishing gloves with me, but I’ll be at the ramp at 7:30 instead of 6.

 

2 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Brrrrrr! I've fished those 38 degree mornings. They're hard on my hands and feet, as both get wet.

 

Yeah, I've been sitting in a deer blind the past week in the mornings at that temp and it's cold.  On the water, getting sprayed, in the wind?  No thanks.

[Alex from GA]

When I'm in FL I'll fish a stump lake several times during the winter and, even in a tin boat, it's sometimes a ***** getting off.  Can't wait to hear the conclusion.  Good luck.

[GreenPig]

On 11/15/2024 at 11:00 AM, casts_by_fly said:

 

Not if you're beached on a stump you're not!

 

 

 

Yeah, I've been sitting in a deer blind the past week in the mornings at that temp and it's cold.  On the water, getting sprayed, in the wind?  No thanks.

I like the cold.

[LrgmouthShad]

This is going to require some storytelling later

[VolFan]

That is a CHONK!

[gim]

I have been hunting all week so I’m just now catching up on this. These kayak tourney events and stories are highly entertaining.

[TnRiver46]

Congrats @LrgmouthShad!!!!!!!

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

This is going to require some storytelling later

Nice Tanker of a Bass !

Bet it was on a Shpinnah-Bait !

Congrats

A-Jay

[LrgmouthShad]

1 minute ago, A-Jay said:

Nice Tanker of a Bass !

Bet it was on a Shpinnah-Bait !

Congrats

A-Jay

DT-20 cranking timber near mouth of Caney Creek. Fish was in about 16ft of water. I’ll put more in the full report but I found this spot when I prefished. It’s really a stretch but there’s a sweet spot on the stretch. All I did was fish for the big bass. I let everybody else go for the no-limits.

[Susky River Rat]

@LrgmouthShad man I thought you would have caught him on a Big Mac! He eatin good!

[Swamp Girl]

That bass is as thick as one of @Bluebasser86's Kansas bass! What's most impressive to me is the muscle of the tail. I look forward to hearing about the fight!

[LrgmouthShad]

Okay tournament report.

I traveled to Yantis, TX to stay at a motel after getting off of work Friday. It was a busy week so I had to do about half of my tackle prep and packing that night. I got to the motel around 11:00 PM and wound up sleeping about 2 hours for various reasons, including spooling fresh line on every rod that I brought. 

Tournament morning I woke up very early to be at the boat ramp sooner. Rules stated we could be in the water prior to launch time and just hang around the launch, so I was ready in the water 5:30 and stayed right by the ramp waiting for 6:00 while finishing some kayak organization. There were only three kayaks with me ready at that ramp for when 6:00 hit. Several tournament participants were still pulling in right at launch time. At 6:00, none of us early-launchers said anything to each other. We just parted ways to our first spot. 

Going back to practice, I spent a lot of time graphing structure using side-scan. All practice weekend, most fish were shallow. But, I was already looking at weather a week ahead and saw some of those cold mornings that Koz talked about. So during practice when I was scanning stuff deep, I was looking for places that bigger than average bass were either already there or likely to show up on tournament morning. The stretch I ran to first was the absolute best I found during practice. The way it set up, I was confident this stretch would still be good a week later. 

6:30 was lines in, so I bee-lined to this area and made it there - losing only about a minute of fishing time. The first hour of the tournament, I was running around too much. I just wasn't settled. I was throwing shallow and throwing deep with a variety of baits. I never stayed in on place long enough to accomplish anything. After the first hour, I settled myself down and started to graph and make use of my anchor. Around 8:00, I located some more activity and larger fish. I anchored with the wind to my back and started through a rotation of baits. It was windy! I'd been throwing a couple different crankbaits but then I got the crazy idea that maybe my crankbait wasn't big enough. Truth be told, I don't think it was anything special about the DT-20 I settled on. It was just the right time and right place for one large fish. Anyways, I make some long casts with this DT-20 and on about the 5th or 6th, I feel a thump like a spinnerbait bite. That fish inhaled the crankbait instantly after it deflected off a piece of timber. Good hookset. The fish first runs up and jumps, just to scare me I guess. From this point on, I was aware that the fish could be worth $1000. Next it runs and starts surging in deeper water. I loosen the drag. As soon as it gets close, I'm ready with the net and I perform a clean netting job.

The experience with this fish is surreal to me because everything happened like it was supposed to. I take several photos to make sure I have a couple good ones but I did not weigh the fish. As soon as I was done with the release, I was right back to casting. I get a text message from the tournament director that my fish was denied due to photo cropping! I look to see if I have a better one, and I do. The next photo is accepted and they count the fish as 22.75". For the next 2.5 hours, I fish this stretch thoroughly. I catch nothing except a sub 14" bass, a catfish, and a crappie. I'm getting ancy. I do have other spots with potential, but I was faced with a pivotal decision of whether to head back the way I came, or head out even farther and head into Little Caney. I chose to head back the way I came, and I believe that was the biggest mistake I made in the tournament. With two hours between lines out and weigh-in, I could have headed out a little farther with plenty of time to make it back. There were some deep water spots out of Caney and headed into Little Caney that might have done me some good if I'd tried them. 

Headed back into Caney, I stop at two offshore locations with timber close to the channel and a bridge but I have no luck. I'm running out of offshore locations that I am confident in, so I start fishing docks with a jig until lines out. I catch one more sub 14"er doing this and one jumps me off. All told, I ended the tournament weighing in one fish, but that fish won me $1000. It was a tough fishing day. Many people zero'd, but I heard several comment that all they caught all day were sub 14" bass under the minimum length. The winner walked away with it, catching 180" of bass. It was a cool tournament and the directors are nice gentlemen. A good experience!

[Swamp Girl]

@LrgmouthShad: Thanks for the detailed report. Well told and well angled! I have never caught a bass that long, but what's most impressive is the great girth, from head to tail. There are a lot of long, skinny bass that are posted at BR. This was not one of them.

 

I'm so proud of you and happy for you. 

[gim]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I get a text message from the tournament director that my fish was denied due to photo cropping!

 

That's interesting.  I'm not that familiar with entries in yak events other than they have to be on the board with the mouth shut.  Why did they think it was photo cropped?

[WRB]

Because his is out of state, fight the good ole boys decision. 
Good report your bass is legit!👍

Tom

 

[LrgmouthShad]

39 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

That's interesting.  I'm not that familiar with entries in yak events other than they have to be on the board with the mouth shut.  Why did they think it was photo cropped?

Uh that first photo I uploaded cut off basically right at the fish’s mouth. It kinda just barely let you see all the fish but they might not have been comfortable with it. They are quite strict about the photos 

[gim]

1 minute ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Uh that first photo I uploaded cut off basically right at the fish’s mouth.

 

I could see why it was rejected then.

[WRB]

Did you send the photo posted?

[LrgmouthShad]

22 minutes ago, WRB said:

Did you send the photo posted?

Yes the photo posted here is the photo I sent to them after they rejected my original submission. They accepted the photo shown here

[LrgmouthShad]

For those curious, the biggest bass caught in the tournament was 23.25 inches. That angler took home an hourly prize like mine and also a brand new Titan X 12.5 kayak. The first hour of the tournament, the 23.25" fish was caught almost instantly and a 23" was not far behind! The weights for big bass dropped steep after the first two hours of the tourney. There was definitely a morning bite for the big gals.

[Koz]

On 11/16/2024 at 7:13 PM, LrgmouthShad said:

This is going to require some storytelling later

Very cool, my friend.