Preparing for the 2013 Tournament Season

The new year is almost upon us, closing out the 2012 fishing year has been a lot of fun and has taken me to a new level of fishing. This will be the first year where tournaments do not include the loading of 30 fishing rods into lockers, hoarding up every lure I have ever purchased, and filling the outboard tank with a couple hundred bucks worth of fuel.

Preparing for a tournament season from a kayak is something totally new, that is why I am starting this task so far in advance. Looking forward to the schedules for the upcoming season, there are still a few tournament groups that are still working out the final details.
    
I plan to fish tournaments with a few groups this year, one being something I have never tried and that is a catfish tournament series held by HillJack Catfishing. This will be a totally new experience for myself as well as the first year they have offered a kayak division.  I have there schedule up on a previous post. Check it out, most tournaments are within an hour of the Columbus Ga. area and the kayak division is being sponsered by The Outside World in Columbus. www.hilljackcatfishing.com
 

 Southern Kayak Anglers has been known for putting on some of the best competitive kayak fishing in the country, the roster they boast are some top notch anglers. Its going to be fun to fish against and get to know these guys this season. Last year had some sweet locations backed up with a couple of online tournaments. A few locations they have posted for the 13 season are Stone Mtn., Chatuge, and Brush Creek. www.southernkayakanglers.com  www.facebook.com/southernkayakanglers

 
Another huge event this coming year will be the Kayak Bass Fishing Open. This event is going to be held on March 14 and 15th. The location is Santee Cooper near Monchs Corner South Carolina. Expected trunout is over 200 yaks, making this an event to be fished. They are putting up some sweet incentives to come and take part. The winner is qualified for the KBF Invitational where the 1st place is $50,000. Some awesome sponsors have also stepped up to bat for this one. www.kayakbassfishing.com

Kayak Wars will also be on the agenda this year. I think this will be an opportunity to grow as an all around angler, as the species for freshwater fish stretch beyond the bass. The immediate surrounding areas that I fish are full of opportunity to score well in this format. The 100% CPR tournament will include bass, catfish, gar, crappie and other freshwater game fish. The tournament last for the majority of the year and has team and individual rankings. www.kayakwars.com

Chasing the Night Bite

Kayak fishing after the sun goes down is some of the coolest fishing you can do. The "stealth mode" is amplified so many times over. You will have the opportunity to catch some large fish and see some of the waters you visit during the daylight hours in a totally new perspective.
This summer has presented ample opportunity to hit the waters during the night. Working a late shift at work, lack of free time in daylight hours, and the overall "itch" to feel the line peeling off the reel has made the night fishing a more common experience.

 

 

The first thing when planing on hitting the water after dark, please be safe. An all round white light is required and its totally necessary. It will have almost no effect on your fishing, but does help other boaters know you are there. You defiantly don't want to be hit by a passing boat. There are several companies that make these light for kayaks, they are battery powered so there is no need for hard wiring. http://kayakfishinggear.com/lightsandlighting.aspx

 

 

 

Some other items you will need that you would normally not pack on a daytime trip would be other forms of light. I have a headlampe that is made by energizer, I prefer this one because it has two settings red and white lights, the reason I choose this one is because you don't have to cycle through settings to turn the light on and off. I also pack a superbright compact flashlight, your sense of hearing will amplify when your vision is not as strong in the dark conditions, that being said you will hear other wildlife on the shore. Its nice to watch deer or be able to see beavers swim by.

 

Now on to the fishing techniques, I will fish the same areas that I fish in the daytime, because I am famalier with the area and know they usually hold fish. I will always have a texas rig with some sort of dark, usually black, worm. My choice as of lately has been a black and blue zoom paddle tail. A topwater bait is a good choice to have at night as well. You can't see the strike of a topwater lure, so the feeling through the rod and hearing the action is crazy exciting. My personal favorite is a black on black buzzbait called the cavitron, its a buzzbait that can be retrieved super slow and makes a squeaking noise that other lures don't.

 

 

 

Dock lights also hold fish really well. This can be a really sweet way to catch fish because when you set the hook you can acatually the silhouette of the bass turning to make a run. I like to use a 3/8 oz shakey head for this because it sinks slowly and most of the strikes will come on the fall. Find yourself a string of lights that come on everynight and you can have some solid fishing.

 

 

The fishing before and after dark have a lot in common, but are also extremly different. It can be the most serene and relaxing, but most exciting fishing all at the same time. It will definatly sharpen your sences and I think it has improved my ability for "feel" during the day.

 

Give it a shot. Post some photos on the Backwater Kayak Anglers Facebook Page.

 

 



HillJack Catfish Tournament Schedule 2013

I know the website says "Kayak Fishing for Trophy Bass," but hey who dosn't like catching some catfish everynow and then. This is the schedule for the HillJack Catfish Tournaments 2013. They have a newly added kayak division that will be CPR (Catch, Photo, Release) with digital scales and an identifier in the picture required. The Outside World in Columbus GA will be the main kayak sponser. The tournament layout is set up and looks like its going to be a ton of fun.

The Flint River makes the Top Ten Places to Kayak Fish in the US 2012

I am proud to say that the "Home Waters" made the cut. This poll was taken on yakangler.com 2012 choice awards.

#10 - Flint River, Georgia

Photo credit: Chris Funk

Western Georgia's Flint River gets its name from the flint stones found along the banks. Between its urban beginning and reservoir ending, the Flint’s watershed drains some 8,460 square miles. The 344 mile long river flows south from the upper Piedmont region south of Atlanta to the wetlands of the Gulf Coastal Plain in the southwestern corner of the state through the cities of Jonesboro, Thomaston, Montezuma, Marshallville, Cordele, Americus, Albany, and Bainbridge.
While shoal bass can be found anywhere on the upper Flint, the stretch between Gay and Thomaston offers the best habitat in the state for these fish. There is fine fishing to be found for other species of fish. The flat water sections contain good numbers of largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, shell cracker, and both channel and flathead catfish.
http://www.yakangler.com/spotlight/item/1731-top-10-us-kayak-fishing-locations-2012

The Presidential Pathways... Mid Ga is full of kayak fishing opportunities.

The awesome part about being located where I am is there are an abundance of fishing opportunitues really close by. The larger places (being West Point, Harding, Wedowee, and recently added to the list Oliver) all have some great places to catch fish. The more I fish from a kayak I am finding more smaller bodies of water that have caught my attention.

The first lake that we hit was Lake Oliver in Columbus GA. It is a smaller lake in comparison to West Point or Lake Harding but it is still a huge amount of water to cover in a kayak. That being said I have found some even smaller places to fish that I will be trying to pull some fish out of soon.

Big Lazer WMA



This 195-acre public fishing lake is on Big Lazer Creek Wildlife Management Area near the Flint River in Talbot County. Big Lazer Creek Public Fishing Area is on a 5,984-acre state Wildlife Management Area of the same name. The lake is 195 acres and was first opened to fishing in 1989. The lake is intensively managed to provide good fishing for bream, largemouth bass, and channel catfish. Anglers will find plenty of structure in the lake. About 15 acres of timber were left during construction. You’ll find the timber around the old creek channel and a small island. In addition, the lake is full of submerged cover. Fish attractors have been constructed and placed near the fishing pier. The upper end of the lake is shallow, averaging around 5 feet in depth. Near the dam, depths are more than 30 feet. Key species: bluegill, redear sunfish, largemouth bass, channel catfish

Read more at Trails.com: Big Lazer Creek Public Fishing Area | Talbotton Georgia Places to Fish | Trails.com http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailId=XFA050-056#ixzz2Dh8euuRN

Lake Meriwether
This Lake is located in Woodbury GA, the surface area is 144 acres and I have heard plenty of people talking about double digit bass being pulled out. The lake is open year round from sunrise to sunset. Another great thing about the lake is while they do allow boats they have a electric motor only rule. You won't be getting anyone blowing by you just to see how well you can handle the wake.

Update: November 30th, Temp: Low 50's, Water Temp: 51-53
Today Lake Meriwether was extremely tough, not giving up a single fish. It has been a while since we have carried the skunk home, but it still happens. We only had a few hours to fish this morning, and being the first time I have fished the lake, I don't really feel horrible about the results. This has also been the first week this year that we have awaken to see our cars and yaks covered with morning frost, the night-time lows have taken toll on the fish. In my opinion the lake is not the greatest places in the area to spend a day fishing. It is a very clean place and would be suitable to get out and paddle, but there are way better places to try your efforts at landing a trophy.

Squirts Personal Best

The story behind this fish is really neat to me. My fishing buddy Squirt has been learning to use a baitcaster throughout the summer and has really become acustom to throwing with one. He started with a pinnacle, a sweet reel that did the trick, getting him use to the brake system, drag, and overall use. He then wanted to upgrade and get something of a little better quality. Se he picked out a Pfluger. The next night, with the rod spooled and ready to go, we hit the lake after work to see how he likes it. We decided the best bait would be a Rat-L-Trap to get the rod set, he makes his cast and the reel beats all expectations with the cast... Then comes the neat part, we are admiring the cast and he says, I have a fish, A NICE FISH.... we get the fish landed and its his personal best bass ever.. This hog was quite the trophy.... and needless to say, he loves the reel...

 

Lake Oliver Day 2...

I had originally intended to do the small lake reports as one post. The reason this post will be seperated into two different posts is because the fishing was completly different from one to the other. We fished here on Friday, the second day of fishing here is the following Monday. The conditions have changed completly.

This is the second installment of the Lake Oliver, Columbus GA report.
The water was still in the 70 degree area
Crystal Clear

Today was the roughest water I have encountered while in a kayak. The Weather Channel had issued a wind advisory for the entire day, NW winds at 26Mph and gusts at 40-45 Mph, it was serious  business.

 

This time instead of putting in and going to the left which takes you to the main lake, we went to the right and stayed inside the long cove trying to find some protection from the wind. The attempt to get on the water at daylight didn't work out as planned, the day got underway about an hour after daybreak. The cove was still choppy, but definatly workable, we began with some topwater but couldn't get any action that way. I made my way around a sharp bend to the right and saw that the back of the pocket contained a bridge and let to some really skinny water. This was a perfect location to stay out of the wind and catch some shallow water fish. Once back there is was really a sweet looking spot. The bridge was low and made it non-accessable to powerboats. I threw a shakey head here with a 4.5 in robo. This seemed to do the trick, third cast bam there is a small but extremly eager fish to the boat. After about twenty min we decided to try the mainlake again. I did manage one more on the shakey head on the way out.

Back on the main lake we just drifted and threw lipless cranks, squirt managed one solid fish. We continued to try this and jerkbaits but didn't have anymore takers.  A little discouraged we decided to fight the mainlake and make it back to the cove that we had so much luck in the Friday before. This is where the fun began, the water was ROUGH... I mean whitecaps everywhere. We managed to fight the water and make it back to the cove, but still didn't manage anyfish. Still discouraged we fought the water back and fished the shoreline with the shakey head. I got the rig hooked up in some brush, went to unhook the mess and somehow managed to break my spinning rod, A GREAT QUANTUM ROD. Snapped in two, I wasn't doing anything excessivly rough, but now I am holding a busted rod.

 

 

From here I decided it was time for me to call it a day.

Overall Lake Oliver is a solid place to kayak. The lake offers some great fishing, it has a place to fish mostly any technique that you like, deeper water, great coves, and skinny water that you will certianly be the only one there. Get out and try the lake for yourself, catch some quality fish.

Lake Oliver, Columbus GA

10/26/12

Water- 71 and Crystal Clear

Inatially today was going to be a "Pre-Fish" day to search for spots that would hold fish, and this report would not be done until we fished the lake on Monday. The problem with that is we caught some really nice fish.

A smaller lake on the Chattahoochee River system in Columbus Georgia, this lake is an awesome place to fish. When you drive up to the lake, the entrance gets you excited and ready to hit the water. You put in at the Lake Oliver Marina, inside they have a small but nice selection of fishing lures, line, and combos. They also have a kitchen that serves breakfast and lunch. I was really impressed with the set-up here.

The view from the open roof top of the marina.

Back to the fishing, once you launch, you have two choices, there is a long cove to the right, and the main lake to the left. The cove to the right goes back a long way, its lined with houses and has a few blow downs.


The main lake opens up to the left, when you paddle out about 100 yards, you will begin to see the dam on the left. The main lake goes around a point to the right, there are dock houses and brush covering the shoreline. Keep going down the right side of the lake and there will be a few coves. Half way back into the coves is where the fishing was HOT. Lipless cranks were getting the job done...

Squirt hauling in the first fish of the day.

I quickly answered, the back and forth went on all day.

 

 

 

Bartletts Ferry (Lake Harding)

Lake Harding is a really awesome place that I hold pretty high in my coolest places to fish... My Grandfather had a house on the lake, and my father fished here as a child. I have recently been fishing this lake more than the closer alternative of West Point because of the difference in water levels. Lake Harding is managed by Georgia Power and is a "recreational" lake, so when they release water to extreme lows on West Point, Lake Harding will reamain full.

 

I put in at Idle Hour ramp, well I began to put in, first I pull my truck to the ramp and start getting my gear ready. I hop out of the truck and grab my rods and paddle, and decide to change lures from a buzzbait to a spook. I get the spook tied on and make a cast to set the reel, the bait hits the water, a very eager spotted bass decided to slam it. Before I have the kayak off the truck I have a fish in hand.

 

The rest of the day went about the same, no giant fish in the boat but had a great time catching the over-active small guys. There were six in about an hour and a half, then I decided to do some wandering and see what some other areas of the lake were looking like. I think I have found some new spots that will hold some nice bass.

 

Clay Hewett

 

Some other fish that have come from Lake Harding

Dont hate the blue warrior, had to start somewhere.



Installing a Hatch

Squirt has a Heritage Angler 10' sit on top kayak, the yak comes pretty well stocked with features that are very useful, but we did find a need for access to the area behind the seat so we decided to install a hatch. Went online and found a hatch that would fit in the area that was avaible, upgraded shipping and badaboom, time to install.

This is our own How-To.

Tools Needed-

Hatch (Whatever size fits your needs, the rest of the tools with fit mostly all applications).
Stainless Steel Hardware- We used 3/8 phillips head bolts and nylock nuts.
3/8 Inch Wrench
Phillips Head Screwdriver
Lexel- Sealant
Sharpie
Dremel Tool with Cutting Bit
Drill
5/64 Drill Bit

We first placed the acutual hatch on the kayak and outline the inside diameter with the sharpie. Then comes the fun part, cutting a big hole in a perfectly good kayak. We drilled a starter hole in the center to have a place to insert the cutting bit on the Dremel. The dremel tool we used has variable speed so we went with lots of power and a slow percise cut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the hole is cut you then place the hatch into the hole and mark the holes for the bolts with the sharpie.

With the holes marked you use the 5/64 bit and drill the holes.


Remove the hatch plate and use the Lexel and outline the hole, cover the holes for the bolts with the Lexel to create a watertight seal.

Line up the hatch plate with the holes you have drilled and run the bolts through, using the 3/8 in. wrench and the screwdriver tighten the bolts in an everyother pattern, we used a screwdriver instead of a drill here because it would be easy to overtighten the bolts and pull them through the hatch plate.

With all the bolts tight, you can then put the lid on the hatch and you now have access to the area behind the seat for gear storage.

Finished Product.

Special Thanks to MR TOD GRAHM for the use of the shop.

Fishing After Dark

There is an abundance of information on the internet about catching bass after the sun goes down, we decided to see what the hype was about. Working the night shift has presented the opprotunity for us to try catching these fish, well that is exactly what we set out to do... We have spent this entire summer and coming into fall fishing after work about three nights a week. Well we either have done everything wrong or the fish have dissappeard.

I would give a lot of this to being pure stubborn.... We wanted to catch fish with a certian lure in the places we wanted to catch them, and that is just not the case. So after about twenty trips of carrying the skunk around it finally sunk-in. We have to go where the fish are and throw what works, not what we want to work. I know that sounds to simple, but it worked. We can't do the same thing over and over and expect different results, thats insanity. Nonetheless we produced decent bass out of West Point. We will continue to try for the night time bass.

 

 

 

 

So it began...

Fishing has been something I have taken part in "on and off" throughout my life. Like any hobby you will mostly get out what you put in. Over the past year or so, this has been taken to the next level... Fishing has become more than a hobby it has become a skill, something to be worked on, more to be learned. I have passed the level of the "weekend angler" that will attack the lake a couple of weekends a month by throwing a "who's name on a whatever billed crankbait." I own boats with motors and have the ability to run the lake hitting many spots a day and catch activly feeding fish. We have put the boats on the trailers, parked them, covered them, and never looked back. We have found a new way to catch fish, swapping the motor for a paddle. We have found that catching fish from a kayak is the most exciting way we have ever caught them. This will be a log of our encounters of trying to catch trophy fish from a kayak.


There are two of us on this "team," myself, Clay Hewett and my fishing partner James Whitten, or better known as "Squirt."  The purpose of making this site is to have a log of our fishing trips, support the growing sport of kayak fishing, and in the end become better kayak anglers. I will be posting results and pictures of our trips, what worked and what didn't. We will be doing our own reviews of gear, trying new things, and hopefully catching some big fish.

The shoals of the "Crow-Hop," on the Hooch below West Point Lake.