First kayak Tournement / Lake Fork

[WaffleJaw]

Last month a small Kayak bass trial was started by a local kayaker here..Its a three tournament series for now..I missed the first tournament due to not having a light and measuring board...But I wasnt gonna miss Fork.
I was lucky enough to have a guy I met at a few of the GTG here hit me up to carpool with him...There was a coldfront coming in,and he had a plan and a place...He was also gracious enough to pick me up a specific fish measuring ruler we had to use that only Cabelas carries by his house....(These are CPR tourneys where only length matters)

I stayed up late the night before to make extra storage compartments on my crate...I order two large feeder scoops (lime green) for a 1.99 each from a farm supply store....The handles fit snug in 1.25' pvc.
It also gave me something to slap a few trokar stickers on


Up at 3am to go over my check list (4 hours of sleep)..My friend picked me up at 4am and we headed out.
Check in at Emory,TX in a grocery store parking lot....19 people showed up
About 40 degrees and very chilly.


Oh I forgot to mention there were 2-3 bass tournaments on Fork this morning
We got to our launch spot at hidden harbor...I really regret not taking more pictures because this place was beautiful....Ive never been to this part of the lake before...Plus it was away from most of the heavy boat traffic which was a big plus!

After rigging and talking to a few other boat tourney guys we set off....As soon as my feet felt how warm the water stayed my game plan changed.....My buddy was gonna drag hvy jigs on an old gravel road in 18' of water...He invited me to join him...I follwed him out to see where it started and what not....But noticed there were already two boats on it,and it was right next to the main boat lane.
He stayed and worked it......I moved through a stump field and worked stumps near the grass in 4' of water...Slow rolling a large profile swimjig/with a grasspig trailer (blk/blue)

No good,I moved down......and I took this pic



I clipped onto a stump and fished in the 5'-6' zone....About that time I saw shad swirling the surface about 10 yards away near stumps.....I moved to 8-10' of water and on the 2nd cast going through the stumps I landed my first tourney fish at a very nice 19.25''
Took forever to get a qualified photo between the adrenaline and over the head photography


So obliviously I worked this area a bit...About 8 more cast I nailed number 2 at 17.25''


Bingo!...8-10' of water was the rest of my game till the water temp rose.

After switching to a DT10 and making another pass I moved on into a huge cove filled tight with stumps and other boats.....Nobody was doing any good..It got shallow too...back in 3'-5' ....I felt this is where I made two mistakes...One,I just abandoned my gather information.....two,I just abandoned my gathered information!!..lol....It just looked so tasty!!

After nothing for about 2 hrs...I ate lunch and regathered...I went back to another set of stumps near grass in 8-10' of water....I was gonna slow down more and tie on a finesse shakey head.

This is when it happened.

Upon retying,My paddle lifted just enough that is caught my measuring ruler (that was unstrapped to get to my tackle boxes) and knocked it overboard behind me....I turned around and it was sitting on surfaced(plastic hawg trough ruler)....Out of reach....Then it slowly (and painfully) started sinking!!??
couldnt get my paddle or hand to it ...It sank out of sight,and my first tournament ended right there!!!!!!

I tried my claw anchor to drag the bottom (only 6') ...tried my paddle.
Yea....it was gone.

I paddled back to my buddy who stayed on that road the entire time.
Told what happened and he immediately clipped a floaty on his ruler

He road payed off 4 bass to him.

I cant believe how the time flew during this...It was pretty unreal how quick the hours passed.
We got there first at the weigh in spot.....Half of the people showed up and most of them got skunked or only one fish.

So in this pic...My buddy is in 1st,and Im in 2nd with big bass at 19.25

I was pumped!...But knew that probably wouldnt hold



Well to wrap it up..One guy caught one bass,that beat me by 1.25'' for big bass...and two more guys caught 4 or more.

So I ended up in 4th place with two fish,and my buddy took 2nd.

All in all it was a blast and even though I lost my ruler...Im still very happy with the results for my first experience and already working on new mods for the next tourney in June.

This is gonna be addicting.

[keithdog]

It sounds like you had a great time despite loosing the ruler. Congrats on making 4th place! Not a bad way to finish your first tourney. Enjoyed reading your account of the day.