2014 YakAttack Tourney

The YakAttack tournament has grown considerably the last few years and could no longer be held at the little off-the-side-of-the-road camp spot.  Rumor has it that it might have become the largest freshwater kayak fishing tournament.  The venue changed to Twin Lakes State Park and Conference Center but the camaraderie was the same.  129 of us got together to have a good time, eat some awesome food, fish, and help out two great organizations; Heroes on the Water and Project Healing Waters.

The PowerTeam Lures Mafia showed up as well as many bass gurus from just down the street to as far away as Florida, Indiana, and Oklahoma.

The only thing is, with so many big names in one place

 the paparazzi started getting out of control.

Luther Cifers, president of YakAttack and creator of the tournament was not prepared to deal with the over abundance of cameras.

And neither was Joe Underwood, the tournament rules chairman.

Superstar Forrest Short, tried to go incognito by not cutting off his sleeves, but the relentless cameras still found him.  Being used to the lime light, he shrugged his shoulders at the situation.

Ok, so maybe I exaggerated a little about the paparazzi and I just wanted an excuse to use those picture.  

 

But seriously, we all had a great time.  

There were a lot of smiles and the food was again, amazing.

As far as fishing goes, it was tough for many of us.

Richie Bekolay has another YakAttack Tournament wrap up here.

 I only managed one 17" largemouth, but the select few who did connect on some quality fish went home with some nice trophies. 

 Congrats to all the winners and a huge thank you to all the sponsors and everyone who helped make this event possible.  As always, the biggest winners are Heroes on the Water and Project Healing Waters.  Over $10,000 from the tournament and raffle proceeds will help repay our debt to the men and women who have done so much for us.

Spring Rituals

I started chasing shad about 2 and a half weeks ago.  They were already plentiful then with lots of big hickories and a few American shad up to 3lbs in the mix.

A few weeks later, the spots I found them at earlier were not producing as much so I scooted up to I-95.  

Good times on the fly.  

Here is a link to some shad tips and specie identification.  

Remember, you can't possess American shad or herring.

SWING - 2013 Video Compilation

A Little Spring Tease

For late February, it was surprisingly warm on Sunday.  I joined Jeff Lockhart (fellow Richmonder) and Billy Nicar (from GreenTop) on the Elizabeth River along with a fleet of others who welcomed the tease of Spring.

A couple of stripers (18"~19") started off the action but after that it went kaput.  Every spot we went to had the same story; boaters and kayakers alike had virtually nothing all day.  Eventually, near where we started, I caught a fairly nice sized hickory shad, then right around sunset, we finally got into some specks.  Jeff spotted big swirl in 3-4 feet of water and hooked up first with a nice 23" trout.

Not too long after, just as I was saying to myself that I really needed to leave, I hooked into a nice scrappy fish.  After some impressive runs I had my first trophy of the year come over the gunnel of the new Predator 13.  

 

Even though the bite was getting hot, it was time to go.  I promised Kev that I'd come by to broadcast live with Lee Williams for an episode of a Kayak Kevin Podcast.

Here's the recorded version.

Friendly reminder: Don't forget your sunblock or face mask/buff.

Switching to Ultra Light

On my last trip, I was in as wide open water as you can get, using the absolute heaviest gear I had.  This time, I pulled out the 2lb test spinning gear and launched into a windy little creek.  My old fishing buddy, Justin Mayer invited me to a spot out near Tappahanock to look for one of our favorite fish to target this time of year, the yellow perch.  

It felt a little funny, I admit.  Fighting some of the hardest fighting fish I've ever hooked on one trip, then getting excited about 10 to 12 inch fish the next was entertaining to say the least.  

It had been about 2 years since I chased yellow perch (aka ring perch).  The Chickahominy as well as the Northwest River had treated me well in previous years, but this time, the action was fairly slow.  We eventually found a sporadic bite and I landed 6 up to 11.5".  Silver Buddy type blade baits and little roadrunners with curly tail grubs worked very slow did the trick for me.

They are very pretty fish and also excellent table fair.

Thanks to Justin's dad, Curtis, for suggesting the roe as well. 

I breaded and fried it and it was DELICIOUS!

Mothership Connection

Jack Daughtry lead the group in organizing the trip.  I met him and fellow kayakers Mike Rosa, Matt James in addition to another boat angler (Jeff) down in Hatteras, NC.  With 4 kayaks and all our gear aboard the "Good Times" (47' Sheldon Midgette), Capt. Andy took us out to the gulf stream in search of blackfin tuna.  The wind and waves caused issues (and a few upchucks) in the morning, so we started off jigging on the big boat.  Amberjacks were hooked immediately, but the sharks reigned supreme.  Most of our catches ended up being big AJ heads with gnarly teeth marks.  Eventually, when the winds calmed down a little and the captain was positive the marks on the depth finder were tuna, we deployed the kayaks and continued dropping the butterfly/speed jigs down to 150'-175'.  Unfortunately, the tuna were not interested in the jigs that day.  

But the AJs were.

And so were the sharks.

We tried for a while to no avail.  Another boat in the area had luck trolling, so we packed up the kayaks and made it into a meat run.  Within minutes of putting out the greenstick trolling equipment we were hooked up on blackfins.  Visualizing the hits was the fun part, but dealing with the massive equipment and the resistance of the boat still moving while reeling them in was a chore.  None the less, it was a great experience.

Big thanks to Jack Daughtry for getting this trip together.

Ad and Commercial for Virginia Tourism

The Virginia Department of Tourism contacted me in early fall of 2013 for a photo/video shoot.  At first I declined because they wanted to shoot on a Monday and I had work to do, but they persisted and I eventually agreed.  After I got to see the final products, I'm super glad they convinced me to do it.

Dec/Jan Edition of Garden & Gun Magazine