For a few years it has been a dream of mine to be present at the YakAttack tournament. Previous years unfortunately the tournament date conflicted with the J-Bay tournament. 2016 was different however! The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament was scheduled for the following weekend on Saturday May 21st. I was in and so was Ricky Wolbert! Planning started months in advance as the tournament was capped at 180 total registered anglers. For me this was a road trip being that the tournament is located in the area of Farmville Virginia, A 6.5 hour drive from my residence.

Washington DC from the outer beltwayMeeting up with Ricky on a sunny warm May afternoon at his pad in Philly we transferred my gear and my Jackson Cuda 14 to his SUV and kayak trailer. Three nights worth of camping and fishing an unknown area we had to be decisive on what to bring. Our gear and everything had just fit. We were on our way crossing our fingers that we we wouldn’t get stuck in the major waste of time we call Washington DC traffic. 20160519145055_IMG_6704Along the way in Virginia we stopped at Wawa for gas and a quick lunch break. It was nice to stop for a few minutes but little did we know the traffic on I95 was building ahead. Ricky calls it a “Rubbernecker” with a drawl!

Eventually arriving at Burkville the home of YakAttack LLC  not knowing what was around understanding we were deep in the country we settled eating at a strange “family restaurant” for dinner. I have to say I think it was the most bland food I have ever had in my entire life. Some research should have been done but it is the way it is. After chowing down it was the race to camp to set up before dark. The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament - Twin Lakes State Park VAUpon our arrival the camp site was perched on a 30 degree slope. We knew there was inches of rain to fall the next night and were hoping the slope wouldn’t turn into a river. Pitched our tents in a way that we would be able to tarp both of them in preparation for the impending monsoon that was forecasted. Hung out with some of  the other Jersey anglers who also made the road trip. Enjoying a few beverages before getting into the sleeping bag. The night became cold and damp but sleeping wasn’t a problem.

The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament - Briary Creek LakeFriday morning it was time to pre-fish. We awoke to a very cool and damp morning which was a chill to the bone. Taking it easy and in no hurry and we left camp around 8 am in search of coffee and some breakfast sandwiches. In the country gas stations seem to be the place for quick breakfast sandwiches and coffee. Ricky found a gas station that had some amazing coffee and decent breakfast food. From there it was onto fishing at Briery Creek Lake a nationally recognized lake for its record breaking  Largemouth Bass.

MVI_6730-1John Oast called in as he was on his way down from PA. He is a local to the area being born and raised nearby, He gave us some info on where to launch and I plugged the road into my GPS. 45 min later we were on a windy wooded dirt country road headed downhill to the lake. At the end we found a gate and no real access to the lake. It turned out the road number was the same on the other side of the lake!. So we circled halfway around the lake to the actual boat launch area. It was time to hit the water!

IMG_6751Briery Creek Lake is told to be one of the top Bass fishing destinations in the country. Loaded with timber or dead trees from when the Dam was built flooding the valley. Much of the timber resides just inches below the water line. Its easy to catch one of these in the kayak scupper and get stuck or have one hit the hull the wrong way and flip you right over. Caution was the #1 priority here. This timber is structure which holds a ton of bass. For me fishing freshwater is something that doesn’t happen often and it is always a learning experience. Fishing timber is one of those learning curves brought by this unique location. The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament - Matt Trucks BassAttempting spinner baits and soft plastic worms not having any luck. Switched over to a crank bait in a shallow cove. The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament - Jackson Kayak Cuda 14At a sharp drop off from inches of water to about 6 feet I found the bass hanging on beds. I landed two fish up to 17 inches which is a record for me from the kayak. The bite only lasted a few minutes. By the time Ricky came over it was pretty much over. He missed one as it shook itself off his lure. By this time The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament - John 'Toast' OastJohn Oast had arrived and we met up with him. He gave us some pointers and he ended up with a dink before we called it a day. On the way back to camp in search of a tarp for the tents since heavy rain was in the forecast. We located a Lowes where I purchased a tarp which would be very much needed for the night to come.

The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament- Captains Meeting Foods 2016Back at camp we met up at the captains meeting. The ability to purchase raffle tickets was available for 3 different raffles. A general raffle which had pretty generous prizes such as an Orion cooler, an assortment of paddles, electronics, and just about any YakAttack product you could think of. Another raffle was for a nice fishing rod benefiting a local fellow (I forget his name) whom was a big part of the tournament and the sport. And the big raffle was for 4 different kayaks and a fishing SUP. The rules were discussed a prayer was said and it was time to feast. One rumor proven true is that the Yakattack tournament provided the best meals. Captains meeting dinner consisted of an excellent seafood soup, Rib eyes, T bones along with Ribs, hotdogs, and a ton of sides. The brownies were so good! They definitely eat well in the country and are generous to their guests!

 

The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament - CampFollowing dinner we went to back to camp to settle in for the night. It began raining late in the evening. Awaking to the sound of buckets of water being dropped on the tarp over the tent it poured for 3 hours non stop. Amazingly the tarp kept the tents dry. Opting to sleep in anyway and wait out the weather.

The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament - RickyIMG_6748It was a damp cool and wet morning that eventually became an overcast day. Ricky and I left camp around 7:30 after the rain had ended. We attempted to find a gas station breakfast but didn’t have much luck. Ricky ate a questionable plastic wrapped breakfast sandwich as I opted to find something better.

Fishing wasn’t good. Couldn’t find the bass. Fished Briery Creek Lake for about 5 hours with really no luck. I threw just about every different color in my tackle box along with different lures such as spinner baits, crank, creature baits, baits and plastic worms. Nothing produced unfortunately. However I do feel the angler pressure from the previous day 4 inches of rain totaling out to a 1 foot rise in water level along with the cooling down of the water temps had a lot to do with the lack of fish caught there on tournament day. However it didn’t matter to Ricky and I. We were there to have fun which is what the YakAttack tournament is all about.

IMG_6778There’s no prizes for catching the biggest fish besides a fish print from Rob Choi and bragging rights. Typically the freshwater tournaments are money prizes. In this case the prizes were raffled out to everyone that was registered and all of the proceeds were to benefit charity’s such as Heroes on The Water and Project Healing Waters.

Back at the awards dinner the winners of the tournament were announced. Representatives of the respective charity’s spoke a little and raffles were read off in between. Dinner was then served as the raffles continued. Once again the food was excellent. It was a joy to be resent at the YakAttack tournament this year.IF you have never been do check it out next year! You will not be disappointed. Keep an eye out for future tournament announcements on the YakAttack Forums.

Thanks to John Hipsher, Luther, his family, and everyone else that worked so hard to make it such a successful event. The 8th Annual YakAttack Tournament was a great experience for us all.

My apologies this post should have been finished months ago.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwPsPYQvP9o&feature=youtu.be

Wrap Up: 2015 MAKBF Series Championship Tournament

A Mid-Atlantic Kayak Bass Fishing free entry I had acquired in a charity raffle at the 2015 CBKA Tournament opened the door to the another side of kayak fishing. A side myself am not too familiar with. The freshwater kayak fishing Bass tournament series. As a primary saltwater angler my focus is always on the tournaments that focus on targeting saltwater species. Fishing freshwater lakes about 3-4 days a year this was to be a challenge. I wasn’t in any way a threat to anyone in the series but sometimes luck is just on your side!

DPS InvertedAfter a 3.5 hour drive from my home in New Jersey arriving at Delaware Paddlesports in Lewes Delaware to check in and receive the tournament unique Identifier. It had just become dark and the cool air was settling in. A few guys were hanging out near a nice warm fire in the back lot. Enjoying some brews talking kayak fishing and even kayak rigging this was my crowd! It was great to meet Matt Baden the tournament commissioner and see the guys Chris Alan and John! At this point the attempt was to maybe find a fishing buddy or get some intel of where to fish. It didn’t seem anyone was willing to give up locations being that it was the Championship round and was expected although as stated I was no threat.  It was around 9PM when I left DPS and was to stay with my parents for the night. They live a short distance away. Beats camping in the cold plus get the chance to spend some time with them.

IMG_3405Arriving at my parents home after enjoying a sandwich I resumed my prior research on where to fish. The pacific warriors kayak fishing TV show was on which I have mixed feelings on. Although it was good background noise. Previously at home I had scoured google maps on satellite mode looking for a pond that wasn’t incredibly weedy but had the potential for bass. Also was looking for a fishing location that was close to the tournament HQ. The conclusion was to fish Wagamonds pond in Milford DE.

The tournament venue was the entire state of Delaware. Any public fresh body of water was within the boundaries. A total of three bass was needed to qualify. The tournament is linked to the online TourneyX system as all KBF affiliated tournaments  do. This allows catch photos to be uploaded to the internet and submitted in real time via Cell Phone.

Arriving at Wagamonds Pond at 6:45 am after a WaWa breakfast wrap and a Signature Blend Coffee. The sun had risen but it was really cool morning in the high 30’s. There were bass boats in line to launch at the ramp. I figured this was a good sign! Talking to one of the anglers they apparently had never fished the pond but were hoping for the best. Rigging up my kayak as all of the other boats launched dropping in shortly after.

IMG_3440G0018447Paddling away form the boat anglers I went directly to a point that had pads and some vegetation. Ton of casts and changing up baits finally on a weightless texas rigged motor oil colored soft plastic worm strung on a Penetration hook a hit and ending up with a pickerel @ 21″.PickerelMAKBF
Kept casting that plastic and more of the same. It was great catching fish but I was looking to catch bass. Moving around on the Big Rig using my Aqua Bound Challenge SUP paddle. Several other kayak anglers showed up fishing the pond but none came close to me to say hello or anything. The wind had picked up around 9am and didn’t stop. Along with overcast that rolled in 15-20 steady with 25-30 gusts. Pond white caps is something different for most but the little wave action almost brought me back to home.

IMG_3442The 8′ Yak Attack Park n Pole saved the day for me. Able to paddle to a location then lance the Park N Pole stick into the lake bottom using my anchor trolley to stay put stand and cast. A much quicker system than anchoring with a traditional anchor. Luckily this pond wasn’t very deep in most areas!

Throughout the morning with overcast, cool temps, plus the wind that began around 8:30 am; it was actually pretty cold. At some point I had posted online to the event Facebook page hoping they had the fire going for when we got back.

 

Around 11:30 the clouds finally broke and let some sun warm up the body. The bite had died off. Another 2 hours of fishing and nothing. With the wind still howling decision to pack it in had been made. Only a half hour from DPS parking there around 3PM. The smell of burgers grilling and the sound of music playing was very inviting. It was soon to be awards time! Receiving a nice tournament bag packed with nice socks from Farm to Feet and other nice swag!

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The awards began. Being the championship there were many! The awards were given out for the day and the entire series. Most of the guys and gals whom fished the series were present to accept their prizes. There were over $8,000 worth in prizes and a total of $7,875 money distributed to winners in the entire series which consisted of a number of events that were hosted in multiple states such as Delaware Maryland Pennsylvania Virginia and West Virginia. The tournament also donated a total of $620 to the local chapters of Heroes on The Water! For Official Results Check out MAKBF.

If you are located within the area of this MAKBF Tournament series please do check it out! The official website is http://www.makbfseries.com/ and on facebook.

 

 

MAKBF 2015 Group

2015 MAKBF Final Results

Final Event Standings

1st Place: Louis Martinez 53.25″ – $330, Power-Pole Micro Anchor System, YakAttack Prize Pack
2nd Place: Aaron White 52″ – $198, Farm to Feet “Sock Drawer Makeover”
3rd Place: Danny Schanne 49.25″ 
– $132, Smallie Stix Rod
4th Place: Chris Rios 48.5″ – Astral Kayak Shoes,
5th Place: Noah Tomasik 48″ – $50 Butter It Baits Gift Card

6th Place :Julie Tomasik 48″ – PowerTeam Lures Kit
7th Place: Jedediah Plunkert 46.5″ – Bass Assassin Lures Prize Pack, Cablz Eyewear Retainers


Top 20 Angler of the Year

1. Jedediah Plunkert – 61*
2. CJ Espey – 51+
3. Matt Eikenberg – 36*
4. Peter Manthos – 33*
5. Michael Chaney – 32+
6. Matt Campbell – 28*
7. Josh Evans – 23*
8. Matt Yuschak – 23*
9. Dave Adlington – 21*
10. Joe Deisvaldi – 21*
11. Chris Watts – 21+
12. Jeff Little – 21@
13. Dave Thompson – 14*
14. Shane Clift – 11*
15. Louis Martinez – 10
16. Danny Schanne – 10
17. Aaron White – 9
18. Jeremy Savage – 9
19. Alberto Tabian – 9
20. AJ Morton – 9

*Qualified for KBF National Championship
+Previously Qualified for KBF National Championship
@Passed on qualification to next angler