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Meet the Author
May 2016, sat in my first kayak.
October 2016, skunked in my first tournament.
Spring of 2017, placed 11th in the KBF Open and have chased the addiction since.
Fishing is the one place my mind gets quiet, the place I have always found peace. To do it competitively with a great bunch of folks is just a bonus. To have an opportunity to combine my love for fishing with writing…I feel like I have finally found a place in this world!
I do have the support of a wonderful woman who understands my need to be on the water; she supports my dreams fully….life is truly good.
The inaugural Dee Zee KBF/FLW professional kayak bass fishing tournament presented by YakAttack was held on Nickajack Lake in Tennessee on May 3-4th. 103 anglers representing 23 states launched at various points between Chickamauga Dam and Nickajack Dam hoping to win, or at least qualify for the KBF/FLW pairing at the Forest Wood Cup to be held in Arkansas on August 9-11th.
The top twenty anglers not only qualified, but had their tournament fees waived for the upcoming event.
Chad Hoover, the man behind KBF, brought the event together in conjunction with an FLW tournament held on Chickamauga. It was the culmination of a vision, lots of hard work and the determination of Chad and his team; allowing kayakers to appear on a larger stage than ever before, reaching a much wider audience. It was the first time many of the anglers had been exposed to a professional tournament and the crowd that comes to see the weigh-ins.
For the crowd, it was an information session. Many were unaware of how a CPR (catch, photo, release) kayak tournament works, how the kayakers launch, how we use TourneyX to submit fish; and for some people, that we even existed. Chad and the top anglers were able to explain that a kayak “weigh in” is extremely different, but the lures and techniques are still the same. It was also an opportunity for them to personally ask the kayak anglers about the growing sport.
Jump to Section: Pre-Fishing | Event Kicks Off | Top Baits and Patterns | Navigating Tournament Waters | Bogdan Korostetskyi Wins
Reports during pre-fishing were mixed. Anglers reported finding the fish shallow, deep, in the river, above and below the dams; everywhere. People were catching numbers, not everyone was catching size. A survey of the kayak anglers had them catching fish on everything from crankbaits to spinnerbaits, swimbaits to jigs, shaky heads to chatterbaits; everything in between. The weather and water temp remained pretty consistent during the days leading up to the event and the fish were biting.
Everywhere you would drive during the days leading up to day one, there would be kayaks traveling the highways and back roads to cover the 46 miles of water that compromised the boundaries. At any launch, you would find a kayak trailer or angler among the locals and bass boats. Nothing within the boundaries was untouched.
Alan Reed a relatively new bass fisherman and ANGLR Expert who classifies himself as a “power finesse” angler, was just coming off a KBF Pro Tour win on Big Hill Lake in Kansas when he rolled into Tennessee on Wednesday for the event. He pedaled his 2016 Wilderness Radar 135 almost thirty miles trying to find fish on the first two days of pre-fishing with very limited success. The fluke that had helped him to win in Kansas provided no clues on Nickajack.
He traveled down with fellow Indiana ANGLR Expert Sam Jones, who put his years of bass fishing experience to work studying the maps and had located some fish in his Bonafide. The two had been fishing in different spots on the lake trying to locate size, and by Friday they settled on a spot that Sam and Alan were certain held more than enough space and size to give them a chance for the win.
Jump to Section: Pre-Fishing | Event Kicks Off | Top Baits and Patterns | Navigating Tournament Waters | Bogdan Korostetskyi Wins
Alan started day one with a Texas rigged Strike King Rage menace he fished on a 2/0 Trokar wide gap hook and a Pro Tungsten 1/8 ounce weight. He fished it on a King Angler 7’ 2” medium heavy fast action bait caster with 30-pound test braid and a 15-pound test leader. He chose this combination because he “just felt more comfortable with the line weight” while popping the menace in 1 to 8-feet of water on a rocky bank.
Sam on the other hand started the day with an FX(treme) Custom rod rigged with a Wicked Willow bladed swimbait hook by Wicked Weights and found fish gorging themselves on a shad spawn. His largest fish came while fishing this bait along the bank, then backing off and fishing a bit deeper.
This technique would have left a casual observer thinking that he was fishing shallow, but he was running the bait parallel to the bank covering several areas of the water column.
Both quickly found limits on the southern end of the lake. Then as the day progressed, both switched to shaky heads after thunderstorms and winds rolled across the lake. Alan used a Trokar shaky head tipped with a Biospawn Plasma Tail in green pumpkin (and a chartreuse ball on the tail) on a King Angler medium heavy 7’ 2” spinning rig. Sam went with a Sergeant Shaky green pumpkin shaky head tipped with a Bizz Baits Dizzy Diamond in green pumpkin on an FX Custom rod. The pattern held true for them both days, leaving Alan in 32nd place and Sam in 22nd and three-quarters of an inch out of the top ten.
Jump to Section: Pre-Fishing | Event Kicks Off | Top Baits and Patterns | Navigating Tournament Waters | Bogdan Korostetskyi Wins
A lot of guys used the same tactics as Alan and Sam, and others found success with Senkos. Seventh place finisher, Joshua Howell of Kentucky, primarily used a wacky rigged senko and a ten inch worm he dragged around some rip rap to catch two good limits. Terry Elkins used the wacky rig to fill a limit, in the top ten on day one, before moving to a chatterbait.
Many anglers in the top 10 were fishing chatterbaits during the event. Jody Queen pulled a solid eighth place finish. Cory Dreyer, the sixth place finisher, had the chatterbait tied on, in addition to a Strike King Rage bug. Third place finisher Jordan Marshall also threw a bladed jig on day one, before switching to a D-Bomb on day two.
Cody Milton (codyyakfishing), the 2018 KBF angler of the year and one of the more consistent anglers on the trail, was fishing with very different techniques that landed him in fourth.
He was running parallel to channel swings bumping an Accent Spinnerbait off the rocks to trigger a reaction bite. The fish were reacting better to crankbaits with the same technique, but they were smaller. His bait was much more productive under the clouds and rain of day one, but the bait still produced his biggest fish on day two landing him comfortably in fourth overall and leaving him “looking forward to competing alongside the FLW guys again in Hot Springs”.
Cody attributes much of his success on Nickajack to the Torqueedo motor on his Hobie PA 12. While he was only two miles from the launch, he traveled well over 11 miles both days rotating between 6 different 70-100 yard stretches where he had keyed in on fish.
Jump to Section: Pre-Fishing | Event Kicks Off | Top Baits and Patterns | Navigating Tournament Waters | Bogdan Korostetskyi Wins
A motor is not required to be successful on the kayak trails but many of the anglers are finding it very helpful for events like Nickajack where storms, wind, and rain are factors. A lot of guys are using them to cover more water and hold them in place while fishing under rougher conditions. Cody credited it for a part of his success; while Sam Jones commented on the issues of fishing without one in the wind.
“I am in a Bonafide kayak and spent too much time paddling.” Sam was fishing a spot, catching fish, when a local angler pulled up and started casting into his spot. At that point, he was in a position to win the event and talked with the guy.
“I am fishing for almost thirteen thousand dollars (with the Bonafide and DeeZee bonuses), are you fishing a tournament?” His reply, “OK, I am just fishing.”
Yet, the guy didn’t move on, so Sam had to move to a location that would be affected by the wind. His technique had been casting up shallow and parallel to the bank, but now the wind was pinning him on the rocks.
“…when you catch them, they were running straight to the rocks. I hooked the biggest fish I had all year and it went straight to the rocks…a twenty-inch class fish…and broke me off on a jagged boulder! I took some deep breaths…made another cast, had a 17-18 inch fish spit the hook. Another breath…. another 17-18…spits the hook.”
This is a story that was echoed during day one and two when the wind picked up. Kayaks are light and efficient fishing boats, but in the wind they can lose the battle. There were more than a few kayaks huddled under bridges, some tied to each other to hold still while the storms blasted the lake. More than one angler could be seen paddling against the wind with very little movement forward.
Sam seems to share the position of many anglers.
“I enjoy paddling and have been committed to paddling the kayak. I have been fishing since I was a kid and was a boat fisherman. I wouldn’t buy another bass boat. Since stepping into a kayak, my dream has been to do this professionally….why do I keep handicapping myself… putting myself out of contention because I like to paddle? I am adding a motor!”
He like many others has already or plans to add a motor in order to give himself every advantage possible.
There were also great moments for some anglers. Ron Champion’s move from 61st place on day one to land in the top ten, Jim Clark smashing them in the back of a creek on day two after moving where no one else had gone, myself catching limits for two days for the first time in months! But there was also a lot of challenges for many on the water. Jody Queen had his depth finder go dark, losing all the waypoints he had set during pre-fishing. Sam Jones returned to camp to find his tent collapsed, forcing him to stay on the ramp during the night; his phone had also played out on day one. Eric Siddiqi lost a tire after check in. That’s the fun of kayak fishing, you never know if you’ll get the ups or the downs.
Jump to Section: Pre-Fishing | Event Kicks Off | Top Baits and Patterns | Navigating Tournament Waters | Bogdan Korostetskyi Wins
In the end, it was Bogdan Korostetskyi’s tournament. Bogdan, a Michigan angler who moved to the U.S. from the Ukraine in 2010, was crowned the first ever KBF/FLW winner after leading day one also. Those in the crowd who know and fish against him in Michigan were not surprised that he came out on top. They claimed he is a solid stick who is always capable of finding fish and getting them to the kayak, and the win proved it.
The young man was able to outpace a day two charge by Ryan Lambert (just off a major KBF pro win on Guntersville) who had been chasing smallmouths up north on Nickajack.
Arriving on the Wednesday before the tournament, Bogdan had struggled to find fish on the lake. Choosing to stay south in the Shellmound area, he found a few fish shallow before stumbling across humps with grass on them. He knew that a lot of anglers would be fishing shallow, so he attacked those spots with a chatterbait as the tournament began.
Jeff Fader, big winner at Bienville earlier this year, had carried him to Academy to pick up some lures. Bogdan had never bought a Jackhammer, but selected a shad patterned model, chartreuse on the bottom and gray on the top. This paid off; all of his fish came on that Z-Man Jackhammer with a DieZel Minnow as a trailer rigged on an FX(treme) 7’ 6” medium-heavy moderate fast action crankbait rod. The fish were schooling on the humps so he pulled solid limits using the same techniques he uses in Michigan.
You can check out an interview of Bogdan on Scott Beutjer’s Weigh In. Also, follow Bogdan on his YouTube channel KayakOutbreak where he will be posting a full recap with actual footage from his time on Nickajack. This young man is someone to keep your eyes on.
Jump to Section: Pre-Fishing | Event Kicks Off | Top Baits and Patterns | Navigating Tournament Waters | Bogdan Korostetskyi Wins
