Fish Stories

The Inaugural FLW / KBF Open on Nickajack Lake

Where is competitive kayak bass fishing heading? The question and the quest of Chad Hoover, founder of Kayak Bass Fishing, is about to reach the first major milestone in making history alongside the FLW tour.

Since its founding in 2013, Kayak Bass Fishing (KBF) has been on a growth trajectory not seen in years in the competitive bass fishing community. This story has been a long time coming, and I had the chance to be a part of it, and the event didn’t disappoint.

This adventure started when FLW and KBF came up with a plan for 2019, which was late in the season. This left me in a decision making situation as I, as I’m sure many others, have already had events plans set for the year. I had to pay close attention to the budget, which was also set for the year before the announcement. This left me with 2 options - Fish a bucket list lake at the Guntersville KBF Trail event, or fish the inaugural FLW / KBF Open on Lake Nickajack. Let’s take a look at what the FLW / KBF Open was about, and you will see why I made the decision to fish this event.

What was the FLW / KBF Open?

FLW and KBF decided they will hold an event open to all KBF and FLW members. The decision would be to hold this event in a nearby lake to the FLW Lake Chickamauga event. This would allow for the event to host both the weigh-in for FLW and the check-in for KBF in Dayton, TN. FLW and KBF were able to coordinate the filming of live shows as well as vlogs as well as put KBF anglers on the FLW main stage for recognition which will also air on the national FLW TV show, For most, that is a dream come true.

Lake Nickajack, sandwiched in-between Lake Chickamauga and Guntersville was an obvious choice. Although this lake gets very little press, it has been used before in conjunction with major professional bass fishing events. The lake is also a part of the Tennessee River, with the Chickamauga Dam at the top Nickajack Dam at the bottom, which leads into Lake Guntersville.

This event had another prize on top of the $5000 guaranteed first place money. The inaugural FLW / KBF Cup will be held on a nearby body of water just as the Open was. The Top 20 anglers from the open will have the $500 fee waived, and the top 100 anglers will qualify for the FLW / KBF Cup event.

The fishing at the FLW / KBF Open on Lake Nickajack

Planning for the trip, I spent countless hours looking at maps, looking at reports and studying video of past events. I had 5 key areas in mind to check, and I was able to hit 4 of them in practice. The layout of the lake is typical of a man made reservoir in Tennessee. I had certain considerations I focused on:

• Mainly post spawn at this point
• Grass - shallow and offshore
• Structure - main lake and secondary points

The fishing was so good, we were complaining. Yes, you heard that correctly. We were catching 20 plus fish per day in practice and most of us were pretty frustrated. Now don’t get me wrong, this was extremely fun, but these fish were all in the 17 Inch and below range. There are times that this is great, but when you are looking to beat over 100 anglers which include some of the best kayak bass anglers in the country, you don’t feel 17” will get it done. And as much as I wanted to make Top 20, I am always looking for the win.

Decision Making Time

Any competitive angler that says where to start in the morning of a tournament doesn’t weigh heavy on their mind, is either lying or has had luck in only one area of the lake. I had some crazy practice days, catching fish non-stop everywhere I went, so this was the toughest where to start decision I had to make in a long time. I did however find a spot that I felt was holding better quality fish, and I felt I could grind out 5 descent fish for 2 consecutive days. Decision made.

I opted for the southern part of the lake not far up from Nickajack Dam. I had found some grass in a small creek arm as well as a point that was holding fish. I had both options covered: Shallow grass and structure with deep water nearby in case the fish moved or changed feeding behavior.

The main spot was in a corner of the creak and main lake where there was a point, it had some grass and was loaded with fish, the larger 17” size. Along that shoreline I had caught a few more in the 16-17” range. The secondary spot was a point where I had marked some better fish, but had a hard time getting the better bites.

Day 1 of the FLW / KBF Cup

Day 1 was intense for a few reasons. The main reason was knowing you had less time to put together a good limit. The time was cut by about an hour or more, depending on where you launched from. Being in the southern end, my trip to Dayton was a little longer. I had to be off the water at 1pm, which was the cut off time.

I was able to get a limit quickly, and uploading was a challenge with poor cell signals. I wasted a lot of time with that, and have since adjusted my process for uploading fish because of it. All told, maybe an hour of my already shortened day was spent holding my phone up in the air trying to get the photos to upload faster.

The Top 15 by noon were all given text messages saying to be in Dayton no later than 2:30pm to be available for the stage event and video production. Getting that message was great, but now I had to definitely be at the ramp at 1pm in order to load up and take the hour trip to Dayton.

Although I didn’t make the Top 10 on Day 1, I till was in the Top 20 after day 1, not being able to upgrade much since the message was received like some others had been able to. I had a good chance though, not far off from the top of the field.

Day 2

Day 2 was a little more stressful. Had I spent too much time fishing these spots? Would they hold more on Day 2 or should I head for another area? These decision make you crazy, before and after an event.

I stuck with my spot, not being able to know if some of my other spots were hammered by other anglers in Day 1. Normally I don’t mind fishing after another angler, whether it be going down a shoreline or fishing offshore. That’s something you generally can be OK with because you won’t be casting the exact spot or with the same technique. It can still produce.

Sadly my main spot was taken by the time I reached it and the angler sat on it for the majority of the day. I fished around all my other spots and put together a limit, but sadly the sizes were not where they needed to be. I ended up out of the Top 20, but it was a fantastic experience and I was happy with at least giving myself a chance at some glory, getting closer to that childhood dream.

The 20/20 hindsight - Overlooking a key area

Looking back on the event, the winner was fishing very close to where I was in an area that was on my practice radar, but I never made it there. Not that it mattered, although I was throwing the same bait so could have had a similar outcome.

You can’t always hit every area you want to hit in practice. Time is the one thing we are limited with, especially when trying to break down new water. I had planned on hitting that area on my first practice day, but when the water and fishing was not what I was expecting on day 1 of practice, access to that area was not what I thought, completely misreading the maps not realizing most the road was actually land and not a bridge. I could scoot under. Kind of obvious when I look back at it now, funny that I spent so much time looking over maps and that I completely missed! It was still in paddling range, but I kind of just blew it off with all the productive and fishable water that was closer.

Top 10 on the Main Stage

At the end of Day 2 on the FLW main stage in Dayton, TN, Chad Hoover had some announcements before calling up the Top 10 finishers of the event. The Top 100 would be qualify for the Inaugural FLW / KBF Cup according to the promotions leading up to the event, and with 103 competing that weekend, Chad announced all who came to fish were qualified. The Top 10 were then called up one at time to claim their prize, and get the coveted air time that many of us dream about. The likes of Cory Dryer, Jody Queen and other known top anglers in the kayak community and a few not many knew about until now, including the winner Bogdan Korostetskyi, who put up a good enough Day 1 to carry him through Day 2.

I had a chance to speak with Bogdan breifly at the ramp at the end of Day 2, and I believe this young man has a great future ahead of him on the sport. You can follow him at @kayakoutbreak all over social media, where he shares all his kayak fishing footage from events he attends. Congratulations to Bogdan, and I’m sure we will see this man up on the podium again in the very near future.

FLW / KBF Cup

Qualifying for the big event in Arkansas, at a lake nearby where the FLW Cup Championship would be held, was the main goal and we all achieved it. The event location has yet to be announced at the time of this writing, but we are all chomping at the bit to find out.

There will be the $500 entry fee, with an over 100% payout promised already, and the bragging rights of National TV exposure and taking home the very first FLW / KBF Cup title. This is an epic milestone for Chad Hoover, a testimony to his hard work and dedication over the many years. I will speak for all the anglers excited about this event and say thank you to Chad and the other folks at KBF, because without all of your hard work we wouldn’t have these monumental opportunities from the seat of little plastic boats!