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The captain meeting for this tournament was on Friday at 7:00pm. The Tournament and awards dinner occurred on Saturday. This year we would have a great showing at this Tournament by the Maryland Kayak Fishing (MKF) group comprising of kayak anglers from the Washington DC, Northern VA and Maryland locations.
The plan was for us to meet at the Bass Pro Shop outside of Richmond, and possibly have lunch there, then caravan down to the Lake Wright Center. I was the second person to arrive at BPS. Turfnik and his wife were there first. Soon after John Foley and Rockchaser arrived. We basically did a little shopping and had lunch at the Bass Pro Shop Restaurant. Tufnik and his wife did not stay for lunch. No one else made it to the BPS stop because the weather was so bad. It was raining all day, with local flash floods being reported. In light of this, the rest of the group just drove straight to their hotel, or they left work late and was caught in major traffic tie ups. When John, Rockchaser and myself left Bass Pro Shop I heard on the radio of tornado warnings in the Hampton area. Just great, more bad weather that made traffic terrible. We finally, made it to our respective Hotels around 5:00pm.
At the captain's meeting, we were given the rules of the Tournament. Launch time was set to 6:30am. I decided to try an area that I have never fished before, the Back River. We launched off of a free public ramp at the end of Dandy Point Road. I fished around a duck blind, but caught nothing. Fishing was slow in the morning until 9:30am when I got the skunk off and landed my first trout at 10 inches. I went across the Back River to the other side and fished the grassy shoreline in 4 feet of water using a popping cork rig. Well, that was my ticket. Using the popping cork in the area with a 24 inch leader under the cork tipped with a white 3.5 inch swimming mullet was my ticket to landing trout. I caught a 10 to 12 inch trout on almost every cast. I even trolled with it at a slow speed and caught a speckled trout over 18inches. I even caught a 12 inch flounder with the cork during the morning. After getting tired of catching trout, I moved out to the mouth of the river and bottom fished. I ended up catching, perch, spot, gray seatrout, mullet/ whiting and a crab in 15 to 25 feet of water. All in all it was a good day catching 6 species and a crab. The weather held up. I did not encounter any light rain until I made it back to land and loaded up my kayak. TKAA always but on a good event. There were $42,000 in prizes donated by the 90+ sponsors, and they raised allot of money for charity. One of our own MKF members, Pinch (Jack) won first place in the redfish division. The prize was a kayak. During the award ceremony most of the MKF members sat together. I think a good time was had by all.
After the award ceremony a few of us went out and fished the HRBT where I caught large croakers, a spot, fat toad fish, and dozens of snapper blues. I went back to the HRBT on Sunday morning, but the fishing had slowed way down as a weather front moved in and the winds and chop/swells picked up. The drive home was a little difficult for me, but I made several stops along the way to regroup. I will be at the next TKAA tournament next year.
The plan was for us to meet at the Bass Pro Shop outside of Richmond, and possibly have lunch there, then caravan down to the Lake Wright Center. I was the second person to arrive at BPS. Turfnik and his wife were there first. Soon after John Foley and Rockchaser arrived. We basically did a little shopping and had lunch at the Bass Pro Shop Restaurant. Tufnik and his wife did not stay for lunch. No one else made it to the BPS stop because the weather was so bad. It was raining all day, with local flash floods being reported. In light of this, the rest of the group just drove straight to their hotel, or they left work late and was caught in major traffic tie ups. When John, Rockchaser and myself left Bass Pro Shop I heard on the radio of tornado warnings in the Hampton area. Just great, more bad weather that made traffic terrible. We finally, made it to our respective Hotels around 5:00pm.
At the captain's meeting, we were given the rules of the Tournament. Launch time was set to 6:30am. I decided to try an area that I have never fished before, the Back River. We launched off of a free public ramp at the end of Dandy Point Road. I fished around a duck blind, but caught nothing. Fishing was slow in the morning until 9:30am when I got the skunk off and landed my first trout at 10 inches. I went across the Back River to the other side and fished the grassy shoreline in 4 feet of water using a popping cork rig. Well, that was my ticket. Using the popping cork in the area with a 24 inch leader under the cork tipped with a white 3.5 inch swimming mullet was my ticket to landing trout. I caught a 10 to 12 inch trout on almost every cast. I even trolled with it at a slow speed and caught a speckled trout over 18inches. I even caught a 12 inch flounder with the cork during the morning. After getting tired of catching trout, I moved out to the mouth of the river and bottom fished. I ended up catching, perch, spot, gray seatrout, mullet/ whiting and a crab in 15 to 25 feet of water. All in all it was a good day catching 6 species and a crab. The weather held up. I did not encounter any light rain until I made it back to land and loaded up my kayak. TKAA always but on a good event. There were $42,000 in prizes donated by the 90+ sponsors, and they raised allot of money for charity. One of our own MKF members, Pinch (Jack) won first place in the redfish division. The prize was a kayak. During the award ceremony most of the MKF members sat together. I think a good time was had by all.
After the award ceremony a few of us went out and fished the HRBT where I caught large croakers, a spot, fat toad fish, and dozens of snapper blues. I went back to the HRBT on Sunday morning, but the fishing had slowed way down as a weather front moved in and the winds and chop/swells picked up. The drive home was a little difficult for me, but I made several stops along the way to regroup. I will be at the next TKAA tournament next year.
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