Flats Success

[jffoley]

Regrettably, the very first annual Susquehanna Flats Kayak Fishing Jamboree ( www.sfkfj.com ) fell on the same weekend as the Fletcher's meet & greet. Tough choice but I'm kinda fond of big stripers. Saw the reports. Looks like it was a great time. Congrats on all the fish especially that walleye! Nice!

Anyways, a bunch of your fellow MKF members decided to try this first annual jamboree. Awesome event. 50 - 60 yakers plus GF's, wives, kids and others. Food was great, a pig roast, salads and desserts, too.

Michael, aka Redfish12, was the big winner. But... NO, too late to the weigh-in. However, he could give a rat's pitoody as you might be able to tell from that $hit grin! Biggest rock he's ever caught. Congrats Michael!!

There were plenty of other fish taken early in the day. I think the winner went 40", 2nd 37". Me? caught a hickory shad. On a rubber eel of all things. In the mouth! Not much of a fight. :-)

They tore 'em up this morning...

[Ahab]

Foley,

Thanks for the update; I've been curious how things went.

Any general areas where most of the big fish were caught?

How was the wind yesterday and today?

I was out all morning Friday in a pretty brisk wind; didn't see any other yakkers out there.

[jffoley]

Flat calm both yesterday and today early. Yesterday a breeze kicked up from the SE in the afternoon. Launched from Tydings in Harve de Grace. Right out front at the mouth of the Susquehanna. The chart says something about a seaplane landing area. Fish are active at dawn and dusk. A pick otherwise...

[ictalurus]

Holy cow, that's an awesome fish. Congrats even if it wasn't the winner. Sounds like it was a blast. I hope there are more pics from the other guys.

[Pinch]

Fished the Flats this morning with Grilled Sardine, Redfish and Rockchaser. I landed my personal best (or at least tied my best) @ 33'' and FAT. Very nice launch and fishery up there.

kayak wars picture:

[jffoley]

WTG, Jack!

I, for one, will be doing this jamboree thingie again next year! Probably will rain, wind, etc. But I do like big stripers... And I would appreciate it if you show me how to catch those big reds!

P.S. What's with the hockey 'stache? :-)

[Redfish12]

It was definitely a lot of fun! Mullet (Bob) Miller and his gang did an awesome job putting this thing together in only a few months! Thanks a lot guys! As for missing the weight-in? Who cares! That's not why I go to these things! Supporting HOW and fellowship with the kayak nation were my goals! Thanks again guys!

That big fish was my only hookup of the day and definitely a lucky catch! My depth finder wasn't working and neither was John's so we were paddling blind. I fished with the gang this morning and we followed Jack's contour lines with much better results! Lots of small fish and steady catching all morning. Both Pinch and I got PB fish this weekend, got to love that!

If you guys have the time you should definitely get out there! I know I'll be going again next year! We had a pretty large MKF group which was a blast! I'm looking forward to more good times at JBay.

[jet]

awesome fish guys! i had planned on going, but overslept. decided not to go since i had to be off the water early (caps game was a must see for me).

[camelbird]

NICE FISH!!!

Congrats

[ictalurus]

Great fish, Jack. I like the "V" for victory camera pose/angle, too. Gotta like it when the fish is too long for the hog trough.

[jffoley]

awesome fish guys! i had planned on going, but overslept. decided not to go since i had to be off the water early (caps game was a must see for me).

Worked out well, right. 2x OT win. Nice. Great game! Understand. I skipped game 2 of NYR vs Ott. NYR loss in OT. :-( Woulda been pi$$ed watching that when NYR had the game with 4 min left. Better to be camping & drinking beer this particular night! :-)

[chimo]

Ended up launching at 0530 for the tournament. After a couple technical problems I headed straight out to where the first wave of yakers had gone and swung north to give them a bit of room and immediately started having fish rolling all around me. Started throwing a chatterbait with a bkd trailer that was ignored, then throwing an x-rap with the same results. The fish had moved so I started trolling a tandem rig with a chartreuse 1ounce stump jumper bucktail and 3/4 ounce jig head with pink bkd and a pink xrap on the other rod. Started running a grass line and picking up rock up to about 20 inches on all three. The normal fish were quite a bit smaller

A gentleman in a boat was throwing a spook and catching some good fish. Once the sun came up things slowed way down for me. I tried a variety of places deep in the grass, out in the middle of no where, along the north shore riprap etc, etc only picking up the occasional short fish. Tried fishing for Bass for a while after seeing all the bass boats around without any luck. Decided maybe I could find a catfish so I dropped some crawlers around in a little deeper water. The bites came fast but they were a little smaller than I was expecting Weren't quite cats either.

Having 2 species I figured I should try harder for the 3rd and the slam so I went back to trying for bass. Started pitching lures around shallow cover to no avail. I did catch this monster though

Really wanted to join you guys sunday morning after watching Mike land his pig but had other obligations. All told, ended up with close to ten rock and 4 white perch. Definately think I could have won the smallest fish award if it had been a category Good fishin

chimo

[tufnik]

Wow, I like big rocks. So, congrats Mike on an awesome cow! And you too Pinch. In fact, all of you guys. Now I want a big one

Hey, Mike, I think you can submit your pic to Hobie, if they are still looking for a pic.

[Rockchaser]

I had a great time at the Susquehanna Jamboree. I only landed 1 Rock on Saturday. A 21 incher hit my lure about 4 minutes after I had lines in the water. I was thinking wow this is going to be a great day of fishing. Well, it was a great day for some (Mike).

Around midnight Saturday night Mike aka REDFISH says Pinch and Grilled Sardine will be here around 5:00 you in? I put the top back on the bottle of Makers Mark and went to bed. Sunday morning was a much better day of fishing. Several fish caught all mine under 20" but lots of fun. The water was as flat as a swimming pool.

Good times!!!

[Redfish12]

It was definitely tough getting up on Sunday that early! Glad we did though, I had a lot of laughs fishing with the gang. I can't wait to get a camera set up so people can see all the bonehead things I do on the kayak... My favorite on Sunday was Indiana Jones'ing my visipole... twice.