OKBN Championship, Mississippi lake

The final stop of the Ontario Kayak Bass Nation is in the books and although I won't be in Texas next march there isn't much I would prefer to change about this event. There were some fish I didn't get in the kayak but that's the way it goes, even more so when your chuckin' Kermit around both days. All in all the weather held up great and the fish were chewin', and they didn't slow down all weekend even with all the fishing pressure this lake sees. This was another case of drive up and try to put it together on tournament day. I finished a 12 hour night shift Friday morning at 7am drove an hour the opposite way to pick up two of my kids drove about 4.5 hours to my parents trailer so the kiddos could have a fun weekend there and then hurried another 1.5 hours to get to the check in site on time. It wasn't ideal given what is up for grabs but with only one day of prefishing/scouting this entire season I feel like I'm getting used to it. So the lake itself seems like it is a fairly shallow,  tanic, and weedy lake. So as I was reading this online in the days proceeding the event I was figuring it was going to be all in on the largemouth game, I knew it had both species but I didn't think the size and population would be there to be competitive ... I was very wrong. But after establishing my target species I needed to find launches and access points, fortunately this lake has quite a few of them, so after a couple hours on Google maps I had 4 or 5 places to pick from. Which left me having to decide how I was going to fish, because after deciding that I could pick the launch that gives me the most options to carry out that gameplan. So with it being the back half of September, and the nights cooling down that usually means things start happening, weeds start dieing back or matting up on the surface, bait fish start to get active, and, most importantly fish start to cover water and feed. So what all that factoring in and taking into account that I think it will be a largemouth dominated event I decide the look for thick weedy areas and search the some swamp donkeys. On Google maps almost directly across from an access I found I saw a very small clump on reeds, and when I check that area on navionics it is labeled as a marsh. Perfect! Only 2.5 km from the launch, now I'm just hopeful that coming tournament morning I am the only one with this plan. But anyway I to say after check in I was exhausted was a gaint understatement. So I called it a night at around 830pm after I set my alarms for 5am, I get to sleep in, bonus.

Day 1 

I actually woke up at 4:57 wide awake so I headed to timmies then to my launch, and just like I was hoping no one else was there. It's not the prettiest launch site but it's pretty easy to find so I was kind of surprised. I was able to get loaded and set up fairly quick and I was waiting for 6am, once the clock ticked over I pushed off the small beach and headed across the lake. There were two small islands coming off of a point I figured I could start there and work my way into the marshy bay behind them. As I approached the island and started to turn in I could see an interesting weed edge that covered to side of the island and extended out onto the flat behind, it seemed like a good place to start once 7am, my starting line up was a small jackal kerara frog for open water a zman chatterbait Evo, with a rapala crush city Freeloader, a Teckle kick knocker pup, a rapala crush city bronco bug with a 3/8oz tungsten, and a Texas rigged  keitech swimbait. I also had three spinning rods one with a weedless senko, another with a Smeltinator swimbait head and a small rapala crush city mayor, and the last was a wacky rigged senko. 7am hit and I sent my first cast towards some reeds coming off of a point and before the frog even hut the water, SNAP! The line broke in mid air, I quickly made my way over grabbed the line pulled the frog in and retied. After retieing I backed out and started covering the weed edge again. When I got to the back side of the island, I could see a small rock pile that extended out into a patch of emergent reeds, so I toss the kerara into the small pocket two twitches and boom, a nice blow up and the line goes tight I smash it back and... SNAP. Again! This isn't looking good, it's time to switch it up, I put that rod down and get the heavy stick out and throw the spro bronze eye frog on that. I don't know what is going on with the line on that reel but switch it out. I continued throwing the frog around with no luck and then switched to the chatterbait when I got near the break line of the flat, third cast in and I go smoked off of a rock point but no sooner did I set the hook and the line snapped for the third time, but I was pretty confident it was a pike this time as the break was too clean and too effortless. Nonetheless I turned back and looked more to the open water on the edge of the weedline and through the kick knocker pup around, couple casts in and my first successful hook up a couple nice jumps and it ends up in the net. A 16.75 inch largemouth bass, not a bad way to start the day, it was the only one though as after that fish went back I spent another 20 minutes or so in that area searching for another bite but came up empty. So I crossed the narrow channel and started making my way into the bay along the shoreline trying to cast my way into the marsh area. The sun was lighting up the lake by now and I was finally able to get a good look around and as I approached the first section of weeds I saw that other kayak angler from earlier fishing the outside edge. I stayed well inside from him and eventually opted to move out and around him up to the next section giving him that stretch of shoreline to himself. When I hopped around him I saw just how vast this marsh area really was and I even saw a couple areas that looked like they went back quiet a ways. So making a mental note of that plus, having a live target frog already tied on with 50lb braid I started throwing the frog into the thick stuff pretty much right away, initially I thought about trying the outside weed edge first and around noon moving in a froggin' from then on but the wind had kicked up a little and I would have been constantly getting blown into the reeds. It was a nice mix though because it was sparce enough to allow me to fish it but thick enough so that I stayed continuously moving at a slow enough pace that I could hit pretty much every open pocket effectively. It didn't take long to start getting some attention either. I had so many blow ups and hits on day 1 I actually ended up having to replace the strands that make the frog legs just to keep fishing the other 5 frogs I started the day with had been so mangled they would sink after 4 or 5 seconds in the water. There really wasn't much change throughout the day or audibles called, as the day went on though I did notice that when I was in the shallower areas it helped if I found the outlier of mixed vegetation, and in the deeper areas look for pockets of open water and focus on the area of it with the thickest reed wall. As it goes when fishing with a frog it's not always the best for hooking up and that was certainly the case as I easily had over 30 blow ups on it just on day 1 alone and only connected on about 12 fish, with a couple shaking off a couple seconds later. The only surprising thing was the fish that would miss entirely would rarely come back for a second time. I ended up catching 9 bass by the end of the day for 77.75 and good enough for 21st place after day 1. I should have had little more than that as I had a 15.75 on the board and just as I was about to snap a photo he decided to go for a swim so that would have put me at an even 80" for the day instead this is how it shook out. 

17.50 largemouth , 16.75 largemouth, 15 largemouth, 14.50 largemouth, and 13.50 largemouth. 

I figured that going into day 2 there were more then enough fish in shallow to limit out and I had some really nice fish blow up and miss the frog and not hit again or shake off quick so the chance of posting a better day 2 than average seemed plausible. I had read and even heard from locals about how much pressure the lake gets on average. On top of that now there was a week of kayak anglers prefishing for this event plus all the local boaters and cottagers out and about. I was hoping that the fish running around outside of these marsh type areas would have dwindled down and either locked up or not been sustaining the size that they showcased on day 1. I wasn't very confident that I could make a top 5 finish now but I still wouldn't mind a top ten, either way I knew that tomorrow I was going to lock that frog rod in my hand and swing for the fences every time. 

Day 2 

So yesterday while I making my way back in to the launch I was able to see just how far down this marsh went. I maybe covered half of it yesterday, and given that I didn't have another kayak near me for most of the day, I figured I would be able to start at that north end that I didn't fish yesterday. By doing so I hoped to not only capitalize on an active bite but new water that likely hasn't been pressured as much, and still leave myself the chance to punch back out and get down towards the area I missed fish in previously. I launched and started north west, the wind was fairly the same as the previous day maybe a little chillier in the morning but nothing crazy so the bite should still be going good. The first area I came to was actually more out into open water then I had planned but it looked good and I wanted some sun on the water before I pushed into the thicker cover and really got into it. The area I started in was attached to the main marsh section but it came out in a long curved point that slowly faded and opened up. Hoping to fish a bit quicker through the sparcer weeds I started by throwing a buzzbait and looking to cover water and hopefully get an early fish on the board. This wasn't the case, I made four passes through the reeds and dozens of casts and nothing. So once the reeds got to thick to pull the buzzbait through I switched to the frog and wouldn't you know it. Third cast with the frog into a small open pocket boom, I got a decent look as the whole bass came out and while it completely missed the frog it was okay because I'm not even sure it would have scored had I brought it in. The reeds quickly thickend and made the plan of letting the wind slow push me through impossible so I was left to paddle, and cast, paddle, and cast. It didn't take long though to get one to the kayak, maybe 20 minutes later a the frog got slurped up by a chucky 15" largemouth, and with that is seemed like is was going to be another day full of action. As I continued exploring the thick weeds though the bite slowed and even stopped it seemed I was still able to get bit but after getting those two hits in about 20 mins it slowed to a blow up about once ever 35-40 minutes. However it seemed like the fish that were interested were much more on target as the next 3 fish to hit all inhaled the frog and left no doubt. Some time had passed and it had slowed yet again and now it was approaching noon now and I only had the four fish in the board. That first fish 15", 16.50", 15", 16.75". I wasn't planning on the slower action given how active everything was the day before and the similar weather so I decided to make the jump and trace back the water I fished yesterday for the last three hours hoping that I could hit a couple spots where larger fish showed up but didn't connect. As I made my way there I am accompanied by a boater who is throwing around in the reeds as well but he is staying out into the deeper water and into more of the sparce reed section. I can't help but notice he is finding pretty quick success in that area so as I move down into the area I was headed to I decide to stay out deeper and see if maybe I was just too far in. I pulled into the first area I wanted to check and as I was casting around it seemed like the bite I was on had all but faded out. As a result I started flippin a Texas rigged rapala crush city bronco bug, and stayed in that game plan for the better part of an hour but again I came up empty and now as 1:30 had come and gone I was starting to worry if I would find that final fish to score. With the time running out and having only had luck on a frog all tournament I went back to it and started to work the edge of a large pocket, and quickly it started producing again the River2sea Bullywa II I had started throwing got smoked and as my line tightened I swung back and set, a small pike for my troubles makes it to the kayak. It's back to the search for that last bite and about three casts later I connected again, this time it was the right species, a 15" largemouth to close out my limit a little after 2pm, now just hoping for a couple upgrades to maybe crack into the top ten a couple casts later I hooked up into another fish but it wouldn't help, the last hour proved to be pretty active as three more fish would follow but none would help and 3pm rolled over and the tournament was done.

 When the dust settled I finished in 17th out of 51 anglers, it was a great tournament and a ton of fun, it's not everyday you can have as much fun and success with arguably the most fun ways to catch bass. The big line, big rods, and bigger blow ups you get on a frog are second to none. Yes granted you don't always hook up but even when you don't the visual, and audible displays are top notch and add In the anticipation of the strike and it truly is unlike anything else in bass fishing.

As alway thank you to the great anglers that come out to these events it's always such a blast and, an enjoyable experience being around such like minded and passionate anglers. Thank you to the people who put in all the work to organize and run these events as always it is because of people like you that this sport continues to grow and get better and bigger every year. And lastly thank you to the sponsors that support the OKBT and Ontario Kayak Bass Nation we are so fortunate to have the best companies in the sport fishing world supporting us and helping us maximize our time on the water making us more proficient anglers. Being a leader of innovation and quality in their respective product areas you can be assured that if they are on the OKBT Banner or website they are top tier.