My Adventure in Bass Fishing

The 27 of April was the inaugural event of the Mid Atlantic Kayak Bass Fishing Tournament set up by Matt Baden of The Hobie Life Blog  at Mattawomen Creek Maryland. I really wanted to fish this tournament because I have never fished at Mattawoman nor have I ever fished for large mouth bass in tidal water. I new my chances of winning weren't good because of not ever fishing for bass this way and the fact besides wading for small mouth I have not fished for large mouth in about ten years. But ya cant win if you don't go and try. My week was hectic I haven't had the kayak out since fishing the M&G in mid March and my upgrades were still only half done. Work was not cooperating either with trying to catch up on the projects I left  when I went on vacation. My intentions were to get everything together early in the week but that just never happened and since my gear and yak reside at my buddies house I didn't even get to them until late Friday evening. I put the yak on the car strapped it down threw my tackle boxes in and went to bed. the plan was to be up by 4:30 and get my rods together get gas breakfast and hit the road its about one and a half hours to the launch.
     Well as usual with me I woke up late at 5 am went to the closet for rods and was only left with two had forgotten that I left my other 2 poles at work.  and to top it off my two piece spinning rod had the wrong end on it from my micro rod. O well it only take one rod so off I went hit royal farms store to fill the tank and the belly grab some water for the day and be on. Ahhh but not so fast after grabbing breakfast I went to pop the cap on the gas tank and it wouldn't open my 21 year old Honda wasn't having it the panel was stuck so two screwdrivers and a key later I managed to get the hatch open now I was really running late.I contemplated not going but plans were set so even if I missed the tournament at least I could get some fishing in and beside Mattawoman is loaded with snake heads and it on my list to catch some this year. I tore down the road and made it just in time to check in pay and get my card right at 7:30. it took me another half an hour to get my stuff together and shove off. Before I launched I was going to head right out of the ramp because the majority of people headed left but a navy guy on a bike that was checking out my kayak said his honey hole was to the left he said use a white jig next to the hiker biker trail and I cant miss.
       So I launch left worked in and around the pads with top water and worms I had two hits right off breaking the second one off looking back now I guess it was a snake head this lead to a problem in my haste I left mt hook box in the car and only had two worm hooks and I just lost one of them. I decide to just paddle pass everyone and hit the wall and see what I could jig up. When I arrived their were several bass boats working the wall so I worked the wooded shore with no luck until they left and then jigged down the wall to no avail I then proceeded to fish back the creek.

       About half way back I had my first nice hit and catch unfortunately it wasn't a bass but a healthy crappie.

It was still a nice fish and the skunk was off then on my next cast I broke off my last worm hook.

I pulled my kayak to shore and went through every hatch and the best I could come up with was a fluke hook off a bottom rig that had dropped out of the box last year. I fished it heading back the river without any bite then finally about 4 hours in I got a hit. The bass swirled next to me teasing and then shook off. the hook never even came out of the worm. I took my pliers and bent the hook out more and finally caught my first bass.

 

 

 

 

         My next cast went long and when I pulled it back it landed in about two inches of water and all hell broke loose a snakehead was sunning itself in the shallows and blew up on my bait I yanked back buried the hook deep and the fight was on. He ran past me then back jumped and snapped me off not only did I lose my first snakehead but also my last hook it would be no more soft plastic from there on.

         I made my way to the very back of the river where it narrows this was more familiar ground for me Using a Rapala broken back I managed to catch 3 more bass and a yellow perch one more 10 1/2" a 9 1/2" and my winning catch at somewhere around 4"



 

 

 

 

Its a Monster it hit a four inch broken back.

 

 

Matt was nice enough to give a consolation prize for smallest fish a nice AFTCO sticker pack, all and all a great day, fun tournament and good crowd 32 anglers in all.

 

 

In hind sight had I followed my intuition to head away from the crowd I would have been where most of the larger fish were caught and where the top fisherman went but I'm not sure I would have had any better luck there. The winning number was 49.5 total inches for three fish I managed a paltry 30 1/2 but I learned again that being prepared is half the battle hopefully I have my stuff together by the next tournament.