The Southern West Virginia Kayak Anglers held their first tournament of 2023 on Saturday, April 15th. The eligible waters for the tournament were the Elk River and Sutton Lake. The warming trend that had been going on for the last week raised the water temperatures, causing the fishing to heat up all over West Virginia! With some bass already pulling up to start the spawning process, Spring bass fishing is now in full swing.
The winner of the tournament was Blaine Winters, who caught a total of 82.75 inches of fish. Blaine said that the key to his success was “finding small buck bass up shallow early in the day” (which he guessed were making beds). Later in the day, he “found the bigger females staging on the ends of deeper lay downs, waiting to move up.” He caught all his keepers on a “Z-Man Big TRD in about 8-10 ft of water”.
In second place was Mikey Holcombe, who caught a total of 77.25 inches of fish. Mikey said “I made a last-minute decision to fish the river based on some success I had there in the past. I found bedding fish early in the morning, losing a big fish to start off the day. But it clued me into what the fish were doing and how they were setting up. I was able to sight fish mostly and target some pre-spawn fish off wood, similar to Blaine’s approach making small culls throughout the day”
The third place finisher was Evan Adamson who had a 76.75” bag anchored by an 18” smallmouth. Evan claims that he “caught a couple on a walking bait, but most of them came on a tube”
Steve Gunter rounding out the money spots in 4th with 76” says his key to success was “Fishing the lake in the Bakers Run area. I caught 10 fish and caught all of them off of structure/trees/limbs with Ned rigs and Z-Man FattyZ. Bite was slow and light”
Top female angler was Misty Brewer with 55.5”
Top youth angler was Grace Brewer with 19.25” and fishing her first tournament ever!
The next tournaments hosted by West Virginia’s three major kayak bass fishing clubs are:
– AEP Ohio on April 29th with Mountain State Kayak Anglers (MSKA)
-Jackson County on May 6th with West Virginia Kayak Anglers (WVKA)
