The Southern West Virginia Kayak Anglers had their second stop of the 2023 season on Saturday May 20^th, 2023 at Upper Mud River Lake in Lincoln County, West Virginia. Upper Mud River Lake is a 306-acre lake known for it’s clean water with deep visibility and big bass.

The winner of the tournament was Buddy Vance with a five bass limit of 86.5”.

“The day was very slow for me and the last fish which culled came with 8 minutes left,” Vance said. I targeting fish guarding beds with a pink shaky head worm or a 3” white shad bait on a dropshot rig.” 

He accredits his catches to starting his day with a C4 energy drink and the weather and fishing pressure letting up later in the day. Upper Mud has always been special to Buddy Vance and some local anglers even refer to it as “Upper Bud” Lake in good fun.  Vance says what made this one so special was getting to share the victory circle with his wife, Brandi Vance, who was the top female finisher.  Buddy Vance is on absolute fire with three wins so far this season.

The runner up of the tournament was director Jason Plumley with 85.75” edging out third place with a 19.75” fish in the big bass tie breaker. This fish also won Plumley big bass of the tournament and the WQBE Al Woodys Big Bass prize as well. Jason Plumley is the director of the Southern West Virginia Kayak Anglers club and is well respected locally for his contributions to the kayak fishing community and his “no BS” attitude as director. Plumley said he caught his fifth keeper at 11:30 and had a great time joking around on the water with friends such as Greg Harper and with everyone camping out Friday night.

“The weather was brutal for most of the day and I even hung out in a culvert for an hour just to stay dry,” said Plumley of the conditions that obviously didn’t damper his ability to catch fish or his ability to have fun.   

The third-place finisher with 85.75” was Larry Jackson. Much like some of the other competitor’s experiences, Larry Jackson said that the weather conditions made it a challenging day for sight fishing.

“I was only able to boat eight fish all day long,” Jackson told us. “I caught all of my fish off of beds except for two. I caught them on senkos and the Baby Goat by Z-man.”

Despite getting only 8 bites all day, Jackson got the right bites and was able to fish clean and land his way into the Top 3.

Rounding out the paid places was Mark Edwards in fourth place with 83.25”. Edwards also leaned on a bed fishing bite but was slowed down by what he said “cloudy conditions making it hard to sight fish.”

“The lake getting fished to death,” Edwards said of the crowded 306 acre lake with kayaks and boats. Despite these factors, Edwards had a limit by 9:00 am even though he was unable to cull after that.

The top female finisher was Brandi Vance and the top youth finisher was Bricen Richardson.

The next kayak bass fishing tournaments in WV are:

– June 10^th, 2023 at the Greenbrier River with MSKA (Mountain State Kayak Anglers)

-June 17^th, 2023 at Tygart Lake/River with WVKA (West Virginia Kayak Anglers)