TKAA 2013 Report thread

[RavensDfense]

Figured I'd start a thread for people to share their TKAA stories/reports.

Here's mine...We fished the ES of VA both days.

Friday

KayakJoe and I launched first thing to relatively calm conditions, but that soon faded. We were hoping for some early specks and reds before changing our sights to flounder. Right off the bat we caught a 15 and 17 inch speck. After looking for a while longer we found the mother load of reds. They were on a tidal flat and STACKED up. It was all sightcasting. Stand up, drift a few yards, see a school of 10-15 reds, cast in front of them, twitch the jig, and BAM....a 20-25 inch red. After around 25 we decided to move on. We searched for more specks but only found little ones. One small flounder ended our day.

Saturday

The wind Saturday made Friday look nice. The seas had built throughout the night and there was easily 2-3 ft'ers. We launched on a lower bayside creek and went out in search of specks. We only found small specks all morning. As we paddled over another tidal flat we found a second mother load of reds. We pounded away at them for an hour and I landed a 23.5 incher before continuing the speck hunt. Joe landed a 23 incher. In short....the next few hours resulted in short specks. However, Joe hooked and netted a mid 20 inch speck only to have his jig head get caught in the net. When the speck flipped it ripped his lip and flipped away. (That speck was worth a new Ride 135; no big deal ) Since we couldn't find a qualifying speck, we decided to forget about flounder and focus on getting a bigger red. We returned to find the reds just as concentrated as earlier in the morning. Joe upped his original red to a 24 inch and we rolled out to the weigh in.

Weigh-in

Out of 250+ anglers, the winning red went 24.25 inches. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place reds were all 24 inches. Joe received 4th because we checked in after the others. Check-in time was the tie breaker. My 23.5 inch red was good enough for 5th loser. Joe was bummed about the red but more upset when he found out the winning speck went 21 or something like that. Sorry dude. All in all it was an awesome weekend. Here are the three pics I took.






We kept a few for dinner.



TKAA put on a great tournament that was well organized. Their raffle prizes were nice too. Dinner was included in the price of the $60 entry fee. I highly recommend it to anyone considering it next year.

[Grilled]

TKAA was definitely tough fishing....

Friday night Matt and I fished Rudee Inlet and battled winds, winds, and more winds. We didn't catch anything not to mention, there was not a single soul out on the water. This was the first time i've fished rudee without seeing a single car in the parking lot.

Saturday, tournament day, we fished Back River. Again, the wind was bonkers. We battled the wind by inlet for about an hour without getting any bites. We then decided to make this trip into an exploratory one and went on a recon mission. We fished the back creeks and got into a few pups, small specks and small flounder. This was my second time fishing back river and its neat place with lots of grass beds. Should be a good place for fall specks. The award ceremony was fun, ate some food, had a few drinks and hung out with the MKF group.

Sunday I fished Kipto with Tufnik and Hokie. Fishing was slow. The only thing consistent about this weekend was the 20mph winds..lol I caught a couple short tog and that was about it.


Here are a few pics...


P1020754.jpgP1020758.jpgP1020760.jpgP1020763.jpgP1020770.jpgP1020772.jpg

[MetroMan]

Man I hope to make it next year.

RavensDefense, that lost speck (and the 4th & 5th place reds) hurt my heart just reading about it!!!

[jsquare]

Nice reports so far. Shooting for next year as well.

[kayakjoe]

A tough weekend indeed it was! However had it not been tournament fishing it woulda been damn good! And it was damn good and spent in good company! (Thanks again Doug, couldn't have done it without you) he even cleaned and froze my reds for me! With the wind aside I can't really complain, new place with fish in almost every spot we scoped out days prior and with a little inside info we did damn well! (Thanks Gary!) sure I coulda lifted the net faster and possibly got a potential paper in the boat but it also coulda been beautiful and windless and we coulda been surrounded by other yaks! We got lucky and had a large area all to ourselves besides the locals and watermen and despite the harsh ne blow water clarity in most spots was flawless, at one point just off the channel I had thought we shallower up and asked Doug what our depth was as I could see bottom clear as day even in chop and he said 6 feet! Doug coulda gone for most species for sure I believe he had seven in the boat on Friday and was only using gulp on a jig not even bites on a small hook, coulda got more for sure. We trolled around quite a bit and more than a few times my rod bent over so hard and fast it looked like i had snagged a pot of stake i woyld have a bice slot red on same for doug over a very wide area schooled up, solo, doubles and. All were willing to grab a jig with no abandon it was perfect redfishing by any standards let alone in that wond we coyldve asked for better fishing after get beat up both days. Not to mention all the schoolies it seemed the ritual went schoolie schoolie schoolie schoolie small spec and then five more schoolies haha note to all people that feel confident in future tournaments that are CPR format like almost kayak tournaments are; tie breakers are decided by check in time! I knew this years ago but have never had it affect me not that we could've beaten them to the scales either way but just a thought! I'm not at all upset actually I've had a roller coaster of a year and this was a major high point for sure! Met tons of new people and even got a guy I can order century blanks for a better deal now! Definitely psyched on that can't wait for fishing to slow down so I can wrap up the inshore sling shot 7'6" 1/4-7/8oz blank it's a true beauty of a trout/red rod even the 7' is a masterpiece and for only 160$ a blank you can't beat it! All wind and sore backs aside this was an amazing event put on by amazing gracious people and I would donate 60$ to them again time and time again and you shoulda seen the raffle prize table!! Amazing things on it and tons of them! It would be cool if us Maryland guys had a good showing down there next year and give these boys a run for their money!!

[Southerly]

biggest tx fish being so close in size has got to be frustrating but big congrats on finding the fish in tough conditions! now, just need to work on your fish-stretching skills

[FishAholic929]

I fished with Moc an Rockchaser on Friday. We launched at wise point and fought winds all day long. 5.38 miles on my gps by the end of the day. Several fish were caught but only two that would've been measured for the tournament (14" Croaker and a Red I think was 22", Moc can correct me). I opted to launch and fish in Cape Charles Harbor to stay out of the wind and rough water. I managed several fish that measured, several that were close. I started with a 13 7/8 Striper, then caught a 9" Spot. With fresh bait in hand I started using strips of it. This Returned me a 12, 15, 16 & 19" red along with a 12" Flounder. It was a tough tough weekend to fish, a lot of hard work but I had a blast, I can't wait to do it again next year.

[HokieDJ]

Friday:

Prefished Hardwood Mills and caught 2 big bass. I didn't bring my measuring board/scale but it had to be at least 4lbs each. Both times, I lost time right at the yak while playing around with them. The fishing was tough there and the grass were still thick.

Saturday:

Went back to the same location and hooked up a 14" and 17" at the last minute after going back to the same area 3 times that day. Like the day before, I could not find a bite anywhere else in that place.

Sunday:

Fished at Kipto with Grilled and Turfnik. The winds were ok but a NE wind makes the shore side like a washing machine. Caught 4 short togs (biggest at 14") after finding a hole in the northern ship. The rest of the fiddlers were eaten up by BSB and toads. Rockchaser's advice about hooking the fiddlers seemed to have a better success ratio of lost fiddlers to hooked fish. I decided to switch to jigging after the current started to really pick up and hooked up a 20.5" puppy drum and a small flounder.

[Slobber Bob]

Dang, I didn't hear about the net story! Another good reason I don't carry one. I would have thrown it overboard if that had happened to me.

Good job everybody. Hopefully I'll be joining you next year!

[Hemingway]

Dang, I didn't hear about the net story! Another good reason I don't carry one. I would have thrown it overboard if that had happened to me.

Good job everybody. Hopefully I'll be joining you next year!

As one of the ES Crew, I think we will have to start a fund to get Joe a "real" net for next time. Like so many things in life...Size matters
Great job everyone, you made us proud! Way to fish hard!

[RavensDfense]

I'm good for 10 bucks. Anything to not have to hear that string of curse words that immediately follows most net mishaps.

[kayakjoe]

Dang, I didn't hear about the net story! Another good reason I don't carry one. I would have thrown it overboard if that had happened to me.

Good job everybody. Hopefully I'll be joining you next year!

Brian you shoulda seen my face when I saw him come to the surface after all day with over 25 trout a piece and I saw this momma greyhound on the surface I nearly shouted I was so happy to have a real fish on and there's not a doubt in my mind he was every bit of 24+ inches which woulda, well you know, put me in first hahah and then to lose her when she was in the net was a horrible feeling. You know my feelings on nets are the same as yours but I probably woulda lost her without one as well!!

Gary not the damn net fund again!! Hahahahah they had some beauty's at the raffle though floaters with a mid length handle I think it retracted maybe? Idk and the rubber mesh that could've won me a new ride 135 it had all the features
to a net that i needed! So might be looking for one of them in the future if mike and Matt want to push them beautiful trout they been catchin up north back down our way in a couple weeks!

[moc]

It was a fun time as always. I have been coming to this tournament for years. The Washington Metropolitan Group (Northern VA, DC, MD) was not as large as last year. There was still a good group, but we were not as concentrated. I think last year we had 24 or more Anglers show up. This year it might have been 15. Fishing was tough, due to the winds as reported in the previous Posts. I went down on Thursday to pre-fish with Rockchaser. We must have caught 80 fish, mostly14 to 17.5 inch rockfish and small 12 inch speckle trout. We did manage a keeper 20 inch Rock, 22 inch Trout and a couple of 12 inch white perch. Naturally, there was no wind on that day.

On Friday we fished Fisherman's island with Fishaholic. The wind was ripping in the canal. We retreated to the grassy guts of the island for protection from the wind. There I caught a lot of small fish, but many species. I caught a 21.75 inch puppy drum, many small flounders, black seabass, white perch, speckle trout, groupers, and bluefish, and one fish that I could not identify.

On Sat, I decided to explore and fish the York River which was protected from the winds. I did not stay there long since all I was catching were small croakers. So I packed up and left the ramp at 9am. I decided to head to the Mobjack that was 15 mins away. There I launched and ran into 10 other kayaker from the tournament. Within 15 mins of fishing I caught 15.25 inch puppy drums, 10 inch specs, and 14 inch rocks. I fished from 10am to 12pm, because the winds started to kick up with white caps and chop. Since I fought the winds on Friday and fished Thursday, I decided to call it quits and weigh in my small fish. The dinner was great with many nice raffle prizes. On Sunday, I met Rockchaser for breakfast and we headed out back home. I chose not to fish on Sunday due to some wind and being tired. The weekend was a nice way to get a lot of exercise in battling the winds.

I will be back next year.....