I am an obsessed fisherman. “one more cast, one more hour, one more day”… I also LOVE competition, so when you combine fishing and competition, I am in hog heaven. I got a breath of fresh air in July when Chad Hoover let me know that the National Championships got moved back a week and moved to Alabama from Florida. The reason this is a big deal to me, is that the World Freestyle Kayak Championships and the National Championships for KBF were scheduled for the same week. I was pretty bummed that I was unable to come back to the Nationals after finishing second place last year out of the 250 anglers and try to win this year. I fished only one trail series event this year and decided to focus on my whitewater freestyle kayaking as I didn’t have any big fishing events other than the World Championships on Center Hill to look forward to. The World Championships went well as my team “USA 2” won the gold medal, my first gold in the world championships for fishing. It was a team medal, not individual, so not quite a sweet as winning it all yourself, but still a super fun experience. I had to skip the GoPro Games in Colorado to fish that event.
Fast forward to summer and I am having more fishing withdrawals so I enter the challenge series for TN and AL. In TN I literally just fish in my back yard on the Caney Fork River for smallmouth. For Alabama, Lake Guntersville is my closest place to fish and I love that lake. Scott Canterbury introduced me to it back in my FLW days and we fished it together and he taught me to love that place. You can take the slightly longer route from Rock Island to Columbus to train for freestyle and pass by Guntersville. I did that a few times and got in a day of fishing on the way to training or on the way back. My first day at Guntersville I posted 93″ which I was pretty fired up on. I had 2 fish over 20″ that day. I also managed to post over 90″ in TN with smallmouth on my first time out.
By the end of the month, I had all of my fish over 20″ in AL and 4 out of 5 in TN. It took me a few times out to get in the lead in either state. I was in 4th in AL, fished into 3rd, then into 2nd, and finally into 1st, but that only lasted one day and I got out fished and pushed into 2nd. In TN I was in 3rd, then 2nd, and then in 1st. Jimmy McLurken messaged me and asked where I was getting all of the big smallmouth. He was in second. I was traveling and not fishing TN anymore and checked standings only to find that Jimmy had 108″ and his smallest fish was 21″ and they were all big largemouth. Wow! My 101.5″ of smallmouth was cool, until I saw that 108″ and how fat they were! Jimmy earned that win in a big way!
The good news for me is that on my final day of fishing in Alabama I was fishing with Chad Hoover. I told him that I can’t make the Nationals because of the World Freestyle Championships conflict. he said, “you know we moved the Nationals back a week, right?” “WHAT?? hell yea!! ” I am so fired up that I can compete in the worlds (of which I have won 4 times, and I am competing against my son, Dane, who has won 4 times, and my son-in-law Nick, who has won 1 time, and my daughter is also competing and she has won womens’ 2 times. That event gets my full attention, but the day it is over. I am off to the Nationals and will be fired up even though I won’t get much practice.
Chad catching a toad on a frog.
My Tyr fishing kayak also adds the fun factor. I am lucky to have a boat that really sets me free on most bodies of water. Guntersville is perfect for this boat and I feel sorry for those not in an Apex. Light, fast, responsive, comfortable, swivel seat, stable. We have a few in stock still today if anyone is interested in changing up their game!
🙂
EJ