Matthew Brannon captured the win! He said he fished memories with a mix of Chatter Baits and the punch rig to land his 29-pounds.
“I was not able to do any practice fishing prior to this event, so I just fished memories.” stated Brannon, “I fished some breaks in the levee wall with a dirty white Jackhammer paired with a 5.5” hog farmer tailer and a Z-man Evo Elite in Bamba bug paired with Falcon lake craw.”
“I was working these two chatter baits with the current. I had hit several different breaks and then finally caught the 24.25”, answered Brannon, “I had a nice fish on around 4-pounds that jumped and came off.”
“After the tide dropped down lower, I knew that the bite was going to shut off, so I left the area and made a 9-mile run to an area that I had caught fish before.” enunciated Brannon, “Once I arrived at my next area, I punched the rest of the day.”
“I caught a few smaller size fish once I got to the new location.” exclaimed Brannon, “I was punching a one-ounce weight paired with a Strike King Rage Structure Bug. I was coating the bug in Pro-Cure Garlic crawfish.”
“I stuck with moving water in clean Hydrilla.” remarked Brannon, “For some reason, The fish were coming off once I pulled them out of the Hydrilla and my bait wouldn’t have the hook pulled out of the bait.”
“Once the tide started coming back in the punch bite started to get better.” mentioned Brannon, “I had a found an area that had 6 to 8-feet of water that had a ton of bait fish pushed up against the weed edge.”
“This area I caught a 24.75” and a 23.00” within just a few yards of each other.” articulated Brannon, “I kept going back over that same area and culled up a few more time before I had to make the run back to the ramp.”
“I left 2 hours early to assure that I got back to the ramp, I was about 9 miles from the ramp, I couldn’t afford to be late.” declared Brannon, “I got to about 2 miles from the ramp and culled one more time just before lines out.”
Brannon thanked his wife Amada and his sponsors Kayak City, Hobie, Torqeedo, AFTCO, ZMan, Pro-Cure Bait Scents, Dakota Lithium
Obedie William place second with a total of 98.25”. He used top water baits to catch his nice bag of fish. His bag weight in about 23-pounds and he had two big fish one a 23.25” and a 22.25” that both went 6 and 7-pounds.
“I made a run to an area that had some current flowing through it fast. I turned the rudder once I got in the current and my kayak flipped. I lost everything but one rod and most of my tackle.” claimed Williams, “I got to land and flipped the kayak back over and then called my wife to meet me back at the ramp with a few rods and some dry clothes.”
“This was my first time to ever flip my kayak.” pronounced Williams, “I meet up with my wife and headed back to my area round 9 AM.”
“I check the leader board and saw that they were catching them good.” insisted Williams, “I knew then I had to go for the win, so I threw topwater the whole day.”
“I got to my area and caught a 7-pounder right away.” replied Williams, “When I caught that fish, I knew I had a chance to win this event.”
“It was the last of the outgoing tide and started to throw the frog and caught a 5 younder.” voiced WIlliams, “At this point I was feeling great to get some nice fish on the leader board.”
“I had lost my net, so I had to hand land the fish or boat flip the fish.” expressed Williams, “Even though I had started off bad the day ended good.” The day turned into something great!”
“A minor setback for a major comeback!” explained Williams, “Between the frog and buzz bait those two baits accounted for all my fish. It was one of those great days.”
“I was happy to still be able to compete and to top it off to catch two fish over 7-pounds.” proclaimed Williams, “I knew I had to make a comeback, so I locked in the topwater in my hand all day.”
WIlliams thanked the fishing community and the family, the Yak-a-Bass team, I love the kayak family and thanks to everyone that showed me some love.
In third place with Casey Remy with a total of 89.75”. Remy ripped his way to his third-place finish during the outgoing tide.
“I showed up an hour late to the event and want to thank my wife for waking me up.” reported Remy, “I was burning the shoreline until I found some fish.”
“The fish would come out and smash the rip bait whenever I would get the bait stuck in the weeds.” proclaimed Remy, “I had found two key areas that held fish and would work those areas over and then rotate the areas.”
“I was using the Mega Bass rip bait on a bait caster with braid and a 10-foot mono leader.”
“My bite was best during the outgoing tide compared to the incoming tide.” commented Remy, “The key was to rip the bait out of the grass to get my bites.”
“I fished the rock and tulle islands for the fish I caught.” recalled Remy, “However, the two areas that was best was to 100-foot stretches near deeper water.”
Remy thanked his girlfriend for waking him up for the event, Yak-a-Bass for hosting these events.
Top Ten:
1. Matthew Brannon 103.75”
2.Obedie Williams 98.25”
3. Casey Remy 89.75”
4.Max Lee 89.00”
5. Greg Blanchard 88.00”
6. John Ellis 85.75”
7. John Heller 84.25”
8. Putaug Thamada 83.00”
9. Drew Boles 80.50”
10.Damian Thao 79.75”
Big Fish
Matthew Brannon 24.75”
Advertising