News

2021 kayak trail season openers don’t disappoint

​The long awaited national kayak trail seasons have started with the Kayak Bass Fishing Trail (KBF Trail) at the KIssimmee chain as well as the Hobie Bass Open Series (Hobie BOS) at Lake Seminole. B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series is also gearing up and will start the season off at Lake Fork in Texas on March 13th.

The first couple of events where set off with familiar names as well as some up and coming anglers with the KBF Trail in Kissimmee, Florida as anglers battled in the first two trail events along with the two day Tenvitational. Favorites for the event included 2020 Ten Champion and 2020 KBF Angler of the Year Russ Snyders, last year’s Tenvitational winner Alan Sweat, Florida native Cory Dryer and the man you can’t count out of any event Jody Queen.

Leading up to Saturday, big fish posts littered the social platforms while anglers made their way around the available lakes finding biting and bedding bass throughout the chain. The Florida spawning conditions seemingly a factor with the bucks on beds and big girls being found up shallow it seemed like we were in for a 100 inch minimum to cash a check. However, mother nature had her own plans and in came the cold fronts with heavy winds and sub 40’s temperatures dropping the water temps. 145 anglers competing in the first KBF Trail event for 2021, and 89 anglers fishing for a spot in the Ten house this was a great sign for what 2021 will bring for bigger and better events.

KBF Trail Event 1 and Day 1 of the Tenvitational

Come Saturday morning, the cooler water temps had the bite slow and next to non-existent throughout the chain. Angler’s banking on bedding bass were soon very disappointed when they realized the spawn was now off and the fish had vacated the spawning flats and coves. Eventually some angler’s were able to start getting fish on the board. Well known anglers started showing up on top of the leaderboard including Gene Jensen, Eric Jackson and Alan Reed to name a few. Josh Stewart posted up a giant 23.25” Florida trophy before being one upped by John Warchol with a 24.75” beast of a fish!

By the end of the day Mike Ferreira had taken the victory with 93” followed closely by Dennis Campbell with 92.5” and Matt Keifer with 92”. Congratulations to those anglers, and we are sure this won’t be the last we hear from them through the 2021 season!

The Tenvitational day 1 leader was Josh Sharp with an impressive 98.5” who wasn’t in the KBF Trail event and had set the bar for the rest of the anglers in the event.

KBF Trail Event 2 and Day 2 of the Tenvitational

Day 2 started with a little more fire than day one with the weather a little more agreeable. More familar names started filling up the top of the leaderboard with Matt Ball, Cory Dreyer, Jimmy McClurkan and others. Basstrail Pro Angler Eric Nelson hung around in the top for a large portion of the day, ending up holding in the top 20 by the days end. “The bite was great immediately for the entire pack of anglers all setting the hook on the regular” claimed the 2020 Mid-Atlantic Angler of the Year Eric Nelson, “after I filled my limit, the rest of the day was pretty descent but the upgrades I needed just weren’t happening”.

Late in the day Jody Queen had landed a solid 23.5” upgrade to catapult him up the leaderboard and would take big bass for the day, but it wasn’t quite enough to take the lead. Russ Snyders had put together another great sack of fish on the board taking 1st place with 94.25” followed by Matt Keifer with another 92” limit to take 2nd and Massachusetts native Derick Brundle taking the 3rd spot with 91.25”.

The Tenvitational winner with a solid two day limit of 184.5” was Joshua Sharp, who would take up a great pay day as well as become the 12th angler for The Ten.

Hobie BOS at Lake Seminole

The Hobie BOS kick off came a week later at Lake Seminole with an impressive 175 angler field from all over the country.

Bryan Howell of Texas took a commanding lead with 101.75” on day one, followed closely by Joey Vanyo of Minnesota in second place with 98” and Michigan’s Zack Hall in thrid with 96.75”. Drew Gregory’s big fish for day one was a giant 23.25” bass that pushed him into the top 5 on day one.

Day 2 would be a close carbon copy of day with Bryan Howell putting up an even more impressive 103.75” limit of bass including a 23.5” kicker to take Big Bass as well as first place with 205.5” for the event. Second place was again Joey Vanyo putting up his own monster limit of 103” on day two pushing his 2 day total to 201.5”, and Zack Hall came in 3rd with his day 2 limit of 87.75” pushing him to a total of 184.5” which in most tournaments would be enough for the win.

Congratulations to all the angler’s bringing in the 2021 season with spectacular performances!