News

Griffith Wins Torqeedo Individual Division

The Kayak Adventure Series awards a Crosskix century belt to each angler who posts a limit that measures over 100”. Shoaliepalooza saw the first two of those belts issued. The first went to kayak fishing legend Rus Snyders, who has now added a century belt to his impressive collection of hardware. Snyders won second place.

The second belt went to first-place finisher Aaron Griffith. As noted above, Griffith won the tournament by fishing for Shoal Bass from a Crescent Kayaks Shoalie kayak. The approach worked; his best five catches measured 102.25”, and every fish was a Shoal Bass. Griffith was also bestowed with the Boonedox Big Bass Bling award for catching the event’s biggest bass - a 22 inch Shoal bass.

Native only to the rivers and streams of central Georgia, the Shoal bass is a rare sub-species of Black Bass, but while its range is small, its reputation is for toughness. Renowned for their fight, the current state record Shoal Bass is a tie between the 8.5 pound Shoalie landed by Joseph McWhorter from the Chattahoochee River in 2021, and an 8.5 pound Shoalie landed by Clark Wheeler from the Flint river in 2022. Both rivers were within tournament boundaries for Shoaliepalooza, and the result was a first in a major kayak fishing event: a winning limit of over 100” consisting entirely of the rare Shoal Bass!

Griffith filmed his entire event with a GoPro Hero 8 camera, and the footage is available on his Youtube channel – Aarons Outdoors.

Source: Kayak Adventure Series

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Hank Veggian is a multi-species freshwater kayak angler. He is a member of the Jackson Kayak Fishing Team, Ketch Products Fishing Team and Get Outdoors Pedal and Paddle Pro Staff. His writings on fishing have been published in numerous magazines. He has written for the KBF and KAS websites, and is a former KFL angler.