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KFL Week 5 Recap

The Kayak Fishing League season passed the half-way mark of the 2022 season on Saturday, July 23, 2022. When it was over, every team had competed in at least 4 of their 8 scheduled games and the playoff picture was becoming more clear.

The weekend fishing was tough. Hot temperatures and slow bites opened the week 5 match-ups to more possible upsets as teams struggled to fill limits. By the time it was over, a handful of winless teams finally earned victories and unbeaten teams asserted control over their divisions and conferences. 

Week 5 Results

Most of the country faced clear, hot conditions, with sunny skies and warm water temperatures. Two high-stakes games commanded the most attention, and had the greatest consequence for playoff positioning.

In an exception to the weather elsewhere, cloud cover provided respite on Lake St. Clair where the Motor City Ambassadors hosted the Indianapolis Knights in a high-stakes match up. The Knights started slowly but soon overtook the home team; with 90 minutes left, Mike Elsea landed a 20” Smallmouth Bass to give the Knights a 10” lead. At the end of the day, both teams would either be 3-1, or the Knights would drop to 2-2 and the Ambassadors would be unbeaten, with the inside track to the top seed in the conference. In the end, the Ambassadors managed a narrow 2” victory to remain undefeated.

In the other high-stakes game, the unbeaten Granite State Sticks (3-0) hosted the Connecticut Renegades (2-1). If the Sticks lost this intra-divisional game, it would open the door for the R.I. Rebels to gain ground on them in the Northeast Division; with a win, the Renegades would keep pace with the New York Empire in the Atlantic division. Again, the unbeaten team

9 games were played involving 18 teams. There were several notable results.

• The closest finish was a 2” margin of victory. It happened in the game between the Ambassadors and Knights, which the Ambassadors won by a score of 178” to 176”.
• The largest margin of victory belonged to the Tar Heel Lunkers, who defeated the Carolina Casters by a margin of 96” to 18.75”, or 77.25”.
• Two winless teams scored their first victories on Saturday. The previously winless Tar Heel Lunkers upset the Carolina Casters in their first in-state rivalry match of the year. Elsewhere, the Lone Star Bandits defeated the Louisiana Hurricanes.
• The week’s longest team limit belonged to the Lone Star Bandits (see above), who scored 207” for their 10 best fish.

After 5 weeks of competition, only the Coosa Kingfishers, Motor City Ambassadors and Granite State Sticks remain undefeated.

Week 6 of the Kayak Fishing League season be on July 30, 2022. Fans can follow the leaderboard on Fishing Chaos or watch live stream action of the games on KFL’s Youtube channel and the Motion Sports website.

About the KFL

KFL has six divisions divided into two conferences (South and North). With three divisions in each conference, every event has a high value within the divisions and the overall conference standings, which ultimately determine which teams continue fishing in the post-season. The minimum length of a scoreable bass is 14”. All fish are caught, measured and quickly released.

In the team format, a team’s 10 longest fish are measured against the other team’s 10 longest. The team with the longest 10 fish limit wins the game. Individual anglers are also tracked in the standings to determine KFL Angler of the Year as well as a KFL fantasy league that awards points to each competitor.

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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.