News

North Carolina KFL Week 1 Recap

The Carolina Casters and Tar Heel Lunkers are the two Kayak Fishing League (KFL) teams from North Carolina. Both are original teams from the inaugural KFL 2021 season. The Casters and Lunkers both finished in the middle of the pack in the KFL South division in 2021, with the Lunkers having a slightly better record (4-2) over the Casters (3-3) in the league’s first season.

Each KFL team consists of 8 anglers. 4 anglers from each team compete in a tournament “game” against another team of 4. Each team competes in 4 home games and 4 away games every season, as the KFL schedule expanded from 6 to 8 games in 2022, adding over one dozen new teams for the new season.

The 2022 season began for both Carolina teams in Week 1, on June 4^th, 2022. The Carolina Casters hosted Virginia’s Norfolk Privateers in a home game on Shearon Harris reservoir while the Tar Heel Lunkers hosted the Alabama Hammers on Jordan Lake. 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.

Tar Heel Lunkers vs. Alabama Hammers

The Alabama Hammers are one of two teams from Alabama, and had to travel to new water to face the Lunkers. Jordan Lake presented a challenge, as the fish have been finicky after fattening up on the shad spawn.

Anglers from the Lunkers had success in pre-fishing the lake, however, but a busy weekend of boating traffic combined with fishing pressure affected their bite patterns.

Lunkers angler Dontrell Sullivan noted in a Facebook post that he had found a good crankbait bite early in the day but competed too often with boaters for his spots, but managed to land his team’s biggest fish, a 19.25”. His teammate Matt Dunn caught the most fish (3) while Steve Perry and Paul Roberts also chipped in.

The Hammers faced the same conditions, but had more success. Long time kayak pro Tim Perkins led the way for them with a 66.5” bag as the team compiled a total of 161.50” to beat the Lunkers final limit of 100”.

Carolina Casters vs. Norfolk Privateers

The Carolina Casters added Cashion rods pro Cory Dreyer to their team in the off season, and Dreyer proved to be the difference make in game 1. In the build up to Week 1 of the KFL season, many favored the Norfolk Privateers, despite the fact the Privateers were fishing on the Lunkers’ water at Shearon Harris Reservoir. To add to the challenge, the Casters went into tournament week with only 3 of 4 scheduled anglers available to fish the event. But Cory Dreyer was a late scratch from the Hobie B.O.S. tournament at Chickamauga due to a leg injury that made pedaling impossible. So he was placed on the team for the event and fished from a motor powered kayak.

Shearon Harris had been fishing unseasonably slow due to high, stained and colder water from recent rainfalls. Casters team member practiced on the lake the week prior to the event and noticed the shallow bite was slow, and fish were following but not committing. While the water remained high, it did warm up, and that helped trigger more reaction bites on game day.

The Carolina Casters divided the lake into sections and water types. Cory Dreyer focused on main lake points to limit travel on his injured leg, Hank Veggian fished the shallow bite on the east end of the lake, team owner Stephen Bell Sr. went north to fish the White Oak arm while Stephen Bell Jr. fished the main lake to the east end, covering lots of water. The strategy worked: Dreyer was the team work horse and he stacked a big early limit on the main lake points while the other three anglers culled Dreyer’s smaller fish throughout the day.

Robert Brown of the Norfolk Privateers kept his team in the game, however, with several large fish that included a 24.25” giant. At one point in the late morning, the Privateers reached to within 45” of the Casters lead. A late cull by Veggian increased the Casters lead to 48” but a late fish for the Privateers narrowed the final score. In the end, the Casters won: our ten best fish measured 177.5” to the Privateers 8 fish, which measured 144”.

The Casters’ 177.5” limit was the third longest of the day in the Southern Division and fourth longest overall out of 26 teams that competed on Saturday. All four members of the Casters team contributed a fish to the leaderboard, making it a complete team effort and starting the season with a victory.

Next up on the KFL schedule for North Carolina:

The Carolina Casters will fish in their first away event on June 18th, 2022 against the Washington Warhawks at Occoquan reservoir in northern Virginia.

The Tar Heel Lunkers will host the Virginia Reapers for a second home game on June 11^th at Shearon Harris reservoir.

---

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.