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Queen City Kayak Bass Fishing hits 200 angler milestone at Santee Cooper

Queen City Kayak Bass Fishing (QCKBF), founded in 2015 by Vinny Ferreri (affectionately known as the “Commish” by the loyal anglers in the club) has been a model of success for kayak bass fishing clubs.  Surrounded by large fisheries and a highly populated region of Charlotte, North Carolina has given QCKBF a plethora of potential bass anglers to build up this fishing empire.

Pulling in anglers from other densely populated areas in South Carolina has also helped keeping the growth on a consistent trajectory. This all done with the constant beating of the bigger payout drum as Vinny pulled in more and more sponsors bringing in more than just prize packs. The sponsor focus has become getting more invested sponsorship adding cash to the pot in turn increasing the angler ROI with event payouts.

In the recent past QCKBF has also teamed up with Hobie BOS to co-host events in the NC and SC region and the turnouts were solid for both events. In 2020 at Lake Norman, NC the Hobie BOS attendance hit 116 while the QCKBF pulled in 132 anglers. In 2021 the co-hosted event was held at Lake Hartwell, SC where Hobie BOS brought in an improved 143 anglers and QCKBF cranked it up to 157.

Max Capacity

With the 2022 season for Hobie BOS starting out with unprecedented sell outs of events with a 200 angler cap, Toledo bend within hours and Santee Cooper even faster. The entire kayak bass angling community was a buzz with anglers both ecstatic to see the 200 max hit, while others looking to fish the trail that missed the boat upset they wouldn’t be able to fish the events. The mixed reaction continues still even with AJ Mcwhorter adjusting and announcing release dates for events in advance to try and give everyone a fair chance to sign up before the cut off.

With all this insanity going on the goal was set for QCKBF to turn it up and push their own attendance to match or exceed the Hobie BOS cap. When I asked when 200 became a goal for QCKBF, Vinny replied “When I saw they were hitting 200, maxing out” his competitiveness immediately kicked in as he continued “he had never beat me in [attendance] so our goal was to try to hit 201”.

The 200 mark was hit at 9:57pm Friday night, 3 minutes before cut off. 5 anglers had previously had to bow out and were refunded which would have brought the total to 205 if they had stuck with it. “I was excited, we were going to be able to pay out almost $3000 for first and big bass” Vinny continued boasting “and he still hasn’t beat me!” On top of the cash payouts, they were also to have large amounts random draw prizes, so much so that anglers at the check in where able to also double-dip on the prize table.

In asking Vinny what it took to bring the club to that number, he credited the great support from sponsors that have allowed QCKBF to push an extra $1000 per event into the prize purse including the sponsors for this event which included the event sponsor TourneyX, premier sponsor Native Watercraft, Lumina Sun which supports the 2nd place bump, as well as Clarendon County.

Bassmaster Kayak Champion Eric Sidiqi Takes the Win

The difference with Hobie BOS and QCKBF with rules this weekend was only in regards to the limit number where Hobie is the standard 5 fish, QCKBF is set at 4. This came in clutch for Eric Sidiqi of Ohio who had felt he had a less than stellar day 1 for the Hobie BOS missing that limit. However he did have 4 solid bass for 82” that shot him to the lead for QCKBF. Holding the plaque after winning the $2,422 plus $300 big bass cash prizes Sidiqi joked “This is a good consolation prize” as he explained how his day went and showing his gratitude for being able to bring home the money 3 events in a row. Sidiqi had won the Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship earlier this month.

Second place took home $1,515 which went to another Ohioan Terrik Walker with 79.50”, and 3rd place for $1211 with 79.25” went to Rus Snyders of Tennessee.

See the full results here on TourneyX