The two-day KBF Central Open on Beaver Lake and Grand Lake is in the books and it all came down to 1/2 inch for $10,000. Based in Bentonville, Ark., the KBF Central Open allowed anglers to fish either the Ozark reservoir of Beaver Lake with its FLW history or the sprawling Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees of B.A.S.S. Elites fame.
Conventional wisdom was that Grand Lake offered a more dense fish population and larger average bass, but anglers there were going to be handicapped by getting on the water an hour later due to an anti-kayak rule in place to prevent launching until 1/2 hour after sunrise and a longer drive back to check-in. Beaver Lake had less access restrictions, but was known to be a finicky and risky pick for those looking for big fish and consistency over two days on the water. Weather made it tough on the 68 competitors because of high skies and a muggy 91 degrees each day.
KBF Central Open Results
Some of the top kayak anglers in the country were on hand and did well on day one with 31 of 68 (46%) of anglers turning in a limit and 82% of all entrants turning in a keeper. The leaderboard looked like this at the end of the first day:
- Cody Milton 90.25″
- Richard McMichael 84.50″
- Mel Ashe 83.50″
- Joshua Stewart 83.25″
- Jason Kincy 82.75″
Day two proved to be tougher with lighter winds and increased pressure. On the second day only 21 of 68 (31%) turned in a limit with only 48 of 68 (71%) recording a keeper. Day two results featured some of the same names in different order;
- Joshua Stewart 88.75″
- Eric Siddiqi 86.00″
- Jason Kincy 83.00″
- Mel Ashe 81.25″
- Cody Milton 81.25″
Final standings after both days were:
- Joshua Stewart 172.00″
- Cody Milton 171.50″
- Jason Kincy 165.75″
- Mel Ashe 164.75″
- Richard McMichael 160.75″
Cody Milton and Eric Siddiqi both hooked a 20″ largemouth for the biggest bass of the weekend. See complete results for the KBF Central Open here.
Angler Recaps
Top finishers Joshua Stewart, Cody Milton, Jason Kincy and Mel Ashe share how they caught ’em at the KBF Open in this roundtable.
Where did you go each day and why did you choose that lake and that part of the lake?
Joshua – I chose to fish Grand Lake. Arrived on Wednesday to prefish and started out looking at creeks and found one that had potential but couldn’t find a suitable launch. Caught some decent fish from the bank there. A lot of us ended up at the same spot I’m guessing because of the 150 foot rule and that area had a channel bend with a bridge all relatively close to the bank.
Cody – I chose to fish Grand Lake both days. I stayed in the dirty water on Grand because the fish there were staying shallower longer than they were around the dam. On the first day I wanted to hit 4 spots at 3 ramps before 10:00 a.m., with hopes of running into a big group up shallow. Fortunately, that worked out great the first day and I ran into 86 inches off my second spot. The second day I did the same but flip-flopped my starting spots and got around 81 inches pretty quick.
Jason – Being from Arkansas, I chose to go to Beaver Lake instead of Grand Lake, even though Grand is believed to have more and bigger bass. I prefished Beaver from the dam up to the river area and chose to go to the upper end because I just liked the water color and the type of cover I could find there. This area of the lake also had several ramps in close proximity in case I wanted to move around, which I did.
Mel – I fished Grand Lake also. Richie McMichael, Brad Case and I had originally planned on fishing Grand but when we found out about the rules we moved to Beaver. Me and Richie prefished Beaver on Wednesday and Grand on Thursday because we didn’t like what we found on Beaver. We decide we were going to fish Grand for the tournament that evening.
What were your overall tactics for catching bass?
Joshua – The first day I ended up catching one of my better fish from the bank on a buzz bait in the morning due to the delayed launch time. The remainder of the day I would cruise around fishing the points and docks with a 1/8 wacky rigged Senko and a ½ ounce jig. Second day I figured I was fishing for second place because of Cody’s strong lead over the rest of the field. The wind was a little stronger so I put on ¾ ounce jig and basically caught all my fish on it. As the day went on I slowly kept culling my fish out and gaining ground. At around 1:30 I crossed to the other side of the bridge and got my biggest fish in about 5 feet of water on what looked like a little current break. After crossing back to the other side I was down a quarter inch with my smallest being 16.25″. with about 35 minutes to go I hooked into a fish with the anticipation of it being the one I needed but was 16.25″. After a few more casts I hook into a 17″ which gave me the lead by .50 inches.
Cody – After 10am I was focusing on brush piles on steep points in 18-22ft. That’s where I was getting the big bites day 1 but never got a bite off any of them day 2. All my fish came fishing a 1 oz football jig.
Jason – My plan on both days was to try and take advantage of topwater early and then fish deeper once the sun came up. Day one my plan was failing, with only one fish on topwater, so I wound up moving three times that morning trying to find something I liked, catching a keeper each time I moved, generally on a Ned rig. About 1:30 I landed on my last spot of the day and over the next hour and a half I used a Carolina Rig in deep water to move from 70″ up to 82.75″, including two 19″ bass in the last hour. On day two I started in the vicinity of where I ended day one and caught a quick four keepers on topwater and then moved to my Carolina Rig spot. Fishing that spot from 9:00-2:30 I caught 17 more keepers with the best five totaling 83″ and was lucky enough to finish third overall.
Mel – The morning of day 1 I got to the ramp I was going to launch from and it had a cable running across the ramp about 2 and a half feet out of the water. Eric Siddiqi had slept at this ramp one night so I called him to ask about the cable which he knew nothing about. He told me he was just three minutes up the lake from me and to come there and fish with him. I had originally planned to fish docks on the way to the bridge so I would have ended up down that way regardless. I caught my 1st fish bank fishing at the ramp with a Jackhammer chatter bait. After we were able to launch I fished my way to the bridge. There I was able to catch my limit on a shaky head and trick worm. Shortly after I made my way back to a point near the ramp and was able to cull two fish using a Jackhammer and fishing how I like to fish. Day 2 I basically did the same thing except I lost a fish at the boat ramp bank fishing and I left the bridge to go find my 5th fish.
When traveling the country to an event where you are unfamiliar with the water, how do you approach choosing a spot and prefishing?
Cody – The way I approach a new body of water is covering a lot of ramps across the lake as fast as I can. I wanna know water the water color is like in different areas of the lake before really dialing in where I’m looking to fish the tournament.
Jason- When I do travel to a new lake, I obviously will look in detail at Google Earth to find areas I’m comfortable with. Then when on the ground I will jump from ramp to ramp to look at an area and see if it matches what I thought it looked like on Google. Ultimately I am looking for water that matches how I want to fish with the type of structure and water color I’m looking for.
Natural State Kayak Anglers Beaver Lake Results
On the same weekend of the KBF Central Open was the NSKA Beaver Lake tournament with 63 anglers on the water. Read the recap of how this tournament was won on Beaver Lake.