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Spotlight: Expert Crankbait Tips, Choosing a Stand-Up Paddle, Jeff Malott Wins KBS on Table Rock, Installing LED Lights, AKA and WAKA Results

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Taking off on Beaver Lake the morning of the AKA NW Arkansas road-runner event.

This week’s spotlight features some great content and some exciting results involving some of my fellow Arkansas Kayak Anglers.

Dwain Batey is maybe the best crankbait kayak angler I know of and he’s put together a great article called Why You Can’t Catch Fish on a Squarebill Crankbait. Despite the title, Dwain does everything he can in this article to help you catch fish on a crankbait. He should know, he’s the owner of Bait Werks Custom Lure Painting and paints all of the lures for Skirmish Baits. If you like to fish crankbaits or want to improve, this is a good place to start.

Fellow Arkansas Kayak Angler Jeff Malott won a cool $3,000 this past weekend at the KBS Open on Table Rock Lake. Jeff is a great angler who works hard at his craft and deserved the win. Jeff caught eight bass and turned in a limit of 82″ inches on a post-front day. He is the tournament director for Arkansas Kayak Angler events, one of the founders of the Razoryak Tournament Trail and serves on many other kayak fishing related boards. It’s no surprise an AKA member won on Table Rock; clear and rocky water like that is home turf. Jeff is currently at the top spot in the AOY points for AKA and has a great season. Check out Jeff’s blog, Yakfish Arkansas.

If you are fortunate enough to have a Stand-Up Paddleboard (SUP), they are a lot of fun. Choosing the right paddle can make all the difference. Bending Branches has this great article about Choosing a Stand-Up Paddle that’s helpful and includes some graphics representing the height of the paddler to the paddle and the right angle at which to make a paddle stroke.

Kayakfishingblog.com has an updated layout and look if you haven’t seen it in a while. They posted a good article on Installing LED Fishing Lights that you might want to check out. My own article on Installing LED Lights On Your Kayak has been a popular one on this blog. Between these two articles you should be well on your way towards an install.

Western Arkansas Kayak Anglers and Arkansas Kayak Anglers have updated their respective Angler of the Year points rankings after their most recent events. In northwest Arkansas, the AOY standings are taking shape with only two events left. Jeff Malott, Dwain Batey, Jason Kincy (me), Decland McDonald and Tim Hotchkin are sitting in the top five spots, with the top three places separated by eight points. Overall, there are 108 anglers in the points race. For WAKA, Brandon Ward and Cody Skelton are in a tight race for first, with Tommy Mcguire, Christa Hibbs and Joe Feyen rounding out the top five. Having only fished two events this year for WAKA, I’m currently sitting at 21 out of 47 anglers.

News

Cheating in CPR Kayak Bass Fishing Tournaments

The kayak fishing tournament social media world was buzzing today about an announcement by KBF, KBS and other groups about an individual who was caught cheating in live and online tournaments. In short, this individual was caught using altered Hawg Troughs to

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This photo posted by KBS shows a real Hawg Trough compared to photos from the offender, who obscured his board and fish with his wrist.

make fish appear longer than they were in CPR (Catch, Photo, Release) photos, and, was using multiple altered Hawg Troughs to allow them to submit the same fish at different lengths. A couple of pretty good breakdowns were provided by Kayak Bass Series and by Chad Hoover in a long and transparent video. (NSFW – Language)

After the news broke today (Tuesday, April 19), social media platforms such as Facebook were buzzing with comments, declarations and anger from other kayak anglers. There is no secret that some people cheat, and anyone who didn’t think that was going on is naive. What made this revelation so noteworthy was the scale at which this individual had cheated – across several tournament formats and trails. He has been publicly humiliated and April 19 was likely the worst day of his life. And, he deserves it.

As for the issue of cheating…I believe Tournament Directors (TDs) have to be vigilant in guarding against cheating. TDs do a fantastic job and are generous with their time donated to running events for their anglers. In my opinion, TDs have a responsibility to ensure a close scrutiny on photos submitted for prize winning anglers. Spend a few extra minutes evaluating the winning photos to ensure nothing is going on. Competitors trust the officials to maintain the integrity of the sport. Once cheating or the rumor of cheating becomes associated with the sport, it will stunt the growth of tournaments and people’s confidence in the outcome of events. I’ll continue to compete because I enjoy it, but there are others who will walk away if they think cheating occurs. Now is the time to be extra careful and promote transparency.

Here are a few suggestions I would like to see to help discourage cheating and encourage transparency with CPR tournaments:

  • TDs should take a few moments with the photos of top finishers to ensure they look right. (some of pic examples from the cheater should have been easy to spot with a little more scrutiny of the fish)
  • The photos of winning fish limits and big bass should be posted publicly so they can be viewed. This happens now with online tourneys and could be helpful in local tourneys.
  • Reduce any stigma surrounding someone reporting something questionable or unusual. If people are not comfortable in reporting someone breaking the rules, then the cheaters prosper.
  • Adoption of globally used rules for measurements, pre and post tournament procedures and use of identifiers would help streamline the rules and make it easier to spot anomalies.

This individual wasn’t the first to cheat (we all likely know someone who was caught) and won’t be the last. The fact that this has sent shock-waves through the kayak fishing community speaks to the importance of integrity in the sport. Kudos to those who uncovered this scam and systematically assembled the evidence in a way that left no question of how the rules were being violated.

Community and camaraderie are some of the most valued attributes of the kayak fishing experience – a few cheaters won’t take that away from us.