Representing the PacNW!

Home sweet home.

I'm working through the pics right now and will have them together later in the day. Naturally, a cold front came just as things were starting to settle down from a series of storms earlier in the week.

Little did anyone know, there was a silent sponsor of the Georgia Kayak Tournament Trail - Nestle Quik.

The water was downright nasty chocolate milk. I was getting nervous about that 2 hours away from the lake as I could see it in every stream/river/pond we passed.

On Friday, the day before the tournament, I was able to get on the water using a Trident 11 owned by one of my team members. Besides deciding I hated that boat completely, I found myself in the current of the Chattahoochee River (dams above and below were both open) going absolutely nowhere that I wanted to go. This was going to be fun.

Morning of the event I decided I was going to go for it. I could see the current wasn't like the day before and the dams were likely closed. I was gonna run and gun down to the end of the lake, fish bait balls along the way if I could find them, then work docks, coves and eddies on my way back. One of my teammates was coming with me in his Ultimate 14.5 and bring along the 4doz live shiners I picked up for bait fishing.

Somehow I lost him half way in. I was on my own.

I got down to the end of the lake and fished some known and popular areas to no avail. I worked my way up slowly pitching jigs, cranks, plastics, spinners into cover looking for bass. Nothing. I trolled a variety of swimbaits and cranks from spot to spot. Dropped bait when I was anchored for cats. Nothing.

I was about 2 miles away from check-in when my alarm went off. I had about 2 hours to get back up to camp. All I could do now was troll and get up to see how others had done. I had 3 lines out when my Emmrod started rattling in the holder. Fish On!

I made quick work getting it up to the kayak for its photo opportunity. It was a Striped Bass just over 11". I knew it wasn't a big fish, but points are points. I dispatched it back to the water and continued on my slow crawl back to camp.

I made it back with just 10 minutes to spare. My body was burning from plowing that T11 just over 13 miles through waters it really wasn't made to handle.

In the end, I came out in 7th place and put the ONLY Striper on the board. Just as I had anticipated the night before, the winner picked up a white catfish and a LMB. No one else on my team picked up a fish, much like 43 others out fishing that day.

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2010 NWKA Fall Salmon Challenge

AOTY 2010