The 2020 NSKA NWA RoadRunner was one to remember for a few reasons. First, an expanded radius of 60 miles from Siloam Springs put more water in play than ever for a road runner. Secondly, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and social distancing there was no captain’s meeting and no weigh-in get together. Finally, it will be remembered as a day where some big fish totals and giant bass were put in the kayak!
Tournament Results
Overall the road runner kept true to form by producing some big limits and a large number of fish submitted. What didn’t hold was involvement of the usual big fish destinations in the standings, with Elmdale, Siloam Springs City Lake and Lincoln Lake not making the top three. A really strong 41% of the field turned in a limit and an outstanding 77% of the field turned in fish, however, these totals are a step back from 2019 which were 52% and 83% respectively.
Justin Brewer dropped the hammer early in the day and took first place with 94.25″, followed by Devin Mathews with 90.5″ in second and Roy Roberts in third with 88″ on the day. Finishers fourth through ten were: Dwain Batey, Jason Ray, Cole Sikes, Devon Esry, Michael Burgess, Chris Needham and Kyle Fields. Check out all of the results on TourneyX.
Big Bass was a MONSTER
Angler Jason Coleman won Big Bass with a 22.75″ pig (that was really bigger but had a mouth open deduction) and beat out my 22″ 2nd place Big Bass. His story is too good not to share and I’m sure we all can identify with how he felt when he got it in the kayak:
“I was planning to fish Tenkiller for this event and drove over to OK Saturday afternoon to camp near the lake. I didn’t realize that Tenkiller was washed out and most of the launch sites were closed. I drove all the way around the lake and it was a mess and lake looked like chocolate milk and there was debris everywhere. I wasn’t feeling it so I ended up driving back to Bentonville…Glad I did! It wasn’t until about 9:00 Saturday night that I decided where I was going to go. I got on Google Earth and picked a place that I had fished near before. I felt wanted to get away from crowds and go somewhere that had quick limit potential. Big bass was not even on my radar in the area…I was fishing near Holiday Island. I was lucky to catch a small limit by 8:00 on a Green Pumpkin Strike King Shim E Stick. After I had five keepers, I switched to a White and Chartreuse Strike King Thunder Cricket (available at WM store 100 in Bentonville)! I was planning to fish the Cricket for a while and try and cull a few.
Within ten casts I hooked in to the big gal! When I first hooked her I knew it was a big fish. She turned my kayak 180 degrees real quick. When I first got a glimpse I thought I had snagged a big carp. The water was stained and I’d never seen a bass that fat. When I got a second glimpse, I realized this was a TOAD! I don’t know how long I fought her, but it seemed like forever. When I got her to the boat it took me about three or four swipes to get her in the net. She was too big for it! Once I was finally able to get her nose in it I could half swing her into the boat….I was shaking for about two minutes while I left her in the net. I don’t smoke but I needed a cigarette. She was so big I was scared to take her out and try and take a pic. Once I got my phone and bump board ready I pulled her out the net and started trying to get a photo. I was shaking like a heroin addict without methadone! The first two tries she started flopping around and I had to tackle her in my chair! It was a shit show! I finally got her to calm down enough to get a few pics. They turned out be be all bad. Her mouth was wide open and she was half on and off the board in all the pics. At this point, she had been out of the water for a few minutes so I held her back in to take a few breaths.
I then went back at it again. I snapped probably ten more pics between several close call flops, but could never get her to close her lips all the way. This went on for about three or four more minutes before I decided to give up. I had her out of the water for while and I didn’t want to stress her too much. I figured I’d rather get a penalty than to see her go belly up on the release. Over the years I’ve weighed several fish in the 8’s and 9’s, but never an official 10. This gal was by far bigger than any bass I’ve put my hands on. I didn’t have a scale, but I’m pretty sure she’d hit 10 and then some…Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Angler Roundtable – How they caught ’em!
The top four anglers were good enough to stay more than six feet apart and share how they caught their limits. Check out below how Justin Brewer, Devin Mathews, Roy Roberts and Dwain Batey did their damage:
Where did you go and why did you choose to go there?
Justin – Going into this event I wanted to find a lake as far south and secluded that I could find. First, hoping the water would be warmer and maybe warm enough for fish to start the spawning process. Second, to try and avoid the 95 other anglers that would crawling all over the local lakes. I do believe I accomplished that by the fact that I didn’t have another competitor on that lake, only local traffic.
Devin – I fished elk river in Missouri, water was high and murky making it move pretty good.
Roy – I went to the east end of Eucha. I probably would have fished closer to the dam but since I don’t have an “adult sized” kayak I decided to stay on the upper end to follow all the “local rules” for Oklahoma. That probably worked out for the best. It seemed like the bite was tough everywhere I went leading up to this event so I wanted to go somewhere I would be around quality fish and Eucha has that reputation. I had not been there in a few years but had some previous experience to draw off of.
Dwain – I was unable to practice anywhere more than a couple hours at Siloam City Lake, and practicing there I managed to only catch one 15” fish. I still felt that I would be able to catch them there, with the warming trend and fishing wanting so badly to begin spawning.
What was the water temp where you were fishing and how did that affect your approach?
Justin – The water temp was actually a lot cooler than I was expecting and hoping for. Started at 60 in the morning and slowly climbed to 66 by 2 p.m. But really did not change my approach due to the cooler temps the night before I figured the surface temps would be cooler.
Devin – I don’t know, didn’t have any electronics to check the water temp.
Roy – It was 53 degrees in the morning. A little cooler than I expected. I tried to slow down and use some pauses in my retrieves to trigger strikes.
Dwain – The water temperatures were from 57 to 59 degrees, and this was really getting those male bass in the mood to move up and start making beds.
What baits or general techniques that worked for you?
Justin – With the lake still being a little flooded my main approach was to flip bushes all day because pre-fishing this lake I was able to catch 89.50″ in an hour doing this. But I did not start fishing till 10:00 that day. So when first cast rolled around I picked up a white Booyah Melee to pass the time and it just so happened to be the key bait for me catching three of my keepers at 6:43, 6:47, 6:55 then rounding out my first limit of 90.75 with one at 7:15 and 7:22. Eventually culled up later in the day.
Devin – I used moving baits all day long.
Roy – My best bites early came on a Megabass jerkbait (French Pearl) and a Jackhammer chatterbait (Black and Blue). There was some intense fishing pressure with 10-12 boats in my small area by 7:30, so I had to use some finesse tactics to finish my limit and cull a little bit.
Dwain – I caught one fish on a vibrating jig, and the rest on a weightless soft plastic bait.
Any interesting stories or tidbits you want to share from the event?
Justin – Seeing how the results turned out I could have loaded up and been headed home by 8:00 and still been alright. But I just knew that with the fisherman in this tournament and how good they were biting for me I was gonna have a lot of work to do to keep the lead.
Roy – I have a student in class who I was able to convince to fish his first kayak tournament. It was so rewarding to get to talk to him about his experience and how different this tournament was compared to a boat tournament. I challenge everyone else to find a youth angler they can encourage to join us and fish sometime.
Dwain – I had a few things happen, first off it was really slow and it took a while to boat my first fish. I got it in and thought, “I’ll use my new phone today.” So I snapped pictures of the 16.75” fish and checked to make sure they were good, let the fish go. Started to put it on TourneyX and it says it doesn’t have the location. I looked, sure enough no location, but the sunrise picture I took an hour before was fine. Go figure. Needless to say I didn’t take any chances and used my other phone the rest of the day with no issues. Second was just how the whole day went. First off, I fished Siloam City Lake, with the plan to move to Lincoln Lake at some point in the day. After that first fish that didn’t count, It was a long time before I caught another fish, and I was fishing my way back to load up when I caught my best fish at 19.25” and that made me stay until it was too late to move lakes.
After the sun came up I saw lots of beds, but no fish on them. I kept thinking that as the water warmed up it would get those fish back on those active beds, and they almost outlasted our event time. I had about an hour left when suddenly every bed seemed to have a male bass that was ready to eat on it. I got a couple of culls and missed a few fish, and then with seconds to go I missed a big one that I got to see, but I am really glad I didn’t catch it. My Dakota Lithium battery had been out a couple of trips since I charged it, so with an hour left my graph had died, so I didn’t know exactly what time it was.
As soon as I lost that fish I looked and it was 2:30 on the nose. If I had gotten that big fish in I would have been so mad that it was too late ha ha. Morals of the story: 1. Check all of your gear even your phone before you use anything in a live event. 2. Have a plan but be flexible and follow the conditions and the bass. 3. Don’t give up, it took all day to fill my limit and finally start culling.
Next NSKA Event: ONLINE Beaver Lake event in April – No AOY Points