Hey Gang,
Kev and I want to start up a low key bass club for Kent Lake.
Here is our idea so far:
No membership fee
$35/team entry fee.
$5 optional big bass pot
100% payback at the ramp
You can use as many different parnters as you want (only 2 guys per boat per tournament obviously ) but you dont have to fish with the same guy everytime.
We are thinking about a tuesday night deal. We want to test the waters a little this year so we are going to have our first event this coming tuesday Oct 25 out of the east launch. We will fish from 5 pm - 8 pm. I already have 4 boats lined up. It will start getting dark at around 7:30 but we should have enough light left to finish at 8 i hope i hope i hope.
Thinking about a 3 fish limit as well. Would like your feedback on this though.
We will fish a championship tournament at the end of the year ( after the chiller thriller put on by Benny Miller which is the last Saturday in Oct). The Championship will be the following tuesday and the biggest weight from the Chiller Thriller and The championship tournament combined wins the Championship. Would also like your feedback on this as well.
For next year we are looking at doing every other tuesday night from 5-8 and possibly working out a points system to qualify for the championship, but nothing is set in stone. Basically we want to see who is interested in having a bi weekly slug fest on Kent and build the club around the wants and wishes of those who want to fish it.
For now, we just want to get together with yall and have some fun out there. Since the season is coming to a quick end, we want to squeeze in a couple low key fun tournaments. But we will throw around ideas after each event and get some ideas from you guys on what we should do with this.
Hopefully you can join us. Kent is an awesome lake and with a bi weekly tournament, especially this time of year, will produce some very big fish.
So, is anyone interested? I am going to lie to my wife either way and tell her that there is a tournament every tuesday night regardless of whether this gets off the ground or not. I need to fish. My hands used to smell like fish slime 5-6 days a week, now they smell like baby diapers all 7.
FEEDBACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
McCarter himself :-\'
Correction, the first tournament will be this coming tuesday SEPT 25, not Oct 25. bUT WE WILL BE HAVING ONE (sorry about the caps, twas a misfire ) on october 23rd as well. ANd every tuesday in between. So basically, from this day foward, we will have a kent lake tournament every tuesday starting sEPT 25 and ending Oct 30. If you can make it, great. If you cant, well then may god have mercy on your soul.
McCarter himself :-\'
My partner and I dropped the Tuesday night tourneys we were doing, so let me speak with him and I'll get back to you. It sound like fun.
I am going to try to make as many of these as possible. We don't turn the clocks back until the first Sunday in November so it shouldn't get dark too early.
IMO a 3 fish limit is a good idea since this lake can be so feast or famine. I know there are some guys who can bag a limit most days out there, but most of the people I know don't have that easy of a time out there. 3 bass limit evens the field a bit.
Its a go for tonite. I will be there at around 4:30 to start taking money. We ooze off at 5 pm sharp.
If there are any non boaters who want to fish this event, Benny Miller is looking for a partner. Benny is a very good stick on Kent Lake. He has taken my money on more than one occasion. He always finds the big largies.
If you are interested in fishing with Benny, give me a call and let me know and I will put you 2 in touch.
248-379-4724
See ya tonite.
McCarter himself :-\'
Had a good time and some good fish out there tonight, nothing better than smallies on topwater. Thanks for putting this together and hopefully get some more boats next week. I think the weather forecast being so bad kept some away, I was 1/2 mile from home when the sky let loose and it was a bear trying to back down my driveway and into the garage in that downpour.
Could have used more boats. But it was fun none the less. The fishing wasnt great for me, but my partner did alright.
Here is the breakdown:
4 boats total
3 boats weighed limits of 3 fish
no dead fish
total weight for 9 fish: 22.44 lbs
1st place: Tony Yancey/Brian McCarter 8.48 lbs $140
2nd place: Chris Harrison/Fred the father-in-law 7.42 lbs
3rd place: Scott Miller/partner 6.54 lbs
4th place: Benny Miller/partner had one fish but didnt weigh it.
Big Bass: Tony Yancey/Brian McCarter 3.15 lbs $20
I was half expecting someone to come in with 12 lbs for 3 fish. It can be like that on Kent lake. But alas, we were all ignored by the big bite. But everyone caught fish and had fun and thats what really matters. Unfortunatly, we could only pay out one place. We had a few last minute cancellations including my partner, who was too wrapped up in the new Halo 3 game (which i hear can be ordered from site sponsor Amazon.com, use the links to the right) which is why Tony and I ended up together. Hopefully we will have a few more boats for next tuesdays tourney.
Thanks to Chris, Benny, and Scott and there partners for making it out. And big thanks to Benny for supplying the scale and bags!
McCarter himself :-\'
The reason you probably didn't have as good of a turnout as you would of liked is because there was a NBAA fall tourney that went out of the west ramp. It took 16 and change for first place there second place was 14 and change and my partner and I ended up in third place with 11.41 Big bass was 4.15lb largemouth and we had second big bass with a 3.87 lb smallmouth. I think we had close to 15 boats.
I should be able to make the next one. My partner wasn't able to commit to them, but I found someone else. So if all goes as planned, I'll see you guys Tuesday.
We are fishng again tonite.
East Launch
5 pm - 8 pm
$35 per team and $5 big bass
3 fish limit
McCarter himself :-\'
Crap.. couldn't make the 5pm start time. Sorry guys. Hope you had a decent turnout. I'll try again for next week.. Grr.
sitting here at 7:59 and it sure is dark out there. you guys are tough. my mom won't let me stay out after the street lights come on.
there is a DNR research boat going by as i write this with lights on shocking fish. really looks neat. it has huge bright lights really light up the water.
4 boats again. A couple guys from last week couldnt make it this week, but we had 2 new boats to make up for it.
Fishing was good, and it could have been better. My expectations of a 3 fish bag tipping 12 lbs were almost met last night. Kev and I weighed 3 fish for 9.66 lbs with one going 4.47 and another 3.97. We had the bites to bring in another 4 lber but missed.
In other interesting news, there were a total of 7 fish weighed for a total weight of for a total of 20.43 lbs. Thats almost a 3 lb average. I know its only 4 boats but i think it really speaks for the quality of the fishery.
Here is the breakdown.
1st place: Kevin Barrows/Brian McCarter 9.66 lbs $140
2nd place: Tony Yancey/Garry 7.83 lbs
3rd place: Chris Harrison/Fred the father in law 2.94 lbs
4th place: Kim Veenstra/Sean 0.00 lbs
Big Bass: Kevin Barrows/Brian McCarter 4.47 lbs $20
Unfortunatly we could only pay one spot again. But i think next week we will have more boats. Both guys who didnt make it last night should be back next tuesday and a couple guys who want to fish are fishing the BFL regional right now. Also, Marcel Veenstra may be there fishing with Rob Bakeman of Wonderland Marine West. If you have ever wanted to fish against a pro, this might be your chance.
Rev, if you want to fish but dont think you can make it by 5:00 pm, just show up when you can and call me. I will meet you to check your livewell and take your entry fee. We are pretty lax when it comes to that. I know its hard to make 5 pm on a work day ;).
So thats it. Kent is giving up some very nice bass right now and they are hitting just about everything. And i promise to bring my camera next time so i can post some pics. There were some very nice fish weighed last night and no camera. Oops.
McCarter himself :-\'
hey brian, for those of us fishing the "chiller thriller", any chance your not? kidding of course - but is there still a tournament that saturday. haven't heard or seen any anouncements for other than listed on R.Randolps tournament list.
Me and Kev will be there but dont worry. I have bombed the last two years and Im probably good for a hat trick. Honestly, with the first two KLBA events I was lucky. The first one, i only caught 2 keepers and neither were big enough to cull out my partners fish, so my partner is to blame for the win. The second one was kinda a fluke. The big largie i caught was a suprise cuz i dont really catch any largemouth in that spot. Its mostly a smallie spot. ANd the way the smallmouth have been hitting, its a miracle that i even got a hook into her. They hit like a mack truck but when you set the hook, there is nothing there. The only thing i can think of why they are doing this is, it must be a territorial thing. Maybe they just dont like anything invading there space when they are not in feed mode. Either way, I wouldnt worry too much about me in the Chiller Thriller, but my partner is one to watch out for. His name is Kevin Barrows. Maybe you have heard of him. He is famous in these parts. ;)
The chiller thriller is a go. Benny Miller actually fishes with us on Tuesday nights. It will be the last saturday in Oct.
McCarter himself :-\'
Its on again tonight. I have talked to a few more boats that are supposed to come out. Looks like we will be able to pay out more than one spot for this one.
Chris Harrison is looking for a partner if anyone is interested. Please let me know if you would like to fish with Chris aka Bender.
Kent Lake
East Boat ramp
5 pm - 8 pm
3 fish limit
$35 per team or individual
$5 optional big bass
McCarter himself :-\'
Please send me a PM on here if you are looking to fish this evening.
Update: Looking forward to fishing with Langer this evening!
Spot Filled. See ya tonight.
Hey Chris if you ever need another partner at some point let me know.
-Kid
The 4 boat curse is in full effect. And we even had a new boat again. Everybody weighed fish this time.
The fishing started out pretty tough for me and Kev. We hit a couple of our 'good' spots but couldnt get anything going. The wind was howling pretty good which i thought would have put the fish in full blown feed mode, but bites the first hour and a half were hard to come by. Kev finally hooked up with our first keeper on a rattle trap. I was burning a spinnerbait past shoreline trees and went unbitten for quite some time. Finally, i hooked into a 13.8739" largie that we couldnt stretch. But next cast, i hooked a 15" smallie. From there, i thought we figured it out. But with the exception of a few shorts, there would be no more keepers on fast moving baits.
We finally got onto a pod of fish on some deep rocks using jigs and hula grubs. We made a limit and culled the two smaller fish out to bring our 3 fish limit weight about 6.5 lbs. It got kinda slow for the next 20 minutes, but with 10 minutes left Kev set the hook on a pig. He was using a Nemesis 5" stick bait (oh yeah) in black with silver flake on a shakey head. After a couple jumps and a couple good runs, she was in the net. With only a couple minutes remaining, we culled out our smallest and headed to the ramp.
Heres the breakdown.
1st place: Kevin Barrows/Brian McCarter 8.90 lbs $140
2nd place: Chris Harrison/Brian Langer 7.94 lbs
3rd place: Grant Shively/Jeff Cox 7.61 lbs
4th place: Kim Veenstra/Sean the neighbor 3.32 lbs
Big Bass: Kevin Barrows/Brian McCarter 4.50lbs $20
Again, we could only pay one spot. This 4 boat thing is killing us. A couple more guys who called and said they were coming were no shows. Hopefully next week we can break the curse and get 6 boats.
A total of 11 fish were weighed, all alive, for a total weight of 27.77 lbs and an average of 2.52 lbs.
Thanks again to everyone who came out. Big thanks to Grant Shively and Jeff Cox who decided to fish at the last minute to keep us at 4. I dont think i could handle a 3 boat turnout.
Pictures will be up later today (hopefully)
McCarter himself :-\'
We're at it again tonite. 5pm-8pm east launch.
pics from last week
I am so bummed I can't make these! Grrr. Too many schedule conflicts. Looks like the fishing is pretty good on Kent right now. I'm dying to get out there with you guys. If you do this next year for the whole year, I WILL BE THERE!
How late in the year will you be running these?
When I get back in the country in a couple of weeks, it would be fun to fish a couple of them.
Seth
Seth the 30th is the last Tuesday they said they will be doing them this year, then they will pick back up the Tuesday after the opener in the spring. I'll be happy to meet you out there during the week whenever you want to go when you get back into the country.
Finally broke the 4 boat curse last night. We had a record setting 7 boats show up for what turned out to be a slugfest on the mighty Kent.
The weather was a bit dismal but the big fish were biting. Kev and I got a good one right off the bat and another that went 2 lbs. We thought it was going to be a good night, but when we got to our hot spot that had been doing it for us the weeks prior, the pattern was no longer holding up. We did manage to scratch out a decent keeper there to cull us up about a half of a pound. But it still wasnt the size fish we have come to expect from this area. My only guess is the bigger fish have left this area in search of minners.
Here is the breakdown. Notice how close the top 4 were. it was anybodys ball game last night. Also, i am posting the teams big fish next to there weights to show the quality that was brought in last night.
1st place: Tony Yancey/Alex 9.85lbs 4.26lb big bass $185
2nd place: Mike/Charles 9.57lbs 4.01lb big bass $60
3rd place: Dale Huff 9.41lbs 3.97lbs big bass
4th place: Kevin Barrows/Brian McCarter 9.01lbs 4.31lb big bass $35
5th place: Chris Harrison/Brian Lang 4.90lbs
6th place: Kim Veenstra/Sean 4.63lbs
7th place: Ryan Said/Fred Said 3.51lbs.
It was nice to finally pay out 2 spots. We got a lot of good feedback from the new members so i expect this to keep growing. Next season should be a lot of fun.
Thanks to everyone who came out. And congrats to the big winners. There were some very nice bags weighed again. A total of 19 fish were weighed for a total of 50.88 lbs and an average of 2.67 lbs. Not too shabby. All fish were released alive and well.
Come check us out next tuesday. Same bat place, same bat time.
McCarter himself :-\'
pics
I must say it was a fun night out there. The fish were on the feed. That three fish limit was decent but I was not used to only having three good keepers in the boat and throwing back 2.5 lb fish. Could of had over 14lbs last night. The quality fish are out there and they are biting.
Will see you guys next tuesday.
Bring your rain gear tonite. Weather report says showers are supposed to dwindle by mid afternoon, but we all know how untrustworthy weathermen can be.
Same time and place.
McCarter himself :-\'
Here are some pics I took at the last tuesday nighter.
Nice fish ;D Do you have the break down of the tourney ? How many fish, weights ?
If you guys are doing this again tommorrow(Oct 30th) I can fish as a non-boater if you need one. Let me know so I can bring my stuff to work and leave from here.
I did bring some stuff to work so if anyone needs a partner let me know by 3pm, so I can head directly there.
I've actually got a partner for tonight, I am usually hunting around about this time on Tuesdays. Sorry.
Hey gang. I dont what i did with the results from last week. And i cant find the results from last night. I think i might have left them on the picnic table after cleaning up. But i have a pretty good memory so here goes.
1st place: Charles Shaw 9.97lbs $210 (biggest weight of the season)
2nd place: Tony/Alex 8.58lbs $70
3rd place Kevin/Brian 7.10 lbs
4th place Team Langer 6.85lbs
5th place The guys in the bullet who won last week 6.24lbs.
3 boats did not weigh fish
Big bass: Charles Shaw 4.41 lbs SMALLMOUTH $40
We had 8 boats last night and 9 boats last tuesday. Its making for some good competition. And the same guys arent winning every week so thats good. Unfotunatly, last night was our last Tuesday night tournament for 2007. We will pick it back up next year the Tuesday immediatly following the opener. From there, we will fish every other Tuesday until the end of the season.
We have some plans for next season regarding points. I dont know yet how we are going to do it, but in the end, we will be fishing for Angler of the Year and ultimatly for the championship. We are open to your suggestions regarding anything involved in these tournaments, especially the points thing.
Also, a couple of the guys have requested we move the tournaments to Wednesday night so they can fish both the NBAA and the KLBA. LIke i have said in the past, i really dont care what day we fish on. I just need an excuse to fish once during the week. But in the end, majority will rule. My only concern is, if we change it to Wednesday night, we might get too many boats which will ultimatly lead to Kev and I getting burned out since we are doing this for free. We want to keep it at 100% payback, always! But if it gets to the point where we are having to deal with 25 boats or more, problems are going to start popping up, permits will need to be pulled, politics will ruin it, we will be held down by the man. So please please please give us feedback.
Next year, we will be better organized and should be able to come up with some good extras to give away at some of the tournaments. Maybe some day we can even give away a boat. Unfortunatly, it will probably be my boat. And trust me, you dont want it. But it does have some custom duct tape accents on the seats which you might be into. And as far as i know, it still floats but thats about it.
Thanks to everyone who fished with us these past few weeks. I cant think of anything better than hanging out with you fine folks after work every tuesday. And the fishing hasnt been too bad, either.
McCarter himself :-\' and KBar aka Kdawg aka Kev (fishon1219)
Almost McCarter, Team Langer got 5th with 5.26, and Team Bullet was 4th with 6+. I would like to say great job to the both of you with organizing and running these, I had a blast fishing them and am sad that the season has come to a close, but work permitting I will be back in the Spring. Attached are some pictures from last night.
Here's a couple more.