Yak Tribe Day 2 Report

The second day of the Yak Tribe tournament was a short one for me. With only about 4 hours to fish, I decided to anchor on some areas a little longer than I usually would. Normally, I will anchor for 20-30 minutes and try to catch any active fish that may be there before moving on to the next spot. While it may be efficient to do this if you are only moving a couple hundred yards down a structure, if you plan on moving greater distances then anchor fishing for this short a time period can actually cause you to be more inefficient. Regardless of what type of kayak you have, they are all slow by nature. The time it takes you to paddle to the next spot added to the time it takes you to pull and set your anchor and reel in and cast your lines can really cut into your actual fishing time. Since I only had 4 hours to fish on this day, I set up in areas where I thought fish would be moving in and out of throughout the day. My hope was that even if there wasn't any active fish there when I first set my baits, that there may be some fish move in while I was anchored there.

My first two spots were a bust. I only landed one dink blue which I measured and photographed anyway. I had decided to measure all my fish until I hit my limit of 8 even though I know I knew I would probably be culling the small ones at some point. Things happen in life and if for some reason I wasn't able to fish again in the tournament, I didn't want to regret not turning in that fish.

The last area I anchored on was the one that paid off. I was fishing at the mouth of a major creek that runs into the main river channel. I like fishing these type of areas. Creeks give a clearly defined path for fish to travel from deep water to shallow water and they are always loaded with forage. I ended up catching two striped bass. One measured 35" and the other 32". They weren't the targeted species but I never complain when they steal my catfish bait. They are hardest pulling fish on the Tennessee River and I love catching them even if it is by accident. Since the Yak Tribe tournament is a multi-species event, I was able to count them toward my limit.

After the first two days of the tournament, I had 7 of the 8 fish I needed for my limit. I will need to replace several of them to have a chance at winning, but I am off to a great start. Here is the video recap of the day.