Yak Tribe Tournament Spring 2018

Those of you who know me personally know that I am not that into tournaments. I do like to fish in a couple every year though. Last year, I ended up fishing in three events. I competed in the spring and summer Yak Tribe tournaments and I also fished in the Fishing for Soldiers bass tournament here locally. It was a successful year for me as I placed first in the spring Yak Tribe tournament and second in the summer tournament.

It is now time to get ready for the next event I will be competing in. The spring Yak Tribe tournament runs from May 15th through June 15th. It is a month long, multi-species tournament involving both fresh and saltwater fish. A list of eligible species can be seen below.

The challenge with this tournament isn't so much with catching big fish as it is with catching small fish. This is a slot limit tournament. You are allowed to submit eight fish from the list above over the course of the month but only two can be over the designated slot size. The reason for this format is to be able to merge freshwater and saltwater anglers into one tournament and still keep it competitive and allow everyone a chance to win. 

Personally, I am not a big fan of this format. With six of your fish needing to be as close to the upper end of the slot size as possible, it forces you to measure all of your small fish throughout the month. In last summer's tournament with this format, I probably measured close to 100 fish over the course of the month. It was very time consuming and really zapped a lot of the fun out of it for me. 

I had not planned on fishing anymore of the Yak Tribe tournaments with this format but after the prize list was announced for the spring event, I decided it was worth my while to compete. In addition to the cash prizes, Lowrance has donated fish finders which will be awarded to the top 5 finishers. NRS has also donated some great prize packages as well. To see a full list of the prizes, click here.

If you want to follow along with me as I compete over the next month, make sure to like the Kayak Catfish Facebook page and follow me on Instagram as I will be posting regular updates there. To sign up for this tournament or future events, check out the Yak Tribe website by clicking here.