River Bassin' Trail 2016 Kickoff Event - Crawfordville, FL

After my "rookie" 2015 season, the 2016 kayak fishing tournament season couldn't get here fast enough.  For me, there is just something about competitive fishing.  This was the first tournament of the 2016 season, and while it was still cold back home in north Georgia, an early March getaway to the Florida panhandle was just the ticket to get rid of the winter blues and get me back into the swing of things on the tournament scene.  I had been practicing a lot for the KBF National Championship which was coming up toward the end of March, but I hadn't really fished against anyone nor against the clock in a bass-only tournament since the previous October.

As a bonus, what was initially planned to be a quick weekend trip with a little bit of fishing and camping turned into a week long immersion into Old Florida.  Far away to the west were the bustling spring break towns of Panama City Beach and Destin.  This was little towns like Panacea, Sopchoppy, and Alligator Point.  Back in 2011 I had spent some time in this area for work, and had come to appreciate the area for what it was, and I was glad to be back, and show my wife and sister-in-law around some of the places that up until that point, I could only illustrate in stories of my travelin' days.

Friday, March 4th was getaway day, and Sass and I left that morning so we could take our time getting down to our rental house on Alligator Point.  I had planned out a route through Bainbridge and West Tallahassee, so I could stop at some river access points and scout out the water.  I was not going to prefish - I did not take any extra days off beforehand, and made a pretty late decision to fish the tournament at all.  I had done plenty of internet and map research, however,  and had it narrowed down to just a few spots on the Flint, Sopchoppy and Ochlockonee Rivers.  The River Bassin' Tournament Trail allows anglers to fish any moving water and natural sloughs, oxbows, etc within a 50 mile radius of the host location.  So naturally, the panhandle and Big Bend offered numerous options.  The in-bounds section of the Flint was in the backwaters of Lake Seminole and there are plenty of big largemouth there, but that location was on the extreme outskirts of the 50 mile radius, and I chose to spend more time actually fishing than driving back to weigh-in.

After some more scouting and checking into the house, I had made the decision to fish a section of the Ochlockonee in an area called Woodlake.  We made our way to the captains' meeting at The Wilderness Way just outside Crawfordville. By the way - take a look at this house...straight out of the 1950's and stood the test of time against the hurricanes.  It had a smooth stone floor, stucco walls and tin roof.  Nothing about it was new, yet it was perfect.  And right on the beach.

The Digs

Back at the Wilderness Way, I met up with my teammate Allen "Cornbread" Starling.  This was my first River Bassin' tournament I had teamed up with someone to fish.  We met at the Chattanooga River Bassin' event last year and became friends - one of many I've made through kayak fishing.  The River Bassin' format awards cash and prizes for both team and individual divisions.  So, even if one teammate has a rough day, the other still has a chance to win in the individual division if they have a good day.  Fishing together is encouraged, but our team was put together at the last minute and we did not do a lot of pre planning together, so the best we could do was wish each other luck and check the leaderboard during tournament day, and reconvene at the weigh-in.  Cornbread had decided to camp and fish on the Wacissa River, east of Crawfordville, and I was staying southwest of Crawfordville.  So the Ochlockonee made sense for me to fish.  Sass and I went to Mad Anthony's for dinner on the water, and after that it was time for last minute prep, and to get some sleep.

Last minute prep did not go well.  While testing my electronics, I realized somehow my inline fuse to my Lowrance was blown.  The river I was fishing had deep water. I was going to be relegated to either covering water and probing structure with a Carolina Rig or fishing visible cover.  I would choose the latter.

As always, sleep came at a premium on tourney eve, but I managed a few hours and was up very early and on the water just in time for first light and lines in.  It was a beautiful morning, somewhat cool but quite comfortable.  I was in unfamiliar surroundings with the tannic water, cypress knees, and sandy banks.  I started with a buzzbait near some pads and in the shallows, and did not draw a strike.  After 20-30 minutes I switched to a chatterbait and drew a nice strike but ended up losing the fish after only getting a glimpse of it.  It was maybe 14-15 inches and would have been a nice start and a confidence booster.  That was the last strike I got on the chatterbait, however, and I switched to a white trick worm, a bait that I read was good for tannic water on some of the Florida fishing forums.

Sometime around mid-morning I tossed the worm into a shallow flat near a creek bend and my rod loaded up.  After the hookset, I knew I had something significant on the other end.  It took a good 20 seconds before I realized this was not the target species.  I had hooked into the mighty prehistoric looking bowfin.  I managed to keep it hooked despite its violent thrashing fits, and get it on the Boga Grip.  I wasn't letting this toothy critter stay around too long, because it still had plenty of hitch in its giddy-up as I was getting the hook out of its mouth.  I kept it around long enough to get an upside-down photo of it on my Hawg Trough - 23 inches of solid muscle.  It was a new species and the hardest fighting freshwater fish I have caught.

My first bowfin

That was the only fish I got on the white trick worm.  I switched to a Wack 'Em worm in junebug later in the afternoon, once the sun got overhead, and was able to boat two small largemouth bass, but never was able to land a third for my limit.  It was a humbling day in the swamps of Wakulla County. A few counties over in the crystal clear, spring fed waters of the Wacissa, Cornbread had managed to boat one bass himself.  So neither of us were skunked, but we were not going to be near the top either.

Individually, I ended up 23rd out of 43 anglers.  Team ANGLR finished 11th out of 13 teams.  I continue to be impressed with the job Drew Gregory (and now his wife Cristina) do putting together and hosting these tournaments.  They get good host locations and sponsors, and Drew, Noah and team put the information together well, and are quick to answer any questions and handle any issues that arise.

I have joined the Southeastern Online River Bassin' tournament as well, and it will count toward the three required events to be fished to qualify for the National Championship on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania this fall - the land of the trophy smallmouth. The tournament runs the length of the season all the way up to 9/25/16, the weekend before the National Championship on 10/1/16. 

The great thing about the tournament being finished, was that it turned out to be only the beginning of an awesome vacation.  Sass and I spent the day resting and went to the beach at Alligator Point on Sunday.  We had Deuce with us, too.  She doesn't like the water much, but enjoyed exploring the sights and smells of the beach and the dunes.

Later that evening, my sister in law joined us and we had a great dinner at Hamaknockers BBQ.  This was the first of two trips we'd end up making there. Comfort food for a comfort trip.

The next day was spent on Alligator Point exploring and relaxing, and I got to take the Amigo out on Alligator Harbor for a while. I threw a swimbait around some docks for a while but no takers.  I saw tons of stingrays but very few fish.  Later that evening I went out to Levy Bay and threw the swimbait some more into some mullet schools, but again the redfish were not taking.

Alligator Harbor

Levy Bay "skunkset"

The next morning, I went to the brackish waters of Ochlockonee Bay State Park to try and chase the spot tails again.  Apparently the water was more fresh than salty.  I caught a largemouth on the first cast with a chatterbait, and saw a few alligators but that was all.

Looking back on this trip, I am so glad I decided to take off the extra few days and spend some quality time with my wife and sister-in-law.  This is a trip I will remember fondly, and I'm glad I got to spend some more time in a part of the state of Florida I came to love and appreciate several years ago.  I didn't catch very many fish, but that's okay.  It turned out to be much more than just a fishing trip.  After dinner at the Coastal, we capped off the trip with a bonfire on the beach.  Hard to beat that ending.  Cheers to Old Florida.