Largest Kayak Fishing Tournament in TX?

kenmorrow · Post by **kenmorrow** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 5:50 am

I've got a few questions I'm hoping some of y'all can help me out with:

1. What is the largest kayak fishing tournament in TX (single event)?

2. What is the series with the biggest participation?

3. Which paddle sports event/festival/expo is best attended in Texas?

4. Regardless of attendance, what is your favorite kayak fishing tournament or paddle sports event of the year in TX?

Thanks.

bogdog · Post by **bogdog** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:18 am

Lone star kayak series is the answer to all those questions.......

kenmorrow · Post by **kenmorrow** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:29 am

bogdog wrote:Lone star kayak series is the answer to all those questions.......

Are you serious? With an avg of 60 anglers at each tournament? Even if you look at the aggregate, that is 240 anglers, but of that 60, at least 30 will be repeats each time. You would at least have to cut that number in half...down to 120 unique anglers.

I find it hard to believe that no kayak fishing tourney in TX has 120 anglers! Seriously? I just returned to TX and wasn't active in the kayak fishing community here before I moved away for a few years. I haven't fished tournaments until last year since I was a teenager. So I'm just asking...trying to get educated. So don't get offended when I ask tough questions. I'm asking for business reasons.

Ninja · Post by **Ninja** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 12:40 pm

Ken,

Maybe this will help. There may be others, but the kayak fishing tournaments this year for saltwater were mainly the following:

1. Casting for Cause Charity Event - 150+ kayakers participated in the kayak division (Both kayaks and powerboats)
2. RockportYakAttack Charity Event (Kayak only) - ~80 kayakers, think we would have hit 100 if not for weather forecast
3. LSKS Series
4. IFA Kayak Series
5. YakShack hosted a number of smaller charity events

NOTE: There are a few freshwater events but I have never participated so can't tell you anything about them.

Tournaments have not really taken off here in Texas, most not making it past their 3rd season and failed for many various reasons.

Let me know if you need any other information.

RedWolf · Post by **RedWolf** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 5:46 pm

Don't forget the BTB tournament in Corpus, the Bluewater Classic or something like that. It had a fairly good turnout even with bad weather this year.

AnthonyTRB · Post by **AnthonyTRB** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 6:31 pm

The 3 that I am aware of (Paddle) and on my to do list are:

Texas Winter 100k - 62mi ATX to Bastrop - JAN
Colorado River 100 - 100mi Bastrop to Columbus
and then the granddaddy
Texas Water Safari - 260ish-mi San Marcos to the Guad to the coast!

Anyone doing any of these?

Matyyaker · Post by **Matyyaker** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 7:07 pm

To answer the # 4 question I'll go LSKS. It's kayak only and alot of tourney water to cover.

Steve G · Post by **Steve G** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:56 am

KATs freshwater tourney started in 2007 and is going strong. Total number of participants last year is around 80 I think. Most tourneys see 30-60 anglers. Gets better every year. Results give you an idea of numbers for indiviual tourneys. Really depends on the lake.

http://austinkayakfishing.com/2012_KATS_results.html

2013 LAKES AND DATES:
January 26th Decker
February 23rd Bastrop- roadrunner event(North and South Shores)
March 23rd Fayette
April 27th Travis
May 18th Canyon
September 7th Classic (Location TBA)

kenmorrow · Post by **kenmorrow** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:57 pm

Thanks, gang. This is the sort of info I'm looking for. Fresh and salt water fishing tournaments or other events that draw large #s of kayak anglers to one place at the same time. I've gotta pick some events to sponsor and attend and it all comes down to max exposure and affinity for good causes.

RedWolf · Post by **RedWolf** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:22 pm

Big one for Galveston area is the LSKS which supports HOW and TKF. Corpus area has more tournaments, but most of them are to support local charities.

IrishRob · Post by **IrishRob** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:02 pm

Ken, the post above this one " Breaking News about the PKAA Open" might be what you are looking for. Lake Fork in March!!! every cast could be a double digit Bass. This like our earlier tournament " North VS South Texas Kayak Challenge" is to bring the Kayak anglers together. Making new friendships, learning new waters. It's what we are all about. If you'd like to know more, contact me at rob@pkaa.us

EZ-E · Post by **EZ-E** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:43 pm

kenmorrow wrote:
bogdog wrote:Lone star kayak series is the answer to all those questions.......
Are you serious? With an avg of 60 anglers at each tournament? Even if you look at the aggregate, that is 240 anglers, but of that 60, at least 30 will be repeats each time. You would at least have to cut that number in half...down to 120 unique anglers.

I find it hard to believe that no kayak fishing tourney in TX has 120 anglers! Seriously? I just returned to TX and wasn't active in the kayak fishing community here before I moved away for a few years. I haven't fished tournaments until last year since I was a teenager. So I'm just asking...trying to get educated. So don't get offended when I ask tough questions. I'm asking for business reasons.

the largest series would have been the Stars & Stripes back in 2005-2007 based out of galveston... the first event had 75 anglers ... the largest had 105.

my series we had over 60 anglers the first 3 events & the last event we had 44 ... we had 122 unique anglers fish the series through out the season

M T Stringer · Post by **M T Stringer** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:03 pm

EZ-E wrote:... we had 122 unique anglers fish the series through out the season

...and I would bet that you will get a 90% return rate for season two, plus more that have heard about it since then...

My 2013 tourney schedule is 6 for sure...
All 4 of the LSKS
Casting for a Cause
Yak Attack

All 6 of these are beneficial to HOW in one way or another.

...and I am on the fence for fishing the IFA

Post by **Tombo** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:22 am

Please correct me if I a wrong, Casting for a Cause had 165 entries in the kayak division this year.

kenmorrow · Post by **kenmorrow** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:39 am

Tombo wrote:Please correct me if I a wrong, Casting for a Cause had 165 entries in the kayak division this year.

This is what I have heard, Tombo.

I'm actually looking at a few tournaments pretty hard:

Casting for a Cause
Rockport Yak Attack
Maybe Bass on the Fly (or whatever) on Lake Fork (not a true kayak tourney, but has a sort of kayak div)
probably one of the tourney series

Devil's in the details, and I'll be contacting the various tournament organizers in the near future. Brand marketing is a driving factor in this equation, so the raw #s are key. But there are some unique combinations I like to find as well.

mockayaks · Post by **mockayaks** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:30 pm

What about Capital City Kayak Fishing Tournament Series??

Actually 2013 will be our first season so we have some work to do.
It's located in Austin, Texas for four months (Jan-Apr) and we have both Conventional and Fly Division payouts at each tourney.
We are all about the cash money as all the donated prizes by sponsors go up for raffle to increase payouts for the tourney.

Hope it will be the largest tourney one day and expand out but if you want more info on this tournament go visit the site.
http://mockayaks.com/tournament-format/

RedWolf · Post by **RedWolf** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:34 pm

M T Stringer wrote:
EZ-E wrote:... we had 122 unique anglers fish the series through out the season
...and I would bet that you will get a 90% return rate for season two, plus more that have heard about it since then...

My 2013 tourney schedule is 6 for sure...
All 4 of the LSKS
Casting for a Cause
Yak Attack

All 6 of these are beneficial to HOW in one way or another.

...and I am on the fence for fishing the IFA

LSKS is the only one I can commit to at this time, but will be looking at the others and trying to find a way to weasel out of work to get to them. As for us, My wife and I will both be returning to fish the LSKS and our daughter wants to fish it this season also. So there is at least one new recruit to the series already.

kenmorrow · Post by **kenmorrow** » Mon Dec 17, 2012 7:33 pm

Well I sure do appreciate all the input. Now that I've followed the leads y'all provided and done a bunch of research, I think I have a pretty good handle on the "lay of the land" and pretty much know what I need to do.

The tournament scene seems to be pretty fractured into a lot of small, frequently competing tournaments around the state (which is geographically too big to actually have true statewide tournaments very often anyway). There is an average participation rate of about 50-60 anglers at all but a very short list of about 3 tournaments. Those 3 run from 80+ to 160+ in angler participation, but the smallest had over 100 paid registrations this year and really hairy weather the night before. More than 15 folks dropped out due to safety concerns.

Nothing wrong with these regionally segmented tournaments and series overlapping each other's dates from time to time and crowding the calendar, because folks from NETX aren't likely to drive to CENTX 4-6 weekends in the Spring to fish a tourney series any more than anglers from South Padre are likely to drive to the DFW Metroplex or Denton to fish a kayak tournament. The ONLY way that would happen is if there was a TRUE statewide tournament series that covered each major type of kayak fishing in each significant region of the state, culminating in an over-all championship. (there's an idea for some enterprising individual with nothing better to do!)

So it makes the most sense for me to focus on my own "backyard" and put most of my eggs in one basket.

Again, thanks for the crash course!

bogdog · Post by **bogdog** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:54 am

kenmorrow wrote:
bogdog wrote:Lone star kayak series is the answer to all those questions.......
Are you serious? With an avg of 60 anglers at each tournament? Even if you look at the aggregate, that is 240 anglers, but of that 60, at least 30 will be repeats each time. You would at least have to cut that number in half...down to 120 unique anglers.

I find it hard to believe that no kayak fishing tourney in TX has 120 anglers! Seriously? I just returned to TX and wasn't active in the kayak fishing community here before I moved away for a few years. I haven't fished tournaments until last year since I was a teenager. So I'm just asking...trying to get educated. So don't get offended when I ask tough questions. I'm asking for business reasons.

Wow...pointless to attempt to assist...

kenmorrow · Post by **kenmorrow** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 9:00 am

bogdog wrote:
kenmorrow wrote:
bogdog wrote:Lone star kayak series is the answer to all those questions.......
Are you serious? With an avg of 60 anglers at each tournament? Even if you look at the aggregate, that is 240 anglers, but of that 60, at least 30 will be repeats each time. You would at least have to cut that number in half...down to 120 unique anglers.

I find it hard to believe that no kayak fishing tourney in TX has 120 anglers! Seriously? I just returned to TX and wasn't active in the kayak fishing community here before I moved away for a few years. I haven't fished tournaments until last year since I was a teenager. So I'm just asking...trying to get educated. So don't get offended when I ask tough questions. I'm asking for business reasons.
Wow...pointless to attempt to assist...

Not at all. Those were honest questions from a guy who just moved back here from a part of the country where a "small" kayak fishing tournament has 120 anglers or so and a "big" one has 200-400+, and who grew up 10 miles from Lake Fork, 30 miles from Lake Palestine, 60 miles from Caddo Lake, and 100 miles from Lake Sam Rayburn...just to name a few. In the middle, I spent 10 years living on Table Rock and Bull Shoals lakes. I'm sort of used to tournaments having more than 100 anglers in them. I was honestly surprised and open to the possibility that perhaps I was missing something.

LSKS looks like an "up and comer." Sorry, but I don't have much patience for people with thin skins and/or chips on their shoulders. I spent too much of my life hunting professional killers and other serious crap like that to worry about the sensibilities of people who get bent out of shape about fishing or how long they stand in line at Walmart because of the little old lady using her Lonestar Card in front of them. Sometimes that makes me come off pretty rough around the edges. For that I apologize.

bogdog · Post by **bogdog** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:59 am

Sorry ken.....that was meant to be a sarcastic response. Shoulda included one of these

kenmorrow · Post by **kenmorrow** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:40 pm

Oh, OK. Cool. I like sarcasm and have a thick skin.

But there's more to follow on this subject from someone else.

Sent: Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:35 pm
View message

M T Stringer
Message subject: Re: Largest Kayak Fishing Tournament in TX?Folder: Inbox
Subject: Largest Kayak Fishing Tournament in TX?

kenmorrow wrote:
...Sorry, but I don't have much patience for people with thin skins and/or chips on their shoulders. I spent too much of my life hunting professional killers and other serious crap like that to worry about the sensibilities of people who get bent out of shape about fishing or how long they stand in line at Walmart because of the little old lady using her Lonestar Card in front of them. Sometimes that makes me come off pretty rough around the edges. For that I apologize.

...and FYI...something else that got people bent out of shape was the way you were talking about your arthritis disability in front of several amputee and severe PTSD combat veterans with the HOW group at a recent Corpus Christi area tournament... you are not gonna get much sympathy or support for your sales pitch, and are quickly losing support from TKF members with that attitude...food for thought.

Guess we will see you around the tourney scene.

I don't have arthritis.

I don't know who you are, but I'd really like to talk to you in person. For the record, I have lived with a traumatic brain injury since 1990 (line of duty). I have a spinal cord injury that has left me with a condition called severe bilateral cervical radiculopathy that is almost identical to Payton Manning's that resulted from one of the same incidents in which I was injured in the military, at least that is what one of the spine surgeons who has consulted on Payton's case told me. It broke 2 of the vertebrae in my cervical spine (that's neck to you) and left me with severe bone spurs and ruptured disks. I refused to have them fused so that I could still move, but I live with the pain and intermittent paralysis. Again...that's for the past 22 years. I didn't even apply for disability until my doctors and family hounded me into it in 2002. If I play down and under-state my disabilities, if I have had excellent medical care and work extremely hard at my rehab and conditioning and take $1,500 worth of drugs each month so that I can seem fairly "normal" to idiots like you, that's something for ME to enjoy and be grateful for. And I don't care whether you admire me for it or think I'm some sort of skater. But I do that because I was fortunate enough NOT to have my legs blown off while I was in combat, which I did more than my fair share of...thank you very much.

Finally, I have severe, chronic combat-related PTSD. You don't get that from fishing. I have a medical file about 6" thick dating back 3 decades with signatures and certification stamps, Xrays, MRIs, CAT scans, etc. assembled by about a dozen or more expert licensed physicians in their various fields, poured over by other experts and even judges, argued about by attorneys who were trying to keep the government from having to pay me, and ultimately verifying everything I just said. Furthermore, all of this is constantly reviewed and updated by even more licensed professionals.

Now let's move to another subject. Since 2007, I have dedicated my life to providing therapeutic adaptive fishing programs and opportunities to disabled veterans and wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. In my immediate family, I have two brothers, my wife, and a nephew who are disabled veterans of OIF-OEF. I have FOUR stars on my family service flag and am a disabled combat vet, myself. I founded and ran the Southern Region of Project Healing Waters, which is now the Heartland and Lone Star regions. I helped Jim found Heroes on the Water with quite a bit of consulting, advocacy, and introductions I didn't charge him a dime for. I founded and run AFFI, Inc., which is the certified sole source provider of adaptive fly fishing services to US Army Medical Command. In 2010, I was voted the Army Spouse of the Year for my work in adaptive fly fishing with wounded warriors. Why? Because since 2007, I have taught over 200 wounded warriors to fly fish and tie flies as part of their rehab and taken every single one of them fly fishing at least once, most of them more often than that. I've never made a penny doing it, but my wife and I have donated at least $8,000 each year toward that end, which is more than 20% of our household income. I have personally sent disabled vets to Alaska, Belize, and Montana fly fishing; but I have never been fishing in any of those places myself. I had planned and led numerous high-profile retreats for wounded warriors and sometimes their families. I also do these for children on the autism spectrum, with cerebral palsy, and with MS. On the side, I teach youth fly fishing classes through the state and at schools. All without compensation.

May I ask you to list YOUR contributions to disabled veterans, wounded warriors, and disabled children through fishing; your personal service to our nation; and your own personal struggles to overcome physical disabilities?

P.S. I will probably get some sort of punishment for disclosing a PM for this or what have you, but I don't care. The gravity of this sort of character assassination and ignorant rumor mongering that is apparently going on behind my back deserves to be addressed ONCE and publicly.

P.S.S. Since I posted this it has come to my attention that you are associated with the local Heroes on the Water chapter here in Corpus Christi. I also now know that it could NOT have escaped your awareness that I was a disabled combat vet just from who you run around with your organizational involvement and such. HOW exists to provide support and healing through kayak fishing for disabled veterans of ALL types. Did you MISS that somehow? One of the "most disabled" vets I've ever worked with was a quadriplegic Vietnam vet with 2 tours in Nam who was not wounded or injured there, but who came home and was run over by a garbage truck years later. Let me tell you something: WE (combat vets) do not care WHY, HOW, or WHEN a brother or sister in arms falls. We never leave them behind! I thought firemen lived by that same code. Apparently, I was wrong.

bogdog · Post by **bogdog** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 1:44 pm

kenmorrow wrote:

P.S. I will probably get some sort of punishment for disclosing a PM for this or what have you, but I don't care. .

Ken....thank you for your time spent.

With that said, the above comment is pretty much all I need to know about your "character" within the Texas Kayak community. I am sure that is the reputation freedom hawk kayaks is looking for.

I will now go back to my original comment...but with meaning this time. Pointless to try to help someone who posts a message like that publicly to get a pat on the back

kenmorrow · Post by **kenmorrow** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:54 pm

bogdog wrote:
kenmorrow wrote:

P.S. I will probably get some sort of punishment for disclosing a PM for this or what have you, but I don't care. .
Ken....thank you for your time spent.

With that said, the above comment is pretty much all I need to know about your "character" within the Texas Kayak community. I am sure that is the reputation freedom hawk kayaks is looking for.

I will now go back to my original comment...but with meaning this time. Pointless to try to help someone who posts a message like that publicly to get a pat on the back

Once again, you missed the point and it was pretty obvious.

M T Stringer · Post by **M T Stringer** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 3:12 pm

I appreciate the dirty laundry being aired...

btw folks, an detailed explanation and apology for misinformation and things being taken out of context was also given as well, but it was sent via PRIVATE MESSAGE just like the other messages that have been going back and forth which were between us, not y'all.

In the words of Forrest Gump "...that's all I have to say about that."