Tallapoosa Coosa

Yesterday was the pilot event for the Southern Kayak Anglers 2012 series of black bass tournaments. Southern Kayak Anglers is a tournament club started in the latter part of last year, and has grown tremendously over the last few months. We had two events in 2011, and several scheduled for this year. One of the founding sponsors of SKA is Tallapoosa Paddling Company. The tournament was held at Stone Mountain Park, a very kayak friendly place for kayak anglers. The lake has one public boat ramp, with maximum allowed horsepower set at 10 horsepower.

My father and I got to the ramp around 6:30 AM, and I was in the water by 7-7:15. When we got there, I could tell there was going to be a great turnout, because of the amount of people there. Our final turnout was 20 people.

I was on the water by 7-7:15 and the week before the water temperature was at 55 degrees. Yesterday the water temp rose from about 62-64 to 69.2 by the end of the day. It made for an interesting day of fishing, the only bite I could manage was on a Merthiolate trick worm fished weightless on the banks. The fish were all bedding, proved by Eric Hughes when he caught a toad right next to me (I gave him that one. *wink wink*) I had a fish break off on my second cast, a 17″ inch spot and a 14″ spot to make my total for the day 31 inches.

I sure was glad that my Coosa was as stable as it was, because about the sun came out, I was ready to go swimming. It got HOT. I had my legs off the side of the boat most of the day, but where the Coosa really shined was the maneuverability underneath a structure, which happened to be the Stone Mountain HQ. Stewart Venable and I had caught fish near, and even right up next to it. We decided it would be a good idea to go UNDER it. We both got several good bites, but just couldn’t set the hook with the limited height illustrated in the photo. If I had been in a less stable boat, all of my flailing around probably would have put me in the drink.

The heat pretty much turned the bite off for me, and I paddled back to the put in. It was a traffic jam of Jackson boats.

Talk about a lightweight boat!

Everyone at the event had an absolute BLAST and the great weather didn’t hurt a bit! We had a great turnout with some great fishermen. The top ten is as follows:

1st Place – Jason Mcrae / “Shoalbandit” – 75.25″ 5 fish limit

2nd Place and BIG FISH – Frank Sergeant / Sarge8878 – 66.5″ 5 fish limit 18″ big fish

3rd Place – David Bryson / “uncledave” – 41.75″ with 3 fish
4th place – Jason Hopper / “saltiga420″ – 40″ with 3 fish and Smallest fish

5th place – Dylan Abernathy / “dylanabernathy” – 31″ with 2 fish
6th place – Mike Stell / “elfuego” – 30.25″ with 2 fish
7th place – Stewart Venable / “maniyak” – 28.25″ with 2 fish
8th place – Russ Abernathy / “hoosier21″ – 26.25″with 2 fish
9th place – Brent McGuffey / “guff” – 16.5″
10th place -Mark Poole / “Bad2Fish” 12.5

Stay tuned for some more reports from this great tournament series in 2012!

Apr. 21 …Lake Oconee
May 12 … Tallapoosa Paddling Co.
Event Jun. 9 … Brushy Branch/Lake Weiss/Cedar Creek
Aug. 25 …GA/SC Border Wars Lake Robinson
Sep. 29 …Lake Chatuge Grand Finally

A special thanks to Jackson Kayak, Tim “FoReel” Sizemore, and Eric Hughes.

http://www.southernkayakanglers.com/

Since I got my Coosa, I’ve wanted to be able to store it on top of my truck, or at least out of the bed for extra bed storage, and also so I could park with it. It also allows me to keep it on top of my truck 100% of the time, making the urge to get on the water that much harder to resist.

About two weeks ago, I decided to take on this project. With the help and supervision of my father, I built this truck rack out of only two by fours, Elmer’s wood glue, and deck screws. This project should not take more than an hour.

The materials needed for this project are as follows:
- 8 2×4″ boards (You may need 9-10 if you plan on messing up.)
- At least 3″ deck screws
- Elmer’s Wood Glue
- 1 Grape Fanta

Tools you might need:
- Table saw/Skill saw
- Measuring tape
- Drill bits for pilot holes

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, on to the doing it yourself.

Start out by measuring the distance across the bed of your truck. Luckily, my bed liner has notches in it specifically for 2x4s, so I measured from there. From there you need to decide the ride hight of your kayak, or whatever else you are deciding to place on your rack. I chose 2 inches above the roof of my truck to allow me some wiggle room just in case. Cut boards accordingly, and start the assembly process. Apply wood glue to the places where the wood will meet. Drill two pilot holes into the wood, and then screw the decks screws into the holes. At this point you should have an “L” shaped piece of lumber. Do the same for your other two boards, and then attach them in the same manner to your first “L.” Do this once more for the other end of your bed.

Now that you have your vertical supports, you need something to hold them together. Measure across, from the farthest edge of one board, to the farthest edge of another. Cut your board, and line it up on the two verticals. Start with the bottom, and apply wood glue, drill holes, screw screws, wash, rinse, repeat.

At this point, you may feel like your rack is sturdy enough for a typical kayak, and it probably is. I added diagonal supports for added strength, and because I have some later plans for them, which I will post about later.

Use your table saw to make 45 degree angled cuts on the scraps leftover from the verticals. I would say it again, but I don’t feel that I need to. Attach the boards.

At this point, your rack is complete. I plan on painting mine, and adding a 4″ ABS or PVC rod tube, which I will do another post on later. You might want to add eye bolts to tie down with, but my bed has them already.

Last Saturday was the Great Southern Fishing Show. I went, despite the horrible rain and hail storm. What I got from the show was that it was very much geared towards fly fisherman, and there were only a few black bass themed booths. The Simms bus was there, along with Unicoi and Calcutta. I didn’t watch any of the seminars, but it was kind of interesting seeing the different fly tiers, and casting practice. I did go to BPS after that and picked up a 7′ 10″ 8wt rod to begin with.

The Alabama rig is a serious lure right now, and the market is still flooded with them, despite BASS banning them in the Elite and Classic series. FLW is allowing them for now, but I predict soon enough this lure will become a “fun” lure only.

I got out after school the other day in hopes of going to the river, but when I got there, the pool was right at 7.1 feet. That would be good if I was going to try to do some sort of whitewater stuff, but the normal pool there varies between 1-2 feet at best. I wound up taking my friend to my little “honey hole” lake. I took some footage, but decided to turn it off as we were about to leave. About the time I reached forward to turn off my camera, I had a fish on. I didn’t get a chance to turn it on during the fight, but I got some afterwards. It was dark, so we decided to head back. Here is the video: