The Bluegrass Yakmasters kicked off their second season with the Cedar Creek Lake Open in Stanford Kentucky this April. Cedar Creek Lake is quickly becoming the premiere “big bass” hot spot in the state of Kentucky. This 784-acre lake was built specifically to produce trophy bass. With endless amounts of cover and structure plus the addition of stocker rainbow trout the bass in Cedar are growing to near state record sizes. The reservoir is closely managed by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) who have placed a 20″ minimum size limit for bass and a daily limit of one fish. This makes Cedar Creek a great lake for a kayak fishing tournament.

While pre-fishing for the tournament I was able to land one of my biggest bass ever from the Big Rig. I was paddling across a big grass flat with a buddy of mine when I heard something big crash behind his boat. Quickly I slung my Chatterbait over to where the fish broke the water and Wham! I had something on and it was big. The fish was pulling hard and stripping drag as soon as it hit. When I got the monster about half way to the boat it came to the top of the water and I clearly saw that it was hooked in the tail. At that point I thought “there is no way I’m going to land this fish”, but luckily I was wrong. Somehow I got the fat pre-spawn largemouth into my net and when I lipped it I noticed there was a 6″ shad in its mouth… She must have been hungry! The beast tipped the scales right at 7lbs.

Tournament day was a grind. I knew that I was around the right fish to win, but it took me way too long to get them to bite. Stained water and a cold front the night before gave the fish a bit of lock jaw. I went all morning without a bite, and when they finally started turning on in the afternoon I didn’t have much time left on the water. Feeling dejected with only one 15″ for the day I was about to call it quits. As I was paddling the Big Rig to the takeout I made one final cast to a shallow roadbed that was heating up in the afternoon sun. On that last cast I hooked into a 5.68lb pig that was about to bust with eggs. Although I wasn’t able to catch my 3 fish limit, that 20″ on the last cast was enough to put me in the top 10 out of 66 anglers.

Chase Bateson from Ohio took home the victory and a check for $680 with a three fish limit of 55.75″. For most of the 66 competitors the fishing was very tough with only 56 total fish caught. However most of the fish that were caught were good size. There were 2 over 20″. There were 7 between 19 – 19.75″, and there were 5 between 18 – 18.75″. The next Bluegrass Yakmaster event is on May 17th at Laurel River Lake in Corbin, KY.