LSU take College Kayak Fishing title…again!

When Brooks Beatty, Jameson Redding and I started College Kayak Fishing a couple years ago we thought it would be a great thing to do for the college students and for the sport of kayak fishing as a whole. We weren’t sure if it would “stick” or if there were enough college students kayak fishing yet to make it sustainable. Well, after year two’s growth I think it’s fair to say that College Kayak Fishing is here to stay!

This year CKF had a total of 24 teams participate in the season, which starts in the fall semester and finishes up just after the spring semester ends. Teams qualify for the championship by earning series points for the tournaments they participate in along the way. You can see in this photo some of the stats from the season. Keep in mind that only “scored” fish totals appear in the stats; many more fish were caught, but not needed for scoring since they were smaller than the team’s virtual stringer needed.

The championship for the CKF Salt Series was held once again at Everything Kayak in Gulfport, MS, where 7 qualifying teams showed up to compete for the right to bring home the title for their school. LSU had a great season and had 4 teams qualify for the event. Rounding out the field were Lamar University, University of Louisiana Lafayette and Rollins College out of north Florida.

The day before the fishing started the annual cookout began at Everything Kayak’s brand new shop in Gulfport. After some stories were told and food was inhaled Jameson and I went over the rules for this year’s 2-day event. One cool thing we were able to make happen, thanks to Southern Way Charters (http://www.southernwaycharters.com) was give the student anglers an option to take a “mothership” trip out to Cat Island where plenty of fishable marsh and open water could be found. We can’t thank Southern Way Charters enough for the time and effort they put into supporting these college students and kayak fishing. I highly recommend using them as a guide service and outfitter when fishing the gulf.

The following morning the teams arrived at the docks and loaded up on the mothership trip! Out to Cat Island they went and they returned around 5pm later that day. The fishing, as always this time of year, was challenging but teams did catch some fish. Lamar and defending champs LSU team 3 were atop the leaderboard looking good, with LSU team 6 and Louisiana Lafayette lurking far off in the distance. The following day LSU

team 6 break Lamar’s hearts (runner ups last year) by coming out of nowhere with a huge score to keep the title at LSU.

Lamar shouldn’t be too disappointed though because it was another top finish for their team and Lamar’s David Roberts took home the College Kayak Fishing Angler of the Year award AND won the tournament on the Individual side of the competition which came with a brand new Jackson Kayak Cruise Angler 12!

It’s been a joy to watch the anglers grow each year in technique, both fishing and paddling, and in regards to maturity on and off the water as well. I’m glad to be a part of such a cool event and thankful that Jackson Kayak also believes in the youth enough to support the organization!

Also, big thanks to all sponsors of the series! For more information check out collegekayakfishing.com

Click on the thumbnails below to see all the photos from the event!

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