The Colorado Kayak Fishing Club (CKFC) held their fourth bass tournament of the year on Boyd Lake in Loveland, CO on August 21. The dog days of summer can prove to be quite difficult when it comes to catching fish in Colorado. Not only do you have to deal with the heat, but the pleasure boaters come in crowds making things difficult for kayak anglers. Also throw in the fact that water levels begin dropping rapidly due to irrigation this time of year and you’re in for a tough day. This proved to be the case on tournament day as well, as of the 34 anglers signed up, only 4 anglers caught a 5 bass limit.

Boyd Lake lies close to my residence so I am fairly familiar with how it fishes throughout the year. I did not get a chance to prefish for the tournament and ultimately a scheduling conflict prevented me from entering the tournament at all this time around. Fortunately, I was able to glean information from the top three anglers and it matched up with what I’ve come to expect from Boyd Lake this time of year.

In third place was Eric Allee whose prefishing pattern did not pan out on tournament day. Eric had to resort to finesse fishing, and even though he doesn’t like to do it, it turned into a nice payday for him. Eric focused his efforts by skipping baits under docks in hard-to-reach areas. He particularly casted to spots where he thought other anglers wouldn’t dare cast. Doing this scored him a limit of 71.25 inches.

In second place was Alex Rojas. Alex has consistently been finishing well this year and Boyd was no exception. Alex caught the majority of his fish using top water baits. In the morning Alex caught his fish on a buzzbait fishing it around weeds. Buzzbaits are a staple on Boyd Lake in the summer time. Often bass can be caught by bumping the buzzbait into any stick ups or emerging vegetation to generate a strike. Once it got into the afternoon hours, Alex transitioned to fishing a frog in one to two feet of water to fill out his bag at 75.5 inches.

In first place was Lucas Snider. Lucas hasn’t had the opportunity to fish many CKFC tournaments, but when he shows up, the rest of the field better watch out! Lucas won both of the CKFC tournaments he’s entered in the past couple years. This time he did it by process of elimination. Lucas arrived the day before the tournament to prefish, but he had a tough time figuring out the lake with the low water level. However, he eliminated water during prefishing and decided to launch his kayak on the opposite end of the lake. Lucas started the tournament morning throwing a frog and flipping a creature bait around the shallow grass but this didn’t result in any success. He then continued to cover water until reaching an area with a bunch of grass and flooded brush. He then caught his first fish on a frog in less than a foot of water. After no more takers, he began to cover more water. Lucas found isolated grass mats and immediately got bit flipping a creature bait. Flipping those mats ended up being the ticket. Out of the seven bites Lucas had on the day, he was able to fish pretty clean and land six of them. His top five fish went for 77.75 inches and won him the tournament!

The tournament overall proved to be a grind for all the anglers involved, but as is typically the case, there are always a few guys who will overcome the conditions and get on top of some fish. Congratulations to Lucas, Alex, and Eric for their top three finishes! Also, thanks to the CKFC board for all that they do in managing the tournament series!