BASS Report
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After a wildly successful inaugural campaign in 2020, B.A.S.S. officials were excited Friday to announce the regular-season schedule for the 2021 Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by TourneyX.
The trail, which averaged 144 anglers per event during its inaugural season in 2020, will visit five lakes in five different states before culminating with the B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series Championship, which will be held in conjunction with the 2022 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk at a site to be determined.
The field of anglers who qualified for the National Championship during the 2020 season will compete in a rescheduled two-day event June 9-10 at the Bassmaster Classic in Fort Worth, Texas. Additional information on that tournament will be released at a later date.
"Despite facing a lot of challenges, we had a great first season for the
B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series in 2020," said B.A.S.S. Nation Director Jon
Stewart. "We knew the popularity of kayak fishing had exploded; that was
the reason behind starting the trail. But I'm not sure we realized just how incredibly popular the sport was until we held a few events and saw how many hardcore kayak enthusiasts showed up.
"That has us really excited about this upcoming season."
The season's first event will be held on one of the country's premier big-bass factories, Lake Fork in Alba, Texas, on March 13. Fork was the site of an Elite Series event in 2020, and champion Patrick Walters blew the field away with a four-day November catch of 104 pounds, 12 ounces.
Walters wasn't the only angler to clear the century mark at a Bassmaster event on Fork last year. When the Kayak Series stopped on this fishery last March, Arkansas angler Cody Milton bested the field with a five-bass limit measuring 100 1/2 inches. That propensity for producing giant bass is why Lake Fork ranked 16th on Bassmaster Magazine's Best Bass Lakes of the Decade in 2020.
Here's the 2021 schedule:
- March 13, Lake Fork, Alba, Texas
- May 1, Lake Eufaula, Eufaula, Ala.
- July 24, Pickwick Lake, Counce, Tenn.
- Aug. 7, Upper Chesapeake, Cecil County, Md.
- Sept. 25, Upper Mississippi River, La Crosse, Wis.
Entry fees for all five regular-season events will be $250, and each will pay 30 places. Based on a full field of 150 kayaks, the total purse for each event will be $30,000. Registration will begin online Jan. 11 at Bassmaster.com.