SW Kayak League Report
SW Kayak League Big Fish - Fishers Lake
Mike Inman and Kevin Hopson fought strong winds and skipped their way to respective first and second places at Sunday afternoon’s Topwater Series SW Kayak League tournament at Fishers Lake near Three Rivers.
While spending the majority of their time skipping soft plastics under pontoons and piers, both anglers also coincidentally upgraded with reaction baits. Inman caught the 20-inch Ketch Big Bass of the contest from lily pads on a white Z-Man chatterbait and Hopson upgraded a couple of his fish with a spinnerbait.
Inman, of Grand Rapids, won his second event after taking the league’s season opener on Juno Lake in September. Sunday, his 75.75 inches outdistanced 12 other contestants. He said he skipped docks with a Neko-rigged Zoom Speed Craw and a Ned rig. First place paid $190 and big bass was worth an additional $35.
Hopson made his third straight podium finish after winning contests at Corey and Magician. He said he skipped a Missile PB&J Ned Bomb on a 1/15-ounce jighead. He totaled 69.25 inches and won $90.
Finishing third was Eric Musselman, Kalamazoo, who accumulated 63.5 inches with a drop-shot purple Roboworm on breaks, and a wacky-rigged 4-inch Yum Dinger (watermelon/red flake) around weeds on Fishers’ expansive flats.
In fourth and winning a Mainstream Tackle & Outdoors $10 gift card was Steve Boekhout of Fremont, Indiana. He tallied 61.75 inches mostly by drop-shotting a wacky-rigged Zoom Zlinky StickWorm along drop-offs, culling a few with a Carolina-rigged Strike King Rage Craw.
Fishers marked the half-way point in the 10-tournament schedule for the SW Kayak League. The tournaments, which have a catch-photo-release format, are open to anyone with a kayak, a cell phone and a Ketch measuring board. Entry fee is $35 with 100 percent payback. Five dollars of every entry fee goes into the Angler of the Year pot, with three places to be paid after the schedule ends with the final tournament at Gravel Lake on November 6.
Deadline to register for the tournament at topwaterseries.com is 10 a.m. Sunday, the day of the contest. For more info, check out topwaterseries.com or Topwater Nation and Topwater Series pages on Facebook.