Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
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BASS Report
Drew Gregory - Bassmaster Kayak Series AOY
B.A.S.S. officials announced today that, after an extensive investigation and appeals process, Drew Gregory’s disqualification from the Yamaha Rightwaters Bassmaster Kayak Series at Pickwick Lake powered by TourneyX has been overturned. Gregory won the tournament — his third victory of the season — and also claimed the Old Town Bassmaster Kayak Series Angler of the Year title.
Gregory’s appeal was heard today by a three-person panel which included a kayak angler, an angler who competes in the St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by Mossy Oak Fishing and a B.A.S.S. employee.
“I'm so impressed with the level of professionalism and detail Bassmaster displayed during the entire appeal process to ensure the integrity of the sport is upheld,” said Gregory, a native of Kent, Ohio. “Now that this has been resolved, I can finally look back and appreciate all the hard work and what a special season it's been to accomplish my main goal, which was winning the first-ever Bassmaster Kayak Series AOY.
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SW Kayak League Report
Steve Boekhout - 1st Place catch
“I’ve never caught a smallie out there—let alone a mongoloid.”
By “out there,” Cody Breseman meant Paradise Lake, and the “mongoloid” was the 19.25-inch smallmouth that Steve Boekhout caught near the end of Sunday afternoon’s Topwater SW Kayak League contest on the 185-acre lake.
The chunky brown bass culled a 10.5-inch largemouth and gave Boekhout 70.25 inches and the win. Breseman, of Union, fishes Paradise frequently and finished second with 68.5 inches. Kevin Hopson was third with 67 inches.
Boekhout's winning lure
Boekhout, of Fremont, Indiana, caught all his fish on a drop-shot in the four-hour tournament in which the nine plastic boat anglers had to deal with strong southerly winds.
Boekhout had two productive lures. First was a Jackall Flick Shake that he’d used to catch a 20-inch Paradise largemouth while pre-fishing Saturday. As the tourney began on Sunday, the thin, wacky-rigged worm caught only small, 8- to 10-inch bass on shallow points and flats, so Boekhout tried a larger 5-inch Yamamoto Senko in the same Watermelon Candy color and fished it deeper along drop offs.
“I was missing fish so I switched back to the Jackall and started catching 12 and 13 inchers along the drop off,” Boekhout said. With an hour left, he went back to the spot where he’d caught the 20-inch largemouth—a downed tree that extended to the drop off—and found it occupied by a bass boat.
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R&B Report
John Gipson - 1st Place
John Gipson won the two-day R&B Classic last weekend on Muskegon Lake.
Gibson, who fished alone, weighed in 37.60 pounds, followed by Steve Kline and Mark Farver who had 29.85, and Derek and Brian Molnar who were third with 29.41.
Ron Fabizak and Jason Fowler were fourth with 29.32 and Kyle Kaser fished alone to finish fifth with 29.04.
First day big bass honors went to Kaser with a 5.56-pound largemouth while Troy Schuman and Rich Kersten had the second day biggest with a 4.84-pound smallmouth.
Congratulations as well to Jim Graham and Greg Rekeweg for winning the regular season points championship. Kris Iodice and John Gipson won the super tournaments points championship.
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SW Kayak League Report
Eric Mussellman turned to his phone for lake info after borrowing a kayak that lacked sonar for Sunday afternoon’s Topwater SW Kayak League contest on Decatur’s Lake of the Woods.
The Kalamazoo angler used the Navionics app on his phone to show him the lake map, bottom contours and where he and the borrowed Field & Stream kayak were on the break lines. Drop-shotting a 4.5-inch Roboworm where Navionics said he was over 10 to 14 feet of water led him to a stretch that produced the winning five largemouth totaling 68.25 inches.
“I was kind of fan casting to figure out where they were and when I found one, there were normally one to two more around the same general spot,” said Musselman.
An inch behind in second was Steve Boekhout of Fremont, Indiana, with 67.25 inches.
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SW Kayak League Results
1st Place - Inman
Regulars in the Topwater SW Kayak League might start groaning when the little black Volkswagon Golf with the Old Town Sportsman 106 PDL kayak on top arrives at the ramp for a Sunday afternoon tournament. Having fished just three of the six kayak bass tournaments around Southwest Michigan, Inman, of Grand Rapids, has won all three of them.
Inman topped the 12-boat field at Diamond Lake on Sunday with 73.25 inches of largemouth caught on a Senko and a white Z-Man Chatterbait Custom with a Hog Farmer Spunk Shad trailer. He targeted patches of weeds on flats in Diamond’s super clear water. He received $180 for the win and $30 for the 16.75-inch fish that was Ketch Big Bass.
In second was Russell E. Wilson with 71.25 inches. Wilson, of Schoolcraft, also targeted weed clumps, catching fish with a M. Pierce Lures Stink-O and a 3.3-inch Keitech Swimbait. He won $80.
BassCrack Jigs’ Flash Underspin
Fishing his first SW Kayak League contest and taking third was Tim DeSmit of Twin Lake. The reigning Michigan Kayak Trail State Champion and Angler of the Year also found fish around isolated weed beds. He caught all of them on a BassCrack Jigs’ Flash Underspin and won $45.
Diamond was the sixth stop on the Topwater Series’ SW Kayak League’s fall schedule, with three more to go. Next up is Paradise Lake on Sunday, October 23, noon to 4 p.m. Entry fee is $35, with $5 of it going to an Angler of the Year pot, and the rest paid back at every tournament. The contests are open to anyone with a kayak, a cell phone and a Ketch measuring board.
The catch-photo-release format requires anglers to take a picture of their catch and submit it through the free Topwater Tracker app to the topwaterseries.com website. That site tallies the standings in real time.
For more information, check out the website and the Topwater Nation Facebook page.