Sam Rayburn Reservoir Kayak Fishing Tournament Recap

TXKBL Event # 7

09/23/2023

Just wanted to start off this recap by saying how good it was to see y'all after a four-month layoff. The last time we fished together was back in late May at Choke Canyon, another notorious alligator-inhabited reservoir. Four months is a long time not to hang with my fishing family. Too long. You may not have gotten any better-looking in the intervening months, but you sure were a sight for these sore eyes and it warmed my heart to shake hands again with the best bunch of kayak anglers on the planet. How do I know you're the best kayak anglers on the planet? Well, we shared the last event at Sam Rayburn with our fellow anglers from the Hobie series. Those folks are serious. They took a whole week, in some instances, to case the joint and size up the best spots, pre-fishing. That's dedication. But y'all held your own. Y'all more than held your own. We had a 92-person field, with a fair amount of double-dipping and cross-over from Hobie. The TXKBL anglers were hoisting checks at the end of the weekend, standing right there alongside the Hobie stalwarts. I'm sure some of y'all had a bit of a homefield advantage, playing on Texas turf for this one, but with drought conditions, water levels five-foot low, and a summer hot enough to make me consider escaping to Canada like Nick Wyntinck, this was one tough event. The normal Big Sam Rules did not apply. So let's get into it.

There's something about Sam Rayburn. It's a known bass factory, but more than that, it's really whatever you want it to be. It's so damn big that you could fish a bay of a branch of an arm of the main lake and never have another angler in sight all day. There's hydrilla everywhere, or at least there was enough to keep me busy pulling grass off my dropshot hook. The other thing about Sam Rayburn is that if you really want to, you can get way, way back in the sticks. Literally. With the water low, the cypress trees weren't the bass magnets as per usual, but they still held fish, the ones with enough H2O around them, anyway. Don't like bushwacking? Then hit those deep brushpiles with the forward-facing sonar and limit out on spotted bass or the resident mama largemouth. Yep, there's a little big of everything on Rayburn. This time we weren't pulling bass from under farm equipment out of Farmer Cletus' flooded back 40 like when the lake was 10 foot over capacity, but there was still a whole lot of quality, fishy-looking water to cover to find the right five.

After engaging in a little "dock talk" with some fellow anglers following Friday's practice, the general consensus was that a good day would be a mid-to-high 80-inch limit and a two-day total of 170-180". That turned out to be pretty accurate. The pre-fishing playbook seemed to go right out the window on Saturday, and the morning started slow for most. The conditions were good. Hot, but good. Just enough breeze to stir up the air. You really don't want to be on Sam Rayburn when she's angry. That's... not good. I've seen 3-foot rollers on Rayburn that would make a Gulf offshore angler pucker up a bit. So with calm winds, clear skies, and rising temperatures, the slow pace to start was reminiscent of Houston County. So who was going to capitalize? Who'd make the necessary change and write their own winning script?

Limits were caught early, but 12" spotted bass, while momentarily doing their best impression of a freight train, don't measure up to a winning limit. Some big girls were mixed in there, however. Our favorite attorney, Tim Rodman, made the single frog fish of his day count with a 22.75"-er, earning him not only Big Bass for TXKBL, but big girl also held up for Big Bass of the 115-person Hobie event. Nice job, sir. I don't know what it is about East Texas, but every time I fish there, I'm reminded why I like kayak fishing. It's quiet. It's serene. Right up until some loud-ass outboard comes plowing by, off to duck hunt or lay jug lines for catfish, or whatever. Seriously, is there a Loudest Motorboat competition going on in East Texas? Well, at least they kept the alligators away. I didn't see any, but I heard a few stories of gators nosing over to see what all the ruckus was about with the Tupperware Navy being in town. They're just curious, is all. Like cats. Big, gray dinosaurs with rows of sharp teeth and a cold soulless gaze. See? Cuddly, cute, and friendly - just like cats.

On a tough day when a 16" fish was enough to make you happy, the limits we saw at the end of the day weren't spectacular, but they were solid. Need I remind everyone of the agony that was Lake Somerville? So let's be happy for small-to-medium limits when we can get them, even if the expected 100" sacks weren't being caught. So who won? What was the final boxscore? Well, here you go:

Jacob Moeller is good. Damn good. How good? He checked in with a 77.75" day to take 10th place and win $100. He followed that up with a Day Two 95" limit that vaulted him from 19th all the way to 4th place for the Hobie. Never give up. You're never out of it in a two-day event if you can limit on Day One. Jacob showed that to be the case on Sunday. The next fisherman catches a lot of good-natured grief for landing 'em for photo shoots when they don't count, i.e. - prefishing. Well, Prefish King George Wheeler had his game day face on this Saturday, because he won $100 with a 78.25" limit. Well done. The last of the $100 winners was AOY perennial favorite Jeff Isham who caught a 78.75" limit and proved that once again, bass dig dreadlocks. So Irie, mon. Edging out Jeff, Wyatte Schoppe took home $150 with a quarter-inch more and a 79" limit. That's why we strive for every little upgrade, every chance to tilt that tail across that line. It makes a difference. Former KATS superstar Adam Estlack won 6th place with 79.5", good for $200. Great job, Adam. You rock - always a pleasure to fish against top quality guys like you. Tim Rodman? Well, he surrounded his 22.75" Big Bass with just enough 12-16" keepers to make his 80" limit stand up for 5th place and some fancy hardware - and a tetnus shot. Oh, and he can afford it, too, since he won $300. Let's do some math: $300 + $750 Big Bass TXKBL + $500 Big Bass Hobie = $1,550. Uh-oh. That might have pushed you into a higher tax bracket. You never know who's watching. Another hardware-earner, coming in with big jump up to 84.75", taking $500 we had Jordan Marshall. That's outstanding. Third place was earned by hard-battling Carl Griffin, who won $700 with his 86.25" limit. Wow. Not sure where y'all launched, but it wasn't near me, because Carl had TWO 20"-plus fish on his ledger, and I'm not sure I saw anything nearly that big, even on LiveScope. Okay, this next guy? Yeah, let's give it up for Michael Morgan, who proved he's not just another Fayette pretty face. Michael had an amazing 89.5" day, winning him $900 for 2nd place. If Michael had done that two days in a row and been entered in the Hobie, payday, baby. Ah, well. The saddest words in the English language - what might have been. The next guy wasn't sad, though, because he DID win it all. Phillip Wyatt, come on down! You're the next contest on the Sack Is Right! Not only did Phillip take home $1,700 from TXKBL with his 92.25" First Place finish, but he followed that up with a Day Two at Hobie limit of 84", good enough for two-day total of 176.25" and a First Place finish worth $6,160. Two first place finishes worth a total of $7,860. Not bad for a weekend of kayak fishing with your buds. Excellent job. Congratulations on beating out some great, world-renowned kayak anglers. It doesn't get much better than that.

So that's all, folks. The regular season is done. Next, we wait with fingers crossed to hear who made The Classic. For those of you who make it, we'll see y'all again on November 4th and 5th at Eagle Mountain near Forth Worth. That should be an awesome time, and a great way to crown TXKBL's Angler of the Year. We bid adieu to the big waters of East Texas. We'll miss ya, but don't worry. I'm sure we'll see you again, Big Sam. Maybe even with a normal amount of water in you, next time. As always, laughs were shared, the camaraderie was top notch, and the raffle prizes were fantastic. Big thanks to Kris Delgado, who had himself quite a weekend on the water and on the mic. He's getting better, y'all. Watch out, now. The awards ceremonies are always the best with Texas Slim wise-cracking his way through the raffle prize hand-outs, courtesy of our fantastic sponsors. Then there's the man behind the curtain: Kris "El Jefe" Morales, who started it all, and who knows all. We should also give a big hand to Forrest Greene with main sponsor No Bad Days Kayak, who's generous support of our trail is much appreciated, and who should be shown as much patronage as we can muster out of respect for all his dedication to making this trail so good. The same goes for all the folks behind the scenes for their dedictation. The sponsors who generously donate outstanding prize packages, the wives and partners who let us spend our days chasing green fish and then have to suffer through our stories of the ones that got away when we return, the good folks at the event sites who didn't have to threaten to tow us off and only squirted us with sprinkler water this time, and lastly, to all y'all men and women who make our weekends so enjoyable, just be being there, with smiles and laughter even after an exhausting day on the lake. Y'all are the best.