2014 Kayak Fishing Boot Camp Success!

For the fourth year in a row I ran a Kayak Fishing Boot Camp through my guide service Kayak Fish PA, LLC. The camp included four kayak anglers ranging from about 1 year of experience to several. The boot camp was three days long and kicked off with a half day of paddling and positioning class followed by talking seminars on a variety of topics related to kayak fishing for river smallmouth bass. The camp was held on the prolific Susquehanna River which is noted as one of the best trophy smallomouth bass waters on the east coast. The next two days included 8 hour trips to practice what was learned, learn more and receive coaching geared to master the various concepts covered in the boot camp.

One of the attendees published a nice write up about the Kayak Fishing Boot Camp in Susquehanna Fishing Magazine on-line. The article is entitled “A few days on the water with Juan Veruete“.

Each day on the river we worked through a process of determining a location and presentation pattern for the smallmouth. We also spent time implementing and practicing new lures presentations and techniques. Despite the focus on learning as apposed to putting a bunch of smallmouth in the kayak, boot camp attendees all caught fish over 18 inches. Two angers where able to catch a personal best and two anglers caught “citation” smallmouth.

Three lures really stood out during those two days on the water in terms of producing good numbers and quality smallmouth. The Bronze Eye Bullet and River Darter Swimbaits by Winco’s Custom Lures caught great smallies! The venerable Hubs Chub was calling up some great smallie top water action despite water that looked like chocolate milk. I could go on about the fishing but a picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll leave you with some images of the big fish the guys caught. These fellas worked hard fishing in high muddy water for two days. The results speak for themselves.

Mike with a personal best Smallie of 18.5″ …

 

18.75″ smallmouth bass caught on a swimbait..

 

This one is a heavy 19.5″ smallmouth caught on a 3″ River Darter Swimbait

 

Here’ a 20″ smallmouth bass caught on a crawfish pattern bait