kayak

Kayak: Top baits at TenKiller

Posted on
Written by
Marty Hughes
Lake Tenkiller has been a popular destination for the Bassmaster events whether it be boat or kayak the past few years. It has a good number of largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass depending on your interests. There is a wide variety of structures including rock, bluff banks, shoreline brush, docks, and even up the river. The clear water provides an opportunity to use a wide variety of baits as was evident in the recent Bassmaster Kayak Series event held there. The water was a bit higher this go around but it didn’t slow down these anglers below. Let’s see which presentations had the best success from these top ten anglers who fished there recently. 
 
Kristine Fischer shows her top baits that worked for her victory at Tenkiller.
Key baits for Fischer included the Berkley spinner bait, “Champ” craw, and the Cullshad. 
A closer look at Fischer’s craw presentation. 
Fischer’s spinner bait that caught many quality fish for her to win this Bassmaster Kayak Series event. 
Luke Aryan of Oklahoma caught a lot of fish around docks using jigs and chatterbaits. He also found success fishing brush piles with his Newport NK180 motor and Amped Outdoors battery. A key decision to switch to Elk River jigs paid off, and he managed to secure a 2nd place finish, which was an amazing feeling for Aryan. He is very grateful for the support of his friends and sponsors, who helped him navigate the waters and provided reliable power throughout the day. Luke Aryan showing his top baits from Tenkiller which included an Elk River jig on the left and chatterbait on the right. 
A close up view of Aryan’s Elk River jig and trailer. 
The chatterbait provided Aryan with plenty of bites around docks and other structure. 
Micah Funderburgh of Missouri-rounded out the top three finishers by catching his fish on a handful of baits with two of these producing the key bites he needed in the tournament. He fished them both on the old shoreline of wind blown banks and points. He didn’t fish the shoreline bushes because he felt like there were so many others there and he wanted to move out of the way as the water levels were dropping rapidly. Funderburgh’s finesse jig setup included a Falcon Expert “Finesse Jig” rod with a Shimano Stradic 3000 series reel with Seaguar InvizX 10 pound test. He used a ⅜ oz. Keitech casting jig with a Powerbait Lil’ Super Truper trailer.  His swinghead jig setup included a Falcon Expert “Head Turner” rod with a Lew’s Tournament MP reel spooled with 14 lb. Seaguar InvizX line. He tied on a ½ oz. Queen Tackle tungsten swinghead with a 3.5” Adrenaline Craw. 
Funderburgh used a ⅜ oz. Keitech casting jig with a Powerbait Lil’ Super Truper trailer at Tenkiller.
A  Queen Tackle tungsten swinghead with a 3.5” Adrenaline Craw helped Funderburgh with a great finish in the Tenkiller tournament. 
It was very simple for Stony Floyd of Kansas who threw a Crock-O-Gator ¼ oz. buzzbait that earned him a Top 5 finish at Tenkiller. 
Ryan Nye of Connecticut used a Strike King Coffee Tube in green pumpkin with a ¼ oz. weighted head as his main presentation on Tenkiller. He used 10 lb. braid with a 10 lb. fluorocarbon leader with this bait. His secondary presentation was a four inch Jackall Driftfry in “Ghost Wakasagi” color. He also threw this on the 10 lb. lines as well. 
A key bait for Nye was the Jackall Driftfry in “Ghost Wakasagi” color. 
The mainstay for Nye was this green pumpkin colored Strike King “Coffee Tube” which caught some key bass for him. 
The main bait for Ronny Paeper of Oklahoma was a 5/16 oz. Jewels Tactical finesse HD jig in “Bass Whacker” paired with a Fish Or Die Bait Company “Patriot” in “Defiant” color. He was using it to flip around the flooded bushes and casting it at selected fish offshore. He threw this on an IROD Fishing Gen 3 IRG723 rod. His line included Strike King 15 lb. Tour Grade fluorocarbon. 
Paper’s secondary bait included a Strike King 6XD in green gizzard shad color. He would target main lake points around ledges once the bass grouped up around brush piles. He had the 6XD on a IROD Fishing Gen 3 IRG763 as well with 12 lb. Strike King Tour Grade fluorocarbon. To protect his rods he uses Evolv Fishing Rod Sleeves to protect them on and off the water. 
Paper shown here with his  5/16 oz. Jewels Tactical finesse HD jig in “Bass Whacker” paired with a Fish Or Die Bait Company “Patriot” in “Defiant” color.
Dave Leuze of Illinois started out both mornings, throwing a Storm Chug Bug around the edges and in between flooded bushes. He had about a 100 foot stretch of shoreline that the shad were using to spawn each morning, with the bass there for breakfast. He was also throwing a Spro popping frog in a shad color, further back into the same bushes to get some of his bigger bites. 

After the shad spawn ended each morning, he would switch gears and ramps to fish a couple hundred yard stretch of deeper flooded bushes he had found in practice. He was flipping the X Zone Adrenalin Craw, which has floating claws and an enticing fall when fishing the bushes. The strikes were coming on the fall, and he usually never felt the bites. He would feel some extra weight when going to move the bait, and then the fight was on. 

Leuze threw a Storm Chug Bug around the edges and in between flooded bushes.
Leuze also threw a Spro popping frog in a shad color, further back into the same bushes to get some of his bigger bites.
The X Zone Adrenalin Craw worked well as it dropped in the bushes for Lueze. 
The 1-2 punch for Mike Elsea of Indiana in the Tenkiller event consisted of an Accent Lures buzzbait rigged with a Zoom Z-Craw. He used a 7’ medium heavy action Fitzgerald Rods Stunner HD, and a Lew’s reel spooled with 15 lb. Seaguar InvizX. 

Most of his damage was done flipping flooded bushes with a Bizz Baits Cover Craw and Critter Craw. The set-up included a ⅜ oz Titan Tungsten flipping weight and a 3/0 Owner hook. His rod choice for this application was a 7’3” heavy action Fitzgerald Rods Stunner HD fitted with a Lew’s reel spooled with 20 lb. Seaguar InvizX. 

Bizz Baits played a huge role for Elsea’s success at Tenkiller.
Elsea used an Accent Lures buzzbait rigged with a Zoom Z-Craw and a Bizz Baits Cover Craw and Critter Craw.
Lance Burris of Missouri capitalized on a strong shad spawn that was happening early in the morning. He decided to “match the hatch” and throw something that was different since the lake had a lot of pressure all week from anglers. He pulled out his two highest confidence baits, the Crock-O-Gator Headknocker buzzbait and a smaller profile E Factor spinnerbait, both in white. These two baits would catch fish the entire day, even when the sun was high in the sky. He threw them both on 7’ Kistler medium heavy rods, with 40 lb. braid and an 8:1.1 Kistler Chromium baitcaster reel. He foot steered his Bonafide PWR129 from Eco Fishing Shop through all of the buck brush easily in the backs of coves which played a key role to his success. 
Abby Abbondanza of Pennsylvania caught the majority of his fish on an all Green Pumpkin ZMan tungsten EVO chatterbait. He did catch a few on his new Signature Series Glide that dropped on June 5th on Hotfishbaits.com. The color is “Vader” and it is a Hotfish baits Fire Glide. He used his Little Miami Outfitters Proteus 7’3” MHF rod for both baits spooled with 16 lb. Gamma Edge line. He caught most of his fish paralleling the flooded buck brush and also throwing into it when possible. 
The Green Pumpkin ZMan tungsten EVO chatterbait played a huge role in Abbondanza’s success. 

Related