kayak

Kayak Top Baits: Caddo/Bisteneau

One of the most unique fisheries in the country, Caddo and Bisteneau Lakes offer not only big bass lurking just about everywhere, but also fantastic scenery. This area boasts thousands of cypress trees and a shallow swamp that is the perfect place for kayak anglers to find adventure! The top ten anglers used a variety of baits to trick these swamp monsters, which are presented below.

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Marty Hughes
Casey Reed of Virginia took top honors at the Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series powered by Native Watercraft with 196.50 inches, just a quarter inch over second place. Reed used a Cashion Icon Multi-purpose Medium Heavy/Moderate fast rod paired with a Shimano Curado 7.4:1 reel spooled with 17 lb fluorocarbon to throw a Yo-Zuri T7 Lipless to catch his bass and finish at the top of the standings. 
A close-up view of Reed’s Yo-Zuri Lipless T7 that helped him take first place. 
Dontrell Sullivan of North Carolina finished in second place with 196.25 inches on his ten bass, just a quarter inch shy of taking the crown at Caddo/Bisteneau. Practice was a bit challenging for Sullivan, and the only reason he chose his starting area on Day 1 was that it was close to a bluegill bed he found on Thursday.  He figured starting shallow towards the bank of an island before targeting the bluegill beds after the sun came up would be his best choice. 
Sullivan caught his first three fish on Day 1 with a Bizz Baits Black Skirt/Gold Blade Buzzbait and a five-inch Keitech Easy Shiner trailer up shallow around the dollarweeds and cypress trees. As he did this, he found himself right in the middle of a shad spawn. His honorable mention bait was a Spro Bronzeye Frog, catching a 20.5” bass on it that morning as well. 
After the shad spawn died, Sullivan moved to the bluegill beds and alternated between a ⅜ oz white ZMan Jackhammer with a Keitech Easy Shiner trailer and a ½ oz Bizz Baits Swimming Minner trailer for a couple more upgrades. He went on to explore other areas and caught his 22-inch bass on the black/blue chatterbait with 30 minutes left to him, over 100 inches for the first day. 
On Day 2, Sullivan caught four of his initial limit of bass on the ZMan Jackhammers and a Neko rigged 6” Roboworm in Midnight on the same bluegill bed from Day 1. He tried other areas but didn’t have any more bites. He would come back to the same bluegill beds at the end of the day and at one o’clock with a variety of baits tied on, alternating presentations every couple of casts to catch three upgrades on the Jackhammer, Neko Rig, and Vision 110+1 Jerkbait. 
Sullivan’s chatterbait setups were on a Cashion CK Chattergrass Rod with a Lews Hypermag and an Abu Garcia FantasistaX with an Abu Garcia Zenon. He threw the frog on a Fi-X Rod with a Shimano SLX reel. He had the Neko rigged worm paired with a Cashion CK Shakey Head rod with a Lew’s Hypermag. The buzzbait was thrown on a Cashion CRT paired with a Shimano Curado. His line of choice was Seaguar Invisx and Smackdown braid. 
Koby May of Tennessee finished third with 193 inches using a 17 mm Coike. May used his Livescope targeting isolated cypress trees near a creek channel with a hydrilla flat nearby. He used an Ark Sniper II 7’0” Medium spinning rod paired with an Ark Gravity GS5 2500 reel spooled with Seaguar PEX8 18 lb braid with a 15 lb Red Label leader.  May mentioned that this was an awesome event put on by Bassmaster, and making the week even more magical was catching a 10-pound bass in practice.
May used an Ark Sniper II 7’0” Medium spinning rod paired with an Ark Gravity GS5 2500 reel spooled with Seaguar PEX8 18 l. braid with a 15 lb Red Label leader with his Coike presentation. 
Ron Butler Jr. of Tennessee finished in fourth place with 191.75 inches. On Day 1, he caught his bass with a black/blue jig and a Strike King Rage Craw trailer dipped in chartreuse, along with a Berkley Dime Crankbait. On Day 2, Butler picked up a couple of good fish early using a frog and then went on to fill his limit with the crankbait again. 
Once he got his limit, he went and fished the dollar pads with a Stanley Top Toad. Butler mentioned that he had some good blowups with several misses, but he did manage a few culls with it. His final cull happened about 30 minutes before lines out, which was a solid 20-inch bass. This vaulted Butler into fourth place. Butler mentioned, “I always love fishing Caddo, it’s such a special place!” 
Butler used the Berkley Dime Crankbait with much success in the Bassmaster Kayak Fishing event. 
Guillermo Gonzalez of Texas finished in the Top 5 of the Bassmaster kayak fishing event using two key baits: the new Yamamoto Bug. When he ran out of them, he went to a Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog. His morning bite was all “Froggin” with the Sonic Boom Frog from the Frog Factory. The key to getting bit was soaking the Yamabug a little bit under the mat. Gonzales mentioned, “Oftentimes they’d eat it after it had been there a while.” 
Mike Elsea of Indiana, with a two-day total of 189 inches, is no stranger to success at Caddo/Bisteneau, having won a championship event there in the past. He finished sixth in this event by using a very simple approach. He said, “I basically flipped to trees, ‘till my arms were about to fall off!” Elsea went on to say, “It was a little comical, actually…I had 10 rods rigged up with a variety of baits, from topwater, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, to Texas-rigged worms and creature baits.”  However, Elsea only used two rods, rotating between a Texas-rigged Bizz Baits Sassy Stick and a Bizz Bug. He pegged a 3/16 oz Titan tungsten worm weight on a 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. He used a Fitzgerald 7’0” heavy Stunner Series rod, paired with a Shimano Curado DC reel spooled with 15 lb Seaguar InvisX. 
Tripp Johnson of Virginia finished seventh with 188 inches using a Coike in green pumpkin.  He had this 13 mm bait on a size 4 treble hook with a 1/6th Neko weight. The rod he used was a Fin-X 7’2” Medium Moderate action with a Shimano Nasci reel and 12-pound Seaguar Red Label line. Johnson would throw the Coike on very isolated Cypress trees, or he would find clumps of trees that made a lot of “Cypress knees.” He used his Garmin LVS 34 to target the fish. On the second day of the tournament,t he caught 100.25” with a 23.75-inch kicker!  He said, “Overall, it was an awesome event. I caught 20 plus fish each day of the tournament.” Johnson finished second on the college side as well. 
An enhanced view of the Coike bait that Johnson used in the Bassmaster kayak fishing event. 
Wyatt Hammond of North Carolina finished in eighth place with 186.25 inches. He fished grass mats and deeper trees that were outside of the major spawning pockets. The bigger trees on the outside of little groves of 15-20 trees were key to finding bass for Hammond. When fishing the cypress trees, Hammond used a hand-tied ½ oz jig that matched the bluegill that were spawning on the bases of trees. For the grass mats, it was a 1.5 oz punch rig.  Hammond mentioned that he had to be as quiet as possible and tried to stay as far away from the mats and trees as he could without spooking the bass. 
Hammond matched the colors of the bluegill with his homemade jig to catch some key fish. 
Jared Stanley of North Carolina finished in ninth place, putting up 183.75 inches using a ½ oz Strike King Structure Jig with a Strike King Rage Craw trailer in watermelon red. The rod he used was an Alpha Angler Zillavadder with a 13 Fishing 8.1:1 reel.  Stanley focused on anything but Cypress trees. The first day, he focused on isolated brush piles and stumps in five to seven feet of water.  On Day 2, the water became dirty in his area, and everything he caught was off of duck blinds. 
A close-up view of Stanley’s Strike King Structure Jig and the Rage tail trailer.
Brandon Hewlett of Florida rounded out the Top 10 in the Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series, powered by Native Watercraft Open series event by targeting a shad spawn.  He used a ZMan Dirty White Jackhammer on his 7’4” Garage H Glass Rod.  Once the sun came up, he switched tactics and started punching a 1.5 oz Hawgtech Tungsten weight and a 3/0 Hayabusa flipping hook paired with a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver. Hewlett mentioned, “My trusty Garage Rod 7’6” flipping stick spooled with 50 lb P-Line ‘No Fade Braid’ helped me land those Louisiana giants from the thickest cover.” 
A closer look at Hewlett’s Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver and the ZMan Jackhammer he used to finish in the Top 10 at Caddo/Bistineau. 

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