kayak

Kayak: Top Baits from Lake Fork Championship

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Written by
Marty Hughes
The month of March can be very unpredictable when it comes to weather, and this year is no exception. There was a huge low-pressure system moving across the Great Plains states the week of the 2025 Yamaha Rightwaters Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship scored by TourneyX on the scheduled Day 1. This system produced high winds and very dangerous conditions for kayak anglers on Lake Fork, which resulted in the cancellation of the first day of competition. To compensate for the time lost, Bassmaster officials gave the anglers an 11-hour day instead of the normal eight-hour day to fish. 
This did not disappoint as big bags of bass were caught and submitted with 16 anglers over the century mark, and Wyatt Hammond of North Carolina taking top honors with 111.25 inches. That is equivalent to around a 32-pound bag of five bass!  Following closely behind was Joshua Dhiel of Georgia with 106.75 inches, and third went to Bennett Nall of South Carolina also with 106.75 inches in what could be considered a slugfest among the 145 anglers who participated. There were some fish in spawning mode, and numerous bass were intercepted as they made their annual migration to the spawning beds of Lake Fork. A wide variety of baits were used to catch these monster bass, which are captioned below. 
Wyatt Hammond of North Carolina used a hand-tied brown 3/8-ounce jig with a Berkley MaxScent green pumpkin creature trailer for all the fish he ended up catching. He fished them on a GLoomis NRX 894/Metanium combo with 16-pound Sunline Shooter. Another piece of key equipment was his Old Town Autopilot 136 with the track feature. He set a trail during practice, and the boat would drive itself through the stump field so he wouldn’t have to worry about hitting those numerous stumps Lake Fork is known for over most of the lake. He also used MegaLive to scout docks and see which poles the fish were related to. He also used his Solix 10 sidescan to see the schools of fish on the points. The sidescan helped him find two schools of fish in the afternoon and let him get his final two culls in with a 22.25- and a 22.5-inch bass. 
The hand-tied brown 3/8-ounce jig with a Berkley Maxscent green pumpkin creature trailer.
A close-up view …
Joshua Diehl from Georgia caught all of the fish in his final bag on a Z-MAN Tungsten ChatterBait Elite Evo 3/8 ounce in black blue paired with a Big Bite Baits 4.25 Kamikaze Swimon in Hematoma. Unlike traditional ChatterBait patterns, Diehl fished the bait like a normal jig, using hops and yo-yo techniques. The bait was thrown on 14-pound Sunline FC Sniper via a Dobyns Champion XP DC 736 CB Glass paired with a Daiwa Zillion SV TW 6.3 speed reel. Diehl said the combination allowed him to just lean into the fish to properly set the hook in the roof of each fish’s mouth, pulling them away from submerged stumps.
Dhiel used the Z-MAN Tungsten ChatterBait Elite Evo 3/8-ounce in black blue paired with a Big Bite Baits 4.25 Kamikaze Swimon in Hematoma.
Bennett Nall of South Carolina caught all of his fish with a Rapala Rippin’ Rap 07. He threw it on a Daiwa Rebellion cranking rod with 10-pound Daiwa Samurai Fluorocarbon. 
Nall used the Rapala Rippin’ Rap 07 for his third-place finish in the Bassmaster Championship on Lake Fork. 
Ewing Minor from Virginia threw a Jackall Rerange 130 jerkbait to catch his bass. His combo rod and reel in included a Shimano Expride 6-foot, 10-inch medium fast stick and a Shimano Metanium DC reel.
Ewing’s presentation included a Jackall Rerange 130 jerkbait.
Gene Jensen from Georgia used the Mike Bucca Resin Trick Shad glide bait and the Bull Shad ABS Trick Shad Glide bait for the Roaming Fish. The ABS falls faster. He was fishing the resin one on a Dobyns MB835SB rod and a Kastking MegaJaws Elite 7.2:1 with 22-pound Seaguar Tatsu. The ABS he fished on a KastKing Spirale 70MH1 rod with a KastKing MagaJaws Elite 7.2:1 with 17-pound Seaguar Tatsu. The bass were suspended in trees on secondary points along the creek channel from 2 to 12 feet deep. The depth of the bottom didn’t matter so long as it was a secondary point. Visibility was key for Jensen. It had to be less than 2 feet. If he could get the bait to them and work it fast away from them, they would crush it.
Jensen used the Mike Bucca Resin Trick Shad glidebait for bass that were stationary on secondary points.  
Ron Butler Jr. of Tennessee caught his fish on a Strike King 4.0 squarebill on a Dobyns medium action crankbait rod paired with a Daiwa Tatula 6.3 ratio reel. Most of his bass were caught on flats in about 4 to 6 feet of water. 
Butler threw a Strike King 4.0 squarebill for a sixth-place finish in the Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship on Lake Fork. 
Garrett Wade from Alabama caught all of his fish on a wacky-rigged Senko worm thrown on a TFO Series medium spinning rod. He fished mainly sandy spots with hydrilla. The fish were moving up and found them congregated in the first half of spawning pockets. 
Wade used a Yamamoto Senko worm to catch spawning bass. 
Rus Snyders of Tennessee used the Berkley Gilly swimbait rigged with a Kayakjak Outdoors Neko button head 1/8-ounce weight and a VMC 1/0 weedless Neko hook. His setup included an Irod Gen 3 Stone Cold swim jig rod with 17-pound fluorocarbon line. He had success on isolated weed clumps. 
Snyders used the Berkley Gilly swimbait rigged with a Kayakjak Outdoors Neko button head 1/8-ounce weight and a VMC 1/0 weedless Neko hook to catch his bass.
Lance Burris of Missouri caught the majority of his fish at Lake Fork on the Crock-O-Gator Head Knocker buzzbait. Burris said, “The sound of the blade hitting that lead head is like no other buzzbait I’ve ever heard. It’s so loud that I actually had a guy drive his golf cart down from his house during the tournament to ask me what I was throwing because he could hear it from the back deck.” According to Burris, “The flat head helps to plane off as soon as it hits the water, and the compact size makes it easy to throw tight to cover and around docks.” He mentioned the fish had been heavily pressured all week, but the Crock-O-Gator buzzbait always seems to draw up the bigger bite, and that’s exactly what happened. He throws his buzzbaits on 30- to 40-pound braid, with a 7-foot, 3-inch medium heavy Kistler Z Bone rod and a Kistler Chromium 8.1:1 bait caster. He has a lot of faith in Kistler products as they have never failed him on the water since 2018. He always uses a single or twin tail trailer followed by a 3/0 or 4/0 trailer hook. The trailer in the picture is from a local company he likes to support called AAFC “Angler in Action For Christ”.
He has been fishing for as long as he can remember, but tournament fishing started around the fourth grade with his dad in local bass boat tournaments. As soon as he was 14, he joined the local bass club on Lake of the Ozarks. Burris started competing in kayak tournaments in 2017. He now competes in a mix of bass boat tournaments and kayak tournaments, including the Bassmaster Kayak Series.
 
The lure he caught the majority of his biggest fish on Lake Fork came on Lance Burris threw Crock-O-Gator Head Knocker buzzbait with an AAFC plastic trailer. 
Drew Gregory of Ohio caught the majority of his fish off of a Z-MAN Crosseyez Power Finesse jig with a (1/2-inch trimmed) green pumpkin Pro Crawz as a trailer. He also cut the weed guard completely off as he was using it to bed fish and didn’t want the weed guard to catch grass/algae, and wanted a better hook up ratio as well. The key fish of the event that was caught on this bait was a 23-inch bass. 
He also caught two bass at 20.75 inches, one on a Z-MAN 7-inch Jerk Shadz with a custom double frog hook that he uses for better hook up ratios and simply better odds at landing them. He used a split ring and silicon grippers to hold the bait in place so he could skip it under buck brush and have it still be tuned properly. He was dancing the lure on the surface in the morning low light around an area with grass and bedding activity, and she waked on it and inhaled it. 
A Z-MAN Crosseyez Power Finesse jig with a (1/2-inch trimmed) green pumpkin Pro Crawz as a trailer proved to be very effective for Gregory.
The other key 20.75-incher came on a Ribbit Frog. He usually uses the Goat Toadz, but in such stained water, he wanted the bigger and loudest commotion he could get — and one thing the Ribbit does well is just that. Around 4:20 p.m. he saw a bass busting on bait in the grass in front of him, so he quickly made a few paddle strokes so Gregory could glide into casting range and launched it to reach her zone. A few cranks on the reel and the water exploded! He Power-Poled down to score her, and after the release, he looked over and saw a giant tail beside some buck brush that looked like a tailing redfish. On the first pitch with the Crosseyez jig he landed that 23-incher, so in a matter of about five to six minutes, he culled up about 12 inches to put him at 102 inches and finish up in 10th place and earn another Classic stage appearance. It’s a five-minute flurry he’s very grateful for and will never forget.

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