kayak

Kayak: Top baits from Lake Havasu

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Written by
Marty Hughes
The first stop of the year is in the books for the anglers of the Kayak Bassmaster Series. More than 100 kayak anglers assembled for an early season competition on Lake Havasu which borders California and Arizona.  This clear water gem sits on the edges of the Sonoran Desert with some of the most gorgeous scenery in this part of the country. “Havasu” which means “blue-green” reflects the beauty of this water and is rated as one of the top 100 bass lakes in the country with a home to both largemouth and smallmouth bass. 
While many of the anglers struggled to find fish there were a few who would grind it out and find a limit.  The top spot went to Drew Gregory who flew in from Ohio and had his kayak transported by fellow angler Joe McElroy from Alabama. With not much time to practice, Gregory found the smallie bite to be the most productive and garnering a two day limit of 165.25 inches.  The runner-up spot went to Caymen Rassmussen of Utah just 2.25 inches behind Gregory whose name you might hear more of as he is always in the hunt when it comes to kayak bass fishing tournaments.
A wide variety of baits were used in this tournament and the creativity used in presenting them is quite interesting as well. Here are your top baits for the Bassmaster Kayak Series, Lake Havasu event. Next up will be Feb. 1-2 on the Kissimmee (Fla.) Chain of Lakes; 
Drew Gregory of Ohio displays the ZMan “Gobius” which played a huge role in his success on Havasu. The ⅜ ounce bait in a natural color on Day 1 proved to be the ticket for catching smallmouth bass.  On day 2 Gregory threw a PBJ color “Gobius” to give the fish a different look. According to Gregory, this bait resembled a river darter baitfish which would trigger the bites. He used this presentation with eight pound SX1 Sunline braid.
Drew Gregory with smallmouth bass on the ZMan Gobius. 
Gregory also found some murky water where he threw a ⅜-ounce ZMan CrossEyeZ Power Finesse jig with a Pro Craw Trailer in green pumpkin on his prototype signature Yakrod. 
Caymen Rassmussen of Utah was constantly rotating through four basic baits junk fishing his way to getting as many bites as he could during the two day Lake Havasu event. He covered water while still trying to work his baits at a slower pace keeping his motor at about 1 mph while casting along the bank. His key presentations were the Keitech Swing Impact Fat 3.8 inch swimbait, paired with a 3/16 oz. ball jig head, the Megabass Vision 110 Jr +1 jerkbait, a ½ oz. Zman Tungsten Chatterbait, and the Elite EVO with a Rapala Crush City Freeloader trailer. He also used a Keitech Tungsten Football jig with a ZMan finesse TRD trailer. He used these baits in conjunction with his Sixgill Fishing Product rods and reels and 10 lb. Seaguar Invizx Fluorocarbon the swimbait and jerkbait and 15 lb Seaguar Abrazx Fluorocarbon for the chatterbait and jig. He averaged 5-6 bites a day targeting areas with rock, bluff walls, main points, and transition banks among roaming fish. His main tactic was to intercept the fish as they moved into shallower areas. 
Rassmussen used a Keitech Swing Impact Fat 3.8 inch swimbait, paired with a 3/16 oz. ball jig head, the Megabass Vision 110 Jr +1 jerkbait to fill his limits and a second place overall finish.
Caymen Rassmussen with the Elite EVO and a Rapala Crush City Freeloader trailer. He also used a Keitech Tungsten Football jig with a ZMan finesse TRD trailer.
JJ Gibbs of Arizona started each morning throwing a Zoom WEC 300 shad crank and the Gibbs Shad Swim Jig. As the sun came up both days he transitioned to flipping the Gibbs Heavy Cover flip jig in brown with a Zoom watermelon Red Speed Craw trailer.  Each of those two mornings he caught his better fish on reaction baits. He would then use the jig to finish getting his limits and culls each day. He used his “Power Pole Move” motor with his XTR 130 Bonafide Kayak charged with a Powerhouse 36v 60ah battery to find the fish. 
The three main presentations JJ Gibbs used to finish in 2nd place at the Lake Havasu, Kayak Bassmaster Series event. 
The Gibbs Shad Swim Jig brought success for JJ Gibbs. 
Finishing out limits, JJ Gibbs used this green pumpkin match up of his heavy cover jig with Zoom watermelon Red Speed Craw trailer.
Mark Kile, also of Arizona flipped a green pumpkin inch tube with 50 lb. braid and a 20 lb. fluorocarbon leader in shallow water. He used a 5/16th oz. bullet weight with a 4/0 Gamakatsu hook to finish in 4th place. 
Mark Kile’s tube presentation that helped him finish in 4th place at Lake Havasu.
Kong Yang from California paired his Shimano Sustain and Shimano Static spinning combos with 6 lb. Tactical P-Line and a 3” Keitech “Easy Shiner” swimbait on one and a 5” Yamamoto 5” Senko on the other to catch his fish and finish in 6th place. He fished areas that had pockets with channel swings nearby and shaded areas in the afternoon that provided for his success. 
Kong Yang with his 3” Keitech “Easy Shiner” swimbait.
Adam DeWitt of Nebraska had success with his ⅜ oz. ball head jig tipped with a Crush City 3.5 inch Mooch Minnow in gizzard shad. He also threw a ½ oz. ZMan Evo Chatterbait in electric shad with a Crush City Freeloader in gizzard shad during the morning hours catching bass that were chasing bait around main lake points. In the afternoon DeWitt would work a ½ oz. finesse football jig with a Zoom Creepy Crawler in green pumpkin on specific structure and off bluff walls. 
A close up view of Adam DeWitt’s baits used for success on Lake Havasu in the Bassmaster Kayak Series event. 
Brandon Smith from Indo, California fishing in his first tournament in two years used a 5XD crank bait over submerged cages on Lake Havasu. He would finish in 9th place with this effort. 
Smith’s Strike King 5XD crank bait that helped him to a Top 10 finish on Lake Havasu. 
Another deep crank used by Smith to catch his fish. 
Chris Cabral of California had a challenging practice but found a location among some toolies in about three feet of water. He left them alone and came back on day 1 of the tournament catching them on a drop shot with a MM3 Roboworm. His Trika rod and Piscifun CarbonX reel with a Titan Tungsten weight and Pine Spin X 10 lb test did most of the work for his catches. On day 2 he found his big fish of the tournament (21.75”) off shore after the water had dropped a foot in the area. Although he caught most of his fish shallow he capped his day 2 with an offshore fish. 
The key bait for Cabral was a MM3 Roboworm.

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