Slaying a Demon: Hobie BOS on Cayuga Lake

Ah Cayuga, my old nemesis. Our dysfunctional relationship goes back many years. In April and May of 2021, I spent 2 longs days trying to figure out the lake, but I never managed to put a bass in the kayak. The same pattern held in 2022 when a day of prefishing and a tournament outing only produced three scorable bass, none of them of any size.

This season hadn’t started out any better. I was unable to get out in advance of the EKF Tournament. Over 108 anglers from the combined NYKBF and EKF trails descended upon Cayuga and proceeded to hammer giant bags, taking 100” to win that event. And what did I do? I fished around many anglers who put up decent limits, but again I wasn’t able to land a single bass. The lake bested me, and I was flummoxed.

It was now mid June and I looked at my tournament calendar. There, staring back at me was the Hobie BOS tournament on Cayuga Lake. I hadn’t registered yet, and wasn’t sure if I wanted to. This was a big national trail event only 2 hours down the road from my house so it was an obvious opportunity to get out and compete against the top anglers around. The two things giving me pause were the tournament trail, and the lake (which we have already discussed my ugly history with).

I love the Hobie series, a high level trail with no motors allowed during competition. It is a more pure kayak fishing series. It is also extremely well run and draws in the best of the best when it comes to competition. Unfortunately in the past I’ve blown the events on Day 1, never even giving myself a shot on Day 2. Earlier this year I drove down to Santee Cooper to fish the Hobie event on that bucket list fishery, only to have weather mess up my prefishing and cancel the first day of the event. My one day of competition was another BOS bomb.

So needless to say, I was not brimming with excitement over this event. Even after multiple 100-lb, 4 day limits were had at the MLF event; and a 9-lb smallmouth was caught in a local tournament smashing the previous state record, I still couldn’t get inspired to fish it. My calendar was clear however, and the weather seemed like it would be ok, so I figured I might as well make a go of it. I wasn’t going to take any time from work, or try to get out there early. Just make it a weekend trip. Worst case scenario, I bomb day one and spend Sunday filling a cooler of perch to bring home for the freezer. I spent more time packing perching gear than I did organizing and thinking about bass fishing.

Thursday evening before the event, I swapped the electronics from my motorized Feelfree Lure 13.5 over to my pedal drive version. After putting in an early 8 hours of work on Friday, I loaded up the truck and took off on the 2-hour drive across the state to Seneca County, NY. I had been monitoring social media throughout the week, and there was very little chatter coming out of the event. I wasn’t sure what was going on. I figured people must have been on some pretty good bites and nobody wanted to talk about it or risk giving anything away. When I arrived at the check-in, what I was hearing was the exact opposite. Fishing had been tough that week. Most people had spent at least 1 day fishing down south trying to get on those infamous giant smallmouth. But word was the spawn was over, and nearly all them had moved back off shore where they become pelagic and very hard to target. Regardless, I know this group; both local hammers and the top national level anglers would figure this thing out and there was no doubt the bags would be big and the competition fierce. I got some food, checked into my hotel, and settled in for the night.

The alarm chimed at 3:00AM Saturday morning. It was only 30 minutes to the Union Springs boat ramp, but with 112 anglers in the tournament, plus locals and potentially a boat tourney, I wanted to get there and parked early. I rolled into the boat ramp about 3:45 and there were already two other kayakers unloading. I needed to re-rig a few rods still and repack my crate with the boxes and plastics I thought I might need since I hadn’t done any tackle prep. But there was over an hour till take-off, so I took my time getting ready.

About 10 minutes before launch time I hopped in my kayak and powered up my electronics. I hadn’t even turned them on since moving everything over from my other yak. The units powered up, but there was no communication between them. Neither unit was reading my mega live and things weren’t working right. Quickly tracing the wiring, I realized the power cable to the networking hub was backwards. Luckily I keep supplies in my truck including SAE connector reversers. A quick trip back to the truck, inserting the plug, then rebooting the system, and we were good to go.

At 5:00AM everyone took off from the ramp and the event was on! My plan was straight forward, I was going to work offshore grass targeting post spawn largemouth. I figured most of the spawn should be over so the fish will be pulling out to deeper water to feed up. I should have the fish coming to me. The other reason I decided to do this was the weather. It had been a very mid spring, and water temps were pretty moderate. Overcast skies and a little bit of wind, I was expecting the bass to be out roaming and feeding and not tucking tight to cover to avoid sun and heat. At the event in early May, I had marked where some off shore grass was just starting to form. I figured by now it should be grown and healthy and was as good a place as any to start.

As I made the run to my starting spot, my seat was feeling funny. It felt like I was leaning. I changed the height up and down, but it still felt off. I checked inside my hull to make sure I wasn’t taking on water causing the boat to list, but it was bone dry in there. I ignored it for a little while, but it was really bugging me trying to pedal with any speed. I finally got up, turned around, knelt in the cockpit and inspected the seat. As I had feared, a bolt supporting the seat had vibrated loose in transport and had fallen out. I put Loctite on the bolts on the seat in my other kayak, but didn’t bother on this one since I use it so infrequently.

I was desperately looking under my boxes and wiring around the seat and with luck on my side, I found the missing bolt. I was able to get it screwed back in, leveled the seat, and was back on my way.

As I pedaled along, I was paying close attention to the bottom composition on my side scan. I was noticing that the entire stretch I was pedaling along was exactly what I was hoping to fish. There was a layer of small pondweed on the bottom of the entire flat, but sticking up out of it were patches of curly leaf pondweed. You could see the shadow of the taller patches clear as day.

Because of the delay in repairing my seat, I didn’t make it all the way to my starting spot when lines in hit at 5:30AM. I decided not to keep running, but instead start fishing. I grabbed a squarebill, something I figured I could cast around the tall patches, but wouldn’t dive down into the small pondweed coating the bottom. My first cast the reel had a slight backlash. Nothing crazy, I just figured I was casting into the wind and just wasn’t paying attention. The second cast wasn’t bad; but on the third cast the spool completely exploded. It was a mess. I switched over to my other cranking rod, but it wasn’t the right weight to throw that squarebill. I decided since it was early, I might as well take the time and get the backlash out. It took me nearly 10 minutes of messing, but I finally got it. I then checked the dial and realized the tension was spun all the way down. This must have happened on accident on a previous outing, but I got it set right and went back to casting.

I worked my way into the wind heading toward the area I had intended to start on. I was using my Mega Live imaging to find the taller grass out in front of the kayak and casting around them. I ran the squarebill, tried some topwater, tried a spinnerbait, a chatterbait, and a jerkbait, but I wasn’t finding the fish. It was about 1.5 hours in and I was without a bite. I was out a little further than my waypoint, and while scanning around with my live imaging I was seeing the tall grass patches were getting just a slight bit more frequent in one area. I decided with the clear water, I would switch to something a little more finesse. I grabbed a wacky rig and started throwing that at the taller grass.

I launched a long cast and as I slowly twitched the bait, I felt the distinct *tick* of a bite. I reeled down and bowed up into the fish. She felt heavy and when she breached the water I saw it was a good largemouth. I scooped her into the net and the skunk was gone. She measured 18.5” and I was pumped. It was just one fish, but that gave me confidence. I was the only person remotely close to where I was fishing. All the other kayaks around were either in the denser grass up shallow, right up against the bank, or out deep on the ledges. Could it be I stumbled onto to something nobody else found?

I locked the wacky rig in my hand and kept going. Just 20 minutes later, the pattern held true and I put an 18.25” on the board. Now I knew it wasn’t a fluke, and I found a pattern. I started fanning around and making drifts over the area. I needed to expand on this bite.

It was a slow process as I picked my way around the area. Around 10:00 I got my third bite. This one measured 18.00”. My fish were getting smaller, but still the right caliber so I wasn’t going to change. I kept plugging away, but was now switching back and forth between a weightless wacky and a flick shake rig. The flick shake allowed longer casts and would get down just a shade deep a little faster.

I found another area with more frequent grass similar to the first and grabbed my 4th keeper around 10:30. She also went 18.00”. I was suddenly feeling really confident and good about what I was doing. I was still the only one fishing these spots, and while I had only gotten 4 bites all day, each one was the right caliber fish. I just knew if I kept at it, I would put another quality fish on the board and at put myself in a good spot heading into Day 2.

Over and hour went by and I continued to pedal up into the wind, line up a new drift, and work my way around the flat without any bites. It was the most efficient way to cover water and try to find productive spots. I knew I might only get one or two more bites, but my hope was fishing more of the area would greatly improve my efficiency for Day 2. I still needed that last bite, but I kept telling myself I was doing the right thing.

With just over 2 hours of fishing left, it happened. The felt her slurp the Biospawn Exostick into her mouth, and I set the hook. She went 17.75”, and I had my first limit on Cayuga since 2018! Not only that, I had over 90”! I gave myself a little moment to be proud of that accomplishment, and decided to peek at the leaderboard. To my astonishment I was sitting in 10th place, only a couple inches back of the leaders. I knew with plenty of time left, the board would keep going up from there so I had more work to do. I circled back and set up another drift.

I started that drift just inside of my previous drift. As I floated in line with my first two fish, I hooked into something big! She pulled down deep and wasn’t coming up to jump. I thought for sure it must be a drum, big pickerel, or even a rare catfish. As my leader got close she swam out from under the kayak and revealed herself to be a big ol fat largemouth. I scooped her up and it was my first cull! She went 19.25” and gave me an extra 1.5 inches. I was now at 92” for the day and moved myself up to 7th.

It was 12:30, I was about 2 inches back of the leaders, and I needed to make a decision. This area was producing, albeit slowly, but I was concerned my fish would run out. I decided rather than start a new drift, I would continue this drift the rest of the day. The windspeed and timing were perfect for sending me right back to the ramp. My hope was that I might just stumble across another fish, but if I didn’t that was ok. I also was hoping that nobody else in the area recognized me, the spots I was fishing, and where I was on the leaderboard, so I wanted to get far away from my prime spots.

For the next hour I drifted along without a single bite. The tall grass had gotten sparse again, and just didn’t have the population of fish. I was then passing outside an area that a number of anglers had fished in the morning. The grass here seemed right for what I was looking for. I made a long cast and felt the *doink*. I set the hook and the fish surfaced once then immediately started swimming directly at me. I reeled fast and tried to keep her out of the grass, but she dove down. I felt the line cutting into the grass when suddenly it went slack and I reeled in a pile of grass. It was saddening. This was clearly a cull fish. I had two 18”s in my bag and this would have culled one. Was it an 18.5” or a 20”? I don’t know, but I marked a waypoint and continued my drift.

Just a couple minutes later I was watching a bass boat in that same area reel in a nice largemouth. Another couple minutes went by and I heard a commotion. I looked over just in time to see a fish jump out of the water and Kristine Fisher cry out “Oh no”. She was right next to my waypoint! I was then formulating a plan for Sunday. That would be my starting spot!

The drift continued and with 10 minutes left in the day, I looked up ahead and could see the discoloration indicating vegetation just under the surface. I cast my wacky right alongside it and let it fall. She bit it completely dead sticked. I put her on the board and she went 18.25”. Only a 0.25 inch cull, but seeing how close the lengths were, I knew every 0.25 inch could be worth hundreds of dollars. I uploaded it to TourneyX and checked the standings. I was still in 7th, after the cull.

By 3:00 when the photo submission deadline had passed, I had fallen back to 9th place, but I was very happy. I lost one fish that might have been a small cull, but I was solidly in the money, I had a game plan for Sunday I was confident in, and I was only 3-inches back of first place. This was going far better than I ever expected. It was clear I wasn’t going perch fishing the next day. I went back to the hotel, plugged in my Dakota Lithium to charge, got a shower and some dinner, and relaxed to keep myself focused on what was to come on Sunday.

Sunday started out much smoother than Saturday. I still got to the ramp extra early, but rather than loading my kayak up with more gear trying to come up with a plan, I used that time to strip down and remove tackle I knew I wouldn’t need. The only thing I added was another extra package of Exosticks just in case. We launched at 5:00 and I leisurely pedaled to my starting spot. This time I was around other kayaks, but I was further off shore from them. In the flat calm water, I could see they were tucked in amongst the topped out vegetation. I was just outside on the deep edge of it.

When 5:30 hit, the conditions screamed topwater to me. I grabbed my spook rod and decided I would give that an hour here before switching back to the wacky rigs. It was right decision. At 5:40 I put a 16.00” in the kayak, at 5:45 a 17.75” was on my board, and at 5:50 the most important bite of the day sharked on the spook. It was a mammoth 20.50” largemouth. Less than 30 minutes in, and I had three fish including a great kicker. Could this be my time?

I continued with the spook for another 45 minutes but only had a few small hits. I decided it was time to go and I made the run to my honey hole that produced most of my bites the previous day. 

I worked around the area slowly, picking it apart, staring at my Helix unit, looking for the right grass patches. It took an hour, but I finally got bit again. Not right on my spot, but adjacent to it in some new water I hadn’t hit the previous day. She was another big girl, going 19.50”. Now I was feeling good! It was 8:00AM, I had 4 fish, including 2 kickers. I knew all I needed was something about 17” and I would be cashing a check. I had 6 hours to do it!

About 30 minutes later, I swung over to a grass patch where I landed a nice fish the previous day. I stayed back and launched a long cast. I was slowly twitching the bait when I felt a soft bite. I set the hook but felt the bait pull from it’s mouth. I stopped and waited, hoping she would see the worm falling in front of her again and scoop it up a second time. She did, and this time I got her. She initially didn’t feel big, but when she came to the surface, she was clearly the fish I needed, a 17-19” largemouth. That was my limit fish, and a check. She swam toward the back of the boat and jumped. I took up the slack not wanting to give the hook any chance of coming loose. She was right under the boat and I grabbed my net. At that moment she made a run straight down and I felt the line *pop*. My heart shattered.

I set my net back down, reeled up the line, pulled my buff down off my face, and did nothing but sit and breath. After a minute, I pulled up my line and checked it. The leader had broken about a foot above the knot. The line must have gotten nicked. I hadn’t checked my line, I hadn’t retied, and I had left my drag too tight. I needed that tight drag to help get good hook sets on those long casts, but I hadn’t always remembered to loosen it back up while playing a fish. It was a lesson I quickly stored away, tied on a new hook, grabbed a new worm, and went back at it.

The next 1.5 hours were hard. It took me 30 minutes to get the negative thoughts out of my head, but eventually I was able to really concentrate. I fished hard. The wind had dropped off to nothing, and the sun was out bright. I could see way down into the water and there were giant bass swimming all around. This was the boost to my confidence I needed. It reminded me I was in the right spot, and doing the right thing. I was going to get another chance, and I wouldn’t screw it up.

Finally just before 10:15, on another long cast the bite I had been waiting for came. It was only a 17.00”, but I knew that fish meant I was cashing a check! It likely wasn’t a top 10, but I was going home with something. I was beyond relieved to have my limit. And the day wasn’t over yet! there was still over 3.5 hours left for me to upgrade. I went right back to work and just a few hundred feet away, I got another bite! As I fought this fish back to the boat, it felt and looked smaller. It was skinnier than most of the fish I had been catching. I figured it was still a cull, but was shocked when I put it on the board and it measured 19.25”. This was a 2.5 inch upgrade!

It was 10:30, I had 94”, and I had moved myself up to 5th place! The best part was I still had a 17.00” in my bag I could upgrade. I was just 2.5 inches back. A 20” would give me the lead, and they were swimming in the area.

Unfortunately, it never materialized. I got one more bite on the flick shake, but never got a solid hook in her. However, when the leaderboard went dark around 1:30 I was still in 5th place. There had been some jumbling at the top, but it didn’t matter because 2:00 came and I wasn’t able to cull. My only thoughts now were who was going to get that last minute upgrade and knock me back. How far might I fall?

At the awards, they called up places 11-17 to allow them to talk about their tournament but my name wasn’t called. It was a good sign, but the next group would be the deciding factor. They then called up places 6-10 and I waited to hear my name, but it wasn’t called. I knew right then I had held on to 5th place! I was stoked. When they announced the score for 6th place, I realized we had tied. The tiebreaker is biggest fish, and my 20.50” edged out their 20”.

The good news didn’t stop there. When they called up the top 5 to speak, they announced that all 5 of us were qualified for the Tournament of Champions. The top 2 had already qualified so the slots would roll down to the next anglers which included me! I had started the season with aspirations of qualifying for the TOC, but after Santee Cooper, those hopes were pretty much dashed. Now it was a reality.

The awards concluded, and I hopped in my truck for the 2 hour drive home. It was a great feeling coming away from a tournament that I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do. It was almost surreal having cashed a check, and qualifying for the TOC on a lake I had such a bad history with. Now begins the prep for Chickamauga. A November tournament on this storied fishery I have never actually gotten a chance to fish. This will be a wild ride for sure.