Lowcountry angler didn’t mind the surprise
Collin Yoder of N. Charleston was fishing at Aiken State Park out of his kayak for bowfin on Aug. 9 when he landed one of the biggest largemouth bass he’s ever caught. The fish measured over 24 inches in length.
Yoder said it was late in the afternoon between light rain showers when the bass surprised him. It hit his green and orange Rebel topwater plug in less than two feet of water in a weedy area.
“I had spooked a school a few minutes earlier, and I noticed a school of small minnows getting spooked, so I threw the popper just past them and a large wake came out of the grass and slammed it. After a few scary moments of fighting the bass on 6-pound test mono, I finally got her in the net,” said Yoder.
Anytime you’re fishing for a certain species and you land a different one, it can be a bit of a letdown, but Yoder said he doesn’t mind it one bit in this instance.
Perhaps you’re wondering just why Yoder was fishing for bowfin in the first place? He’s part of a group of fishermen called Lowcountry Kayak Anglers, a group that promotes kayak fishing for all species of fish.
One way this group encourages anglers to broaden their horizons is to hold monthly online fishing tournaments, with a different species being targeted each month. Many tournaments and fishing groups focus solely on one or two species, but this group relishes all the different fishing opportunities available to anglers in the Carolinas.
The prize species for August is the bowfin, which is often referred to as mudfish by many anglers in the Carolinas.
According to the length-to-weight conversion table often used to estimate a fish’s weight when only the length is known, a 24.25-inch largemouth bass generally weighs between eight and nine pounds. Yoder said it’s his second biggest bass he’s ever caught, and his personal best from a kayak.
Find out more about these tournaments and the other activities the members of Lowcountry Kayak Anglers are involved in by clicking here.
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