2nd CBKA Tournament Wrap Up

It was a long year of hardwork since the 1st Annual Tournament last year and it finally came around full circle for us this past weekend for the culmination the 2nd Annual CBKA Bay Bridge Tournament at Camp Wright in Stevensville, MD. This tournament is completely for charity supporting Make A Wish Foundation and Coastal Conservation Association of Maryland.

This year we had high hopes to really put on an excellent tournament and grow much bigger right along with the sport of kayak fishing itself. I'd like to think we succeeded... 69 Registrants, more than double the amount from our 1st tournament a year ago.  The weather held off for us just long enough to allow for some decent fishing. It was a super windy day, pushing 25 mph in the early afternoon and during the awards dinner and raffle we were serenaded by a fast moving storm with 70mph winds. 

 

 Metroman's Video of Storms coming across the bay

Alot of fish were caught on Saturday, but not too many big ones. That has been the story this year in the bay.... lots and lots of small fish, especially the striped bass.

For the 2nd year in a row no one caught qualifying fish for the SLAM (Striped Bass, Perch, Bluefish) ... and for the 2nd year in a row I was the only one to Catch Photo and Release these 3 species, but my Striped Bass was 1.5 inches too short to qualify for the prize. :(

Oh well... but I was fortunate to catch the largest Bluefish, which wasn't big at all measuring 12 inches but I'll take it!! And it was the same category I won last year, so it was cool to defend my title.

 

My winning Bluefish, I won a $100 gift certificate to Paddlehouse Outfitters in Ocean City, MD

Thank you to Andrew for being one of the sponsors.

The largest perch I was able to snag.

And my largest of about 35 schoolies I caught while fishing in the 25 mph winds and waves directly out of the south.

Thank you to all the sponsors that I worked with personally as well as the others that my counterparts interacted with the tournament was a great success the raffle was great and a lot of people won some really cool prizes, including a 2012 Hobie Revo 11 donated by Backyard Boats.

CBKA Directors with the lucky winner and newest member of the Hobie Darkside of kayaking

About 75 tickets were sold for the kayak raffle at $20 a pop generating a great amount of moola for our charities. The coolest part about this story was that the winner didn't even own a kayak and was borrowing a friends in order to fish the tournament.

Michael, John, Make A Wish Director, and Myself (a little sun burnt)

All in all it was a totally awesome event again. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. So now I'll take a few weeks off and then I'll be back on the sponsor grind for next years tournament!! If you know any companies that you think may be interested in supporting our cause, please let one of us know!

Also don't forget about Dizm Polarized Sunglasses give away a few post below... you have until the 14th to get your name in the hat..

Full results:

We had 10-11 species taken! Rock, perch, MD blue crab (thanks to MOC), croaker, bluefish, spot, sunfish, speckled trout, flounder and redfish. I heard of a cow nosed ray as well. Nice!

Striped Bass Divsion - Sponsored by Easton Cycle & Sport

1st- Richard Souder 24" - $300 gift certificate

2nd- Russ Hewitt 21 1/8"  - $200 gift certificate

3rd- Chuck Chambers 16 3/4" - $100 gift certificate

Perch Division - Sponsored by All Tackle

1st - Jonas Williams 13" - $100 gift certificate

2nd - Tom Beach 12" - $75 gift certificate

3rd - Ryan Altenburg 11 3/4" - $50 gift certificate

Blue Crab Division - Sponsored by The Crab Deck Restaurunt on Kent Island

1st - Shane Clift  7 1/2" -  $100 gift certificate

2nd - Kevin Corbin 6" - $50 gift certificate

3rd - Tom Brown 5 3/4" - $25 gift certificate

Largest Bluefish - Sponsored by Paddlehouse Outfitters

Matt Baden 12" - $100 gift certificate

Female Angler Largest Fish - Sponsored by Appomatox River Company

Pam Birch 10+" perch - $100 gift certicate

Most Species - Sponsored by Hook1 

Tyler Sondberg (Striped Bass, Perch, Spot, Croaker, Speckled Trout) - $50 gift certificate

*He had a sixth species too, but it flopped out while getting picture... fortunately for me because it was bluefish that was larger than the one I caught haha