Its been in the works for almost a year. A huge event with the National Hobie BOS – Bass Open Series partnered up with Queen City Kayak Bass Fishing. AJ Mcwhorter and myself planned, talked, planned, talked more. Guessed at numbers. Guessed at winning limits. Etc Etc. All the things it takes to make these things run smoothly. Its a lot of prep work behind the scenes, a lot of give and take, a lot of understanding, patience, friendships, conversations, explaining things, but when you are working with the Gold Standard in directors, it all comes easy.
This weekend was simply amazing. It was huge for our city, our club, YOU the angler and I would like to think it was great for Hobie and Hobie anglers as well. We had the QCKBF Event 3 on Lake Norman this weekend. Denver Tackle Co. was amazing, staying open late, and helping guys with all their tackle needs. I had no idea what to expect as far as number of anglers in either side. The big goal was 200 each, but in the real world I just wanted to beat the first #QC1000 event of 96 anglers. Well, the final payment came in at 9:59pm Friday night and it put us at 132 anglers!!! I couldn’t believe it. Having big events is great, but it requires that much more to make things go perfectly. Mary Ferreri judged this weekend all by herself. I have no idea how she did it. We had 597 fish submitted on the QCKBF side. Let me type that again. 597! She did amazing and you should all thank her for what she does for us. With this club getting as large as we have, we are currently averaging 102 anglers a month (I know its double dip skewed), I have come to a decision. I am going to step away from fishing QC at this time. It may not be a forever thing, hell I may wake up and regret it, but, at this time, I have a more important job as director. I cant be the best fisherman, and the best director at the same time. My head is not in it as a fisherman. My phone never stops. I got 5 messages by 7:30 am yesterday, and I was on the water. Literally no way I can fish to the level I am used to fishing at when I have so much on my TD plate. I am going to be your director for the remainder of the season. I will be judging, available for phone calls, or texts, and anything else that may come up on game-day. I hope to have my full team of Mary and Brad Cox with me, along with Ryan Hulsey handling the computer stuff. Give Ryan a day or two to get the standings updated and posted.
With that out of the way lets talk about the event. The weather this weekend ended up being nice. Warm, not windy at all and no rain on Saturday. With public access allowed, anglers were spread out all over the huge Lake Norman. I know of anglers who fished to the northern boundary, and some at the southern most ramp. Lake Norman had it all this weekend. Mud, stain, crystal clear, along with Pre spawn and full on bed fishing. Whatever you like to do, you could have found it.
We were lucky enough to have our weigh in at the GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, North Carolina. When I sat down to verify standings, I couldn’t believe how many fish were caught, and how many limits we had, and how many 70+ inch bags we had. We always call 70 the magic number, but Norman said NO NO NO. we had 77 limits…..wow!!! We also had 6 bags over 70 inches, including a tie at the top with 72.75.
At the end of the day, we had record payouts, and Marcus Smith was the man!! He went home with $2000 which included his Emerald School of Excellence Big Bass Prize for his 21.5in giant. Congrats!!!! 2k!! WOW.
Melvin Yang smoked the bass all weekend. He tied for first in QC and lost due to a tie break. He took home second place in QC and in Hobie!!! He won $870 from QC. Chris Grant rounded out the top 3 with a 72 inch bag worth $750. His best friend Tyler Smith right there with him with 71.5 in 4th for $590. Landing in 5th was a new guy, Cameron Saxon with a 70.5inch limit, going home with $460.
6th- Mark Wilkins $375
7th- Matt Hawj $325
8th- Trent Davis $300
9th- PC Hawj $215
10th- Joey Randall $200
11th- John Ladd$170
12th- Cody Harris$130
13th- Kristine Fischer$100
14th- Nick Huddleston Free entry into Hickory.
Chase Helms took home $345 for his Yak Bass’n small bass prize with a 7.5 incher. Congrats kid!
I would like to give a huge shout out to all of the anglers who double dipped this weekend. On my quick count we had almost 50 anglers in the Hobie side. We also had our guys take home some money!! Joey Randall, Nick Huddleston, Mark Wilkins all took home Hobie checks!!
Our next event, assuming we have no gathering shut downs from the government is April 5th, on Lake Hickory. ITS A SUNDAY.
Go give all of the QC sponsor pages some likes.
Line Out Custom Tackle LOCT, TrueSouth Custom Lures, YakAttack, Robohawk, Helms Apiary, Bizz Baits, 412 Bait Co, Scared Fishless Tackle Company, Salt Life, Shane’s Baits, Denver Tackle Co.. That raffle table was loaded!!
Thank you all.
Commish.
