Fishing Nimisila for Portage Lakes Kayak Bass Tournament, Plus Camping Life on the Tournament Trail

The Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail stopped at the Portage Lakes area for a June 25th tournament. With the choice of fishing the lakes in Portage Lake State Park, Mogadore, or Nimisila, I would have loved to have had time to pre-fish to scout the different lakes, but it is a 4-hour drive for me to get up there, so I just tried to make my best guess based on studying Google Earth, Navionics, and the fact I got a limit in a tournament on Nimisila last year... I was fishing Nimi! It seemed like a great decision when I landed an 18.25" bass on a topwater frog in the first 20 minutes of the tournament, but then that fish launched off the measuring board before I got a photo. I managed to catch 2 other small keeper bass (when my GoPro had shut down due to overheating, of course!), but it was far from the day I had hoped for. What really gets to me is that I know the 1st place, 3rd place, and the Big Bass anglers all fished Nimisila, so it wasn't that the lake was just fishing tough, it was that I couldn't find them!

I've had some people ask me what it is like to "follow the tournament trail", and while the events I fish are much smaller and more casual than those on the big national tours (that I hope to get to someday!), so the last part of this video is a peek at what it is like when we all meet up to camp at the tournaments. This time we all stayed at the Nimisila State Park Campground, and it was awesome!

Thanks to the Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail for running these great events so I can get out and fish!

Thanks to Strictly Sail & Kayak for the amazing Hobie Lynx, and for always being such great supporters of the kayaking, sailing, and angling communities!
Strictly Sail & Kayak has a lot of kayaks and kayak accessories (and sailboats!) in stock at their shop in Cincinnati or you can shop online!

http://www.strictlysailandkayak.com/g...