The largest offshore kayak tournament in Texas took place Saturday, August 2, 2014 in Corpus Christi. This was the 4th year for the Blue Water Classic attracting 141 entrants, the largest turnout so far. On tournament day everyone woke up to
approaching thunderstorms advancing slowly down the coast from the north. Considering the approaching storms and reports of large concentrations of bait, our group decided on a location farther north in Port Aransas. The storms passed by our location first and we launched the kayaks once the skies were clear.
Immediately I began spotting schools of anchovies being chased by bonita and spanish mackerel. The 1st bait out was a trolled Ribbon Fish which produced a couple of king mackerel or “kingfish” in the 40” range that were caught and released. A change of strategy was needed since the objective was to catch the heaviest weight of two combined fish. Before switching bait I remembered the old saying, “bigger baits equal bigger fish.” So I tied on the largest lure in the box, a 9 inch Sebile Magic Swimmer and began trolling.
Shortly after the 1st fish hit and it was definitely larger. My first thought after hearing it completely clear the water and violently crash back down was, “This has to be a large Blacktip Shark and there goes my $35 lure!” After an exciting tug of war the shimmering iridescent color gave it away, this was a large Kingfish, just the one I needed. The fish was easily gaffed and the difficult part was deciding where to store this huge fish while I continued to compete in the tournament.
Back to trolling for the 2nd fish. I was plagued with smaller kingfish under 40 inches, several were released until I decided on keeping one just over 40 inches. With 2 fish now in the kayak it was time to arrive early at the weigh-in. The larger of my 2 fish ended up being the largest of the tournament at 53 inches and 33 pounds! But with most tournaments, the 2nd fish wasn’t heavy enough to carry home 1st place.
There’s always next year and I definitely look forward to returning.
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