Category: Articles

Using the Fishing Chaos App

Our season kicked off this month with March’s monthly online challenge, but it will shift into high gear starting on April 1. With two new divisions and a lot of new members, here are some helpful tips on familiarizing yourself with the Fishing Chaos app…

TEST TOURNAMENT

We have opened our Fishing Chaos test tournament once again. You can access that tournament here.

Use this test event to familiarize yourself with the registration process, choosing what tickets—main entry fee (required) and lunker pools (optional)—to purchase, how to upload fish, challenge competitors’ entries, etc.

Please do not upload inappropriate photos and use proper, accurate lengths.

TEST YOUR APP SETTINGS

As of today, March 6, 2023, the current version of the Fishing Chaos app is 1.10.15. It is highly recommended that the app and your phone’s operating system is up to date.

To make sure your phone’s settings are correct for use with the app, please open the app and perform the following steps:

1. Click the “hamburger” (i.e. the three horizontal lines) at the top left.
2. Click on your name.
3. Scroll down and click Preferences.
4. Click Test App Settings.

From there you’ll be able to verify settings for your camera, photo library, and location are correct. If they are not correct, perform the following steps…

PHONE SETTINGS

If you are fishing our events, or any event that uses the Fishing Chaos app, please make sure you’ve given the app the appropriate access to your photos and location.

If you have an iPhone, go to Settings > Fishing Chaos > Photos, and make sure All Photos is checked off.

Also go under Settings > Privacy > Location Services, then scroll down to Fishing Chaos and make sure that is set to While Using the App.

If you’re using an Android phone, go to Settings > Location, App Permissions, and select Only When Using the App or Always Allow depending on Android version

Also, under Camera Settings, make sure Location Tags is turned on.

These settings may vary slightly, depending on what iOS or Android version you are running, but they should be similar.

If you have any questions, please reach out. Thanks!


The Best-Laid Plans

This was originally written for the Jackson Kayak fishing blog earlier this year, but was never posted, for whatever reason. Instead of letting it go to waste, here it is…

In 1785 Scottish poet Robert Burns penned one of the most famous lines of all time: “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley.”

Maybe you’re not into old Scots-language poetry (and I wouldn’t hold that against you), but you know this line. Translated it means, simply, the best-laid plans often go awry.

Coming off of a less than stellar showing at the first two Kayak Bass Fishing (KBF) Trail events of the season down in Kissimmee, Florida, I looked ahead to late February and set my sights on Lake Murray, South Carolina, host to the second set of KBF Trail events of the year.

To maximize my time pre-fishing, I made the near thousand-mile drive down a week early. I took the Sunday before the event off to travel, with the intent to pre-fish in the morning that Monday and Tuesday, work from the rental the rest of the day, pre-fish all day Wednesday and Thursday, and then, providing I was lucky enough to have found a productive spot for the tournament, work Friday to save a vacation day.

That was my best-laid plan, and…well, you guessed it, things went awry.

I got a late start leaving, so I pulled onto the narrow, aptly named Slice Road at 4 AM Monday morning and found myself at a dead end, having gone too far, looking for house number 233. I tried in vain to turn around. It was still dark—country dark, not city dark—and I couldn’t see a thing behind me. I got out, unhooked my trailer, hauled it down the road a bit, then successfully turned my car around and reconnected it.

I rolled slowly down the street, passing number 248, number 211…

I got out of my car once again, walked back to the first mailbox to see if I’d misread it. Nope. Still number 248, and the second was still number 211. I stood there, mentally and physically exhausted, illuminated by my vehicle’s headlights—and then I saw it, far back off the road, nestled in darkness and tall grass, wedged between million-dollar homes (numbers 211 and 248): a horror-movie mobile home with plywood additions sprouting from both sides like mangled ears.

This must be it, number 233, I thought. This is where I die.

I’m not sure if it was exhaustion or that one simply must abide by the tenets of all horror movies, but…I went down there. Cellphone in hand, built-in flashlight on, I made my way through the field to the house (if you could call it that), searching for the lock box. It wasn’t there. I shined my light all over the house, in the windows, around the back, even on the house next door. Then I remembered that I was in South Carolina, where most people had guns, and made a quick retreat back to the road, and proceeded to curse fellow Jackson teammate Jason Gardner for renting the place, wherever it was.

I walked farther down the road and came upon a sign: CAPT. BOB’S RETREAT. I remembered the name. I’d found the house, which was number 203, not 233. Cursing myself now (though I still blame Jason because it feels better), I jumped back in my car, pulled away, and heard an ominous scraping-thumping sound. Assuming something had gotten caught in my trailer, I found nothing there. I circled the car, and what little energy I had left completely deflated, like my rear passenger-side tire.

Back in the car, flat tire flopping under the rim, I made my way slowly to the house, fumbled my way inside, and stumbled my way into bed for a few hours of sleep.

I woke just as I’d gone to sleep: exhausted. But I had work to do, so I set up my laptops and—hey, look at that, no Wi-Fi! Who rents a house with no Wi-Fi?

Luckily I had a hotspot (wish I could have said the same thing about the fishing that was to come).

An hour later, I went out to get a fan from my car, and came back inside with a Megabass Vision 110 hook jammed into the joint of my right index finger. Seriously.

Inside, staring at my throbbing finger, things came into painful focus: my car had a flat, I was alone until Wednesday, I was hungry and had no food in the house, I was supposed to be working, and I was probably going to have to call an ambulance or an Uber and go to the ER to have the hook in my finger removed.

Not wanting to do that, but knowing I wouldn’t be able to yank out the hook with my weaker hand, I grabbed my pliers and tried to slowly work it free. Briefly. Thoughts of the one hook coming out while another hook or hooks took its place swirled inside my empty skull, so I went to work removing the other two hooks. Miraculously, with the table looking like the kind of bloody massacre you’d find inside the horror house a few lots over, I managed to do it.

Two (or six since they were treble) hooks removed, I got to work on the one still in my finger, which was almost roaring in pain at that point (those Megabass hooks are sharp). After a while, I decided to push instead of pull. Grabbing the pliers tight, I braced my left arm on the table and pushed with my right. Nothing happened, so I increased the force, increased it more, and then it popped free. Literally. Like a balloon. POP!

When I stopped whimpering, I called AAA to assist with a tire change because, having just had them rotated and balanced, the tires were on so tight I couldn’t loosen the nuts. That evening, I got food, cooked a steak and shrimp dinner (because you’re damn right I deserved it), and was back in business.

The following morning, I fished, launching from the rental…and caught nothing.

The next day, Wednesday, I got up early and headed west to the Kempson Bridge Boat Ramp, where the Saluda River begins to widen into Lake Murray proper. My focus was on some of the backwater areas there, and while everything looked juicy, I pedaled away with nothing to show for it, packed up, and moved to another spot.

I hit Rocky Creek next, where I ran into Derek Brundle and reigning KBF National Champion Matt Conant (we Massachusetts anglers always gravitate to the same spots). I fished there for the rest of the day, but just couldn’t put anything together. As promising as the area looked, I could only manage two small bass.

I launched from the house again the following morning, this time with Adam Rourke and Jason Gardner, who was taking his brand new Big Rig FD for its maiden voyage.

They made their way up Buffalo Creek, while I made a long run out to the main lake to fish a cluster of offshore humps at the mouth of a creek. Yet again, besides one solid whack on a rattletrap (which was probably a striper), I came up empty. I worked my way to the back of a nearby creek and the pattern repeated: no fish.

Everyone I spoke with—from kayak anglers to locals—was struggling out there.

Heading in, I managed a striper and lost a decent bass on a Z-Man Jackhammer. The muddy water just wasn’t producing as I hoped it would. My best guess is that the fish were still a bit lethargic, not aggressive enough to chase, so unless you dropped your bait right on top of them, your chances of catching them were very slim. I fished deep, shallow, humps, rocks, docks, boats, wood, channel swings, points, throwing every bait that made sense and many that didn’t, and I just couldn’t coax them into biting.

That Friday, instead of working, I fished. I should have worked.

My plan was to head east, to cleaner water, but I remembered another spot I wanted to fish, so that’s where I went, launching from Little River Landing at dawn. I worked my way about seven miles down the creek, fishing some of the sexiest stuff an angler could ask for: laydowns, weeds, mats, stumps, rocks. It all looked amazing, but all I caught was my first-ever gizzard shad.

Hey, new PB! Small victories, right?

That evening at the captain’s meeting, I asked John Ferreira—who’d been fishing the cleaner water with some success—to point out some ramps from which he’d launched. I looked them over, decided to roll the dice, and just picked one that looked good.

As disappointing as things were, I stayed positive knowing I wasn’t the only one struggling to find fish.

Tournament morning, I pulled into the ramp, and out of shadows comes Matt Conant. Of all the ramps on the lake, we once again found ourselves at the same one. We had a good laugh about it, especially because of a text he’d sent me the night before…

At the end of the day, we were still smiling.

With no knowledge of the area, I made my way south from the launch toward three islands. That was my starting spot. After two hours and no bites, things weren’t looking good. I made my way to the shore and started fishing riprap and docks. In the back of small pocket, I skipped my jig up under a dock, and laid into my first big bass of the week—a 20.50-inch fatty!

Possibly the grossest bass I’ve ever caught, I had to send Amanda Brannon a video of it for fear the judge would think it was dead.

For the next hour and a half, I focused on the jig and docks with no luck. The wind had kicked up at that point, and when I pulled up to the windblown side of a marina, I changed things up and pulled out a Z-Man Big TRD, green pumpkin. On that side of the marina, there were eight double-slips and nine wooden pilings at the end of each parallel dock. A few casts in, I caught my second keeper, a 16-incher. The bass were stacked on those outer pilings, and over the next few hours I made my way back and forth, plucking bass off of them on each pass. I caught most, but lost a few.

I tried the rest of the marina, all the slips and pilings, the boats, and the bass weren’t there. They were only on that windblown side. I wish I’d had more time, but I was sitting in fifth place when I started back. I caught one upgrade off a dock on the way, lost another that I simply wasn’t prepared for (I think it grabbed the ned when it was snagged), that would have bumped me up at least one spot, maybe two, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

When all was said and done, I finished in seventh place (three others who launched there found themselves in the top ten as well).

After the horrible week I had, seventh place was just fine.

Matt Conant had an even better day, finishing in second, which he would go on to repeat the following day. I wish I could say the same for me, but I just failed to put it together. A shift in wind direction told me that my marina bite would not be there, and I was correct in that. But my day began to go sideways nearly from the start.

That morning, I began again near the islands, then slowly made my way to them, with fish busting all around me the entire time. Tossing the Megabass Vision 110 (much more aware and respectful of its hooks), I quickly netted my first bass, a 15- or 16-incher, only to realize I’d forgotten to write the identifier code on my identifier. Typically I have at least one Sharpie with me, usually more. But this day? None. I had Gorilla Glue, though, and tried to write the code in glue, then sprinkle some dirt from the island onto it. In theory, not a bad idea, I guess (though I’m not sure if that would have been legal), but the island was all wet clay and didn’t have the effect I’d hoped for.

Not wanting to keelhaul the poor fish thirty minutes back to the ramp, possibly killing it in the process, I let it go and kicked the Flex Drive-E into high gear.

Frustrated, I kept it together, got the identifier sorted, and headed back to my spot. At this point the wind was howling, nearly doubling the time to get there. With the marina bite dead, I turned my focus to windblown docks, but if the fish were there, they weren’t eating.

Eventually I came upon a big laydown at the back of a creek. I plucked two small bass from it, and watched an absolute monster (or maybe multiple monsters) swimming in between its submerged boughs. But guess what I didn’t have with me that I’d had with me every other day that week? A flipping stick. I’d left it in the car to make room for another finesse setup.

I spent the remaining hours trying to coax more bass from wood (and everything else), but those two dinks were all I could manage. Not quite a “hero to zero” event, but seventh to sixtieth is pretty close. I’m happy with the results, though. Six tough days weigh a lot less, especially on the mind and soul, when you have one good day.

In the end, I could have easily let all the negative elements from that week eat away at me and leave my mental game rotten like that bass from day one, like it did down in Kissimmee, Florida, weeks earlier. I’m not saying it didn’t get to me a bit; it most certainly did. Shortly before catching that first fish on Saturday, I’d texted my wife that I was leaving Sunday morning if I didn’t catch any fish.

Not sure if I would have left, but I know I would have at least seriously entertained the idea. Things turned around for me, though, and quickly. All it takes is one fish. Then hopefully a few more.

The lesson here is a simple one: hang in there, stay positive. Because even when the best-laid plans go awry, sometimes no plan turns out to be the best one of all.


A Few Things About This Year’s Season…

A few things about this year’s season…

RULES

First and foremost, read the rules. We are partnered with Kayak Bass Fishing, therefore we have adopted their Competition Rules Standards, which you can find here.

Whether you’re new to kayak fishing or have fished with us before, please read the rules and make sure you understand everything. If you have questions, please ask.

While we follow the bulk of those rules, we do have an addendum to them, some minor deviations that are specific to Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’. Please read them as well…

MEMBERSHIP

MAKB does not require a membership to fish our events. However, if you wish to qualify for Kayak Bass Fishing (KBF) or B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series events through our trail, you must be a member of that respective organization.

For instance, if you wish to qualify for the KBF National Championship, you must be a KBF member (Ambassador level excluded) prior to the start of our event.

The same applies to the Massachusetts B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series Championship.

No retroactive qualifications!

Purchase your KBF membership here.

B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series membership info forthcoming…

APPROVED MEASURING BOARD

Everyone needs to have one, and only an approved measuring board will be allowed. No exceptions!

Check out this document for additional links to purchase, as well as some pros and cons on each.

*Please note that due to the recent FlexGate controversy, the major kayak fishing organizations—KBF, Hobie B.O.S., and B.A.S.S. Nation—will be changing their rules regarding approved measuring boards, if they haven’t already done so.

The Ketch Board will become the new industry standard (a new composite board is coming in June, priced at $29.99). While we’re not yet sure if we’ll implement any changes for 2020, it is in your best interest to purchase a Ketch Board if you plan to fish any events hosted by these other organizations.

IDENTIFIER HOLDERS

One of the most important items we need in kayak tournament fishing is our event identifier.

The universal identifier holder is the TourneyTag. This is a simple strap-and-pouch design, but it works with all boards on the market.

You can purchase it here.

If you go with the Ketch Board (highly recommended), consider picking up Jim Strunk’s Flip-It Tourney ID Holder. Designed for the Ketch Board, this simple yet ingenious product is a must have. His current stock (sitting at 47 right now) will be it for a while, as his season is about to start as well, so grab one while you can.

You can purchase it here.

TOURNEYX WEB APP

While there are a handful of phone and web apps out there, the Big 3—KBF, B.A.S.S. Nation, and Hobie—use TourneyX. MAKB does as well, so you must have a TourneyX angler account.

Register here.

Please use your real name, and if you also have a KBF membership or plan to purchase one, please use the same e-mail address for both.

These accounts are free, unless you wish to pay for the “pro” account ($30 annually), which gives you access to additional stats and features.

When you create your account, or if you already have one, consider affiliating yourself with Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ (MAKB) through TourneyX’s Clubs feature.

TOURNEYX PHONE APP

You will also need on your phone the TourneyX PRO app (you can download it from the app store on your phone) or a link to the website.

We use TourneyX for uploading and judging submissions, and either will work for uploading fish. I would suggest having both just in case there are any issues with one or the other.

Please note that on your phone you will also need to have location services turned on and allow TourneyX access to your phone’s location. If you upload fish without this, your fish will be denied (if you’re even allowed to upload them).

TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION

You will not be able to sign up for any event until 7 PM the Sunday before each tournament. Once it goes live on TourneyX, a link will be posted on the Facebook group page.

This is the fairest way to do it, as we max out each event. Quickly. If you miss out, we will create an alternates list.

We are considering running secondary events on the same day, depending on how many alternates we have. We’re still exploring this idea…

If you have any questions, let us know.


Know How to Save Your Own Life

Most of you know about my ordeal at the National Championship in 2018, when I flipped in 49-degree water. Being entirely unprepared nearly cost me everything.

I know better now, but watching a video like this before I flipped would have been a great help. This information is invaluable, in cold or warm weather.

“Know how to save your own life.”

Thanks, Jeff!


Common Reasons for Deductions/Disqualifications

As this community grows, we’re seeing a lot of new faces at our events, which is a great thing. On the negative side of that coin, we’ve also had to disqualify or give deductions to a number of fish submitted during our tournaments. So it’s time we discuss it…

First, and this should go without saying, READ THE RULES! Please. We follow Kayak Bass Fishing’s rules for the most part, and you can find a link to them on all of our event pages, either here on our group page or on TourneyX. Reading them is worth your time.

And that’s not just a suggestion for anglers new to our events, we’ve had to disqaulify and deduct length from a number of submissions uploaded by veterans of our group. KBF does update/clarify the rules throughout the season, so it’s worth going over them now and then.

But let’s talk about some of the things we commonly see at our events.

The fish’s eye is covered. This is probably the most common rule infraction we see, especially with smaller fish. Covering the eye is an immediate rejection.

The fish is facing the wrong way on the measuring board. Easily the second most common mistake anglers make.

To ensure this does not happen to you. Here is how you measure the fish on the board: With, for instance, the measuring board oriented on your lap left to right, the fence/bump facing left, the bass must be placed on the board with its head left, nose/lip touching the vertical fence/bump, caudal (tail) fin right, dorsal fin facing up (away from you).

This is how the fish must be oriented regardless of how you position your board when taking a photo (so “up” may be “down” for you, “left” may be “right,” and so forth). Don’t let that confuse you.

The fish’s mouth is open more than a quarter inch. Another common mistake. If any mouth is open more than a quarter inch (tie goes to the angler in MAKB, not KBF), you will receive a one-inch deduction. If your fish is anywhere between 8 and 8.75 inches, it will then be denied after the deduction is applied because it will now be below our minimum allowed length of 8 inches.

The picture is blurry. We must be able to see the numbers, or at least one number, on the board. We’ve had to deny big fish for this reason, and in at least two instances it cost the angler money. We don’t want to do this, but if we cannot see any number on the board we have no choice.

As long as we can see something—a number, at a minimum—we will score it as best we can. The ideal photo, of course, is one that is clear, so do not release your fish until you are sure you have taken a quality photo.

Those four examples are what we commonly see, but there are some outliers.

Hand under the gill plate. This has only happened a few times. Anything—hand, identifier, etc.—under the gill plate is an automatic denial.

Hand touching the caudal (tail) fin. A less common mistake, but one that does happen. You may touch the fleshy base of the tail, but not the fin itself. Be careful not to block with your hand where those two parts of the fish meet. If we cannot determine if you are or are not touching the caudal fin because your hand is in the way, we will deduct an inch.

Anyway, the last thing we ever want to do is deny a fish or deduct length. This has often caused an angler to lose out on money and even the victory. We don’t feel good about doing that, and I’m sure the angler feels much worse.

For those new to tournament fishing, or new to MAKB, I’m sure it doesn’t encourage some of them to fish with us again because, as we all know, some of these rules are seemingly extreme.

A one-inch deduction for a mouth open a hair past a quarter inch? Yeah, that’s extreme, but it’s a penalty, and it’s part of the game we signed up to play. And as long as we all endeavor to read and follow the rules, this sort of thing should never be an issue at our events.

Mistakes will be made, though, from time to time. I’ve screwed up before and I know the rules well. So please take a moment to read the rules. Then read them again.

We don’t adhere to all of these rules, so you can find a rules addendum in the FILES section of our Facebook page. Please read those as well.

Below are are some examples of submissions that received deductions, the reasoning listed underneath the photo. Scroll through them and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes…


This blurry fish cost the angler first place and lunker.


Even with what would have been a one-inch deduction for an open mouth infraction, this blurry photo cost the angler a second-place finish.


Luckily for this angler he had another, better quality photo, otherwise this blurry photo would have cost him the lunker prize.


This fish is facing the wrong way and cost the angler a second-place finish. It was the anglers first tournament with us.


This fish is facing the wrong way and, at the time of its rejection, cost this veteran angler the lunker prize.
Luckily for him he rallied and put two even bigger fish on the board to not only still win the lunker prize but the entire event.


First-time MAKB angler. Both of his submissions during this tournament were rejected for his hand covering the eye.


Denied for covered eye. Veteran angler.


Denied for covered eye. Had the angler not covered the eye, this fish would have received a one-inch deduction for a wide-open mouth.


Typically we see this rule infraction with smaller fish, but it happens with bigger fish as well. It was denied.


Denied. Angler is touching the caudal fin.
FYI: There is a very good reason for this seemingly silly rule.


This was denied for obvious reasons. The entire fish and bump/fence portion of the measuring board is not visible in the photo.


Multiple issues here:
1. Eye covered.
2. This was during our month-long No Limit event a few years ago which had a 12-inch minimum. This fish does not touch 12 inches.
3. Both of those things were reason for rejection, but had neither been the case, the entry would have received a one-deduction for its mouth being open more than 1/4 inch, dropping it below 12 inches, which would have resulted in a rejection.


Denied. This picture exemplifies why KBF instituted its ban on having anything under the hard gill plate.


Denied. The nose/lips of the bass are not touching the bump/fence of the measuring board. By about three inches.


This one was given a one-inch deduction for touching the caudal fin, which very likely did not happen. However, we could not make that determination because of the angler’s hand placement, so it was penalized. Luckily for him, though, he had another picture where his hand was not near the tail.

If you have any questions, just ask.