2018 AOTY January Wrap up!

Alright everyone, first month wrap up!

So far the competition is going swimmingly. We have 59 Anglers signed up, and most of our Humboldt contingent hasn't even registered yet! Get yourself signed up and get your friends involved.

Remember that all net proceeds from AOTY go towards Pay it Forward, a kayak fishing community group which donates money to community members in their times of need. And even if you might not be able to place overall, we give big fish awards to the anglers who catch the largest fish of each species! There are 21 species so plenty of opportunities to prove your mettle.

Anyways, recap time:
As of today, our competition is led by one f, Jef Brewer, with four fish, a smallie, LM, Rainbow and crappie, for a total of 541pts and a 135pt average. That type of score won't hold up all year, but way to go Jef in getting some fish on the board right away. Jef is using the new YakGear Fish Stik Measuring Board, and has it lined with a sharpie. His pictures are looking great, a huge improvement over years past . We definitely encourage all anglers to use boards that shed glare and have good strong contrast.

In 2nd place is Orange Chicken, Matt Wong, with 3 fish, a surf perch caught at the 2018 NCKA Crabfest, a chunky nearly 18" smallie and a nice Rainbow. Matt started participating in AOTY just last year and is starting to become a grizzled veteran. Watch out for him on the board this year.

In 3rd place is ThreemoneyJ, John with 427points. John is also a real strong competitor and fishes a lot of freshwater and saltwater during the workweek.  Real nice guy always willing to share info with others. Thanks John!

There are a few other competitors of note, but its been a bit of a slow start. Several large spotted bass have already been landed from Bullards Bar Reservoir by Archie Marx, FreshNSalty and Vonsvangoth, and those large spots have been a key for many AOTY competitors in the past.

Things are about to kick into gear this weekend as we have lots of anglers planning to hit the water at Clear Lake State Park (California) before and after the 2018 NCKA AOTY awards for Largemouth Bass, Catfish and Crappie. We expect to see lots of submissions by next Monday from our anglers who will be on the water. So its on youg uys who are fishing this weekend to catch some big ones!

Remember to tag your AOTY related Facebook posts with the hashtag #NCKAAOTY to help corral everything related to our comp. Also, if you know of any sponsors who would be interested in sponsoring us for 2018, please feel free to pass along our info!

Of course, thank you so much to Adventure Sports Kayak City who is our first confirmed 2018 Sponsor, as they will be donating a kayak fishing prize package worth approximately $200-300! Thanks so much to the guys at Kayak City!