2021 KATS #4 - Fayette County Reservoir Recap
As you all get ready for a competitive battle in the trees, I’m finding myself reminiscing on the Fayette event and how much fun I had. I thought for a second, maybe it was the food again? But after some thought I think a couple of other things definitely played a bigger role in this event for me — If you’ve ever been to Fayette County Reservoir, you know that the countryside is pretty easy on the eyes.
About thirty minutes out from the lake is a little town called Smithville. What was once a small town for settlers in the 1800’s, is now still that same small town but now offering everything you could need for a nice outing with friends/family. From antique stores, green houses, to wine bars, restaurants, secret alleyways with art you’ve never seen before. This place has it all.
Furthermore, my hats go off to everyone that fished the event. I think about 90% of the photos submitted were accepted for this event which is great! You guys did an awesome job submitting clean/accurate photos throughout the day even with that crazy wind. Thank you! As a TD that is much appreciated — Speaking of the wind, I arrived at the ramp around 5:15am and boy it was blowing outside. When you’re looking at a wind forecast for Fayette, just know that whatever it says, go ahead and add about 15-20mph of extra gusts on top of that. This lake is a magical place to be but when that wind starts kicking, it can get dicey pretty quickly.
After everyone launched at 6:00am, it was time for us to head back to Smithville for some wifi and coffee. Jason and I came back to his parents house where I got to judge fish while looking out to a nice countryside view. I can’t imagine a better place to work. As lunchtime rolled around I pretty much had no choice but to try Jason’s favorite BBQ spot. I love BBQ so I wasn’t going to argue for a second. Long story short, Zimmerhanzel’s was pretty damn spectacular, make sure you stop by there on your way through. You won’t regret it!
Throughout the day there were some really solid fish caught. The bite definitely seemed to come in waves but only a small group managed to find ‘em, and stay on ‘em. Early in the morning it looked like Joseph Sanderson was going to run away with the tournament from the beginning. until Joshua Butler, and Keith Villegas managed to catch some really good fish constantly the entire morning. Later in the afternoon, a struggling Bryan Scarberry ended up finding fish shallow on a nice Frog bite which managed to shoot him up the leaderboards for a 3rd place finish. Joshua and Keith managed to hold the top two spots for the day and took home a nice chunk of change. What a freakin day! Huge congratulations to everyone that finished in the money, and congrats to everyone that managed to just have a fun day on the water in those conditions. The dedication is what separates the good anglers, from the best anglers. Thank you everyone for coming out and making every event one to remember!
Also, make sure to get geared up for Choke Canyon on May 15th, I hear the grass is starting to grow and the big ones are making their way to the juice. The weather is looking good moving forward so let's hope that holds out so we can all have a little more fun. For registration, rules, etc. please visit our site at ackkats.com — all the information you need will be available there. Have a great day everyone we’ll see you on May 15th! Tight Lines and happy Senko De Mayo!
I want to thank you guys ahead of time! KATS has an excellent group of people that really know how to come together and grow the sport from within. Thank you!
