Our paddlers of the month come to us from San Antonio, Texas.  I met Jerry and Brett when we first opened the San Marcos location 2 years ago.  I liked these guys instantly because of their great passion for kayaking and exploration and they always had the best stories to tell from their weekend adventures. 

Recently they presented me with an interesting opportunity to assist them in a historic kayaking event.  How could I say no? 

March 8th, ACK co-hosted an LVM Video Premiere to help assist with raising funds for the El Choraderro project in Mexico.  This project involves the latest trend referred to as Canyaking. This is where paddlers use canyoneering skills to help assist with remote runs that may include extreme waterfalls and difficult portages all tucked away in remote canyons that usually offer tons of gradient and run often due to light rains flash flooding or snow melt.  In order to safely negotiate a tight difficult remote canyon it is very important to have the rope skills involved with Big Wall or Sport Climbing and more importantly Caving. 

The project idea was hatched a couple of years ago when Brett met a professional caver by the name of Jerry Fant. Jerry and Brett both like to explore caves but really love kayaking. Jerry started telling Brett about a cave he had traversed years ago down in southern Mexico that had multiple waterfalls in it ranging from 4ft up to 90 ft.  The fascinating thing is that the majority of the waterfalls all empty into standing pools of water. Perfect for kayaking I thought.

This Idea lead the guys to form a 6-man team where every member has vital skills needed for this team to safely negotiate the 43 waterfalls underground. Currently they're negotiating a deal with a production company to film this expedition.  The idea has come along way in the last 18 months and will soon be something of an epic adventure captured on film for everyone to see.

ACK sponsored angler Mike Bayer takes us inside his tournaments.  The tournament takes place 5 weekends at 5 different lakes starting in February and ending in May.  This is the second year of the tournament series and Mike is the defending Champion. After 3 event's Mike sits in 5th place waiting to strike like a large mouth bass.  The following excerpt is part of Mikes experiences from the first event. Read along and look in May's newsletter for more of the story.  The conclusion and results will be in June's newsletter as we follow Mikes saga to defending his title.

Location: Walter E. Long (Decker Lake)

Date: February 23, 2008

It's that time of year again, kayak tournament season. If the thirty six angler turnout for the season opener on Lake Decker is any indication, this will be the year freshwater kayak tournaments get noticed. KATS is entering its second year and I'm hoping to defend my 2007 Angler of the Year title. There's no doubt the competition and skill level across the board is increasing. And let's not forget everyone wants to kick my butt this year, but there's no pressure. I'm out here having a blast.

Pre Fish

The biggest rule change for 2008 is the five day off-limit period prior to each tournament. This severely reduces the amount of time I spend pre-fishing before each event. With that said, these are still one day tournaments, and anyone can win it. The best thing any angler can do is gain confidence with a few baits, find an area, or several, that produce a limit and hope this pattern holds up for a week. When all that fails, keep an open mind and change it up.......