Find out how a team of three kayakers won a Lake Michigan powerboat tournament by a landslide.

Story & Photos provided by Keith Gelhar

We’re weighing in our seventh and final fish and now everyone is looking at our catch, totaling 126 pounds, in both disbelief and congratulations. Our three man kayak team has just won our very first Club Fish-in by a landslide.

Our team that day consisted of Dan Laska, an avid fisherman, Dan Dalton, webmaster of Michigan Kayak Fishing.com, and me, Keith Gelhar, Native Watercraft kayak fishing guide and outdoorsman.

Flashback: How kayaks got into a powerboat tournament

It’s March 2009. I’m at the Great Lakes Sport Fishermen (GLSF) annual auction.  It’s here where I first approach my friend (and GLSF board member and captain of Silver King Charters) Kurt Pokrandt with the idea of allowing kayak fishermen to compete in the Club’s Fish-in tournaments. We decide a team would comprise of a maximum of three kayakers that would count as one “boat.”

As many boats would be running 9 or more lines this seemed like a fair compromise. Kurt assured me he would bring the idea before the board. Safety being a concern, Kurt also informed them of our proper boat lighting, horn and flag so that we are visible to the larger boats. The board approved and a dream was born.

Tournament rules

There are four Fish-ins during the summer, one each month from May through August. Fishing is allowed from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. with the weigh-in of your 10 best fish at noon; lunch and awards follow.

Points are awarded, with 1 point per pound, 10 points per fish, and 10 points per species with a 15-point bonus if all five species are caught. Only three out of the four Fish-ins count toward the year-end total.

Laughable beginnings

The first Fish-in, on May 31, was tough. With very little bait close in and cold water all around, the fish were scattered. We ended that day with one brown trout and one coho salmon, totaling 47.56 points. Not a great catch, but enough to beat out four other boats.

Our next Fish-in, June 21, was worse yet with two hits and no fish. No one from our team could make the third Fish-in and at this point, being the team captain, I started to feel a little pressure. I didn’t expect to take first place overall, but I didn’t want to be the laughingstock either.

Last-minute redemption

It was on this final Fish-in, August 31^st, that everything came together.  After checking the weather one last time we decided to fish the north gap of McKinley Marina in Milwaukee. With steady north-northeast winds and 3- to 8-foot swells, the harbor would provide us with plenty of protection from the wind and waves. The four-year-old chinook salmon had just started to stage and we hoped for a little more action this time.

We got a bit of a late start, setting lines at 5:40 a.m. Dalton was the first to hook up with a 15-pound king at about 6 a.m. flat-lining his go-to lure, a blue and silver Hot-N-Tot.

Dalton then hooked into a very nice fish; however, when he got the fish close he realized that his net was not going to be large enough for the 24.6-pound behemoth. Fortunately I was close enough to be able to loan him my larger net. With only one hook left in the fish’s lip, Dan landed his largest fish ever from a kayak. Later that day we’d find out that this was the largest fish caught this year in the Club Fish-ins and the third largest for the year overall. Dan ended the morning with yet another 12.5lb Chinook.

I caught my largest fish from my Ultimate 14.5 kayak that day, using a slide diver and orange tiger glow spoon—a 21.4-pound king—followed by 21.1- and 13-pound chinooks.

Laska struggled a bit, but was later rewarded with his largest from a kayak, an 18.6-pound king salmon.

The taste of victory

Paddling back to the launch with my kayak low in the water with 55.5lbs of fish, I knew we had a great chance at a win.

After the weigh-in we realized that we had won this Fish-in with 126.2 pounds of fish and 206.2 points. The second-place boat team, also with seven fish, had 124 points. Our team, Kayak Fishing Wisconsin, placed 10^th for the year out of a field of 21 Boats and weighed in three fish over 20 pounds that day with an average weight of 18 pounds.

The kayak secret weapon

Kurt later mentioned to me that three charter Captains he knew with over a 1,000 fish between them had only caught eight fish over 20 pounds this year. So, be it luck, skill or a kayak’s ability to help “fight” these large fish we were able to pull off a memorable victory.

Other people fishing from boats in the same location would later comment that they just couldn’t get the fish to bite. Perhaps the stealth of this quiet sport gave us something of an edge over the big boats.

PHOTO 1: The author, Keith Gelhar, with a 21.4 lb king.

PHOTO 2: Dan Laska with an 18.6 lb king.

PHOTO 3: The team with their winning catches totaling 126 pounds.