Fished the mcdonalds tournament in a yak. If so
how do you deal with weight ins -Matt

I would definitely make sure that kayaks are allowed first. I have heard of guys rigging up a livewell, but that's not something I'd ever try. The chances of a sack of dead fish in this heat would be way too high imo. I'm not sure how that one works though. I think it's an hourly weigh in for big bass maybe? If that's the case I suppose it could be done.

Yea hourly weigh in is correct. For the big bass cash

Put a battery powered bubbler in a big ol cheap cooler & stick it all in the back of your yak.
Make them boys wish they had the aircraft carrier or at least a battleship & bring home the trophy BullDog!

Well if you ever been to the MC Donald tournament you know how much boat traffic there is. I fish out of a kayak but also fish out of a power boat and I will be in my power boat. Not only the amount of traffic but some of the people don't care and that is more dangerous then anything. There are some good areas around lake fork marina to fish where you would not have to go to far out in the lake.

You would catch me on the lake that weekend

As others have said it would be hard to keep 5 LMB of decent size alive for very long in this heat. Bass boats have huge live wells that the bass can swim around in. You can build a live well with circulated water for you kayak but one that has the volume of the bass boats would weigh a ton. But then again the Hobie Pro Angler has a weight capacity of 600 lbs. So yes in theory it could be done.
What weekend is the tournament?

Have you fished a LARGE Bass tourney before?

I dont fish LMB tourneys anymore. If u stayed OUT of the boat lanes, you should be fine IMO.
You have the Aircraft carrier dawg!!!


As much timber as there is on fork you should be able to get away from the boat traffic pretty easy in your yak. When you depart, they will likely want to see that your PFD is on and they might want to check your live well to ensure it is empty. I wouldn't try to leave with all the other boats. But you could request for the last flight # then come in at least 1 hour early. This should insure you don't get rocked It is typical during bass tourneys that the area of the tournament (marina & cove) be off limits so id ask about that specifically. You could always e-mail them to get the lowdown. If your not confident just go and hang out the day of the tourney and fish the general area of the tourney the next 24 hrs. You have a good chance to land a biggen. Good luck bro!

Let us know how you do.

I have fished about 30 live weigh in tourneys in my yak and I have used Hobie live well for the last three years. they work great.

The biggest single problem you will have is the temperature difference from the surface water you will be sucking in compared to the deeper water you might have pulled them from.

I have installed a 12 volt piezo plate from a portable refrigerator that works fine, but it will not keep up with constantly flowing 93 degree water. I only turn the bilge pump on to circulate the water every 30 minutes or so and use an oxygen infuser to keep them alive. When I first exchange the water I throw a couple of hand fulls of ice in to start the cooling process. it is scary to see them belly up in the weigh inline.

Best of luck at the tourney. I never did find anyone that would fish the tourneys with me and simply lost interest. Hope you do better.

I have a prototype of a live well with cooling and a bunch of other stuff ( USB chargers and 360 light base, etc.) sitting in my shop right now. Hopefully you'll see it on the market in spring.

Phill

Date: Sept 23-25
Hourly weigh ins
Big Bass, so only 1 fish to the scales (outside the slot, of course), so not a 5-bass bag to worry about

Sounds like Phil has been doing work....been considering buying a Yak, I like the idea of a functioning livewell for it...

I will be eagerly waiting to see your live well. I haven't considered a live weigh in tournament. That's too cool..

I would contact Bob Sealey and ask him if yaks are allowed.
His contact info is on their webpage.

Seen a tv show bout it and it said even bank fishing is allowed

Certainly I can make it in before a bank fisher . -Matt