Monthly archives: January, 2021

Championship Qualification

Our inaugural trail series leads to the mighty Lake Champlain, a world-renowned bass factory that splits the borders between New York, Vermont, and Canada. The first-ever Elite Kayak Fishing Championship will take place on that world-class fishery on September 11, 2021, and we have no doubt you want to fish it.

However, while our first four events are open to all anglers, you’ll have to earn your way into the championship.

In addition to qualifying for our championship, anglers also have the opportunity to qualify for the KBF National Championship as well as the All-American Kayak Classic.

Here’s how…

ELITE KAYAK FISHING CHAMPIONSHIP

• Place in the top 10 at any of our first four events
• Accumulate 800 Angler of the Year points during our first four events

Click here to see how our points system works.

KAYAK BASS FISHING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

• Place in the top 10% at any EKF event, championship included

ALL-AMERICAN KAYAK CLASSIC

• Place in the top 10 in the EKF Angler of the Year race

Courtesy of the All-American Kayak Series, we will also be giving away the Ben Spangler Sportsman Award to one deserving angler. Ben, who sadly passed away last year, was a beloved angler in our growing community, a friend to many, so it will be our pleasure to award this honor to someone.

And that covers everything. Pretty straight forward.

As always, feel free to reach out to us with any questions or concerns.


EKF on the Jigs & Bigs Podcast

This past weekend we had chance to sit down and discuss all things Elite Kayak Fishing with the guys from Jigs & Bigs. We’ll be working with them on our events this season. More on that in the future, but for now give the latest episode a listen.

And if you’re inclined, follow them on Facebook and Instagram, where they do giveaways and all that good stuff.


Lake Hopatcong Permit Denied

When we put this trail together, we had a feeling one event may cause us some issues. Originally scheduled for April 10, we moved the Lake Hopatcong event to July 17 to avoid travel and public gathering restrictions, which we anticipated would be an obstacle that early in the year.

Unfortunately, despite Brian’s and Danny’s best efforts, we were unable to secure a permit for Lake Hopatcong.

We know a lot of you were looking forward to fishing that lake, especially since the KBF Trail Event scheduled to take place there last year had to be moved at the last minute. That was one of the main reasons we wanted to host an event there.

Looks like we’ll have to wait until 2022.

Anyway, we will be moving the July 17 event to another location. We won’t announce the lake until we have a permit in hand, but it is a great fishery.

This lake is farther north than Hopatcong by about two hours. Not what we wanted to do, but every lake in that area of New Jersey is either too small or it’s public drinking water and off limits to fishing, so we had no choice.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but hope you understand. This was simply beyond our control.

We don’t anticipate any issues with any of the other locations.

Reach out if you have any questions.


EKF Payout Structure

The subject of payouts can be a touchy one. Everyone wants transparency, but sometimes there is far more involved than most outsiders realize, and transparency can become a liability. On the other hand, less transparency, for reasons justified or not, can lead to rumors, and…well, rumors are always true, right?

Luckily for us, our payout structure is about as straightforward as they come.

ENTRY FEES

Regular Event: $125
Championship Event: $175

FROM THE POT:

Big Bass: $500 (based on at least 50 anglers)
Admin Fees: $5 (per angler)

BREAKDOWN OF ADMIN FEES

Payment for judges
Payment for host directors (distributed at end of season)
Payment for banners, trophies, tournament HQ rental fees, etc.
Permit costs
Miscellaneous fees

There it is: 96% payout. Simple. Sweet. To the point.

Elite Kayak Fishing was built for tournament anglers by tournament anglers. We wanted to have some of the best payout percentages in the industry while also taking care of our partners, the directors, whose assistance is invaluable to our success. We feel like we have done that here.

We also have sponsorship deals in the works for prize packages and product giveaways, which will only increase the overall payouts.

This trail is for you, not us, and we aim to prove that.

For a full a breakdown out to 150 anglers, click here.