2016 OKA W.R. Holway (NE Trail)

As the darkness turned to gray light, Dave Finneran checked in 20 anglers. They were ready to see if pumpback was willing to give up an exciting day. It was a beautiful sight to see the shotgun launch as the sun began to creep up the horizon. Anglers split to all corners of the lake and Dave and I began preparations for the weigh in.

The day proved to be partially cloudy and sunny with the water temp ranging from 69-71 degrees. The water had recently came up 10 ft, not uncommon on pumpback. The tournament went on with a east wind up to 5 mph. You've heard your grandpa's old rhyme " winds from the east you'll catch the least", that couldn't have been more untrue on this Sunday. In fact, we had a new feat. Every angler brought in at least 1 fish! That right, if you came out to fish, you went home with at least one fish in the yak. Man the fish were feisty, I heard multiple anglers talk about skyward bass spitting and breaking hooks. The beautiful day was in sharp contrast to the high winds from yesterday and several wind beaten anglers fished this cross state double header.

One of these anglers was Houa Xiong, hot off a second place finish and big bass 24 hours prior on Arbuckle. Houa kept the ball rolling at W.R Holway locking down 1st place and once again claiming Hook 1 big bass rights with a 20.5" toad and 78 inches.

Houa on his 5 fish limit. I caught most of my fish drop shoting a robo worm around wood. And one came on strike king swim & caffeine swimbait with a 1/8 jig head. Most fish was shallow until 10:30 and I had to fish deeper for the last two 13 1/2 inch bass

Gary Kasper secured 2nd place with 74.75 inches.

Gary on his limit: Houa's big bass pic pretty much shows the bite I found as well. Drop shotting.

I used a combo of Reaction Innovations Smallie Beavers, and Bass Pro River bugs. All of my fish came off o ~60 degree banks off of wood in 8-12 ft

Braeden Stone was our only youth angler, but he didn't let that slow him down. He fished hard and locked in 3rd place over a stout field of anglers. He brought in 73.5 inches and took home the Oklahoma Kayak Youth Angler!

Braeden on his limit:

All my fish came off the zoom speed craw. I had my limit by 10:30 fishing over hanging trees and deeper shoreline cover. My big fish came off the line where you could no longer see the bottom.

Pumpback is one of my personal favorite lakes in, it has some of the clearest water in the state and boasts some ozark like terrain. Its loaded with ledges and easy to find shoreline cover. It also has way to many names for any one lake to boast. Its known as W.R Holway, Pumpback, Chimney Rock, and the Salina project. If your looking for a good lake to take a day trip to from Tulsa this one sits at the top of my list!

Great job fishing this weekend guys. A BIG THANK YOU to: Dave Finneran, our fantastic sponsors, and Rusty Helms for helping Dave and me judge all the fish!

We have one heck of a big prize event shaping up in the Oklahoma Open June 25th: https://www.facebook.com/events/1710452332509380/

And one heck of an Angler of the Year race shaping up for the NE and Central please mark your calendars so you can be present as we write Oklahoma Kayak Fishing history!