The Happy Camper: Fishing Contest, Young Anglers vs Old School

October 23, 2023

Once again, I headed out with YouTube celebs, Paddleheads, for our traditional late-season bass fishing contest on some local backcountry lakes. My canoe buddy Ashley (a.k.a. Speedo Man) joined me, and Adam and Ben from Paddleheads’ YouTube channel were in the other canoe. It was the young anglers vs the old. The Paddleheads, in their late 20s and early 30s, were equipped with a portable fish finder/depth finder and enough lures to fill up half of their canoe. They also had past knowledge of both lakes we were about to try that day. Ash and I—both about to turn 60—were going in blind, equipped only with old bamboo rods, rusty reels and a simple jig set up.

The contest was broken down: first fish—two points per lake, largest fish—two points per lake and most fish—overall win. The winners received gloating rights for the entire year and the losers had to eat something nasty, chosen by the winners, from the local roadside gas station.^{Kevin Callan}

Adam won the first fish literally 10 minutes into the first lake. A nice three-pounder plus smallmouth bass, and a second much smaller bass later in the morning. Ash and I caught a total of nine fish. We were stoked about that, especially because we were targeting largemouth bass and found out later by our competitors that the lake only held smallmouth bass.

The horn blew at the two-hour mark, and we gathered at the access point. Adam and Ben won the first round on the first lake for the first fish and biggest fish. But Ash and I caught the most with old-school tactics. Heck, I still had the same jig head since we first started fishing. Adam and Ben changed their techniques and lured presentations every two seconds. Paddleheads were more than a tad nervous about what was to come on the second lake.^{Kevin Callan}

The backroad into the first lake was rough, but doable. Getting to the second lake, however, was beyond sketchy. Not sure how we managed it without damage to both vehicles. Maybe that’s why we had better luck here than the first lake. It was more of a pond than a lake, and the water was tea-stained and choked with weeds—but boy, did we catch fish!

Adam caught the first fish, a two-pound largemouth bass. Seconds later, Ben caught the biggest fish—a monster bass weighing just under five pounds. They also caught a load of fish by the end of the day, but Ash and I still managed to catch more—a grand total of 23 fish. However, with the scoring system—interestingly made by the Paddleheads—Adam and Ben won with a grand total of 30 points. Ash and I got 23 points.^{Kevin Callan}

I’ve got to say, though, I was still using the same jig head I tied on in the morning. Their fish finder battery was low, their tackle box was all a mess and the rotating hotdogs at the local roadside gas station didn’t taste all that bad for Ash and me.

Check out my video of the day on the KCHappyCamper YouTube channel.