BUZZBAIT
STEVE LESSARD WITH A PIKE TAKEN
FROM HEAVY STRUCTURE. PHOTO: BOB FINDLAY
AN INSIDER’S LOOK AT THE 2014 HOBIE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS EUROPEAN INVASION
The lights, cameras and action at the fourth annual Hobie Fishing World Championships awards cere- mony had my head spinning so much I almost missed when my name was called. As I walked to the stage to accept my award, I couldn’t help but reflect on how a simple angler ended up in the spotlight at a world- class fishing event. This was my third World Championships and I
qualified by the skin of my teeth, catching a winning pike in the last 20 minutes of the Hobie European Championships. I arrived to the World Championships site in-
Vinkeveen, Holland, a day early to check out my rigged-up Hobie Pro Angler 12 with my name and a Union Jack flag pasted to the side. As 47 anglers trick- led in from 20 countries, I was anxious to get a look at the competition and catch up with old friends. At the welcome dinner before the pre-fish day, competi- tors gathered around anglers with local knowledge. I shared everything I knew about fishing the area. Since few of the competitors had fished for pike in
14…KAYAK ANGLER
Holland, any information would improve the com- petition and even the odds. The prefish day gave me a first look at the
playing field. Vinkeveen Plassen is a 100-foot-deep lake sur-
rounded by narrow channels that are the remainder of an ancient peat-cutting operation. This allowed anglers to target open water when the weather al- lowed, then hide in the protected ditches when the wind kicked up. Three species were on the menu: pike, perch and zander, a walleye look-alike. On the prefish day, I caught a small pike and a small
perch—a good start. Unfortunately, those would be my only fish of the competition. On day one, competitors lined up their identical
kayaks before the shotgun launch accompanied by the Dutch national anthem blasting across the lake. As rain squalls blew in, I headed to the same area I
found fish the day before but couldn’t repeat my suc- cess. Hobie Australia champion Richard Somerton pedalled to the other side of the lake where he caught
a big pike and perch to take the lead. Steve Lessard, hot off five tournament wins in the U.S., pulled a big pike out of the same area to land in second place. The weather was even worse on the second day
of the tournament. I hid in the narrow channels and managed a small pike, but the fish jumped out of my kayak before I could measure it. Lessard and Somerton returned to their honey holes where they each scored big pike. Lessard added a keeper perch to bump up to first place. Even with Lessard solidly in the lead, day three’s
competition was fierce. With the top 10 battling it out for inches of perch
and pike, I turned my attention to catching a zander. Since no one had landed one of these prized fish, not only could a three-predator slam launch me back into the competition, it would put me in the lead for the zander prize: a Hobie Revolution 11. That plan, too, backfired. No one caught a zander in the com- petition, prompting competitors to joke, “Where do zander meander?”
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