The season opener for Carolina Kayak Anglers at Falls Lake presented by Greensboro Gardens turned out to be a struggle after all that warm weather and rise in water levels. 63 anglers expected a lot of big fish and limits, but Falls didn’t want to play for most!
The weather was the main obstacle most had to deal with as winds picked up to 17-19mph with gusts in the 30s. This made most of the lake unfishable for many.
Towards the end of the day Bryan Tsoilkas and Justin Faircloth were tied at 88.25” with Cory Dryer stuck in third with an 11” fish he needed to cull. While the leaderboard was down, and time was running short – Cory was able to land a solid 19.75” bass to push him into the lead with 89.75”!
Being one of the founders of CKA in 2013, Cory had not won a CKA event. Many times he had been close but had never been able to check that box off. This caused an entertaining conversion as he wanted an update on the board, which we obviously had some fun with. “Looks like Rowland is uploading now….” Many moments of silence later “still 15 minutes left for folks to upload…” – it was a little evil but Cory is always a good sport. He was able to hold the lead and able to check off that box 9 years later.
With the changes made to the financial side of CKA, the payouts were able to be bumped up with $315 more payout money than in the past. Cory took home $1,262 for his victory, about $200 more than last year for the same participation!
Bryan took 2nd place, Justin 3rd only by the biggest fish tie breaker. 4th went to Garriett Chavis with 79.5”, 5th was taken by Luke Greco with 75.25” who also won $630 for his giant 23.25” bass, 6th place with 75” went to Justin Finger.
