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Southwest Shotgun on Cincinnati Lakes
May 12, 2018
Presented by:
Prizes
This is an event that is chock full of prizes! The Tacy's at Strictly Sail will be donating $300 worth of prizes and most years are able to get Hobie to join in with some additional cool prizes. Most years they also provide food and drinks at measure-in, so stay tuned!
Camping/Meet & Greet
There are several lodging and camping options around all of the eligible water locations.
2. Acton Lake has Hueston Woods State Park
4. Sharon Woods offers no on site camping, but Winton Woods Campground is only about 20 minutes away.
Be sure to join the Buckeye Nation Kayak Anglers group on Facebook to see what anglers are planning for each event. Most events will have a group of anglers camping at the same location.
Cost & Registration
$25 entry fee with mandatory $5 big fish entry.
We deduct $5 from the entry fee to pay for Tourney X and the remaining money is 100% paid out to the anglers!
Register & Pay for this event HERE
Since this event is a shotgun start anglers MUST register and pay BEFORE the morning of the tournament. If you are unable to pay prior to the tournament you must contact BKFT in advance, but everyone should at least have an account created on TOURNEY X. Creating a Tourney X account is free.
Tournament Day
This tournament is a SHOTGUN start, so you can start fishing anytime after 6AM on July 15th.
The measure-in will be held at Strictly Sail at 4PM also on July 15th.
They are located at:
10766 Kenwood Rd.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45242
(1 inch deducted for every minute late at measure-in), so be sure to account for traffic, etc.
Eligible Fishing Waters
*Cowan Lake - Lake Map & Information - Depending on your launch location Google maps shows this lake as approximately 45 minutes away from Strictly Sail.
*Acton Lake - Lake Map & Information - Google maps shows this lake as 1 hour 5 minutes from Strictly Sail.
*Winton Woods Lake - Park Information, Lake Map
Google maps shows this lake as approximately 23 minutes from Strictly Sail.
* Sharon Woods Lake - Park Information, Lake Map
Google maps shows this lake as approximately 15 minutes from Strictly Sail.
Rules & Format
The Rules and format for this event can be found HERE
There are no additional event specific rules for this trail stop.
Planning & Strategy
This event has 4 very different types of lakes to choose from all ranging from 15 minutes to as much as a little over 1 hour away from the measure-in. The choice of lake may very well be the most important choice you make for this tournament. The two furthest lakes, Acton & Cowan, both have a 10hp restriction, so no need to worry about pleasure boaters. They also don't see a whole lot of bass fishing pressure compared to other Ohio lakes their size. If the wind is blowing Acton will be a tough lake to fish. Windy days make large portions of the lake unfishable, but if it is a calm day there will be plenty of shorline to cast at. Cowan on the other hand does have some coves where you can hide out from the wind. The ideal launch on a windy day would be on the North ramp near the beach or on the small ramp located down in the lily pad fields on the far east side of the lake. It can get shallow on the east side of the lake, but there are a lot of massive lily pads to chuck a jig or plastic into. The north/northwest side of the lake offers rocky/gravel shoreline that drops off pretty deep fairly quickly. Both lakes have similar shoreline (sandy,gravel/rocky bottom) in a majority of the lake; the sections of the lakes where the main creek coming in being the exception where you have a predominantly muddy/silty bottom and lot more vegetation.
The two smaller park lakes, 35 acre Sharon Lake and 156 acre Winton Lake, shouldn't be discounted either! There have been several 3 fish totals of 50"+ taken from both park lakes in previous years, as well as big fish exceeding 19".
Event History
This will be the Trail's 4th trip to Cincinnati in as many years. Back in 2014 we participated in Paddlefest and eligible waters included the Little Miami River (which was flooded and eliminated as eligible), portions of the Ohio River, East Fork Lake, and Winton Woods. Larry Haines took home the title with a 47.75" 3 fish total while fishing at Winton Woods. 8 of the top 10 that year all fished on Winton Woods.
In 2015, the eligible water changed to the Little Miami River, Winton Woods, Sharon Woods, and Miami Whitewater. The top angler, Brent Jones, put together a 50" total to take home the top spot. Brad Lehman won big bass with a 19" bass which was caught on one of the park lakes eligible this year. The average length of fish submitted in 2015 was 14.3".
In 2016, the eligible waters remained the same with the average fish length submitted jumping up a bit to 14.9". The big bass was a 19.75" bass caught by Bert Guthaus with 1st place taken by Trent Spencer with a 52.25" 3 bass total. The top 6 anglers in 2016, who all fished the two eligible park lakes for 2017, all topped the 50" mark.
In the past we called the Cincinnati event 'Rivers vs. Lake Challenge', but the river anglers never made a serious charge so we changed it up this year! Maybe the name for 2017 should be the 'Big Lake vs Little Lake Challenge'? Will 2017 see an angler from a big lake (Cowan or Acton) rain on the parade of the little lake (Winton or Sharon) anglers who kept taking the top spots all these years? Guess we will find out on July 15th!
