By Kylee Short
I got into my first kayak less than 2 years ago and immediately hopped into 2 local tournaments. But 2026 was my first real season fishing kayak tournaments across multiple trails. And when I say full schedule, I mean a lot of early mornings, long drives, unfamiliar ramps, questionable gas-station meals, and plenty of time overthinking my strategy. But more than anything, it gave me the opportunity to fish a lot of new water. Over the course of the season, I fished 12 lakes that were completely new to me. That may have been the most valuable part of the entire year. I learned a lot about catching fish, but I learned even more about reading the water and areas around me. This season challenged me in more ways than I could have imagined and I have grown so much as an angler because of it. Here are some of my biggest takeaways from my rookie season.
You Have to Fish New Water to Get Better
It’s easy to become comfortable fishing the same lakes over and over. You learn where the grass is, where the fish tend to position and which baits produce at certain times of year. There’s nothing wrong with that. But eventually, you have to put yourself in situations where you don’t already know the answers. This season put me on 12 new bodies of water, and every one of them forced me to expand my way of thinking. Different lakes had different vegetation, depths, clarity, structure and forage. Sometimes what worked on the previous lake was completely irrelevant on the next one. But the more new water I fished, the more I started recognizing similarities. That became especially noticeable on Florida lakes.
