By: Vinny “Commish” Ferreri
Founder of Queen City Kayak Bass Fishing Club, LLC
Well, you can feel it in the air. It’s chilly, the wind is cold, the weather is rainy. It’s winter in Charlotte, North Carolina. That must mean the fishing is done for a while, and the kayakers are relaxing… right? Not here in the Queen City! Yea it’s cold, and may not be ideal, but cold weather and cooling water means less boat traffic and hungry big bass!! Bass are feeding up on shad, and prepping for their winter hideouts. It’s my favorite time to be out on the lake catching giants.
Here at Queen City Kayak Bass Fishing, we literally fish every month of the year. We usually start our regular season in February, and do what we call a “Warm Up” in January. This season the club members were given an option, and they voted to start our season early, in January on the great Lake Wylie, QCKBF’s home. This club is built for the anglers, and angler input matters. It has been a crazy time for the team getting ready for such a quick turnaround, but we are ready! January 11th, at 8:00am, the start of season six kicks off. Upwards of seventy kayak anglers will flood the lake in hopes of four big bites, with intentions of walking away with $1,100!
Our sixth season is lining up to be amazing. We are guaranteeing our largest payouts to date. Each of the nine trail events will pay out $1,100 minimum for first place. We are also raising all other payout spots along the way. Our goal is to keep all anglers happy, giving many anglers a chance to walk away with some cash and prizes. If you would like to participate in the events we have, we are an open club. Any angler can come fish any of the trail events. If you plan on fishing all year, we offer an affordable membership for $40 which allows you to earn points and qualify for our championship event, and also have a chance at winning our coveted Angler of the Year Title presented by The Angler Magazine. The AOY title not only comes with an amazing plaque, but also $1,000 cash. The championship event is also a large paying event. We had over $4,000 in the purse last season, and we plan on more than that this year. Think you want to make a run at it? We take your top seven events and total your points. If you land in the top fifteen anglers, you qualify! We also offer a fish off event as a last chance effort to qualify.
Throughout the season, we also have prizes and cash for Big Bass and Small Bass every month, along with yearly prizes for Biggest Bass, Smallest Bass, Longest Limit and Most Top 10’s. We have a lot of fun, while being competitive at the same time. Entry fees for the events are $58. Big and Small Bass are optional and are $5 each. If you go all in, you are looking at $68 for a shot at over potentially $1,500 with Big and Small Bass. We give out plaques with every event as well. We have a ton of anglers who love the hardware. This is a great environment for anglers of all ages, genders, and experience levels. We have a few kids who are in middle school that fish with us, all the way up to anglers who are retired. We have multiple female members as well! It’s a great family feel. It is a great place to not only compete, but learn and grow as an angler.
If you are interested in joining the largest kayak club in both Carolinas, reach out on Facebook at Queen City Kayak Bass Fishing. You can also check the website at Qckayakbassfishing.com. We start up on January 11th. Tight lines!
