Jordan Lovejoy sweeps the Juniata Regatta, jump starts AOY race

Link to full photo galleries

The Juniata Regatta was the fourth stop of the 2026 Kayak Adventure Series (KAS) presented by GoPro. Hosted by the Juniata River Valley Visitors Bureau in Lewiston, PA, the Regatta provided competitors with a chance to fish a few highland lakes or the star of the show, the Juniata river and its tributaries.

Some anglers tacked from river to lakes, while others trimmed their proverbial sails to fine tune their approach to the body of water they chose. By the time it was over after a week of fellowship and fishing, the captains brought their plastic ships to port for awards at the historic Miller Theater. At the Miller it was all hands on deck to see who had won, who had placed and who had changed the course of this year’s points races for KastKing Angler of the Year and Torqeedo Team of the Year.

Opening Ceremonies

Before we get to the final port, the Miller Theater, we need to start at Shy Bear Brewing, which was the location of the popular KAS Opening Ceremonies on Thursday evening. Angler's enjoyed incredible food, custom-made house brews and amazing fellowship as always. The 1st 50 anglers who registered received some great items in their $100 Angler Welcome Bags and more and more anglers brought or bought items at the popular "KAS Garage Sale" section where they can make a little money on their new/used items to help offset costs of the trip.

Opening Ceremonies Gallery

(photo credits to Alan Lockwood & Jake Heppner)

The Bass U Brunch

While the anglers feasted on breakfast burritos and local brand Rich Coast Coffee, Jeff Little and Drew Gregory led a great seminar on some of their best smallmouth secrets that they don't share anywhere else but at KAS events. To come to a KAS event and not take advantage of the Bass U Brunch intel would be a big mistake, as this info helps become a better angler for the rest of your kayak fishing days.

Bass U Brunch Gallery (photo credits to Alan Lockwood, Jake Heppner & Drew Gregory)

KASTKING Individual Angler Division

AFTCO's Afternoon Sesh - 3:00pm-8:00pm, Tournament Begins

While the Bass U Brunch is for the fellowship, the FridayAfternoon Sesh is for the fish. The AFTCO “Afternoon Sesh" begins at 3 p.m. and gives anglers a chance to hit the water for about a half day of fishing. A unique format to KAS that anglers continually are praising as it is a more relaxed start to the event, allows them some on water time during a weekday to avoid big local crowds, plus gives them a piece of the good afternoon low light bite! Since KAS is a 5-fish limit total (between both days) its also a very forgiving format for those that don't have a great Friday or just simply make a poor decision.

One angler who made a good decision on Friday was Rudy Yarworth. Rudy chose to go to a lake in the shorter Friday session and literally on his first cast, on a lake he'd never been to and on the new Coike style bait, he hooked what turned out to be the Booyah Big Bass of the event - a giant 22 inch largemouth!

The bass were cooperating for most of the anglers and by the end of the first hour of fishing, Pennsylvania’s Ryan Reardon had posted the first five-fish limit of the event to take the lead with 76”. New York angler Jacob Turner continued his strong season and came out of the gate with a quick strong limit at 79 inches as well.

As Friday’s fishing concluded, five anglers had already crossed the 80”, including 2024 AOY winner Ryan Parker (80) from OH, Toby Foster from VA (80.50) Christian Conrad from GA (82.50), Jordan Lovejoy (86.75) and our Friday Leader Josh Weist (91.50) from Ohio. Another eight surpassed 75" and nearly two dozen anglers had posted 70” or better, and two anglers (Yarworth and Colin Veith) had big anchor fish and were not even in the top twenty-five competitors at the end of the day.

However, the most impressive bass, although not the biggest of the day, had to be Josh Weist's 21.50 MEGA-SMALLIE, which helped him not only take the lead heading into Saturday but also earned him the $250 Friday Leader BONUS.

Central Pennsylvania’s Juniata River and mountain lakes were living up to their reputation as hidden gems. Saturday promised warm weather and partly cloudy skies. Based on Friday’s results, it also forecast some big bags.

Send it Saturday presented by SMITH Optics - 6:15am-3:00pm

Launch time was 6:00am, with "lines in" beginning at 6:15am. Many anglers had a similar strategy as one launch saw nearly 30 anglers set sails either up or downstream - it truly was the Juniatta Regatta.

As Saturday's fishing began, so did the upgrades and culls. Wiest improved his limit length to 92”, while Jordan Lovejoy entered the mix when he crossed the 90” mark. Josh Sims, another angler focusing on lake largemouth, posted 88.25” by mid-morning, too, taking over the third spot as the fishing heated up. Additionally, the always dangerous Ryan Parker made a push when he entered the top ten with a limit of 85” of creek smallmouth - all water types and different style of angler's and their regatta watercraft were right in contention to the end.

As the day wore on, it became apparent that multiple culls would be needed to jump Wiest who was now at 93.50. Could anyone do it? Who, and when? It was already nearing the noon hour and it was starting to look like Wieist might hold on. That is when Lovejoy made his big move and landed a giant 19.75 smallie on a Z-MAN Fishing chatterbait Evo to surpass Wiest at 94 inches. On stage Lovejoy explained that he "was using the 3/8 oz and focusing more in the middle of the river." He felt the 3/8 oz seemed to get more bites and more follows than the typical 1/2oz that he normally throws. It seemed to work well as he upgraded again to post 94.5” total. The Realtree Fishing Realtime Leaderboard shut off so no one knew if Wiest even knew his now dire situation. However, we later found out he did know, as Lovejoy and Wiest (friends and even teammates at the last KAS event) were fishing side by side as they raced down the Juniata River all day fishing fast with one of KAS' motor sponsors Newport Vessels NK 300's powering their rivercraft of choice, which each happened to be KAS Sponsor Crescent Kayak "Shoalie" model kayaks with Bending Branches paddles and a Yak Attack Black Pak full of Z-MAN chatterbaits as we've already established.

Lovejoy had made ten culls while Wiest had bigger fish early and only had to upgrade 5 times. Either way, the duo was really showing how special the Juniata River really is. Wiest couldn't cull up and ended with 93.5,” so if anyone was going to overtake Lovejoy, it would be someone further down, either Ryan Parker and his seven culls that had him up to 89.5” or place, or Matt Campbell who made a late move up to 91.5.” A few lake anglers with giant kickers over 20 inches were further down the leaderboard, but still had smaller 15-16 inch fish as their smallest of their virtual limits. One Rudy Yarworth type largemouth bite and they could swoop in and steal the smallie show, the same way our current AOY leader Chris Anderson did on the New River just a month prior.

When it was over, Lovejoy's late move had held up as he took first place overall with a consistent bag of smallies without one that measured longer than19.75” (the second and third place anglers each had a bass of 20.25” or longer in their limits). In fact, six of the top ten anglers landed a bass of 20” or longer, but three anglers in the top five did not land a 20” bass, a testament to the Juniata watershed’s combination of quality and quantity of its bass species. It was quality, quantity and culls that proved as important as paddle leashes and hulls during the Juniata Regatta.

Click here for full KastKing Individual Standings

Click here to read about how Lovejoy's win jump starts the KAS AOY race as we recap the KAS AOY & TMOY races with just two events left to go!

Omnia Fishing's "On the Water" Gallery (photo credits to Alan Lockwood & KAS angler uploads)

"From the Air" Gallery

(photo credits to Alan Lockwood & Drew Gregory)

TOYO TIRES Team Division

Team tournament fishing requires that anglers work together to navigate every type of water, every change in the bite and every shift of the wind. And while the individual angler can determine a great deal in the outcome, collaboration is in the end what keeps any team’s ship afloat.

As is often the case in KAS tournaments, the Juniata Regatta saw excellent teamwork from the start of competition. Friday’s Afternoon Sesh saw team Tea $ G jump to an early lead in the first hour, as they posted a total of 76” (the team would improve to 77.25” by the end of the day, but fall to 7^th overall). The late Friday leaderboard saw team Newport Boys, consisting of Maryland angler Jordan Lovejoy and Pennsylvania angler Jimmy Entwistle take the top spot with 157.25”, while team BASS Ackwards held second place with 137.25”. Team Hoot had third place with 128.25, while every other team had less than 100” (and it should be noted that every team but two posted fish on Friday).

With a team event that was wide open and beautiful weather for competition, Saturday’s Realtree Fishing Real Time leaderboard was in constant motion. At mid-morning, team Newport Boys improved to 170” while team Chasing Twenties closed the gap with 166.5.” Team Darkhorse Tackle, BASS Ackwards and Buckeye Bassin Boys held spots three through five, and seventeen of the twenty-one registered teams had posted over 100” long before any galley opened for lunch.

Remember Rudy Yarworth’s 22” Largemouth Bass? Yarworth finished 11^th overall in the individual standings, and he combined with teammate Matt Campbell as their team "Lip Service 4 Big Girls" took second place overall. While Yarworth’s big bass helped him cash a check on the back end of the individual event, it contributed as one of two big anchor fish in their team limit for a big payday (Campbell had a 20.25” Smallie anchoring his limit). And that wasn’t the final stop on that Largemouth’s tournament journey….

In the end, team Newport Boys improved their combined overall limit to 181.5”, besting Campbell and Yarmouth by 3.5” for the top spot. Entwistle and Lovejoy respectively placed ninth and first in the individual standings, but working together they had won top team honors by focusing on the hot Smallie bite.

Click here for full Toyo Tires Team Division Standings

Click here for Torqeedo Team of the Year Standings

REBEL "Live Flex" Micro-Bag Division

Josh Brewer held up the KastKing Individual Division trophy when we left the Susquehenna River last year, so no one would have predicted that he'd focus on the smallest 5 at this year's PA event. However, the KAS champ added another KAS Ketch Trophy to his mantle, albeit a little smaller than last year's.

Wire-to-wire victory is every competitor’s dream result, and Brewer found himself in a strong position to complete that feat when, by the end of the Friday Afternoon Sesh, he had posted a limit of five fish for a record low total of 26”. Most anglers who win the

Rebel “Live Flex” Micro-Bag Division average shorter than 6” per bass, and Brewer had done even better than that right out of the gate, courtesy of several culls he made on the day.

On stage he said "It wasn't the plan" but that he had gotten many smaller bites and had entered the Micro-bag as a mini "Insurance Policy" in case the bigger bass were being elusive this year. His strategy proved to not only be a winning one, but a record setting winning decision.

Will Nichols, who posted 37.5” on Friday, was able to improve to 33.5” after four small culls and New York's Jose Vuittonet rounded out the top 3 (35.75"), as Brewer’s nearly untouchable limit of course prevailed - his best five bass did not include a fish that was longer than 5.5!” It was a wire-to-wire victory, and one that brought home not just the trophy but also a "Micro Belt" which is reserved for an angler who lands a winning micro bag of 27 inches or less. Brewer, who had placed sixth in the Mciro-Bag event at the previous KAS tournament on the New River, may be finding a new kind of fun on the KAS trail as he's now a regular atop the micro bag leaderboard.

Click here for full Micro-Bag Standings

New Primal  "Next Up" Division (under 21)

Jordan Lovejoy (20 yrs old) of course won this division, but the story goes much much deeper. Five "Next Up" anglers participated in this event, and somehow 4 of the 5 ended up in the top 10 of the overall event including our winner! "Next Up" might as well been "Now" at this event. 7th place was Josiah Bihary, who's also placed 2nd on the KAS tour this year. 9th place Jimmy Eintwistle won Team with Jordan, and appears to be a name to look out for in the years to come, and 10th place Owen Miller, who was the youngest of all the competitors at 14 years old, not only placed 10th but landed the biggest smallmouth of the week (practice and tournament) at 22 inches! We highly doubt many anglers in this event have ever caught a 22 inch smallmouth.

For anyone who doubts or says "let's see It on the board, that's not a 22." Well, here ya go.

One of the coolest moment of the weekend was the "passing of the torch" so to speak, as Lovejoy will soon age out of the "Next Up" Division, but he recognized how impressive Owen's week and 10th place finish was and as he walked off stage with the "Next Up" Division trophy and prize (a $250 spinning rod from Yak Rods) he handed it to Owen in the crowd. They're here, they're humble, and ready to continue to show the elder anglers that they can compete in either division.

Full Awards Gallery

Raffle Motor

To end the show, KAS always raffles off a big ticket item such as a kayak or motor. However, we've never had something like this to raffle off - Jeff Little has been working with EPropulsion and decided to show off and donate a brand new product that isn't even on the market yet! It is called the K-Lite 750 and the lucky winner was New Jersey's Chris Califano.

BONUSES PROGRAMS

AFTCO Bank Bag Cleanup

Huge shout out to the many anglers who took an AFTCO Bank Bag and helped clean up the access points, boat ramps, and rivers and lakes themselves. For their efforts AFTCO gave them a $25 to AFTCO.com

"Angler's Cut" Presented by GoPro Best GoPro "cut" from the previous event (New River) receives $500 cash, a brand new GoPro plus a GoPro Premium Plus Subscription for 1 year. Brandon Turek Is the New River Revival winner with this epic catch of his PB smallmouth. Brandon Is from FL and this Is not only his PB but he caught his first ever smallmouth at this event so essentially he broke his PB many times, but this one, and In the tournament, was one he'll never forget!

"Unhooked" presented by DHUKR

Crosskix Cross-Country Prize - Two anglers who drove the most miles to attend receive a new pair of Crosskix!

New Angler New Kix - Two random first time KAS Anglers receive a new pair of Crosskix.

First & Last Light Bass presented by Guardian Angel

Looking Ahead

Get ready for the Achigan “Northwoods Bronzequest” as Kayak Adventure Series presented by Go Pro heads to Marinette, Wisconsin! Get signed up now and if you want to join in on the KAS Lodging option at Wisco Cottages you better hurry as not many spots are left!

Additional Info

For more information about the Kayak Adventure Series presented by Go Pro, visit: https://www.kayakadventureseries.com/

To watch the awards ceremony, click here.

Click here to learn more about Go Pro cameras.

© 2026 Kayak Adventure Series. All Rights Reserved. First published June 22, 2026.