Top Baits: "New River Revival" Pulaski, Virginia

Here are the top baits used at the New River in Virginia in the third stop of the Kayak Adventure Series. These kayak anglers all finished in the Top Ten of over 100 anglers who participated on this epic and challenging fishery with incredible scenery.

Chris Anderson of Ohio was the top finisher with 95.75" over the Friday evening and Saturday event on the New River in Virginia. He kept things very simple using a Yamamoto 4" green pumpkin plastic worm from one of the old green packages. Anderson is a bigger fan of the plastics from the old green packages rather than the newer blue packages as they have about a third less salt. He also caught fish on a 5" Yumdinger in green pumpkin with a chartreuse tip and Gillie Suit. The YUM Dingers did better after a little Bite Powder bath. Anderson used a Megabass Orochi Medusa and Jade Python rods paired with a 2500 Shimano Vanford spinning reel. He had to use a hard snap with the rod, similar to fishing a jerkbait only more violent to get fish to commit. Anderson mentioned, "It's crazy to say, but the bass were feeding on bluegill starting to spawn and it was almost like power fishing with four and five inch Senko style worms...on spinning gear."

Anderson with his Senko and Yum Dinger presentations used to take first place in the Kayak Adventure Series event on the New River in Virginia.

A closer look at Anderson's two main baits, scent and rod/reel setups.

Dale Allison of Virginia finished in the Top Ten in the New River event with 91.75 inches. His bait of choice for the tournament was the Mega Bass Sleeper Craw in Numa Ebi color (Green Pumpkin). Allison threw it on a Diawa TATULA XT701MHFS spinning rod paired with the Diawa Feugo 2500 spinning reel. His line of choice is X8 Reaction Tackle Braided line15 lb test in high visibility green, with a 12’ leader in 12 lb test Seaguar Red Label.

This setup gave me Allison a 21.25 whopper, a 3rd place finish as an individual event and a 3rd place finish in the team event. He also gave his partner one of these to use also. 

Allison with his Diawa TATULA XT701MHFS spinning rod paired with the Diawa Feugo 2500 spinning reel and the top bait he used which was a Mega Bass Sleeper Craw in Numa Ebi color.

A close up look at the Sleeper Craw that Allison used to catch his fish.

Jim Thacker of Ohio finished in 5th place with 90.25 inches using a ZMan Evo 3/8 oz Chatterbait with a ChatterShad trailer in "The Deal" color. He also used a Neko Rig with a ZMan Big TRD weighted with a 1/16th oz Kayakjak's button head weight and a Kayakjak's "Snyder Sleeve" to keep the hook on the plastic better.

His rod consisted of an Ark Lancer Tour Series Casting rod in MHFC and Shimano Curado/Stradic reels spooled with Sunline FC Sniper 17 lb with 15 Suffix braided line and a 10 lb Suffix Advance leader.

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Colin Veith of New York finished in 6th place with 88.5 inches in the KAS New River event. He said, "The drone caught me with 12 rods at the bottom of his kayak while fishing at the Clayton Lake Dam!" He mentioned that he had no idea what to throw after four days of sub par prefishing. Veith settled on a Bangin' Nishine Chippewa RB BL off the rocks in about six feet of water. This flat sided crank bait caught one that stayed in his top fish submitted through Saturday. Veith said, "It's a great bait!" He purchased this one specifically for the New River. His "bread and butter" bait turned out to be a lipless crank crawled along the rocks. His buddy, Jake Turner, and Veith used this technique late on Friday. On Saturday, he pared things down to just four rods and all rigged with lipless baits. He threw a bluegill colored Lucky Craft LV500 until the river claimed all four that he had. Veith switched to a Jackall TN70 in Ghost Minnow and finished the day pretty well.

Veith's rod/reel setups included:

For Lipless baits:

Rod: Dobyns 736cb glass heavy/fast

Reel: Quantum Smoke S3

Line: 20 lb P-Line Tactical Fluoro

For Crank Baits:

Rod: Pirate Scott's Custom rods spiral wrapped 7' MH/Moderate

Reel: Kastking Bassinator

Line: 20 lb Sufix 832 braid to SPRO 16 lb fluorocarbon leader

Todd Cox of Virginia finished in 7th place with 88.5 inches.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/c8e4a9_72d844f56e2845e98454930547ebf56a/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Sam Cox of Alabama finished in 9th place with 87 inches. During practice he covered water with an Evergreen Jackhammer in Brett's Bluegill and a Redline spinnerbait in gold shiner to locate productive areas but didn't seem to be getting quality bites he was after for the tournament. One of those productive areas were located so he slowed down and really picked it apart with a Wacky Rig and bug during the tournament.

Equipment:

Reel - Shimano NASCI 2500 HG 

Rod - St. Croix Mojo Bass  JOS71MF 

Line - 20lb Suffix 832 Braid to 10lb Seaguar Leader

Primary Bait - 4" weighted wacky Yamamoto Senko in Black / Blue Flake on a 1/8oz VMC Wacky Jig Head with a Frenzy baits Wacky Saddle. 

Secondary Bait on Sunday -  Evergreen Gizmo in the Frog Color. This bait was responsible for several culls once the wind calmed down and sun got high. 

Evan Adamson of West Virginia relied on swimbaits to establish a Top 10 finish in the New River event. He threw a Trashy Bass 6" Thready swimbait and a 7" Throwback Baits Metro Glide in pink lemonade color.

Trashy bass swimbaits 6” thready

7” throwback baits metro glide in pink lemonade 

Shimano slx rod with shimano slx dc xt reel 

Megabass p5 destroyer - mark 56 

Shimano Antares DC MD 

20# Berkeley big game fluoro on both. 

Big fish came on the pink lemonade

Gomexus 100mm handles on both reels as well