WHITEHALL — The Kayak Adventure Series staged its second-ever event in Whitehall over the weekend, giving the White Lake area a chance to show off its fishery to a national stage. Over 80 anglers registered for the event, with five states - plus Ontario, Canada - represented.
“We felt really honored to be part of the big picture,” White Lake Chamber & Visitor’s Bureau executive director Amy VanLoon said. “They were in Georgia for their first one, and to be here for the second one, we hope we set the bar high for communities they’re going to experience.”
The weekend’s big winner was Ryan Parker of Ohio, who registered a total height for his tallest five catches of 93.25 inches. His big catch of the weekend was a 22-inch smallmouth bass, which all on hand agreed was an extraordinarily large size - and therefore an impressive catch - for such a fish.
Of course, the KAS is about far more than winning, as fun and fellowship was the main focus of the event as envisioned by Bassmaster kayak champion Drew Gregory. Gregory has been to the White Lake area once before for a kayak expo - in addition to his skills as an angler, Gregory works in the kayak design world - and felt it was a natural spot for his event.
“The local community was so welcoming, unbelievably welcoming,” Gregory said. “So many people were thanking us for putting it on there. I feel like with Lake St. Clair, on the other side of the state, getting so much attention for tournaments, this side of the state doesn’t get as much...Everyone was so appreciative that we were able to come out and highlight incredible fisheries across the state.”
Because of the amount of lakes and rivers within an hour’s drive of the White Lake area, Gregory said in April, there was a bigger variety of water available for anglers to fish for the Whitehall event than for any of the six stops on the KAS’ inaugural circuit.
The goal of fun and fellowship was one that appealed to Alex Rudd, a Tennessee angler and popular YouTube personality who has over 62,000 followers on the video-sharing site. He also hosts a fishing podcast.
Standings-wise, it wasn’t Rudd’s weekend, as he finished 23rd. However, at last Thursday’s kickoff event in Montague, Rudd said the previous KAS event in Georgia was “the funnest tournament I’ve ever experienced.”
“A lot of that comes back to the culture that Drew’s been building,” Rudd added. “Drew let me in on this idea way before it ever came to fruition, and he told me, ‘I want to build a fun, family-friendly culture.’ I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’ I’ve been trying to help him build it, get the word out.”
So impressed was Rudd with the atmosphere of the Georgia event that he brought his wife and his mom to Whitehall. He said he plans to compete at two more of the KAS events this year, in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“I love northern fisheries,” Rudd said. “Being from Tennessee, I get really used to Tennessee fishing, which can be really tough. When I come up north, they’re dumb and easy to catch, and that’s the way I like my fish.”
Rudd, who speaks with an endearing Southern drawl, added that he and his wife honeymooned in Traverse City and he always enjoys visits to Michigan.
“It’s got a small-town feel almost everywhere you go,” Rudd said of Michigan. “Coming here was, this was the vibe. I love the small-town vibe, the little shops, the little restaurants. It’s just laid-back and chill, and that’s what I like.”
Rudd also co-hosted Saturday’s awards show with Gregory at The Playhouse at White Lake, where some video highlights of the weekend were shared - a nod to KAS’ chief sponsor, GoPro. Awards were also handed out, but unlike more competitively focused events, some KAS awards had some offbeat quirks befitting the atmosphere it’s pursuing. Among them were awards for the most “aggressively average angler,” given to the entrant who finished in the exact middle of the standings, a “dark horse” award for the angler who improved their performance the most from the first day of fishing to the second, and a “micro bag” award given to the person who caught the smallest fish - complete with the smallest trophy of the weekend.
There was also a raffle prize pack of fishing gear, with large donations from Johnson’s Great Outdoors and WaterDog Outfitters that amounted to over $1,000 worth of prizes. A prize wheel was intended to add more giveaways to the proceedings, but the lucky spinner landed on the only two spots on the wheel that said ‘skunked,’ drawing laughter and sympathy from those on hand.
Another quirk of the KAS awards came in the presentation of the top individual performers’ medals. Rather than a straight countdown of the top 10, the series randomized the top 10 finishers’ slides on the awards slideshow and brought up the first person to sit in a “hot seat” as, one by one, other top-10 finishers came up to the stage to discuss their fishing weekend with Rudd and see if their final mark had beaten whoever was in the seat.
It ended with Parker, the last to come up to the stage, unseating runner-up Jesse Brinkert, who’s based in Muskegon.
The Chamber and WaterDog co-sponsored the event, and VanLoon, along with events director Stephanie Ware, came away as impressed with the visitors as they were with the area; Gregory called the Chamber “top-notch” among similar groups he’s worked with during his career.
“It’s just a great group of individuals that have a great appreciation and respect for natural resources and our waters,” VanLoon said of the visiting kayakers.
Both hope the visit will have a long-lasting impact on the area.
“They had about 100 anglers, and a handful of them are social media influencers in their world,” Ware said. “Some of them have (up to) 30,000 followers and they’re tagging Whitehall and talking about how much fun they are having.”
