Whitehall will be an early test ground for Bassmaster Kayak Series champion Drew Gregory’s new Kayak Adventure Series, which begins this summer and will host its second-ever event right here in the White Lake area June 7-8. The White Lake Chamber & Visitors Bureau and WaterDog Outfiitters will co-sponsor the event.
The new series will stage six events in all in 2024, starting with a visit to Thomaston, Georgia in May and continuing from Whitehall on to events in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin before its final event in Bowling Green, Kentucky in October.
White Lake Chamber executive director Amy VanLoon said she’s looking forward to welcoming visiting kayakers to the area.
“We call it heads in beds,” VanLoon said. “People will be staying here. it’s outdoor recreation, which we love, and it’s supporting the recreational indusry. I think our businesses will feel it and see it.”
Gregory took the top prize of $25,000 at the Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship in Oklahoma just last month, and he’s also been involved with the sport at the design level for years. He designed for Jackson Kayak for 10 years and is now doing the same for Crescent Kayak. He brings that knowledge of the sport to his new series, which is presented by his current sponsor, GoPro.
The last time the area hosted a fishing event of this magnitude was in 2013, when the Bassmaster Elite Series brought its all-star event to the White Lake area. Of course, those were the most noted and accomplished anglers on the circuit. The new series aims to bring ambitious and interested anglers into the kayak fishing world, maybe train a few up to become the next generation of Bassmaster kayak champions - but most importantly, have a lot of fun along the way.
“It will still be competitive, but the vibe of our series will be about making those memories, the fellowship and the fun,” Gregory said.
The series will pursue that fellowship and fun with its schedule, different from many of the top fishing events. Competition will take place Friday from 3 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., rather than the usual Saturday and Sunday, which gives participants more time to enjoy the area.
Preceding the competition will be a Thursday night opening ceremony at the Montague Band Shell, complete with kayak demos, food trucks and beverages and live music. There’s a post-event festival scheduled for Covell Park that will have many of those same attractions, as well as an afterparty set for North Grove Brewers.
The vibe Gregory’s looking for comes in that schedule, allowing for Thursday and Saturday evenings to be filled with fun for participants without the stress of early morning prep time for the next day.
“It allows the freedom to be out and celebrate that night,” Gregory said. “Usually you have to get up early and go an hour to find your spot and you’re spending 45 minutes loading and unloading. We made it so you can hang out and have plenty of time to get to the water. We actually have an optional (Friday) brunch and seminar where we bring in pros to give some advice. It ends at 12:30 and you’ll still have time to get to your boat launch by 3.”
By ending the tournament Saturday, Gregory said, it gives out-of-town participants who may be headed back home or even to another fishing event the opportunity to spend their Sunday driving, rather than having to rush out of one of the competitive events when they end on a Sunday, as is often the case. For those who are local or desire an extended engagement, though, there will be a side pot tournament staged Sunday, June 9.
Whitehall is the hub of the event, but any waterway within an hour’s drive will be a permissible fishing spot for the tournament. Kayakers can fish in the Grand River in Grand Rapids all the way up to Hamlin Lake in Ludington and most everywhere in between. Sixteen bodies of water - 11 lakes and five rivers - will be open for the tournament.
“This one has the most lakes and rivers of any event on our schedule,” Gregory said.
The competition is scored by height rather than weight, with the length of the five longest fish for each angler being totaled for their final score.
The Michigan Kayak Trail, a notable statewide association of kayak anglers, will host a tournament in the White and Muskegon lakes the same weekend, which enables even more attention to be brought to the West Michigan fisheries.
The new series also has an aim of accessibility, with a relatively low entry fee of $150. (More information is available at www.kayakadventureseries.com/w....) It’s open to any kayaker - or canoer, Gregory said.
“There are probably people up there that have canoes and not kayaks and might think they want to do this,” Gregory said. “What we find is that if people with canoes come to our event and see the technology of the new kayaks, we’ll convert some people who are in canoes to kayaks. Our series is very inclusive of all different styles of fishing.”
The top prize of the “Wild Whitehall” event - each stop of the series got its own nickname, and Gregory half-joked he can probably come up with something better than that for Whitehall - will depend on how many participants there are, but Gregory said if the field reaches 200, it will be $7,000. So far, he said the event has drawn about 15 registrants, a promising number for an event of this type this far in advance.
Gregory has fished the White Lake area before - he visited for a kayak demo last year - and recalls it being a haven for bass fishing, which is part of the reason it was selected for the new series.
Another key mark in Whitehall’s favor? The Playhouse at White Lake. It may seem different, but the existence of a quality theater is a prerequisite for being selected for the series because GoPro is bringing an audio-visual component to the competition. Participants will be invited (though not required) to submit photos and video clips of their fishing efforts, and the best ones will be displayed on the big screen at the closing ceremonies, which are set for 6 p.m. that Saturday.
“They’re obviously into selling cameras, so the anglers know there’s a chance if they catch a fish and do well, their fish could go on the big screen,” Gregory said.
A top performer in their field starting or joining a nascent event in the same sport could draw comparisons to the LIV Golf tour, which has lured PGA players with big checks amid an acrimonious relationship, but that’s not the case with the Kayak Adventure Series. If anything, Gregory is hoping the KAS can help grow the sport and make the Bassmaster kayak events better in the long run.
“I’m still fishing in these other leagues, and I’m still friends with them,” Gregory said. “The rules and the format are way different. We’re all about fun and fellowship, and those are the competitive series. There needs to be something where people can work their way up to the big competitive events.”
