Lessons from the 2021 SeaArk Owner’s Invitational
Editor’s Note: The catfish community readily recognizes SeaArk Boats as one of the strongest supporters of the sport of catfishing. Their annual owner’s invitational tournament is among the most anticipated tournaments of the season. This year’s event on Wheeler Lake, out of Ingalls Harbor in Decatur, AL, showed why. As tournament day approached stormy weather reared its ugly head and each angler had to make a decision to fish or not to fish. In the end, it was another sensational event with plenty of big cats coming to the scales.
The Tennessee River is known for big catfish and SeaArk Boats is known for great catfish boats. The two make a great combination. The SeaArk Owner’s Invitational celebrated its 10th year in 2021. The Tournament has been held out of Decatur, AL for the past few years, and the area always produces big healthy fish at the weigh-in. Given the outstanding facilities at Ingalls Harbor, it is a near-perfect setting for a big catfish tournament.
The 2021 event drew 225 teams, all with the opportunity to be in the drawing for a new SeaArk ProCat 200 with a Suzuki Engine and Marine Master Trailer. All the teams had to do to be entered into the drawing was to present one legal catfish during the final weigh-in and then be present at the drawing.
Early Morning Worries
As the weather prediction for tournament day worsened, thoughts turned to how to respond. With great respect for the anglers’ desire to stay safe but also to fish, the tournament organizers offered each angler the opportunity to receive a refund if they preferred not to fish. Eleven teams chose not to fish. With anglers’ decisions made, the take-off went as scheduled as a few boats at a time left Ingalls Harbor.
Shortly after launch, reports emerged that boats had been swamped in windy conditions. SeaArk volunteers responded to help. SeaArk president, Steve Henderson outlined the situation.
“This year’s tournament did have some mishaps,” Henderson said. “Weather is always a factor and safety is of the utmost importance, so we offered refunds to anyone that decided not to fish.”
The staff had been monitoring the weather leading up to and on the day of the event. All indications were that it would be safe. High winds and lightning are the concerns and on the morning of the tournament, neither were a factor.
“About an hour after take-off, the wind unexpectedly picked up tremendously,” recalled Henderson. “Wheeler Lake can get extremely rough under those conditions. We received a call that a customer had taken on water. The boat was fishing in open water, in the high winds, with drift socks on the back of the boat. We were able to bail the water out and get them back to fishing once they acquired dry clothes.”
“Another boat was swamped due to the propellor getting tangled in their anchor rope,” continued Henderson. “And in a third case, a boat was swamped due to engine troubles.”
Doc Lange was on the boat with Bink and Janet Fox when their engine failed.
“…the engine sputtered, an alarm went off, and the engine died,” confirmed Lange in a Facebook post. “Mother Nature decided to get angry on Wheeler…”
“It wasn’t the fault of the weather,” added Bink. “I have been in water worse than that before and would have been fine if the motor had not failed.”
“Mother Nature is sometimes unpredictable and hindsight is 20/20,” said Henderson. “Had any forecasts predicted unsafe conditions, we would have delayed the take-off. We thank the Good Lord that everyone was ok.”
The Fishing
As the early morning worries subsided anglers went on to fish the challenging waters. As evidenced at the weigh-in there were plenty of big cats waiting to be caught. The first team to weigh more than 100 pounds were Lonnie Fountain and his partner, Kevin Stewart, with 106.5 pounds. They were invited by co-masters of ceremonies, Jeremy Coe and Jason Masingale, to sit in the “Hot Seats” until a better weight was posted.
Team Fountain’s reign lasted until David and Hunter Shipman came to the scales. The B’n’M Poles team brought 142.94 pounds to the scales to earn a seat on the stage.
Then, the eventual winners replaced Team Shipman in the “Hot Seats” with 182.11 pounds. Their bag included Big Fish of the tournament and held up for the remainder of the weigh-in as the team sat and watched other anglers weighing their catch, hoping that none would beat them.
First Place
The top spot at the 2021 SeaArk Owner’s Invitational Tournament went to Zachary (Zac) Taylor and Floyd “Ken” Kennamer. Their weight of 182.11 pounds was posted about halfway through the weigh-in and held up until the end. Their bag included Taylor’s personal best blue cat at 89.01 pounds to help lift a 4-fish-only weight to the top of the leader board.
In just the team’s second trip to Wheeler, Taylor praised the Wheeler fishery.
“Wheeler has been a blessing to us,” Taylor said. “Our first trip was to Bama Blues where we got in the money and had a 64-pound blue. This was our second trip. We fished hard all week and needless to say we found several places where the fish were not.”
On Friday afternoon, the day before the tournament they decided to do something different. They moved to shallower water where they marked several nice fish and set a strategy for tournament day.
“The area we found on Friday was originally our game plan for the whole day,” reported Taylor. “That all changed when we had two anchors that would not hold the boat. That spot was not fishable on tournament morning.”
They left to get out of the wind, finding shelter in a cove where they sat for about 3 hours without any luck.
“We saw a weather report that the wind was going to die down around noon,” recalled Taylor. “We knew that would be our chance to go try another anchor set on those big fish we marked before.”
They made the right decision. They moved to the new spot and within 20 minutes of arriving they had doubled up. Taylor landed the big fish of the tournament at almost 90 pounds and they added another one that went about 45 pounds.
“About 10 minutes later we doubled up again,” explained an excited Taylor. “We boated a 55 and a 40. Another 15 minutes went by and we doubled up again. We saw Ken’s fish roll and I could tell it was 40-50 pounds. I told Ken to set his rod down and grab the net because I think I got a 70 or bigger.”
Kennamer’s fish managed to wrap around the Minn Kota Raptor and broke off. They landed Taylor’s fish which ended up about 61 pounds. In an hour and a half, they landed 7 fish over 40 pounds and a new personal best for Taylor but had to settle for a 4-fish weigh-in because they never caught another under.
“It was a crazy hour,” Taylor said. “They all came out of the same spot in about 10 feet of water. Every fish we caught over 40 pounds came on skipjack heads. My big fish weighed 93ish on the boat but threw up a bird and several other things in the livewell.”
Taylor concluded by thanking Steve Henderson, SeaArk Boats, and Huntley Marine.
“Thanks for allowing me to fish in this beast of a boat,” Taylor said. “It handled the weather perfectly today! Also hats off to the SeaArk crew on one of the best run tournaments I’ve ever been to! Thank y’all for all the hard work!”
Second Place
The runner-up spot went to David and Hunter Shipman. They teamed up to bring 142.94 pounds to the scales and earn the second-place spot.
David is known for his patience when it comes to catfishing and it paid off again for Team Shipman at the SeaArk tourney. They had prefished some without much luck.
“Saturday morning was a little rough weather wise,” offered David. “And we couldn’t get a bite the last few days. We just hoped that they would eat today. It wasn’t wide open but we caught one about every 1 to 1.5 hours. A slow bite, but good enough. We only caught 6 fish all day but some pretty good ones.”
They were fishing around the nuclear plant where they reported a lot of other boats that were catching fish too. They were targeting fish in about 30 feet of water.
“I know there’s fish in the area,” reported David. “We really just fish hard for 5 bites a day and that’s our key to success—just keep after them! We don’t eat or stop working the baits all day. We just always keep fresh bait in the water and stay after them”
Team Shipman was fishing structure and heavy brush. To avoid hanging up they were fishing vertically.
“What I have been doing lately is pulling my bait back up into the brush,” explained David. “When it feels like it’s about to hang up on sometime I feel that and I just twitch the bait about 1 foot above what I’ve felt. I twitch it up and down, almost like jigging.”
“Three of our fish hit it like that while I was almost hung up in the brush,” he continued. “We break off a few times but if you let it sit for a few minutes after hanging sometimes they will eat it and at the same time get you out of the stuff your hung on.”
They also like to keep fresh bloody bait on the hook. They will change the bait out every few minutes to keep it fresh.
“I want to thank B & M Poles,” David said. “They are a great company and work hard to help the catfish industry. Thanks also to Driftmaster Rod Holders. They are number one in my book. And I couldn’t do it without Barnes Marine. They keep my boat serviced and ready to go. Finally, thank you to SeaArk Boats for the great job they do in support of the industry and organizing this tournament.”
“Over the years, patience has paid off for me. Just going out there and waiting for those 5 bites I need paid off. Of course, I feel a little lucky too,” joked David.
Third Place
Alex Nagy (Twisted Cat Outdoors) and Seth McCallister have been teammates for several years and have adapted well to fishing together. They put their teamwork to the test and weighed 142.1 pounds to finish less than a pound out of second place. It doesn’t get much closer than that.
Nagy and McCallister joined other anglers in a pretty hapless prefishing bite. As it turned out, the weather that moved in may have been just what the anglers needed to improve the bite. When they viewed the forecast they expected that everything would change on game day with rougher weather moving in and they viewed it with confidence.
“We have always done our best while dragging baits in rough water,” recalled Nagy. “Given the weather predicted for tournament day we knew it would be a perfect scenario for us.”
Nagy and McCallister used a combination of drift socks to help keep their speed down in the windy weather. They used planer boards to help them target specific areas to drag their baits as they figured out where the fish were holding.
“We set a goal to keep bait in the water as much as we could,” explained Nagy. “We only made a few minor changes to our drag lines as we targeted 25-30 feet deep water.”
As predicted, the water was very rough. As expert planer board anglers, they chose Off Shore Tackle Planer Boards for the conditions they had. They knew from experience that the boards would handle great in big water, with big weights, and big baits.
“We used Off Shore planer boards 6 years ago at our first tournament and other boats thought we were crazy,” joked Nagy. “We believe that Off Shore planer boards are a big reason that we catch more fish, especially in rough conditions. The boards help prevent the bait from jerking back and forth in the water on the bottom. For what it’s worth, we caught 7 of our 8 fish on a planer board during the tournament.”
As the day progressed Nagy and McCallister would make minor changes after they figured out how the fish liked the presentation. It made a difference if they were going with the current or against the current. They also made adjustments along the ledges to be more out on the flat or more out on the channel side.
The team also credited Wave Wackers as a big key to their success. Wave Wackers are a splash guard product that anglers use up north in big water. They are designed to knock down chilly sprays and gusty winds during a day on the water.
“We installed the Wave Wackers the night before the event,” explained Nagy. “They made a huge difference. They let us stay out in the big water and the high winds with no problem.”
“The SeaArk Owner’s Invitational is such a great event,” concluded Nagy. “SeaArk Boats go above and beyond to put on the event every year. Thank you SeaArk. In my mind, the owner’s event is one of the best in the sport.”
The Top Twenty
The top twenty teams finished in the money. They can be viewed along with payouts on the SeaArk Owners Invitational Facebook page.
Final Thoughts
After celebrating 10 years of providing the SeaArk Owner’s Invitational for customers, management continues to have eyes on the future.
“This event is, by far, our favorite one of the year,” offered Henderson. “It allows us to get product feedback, get to know our customers, and have a fun weekend giving something back to the catfish community. We take pride in providing the best tournament experience for our customers because we truly appreciate them choosing SeaArk.”
“To be honest, following the three incidents, the rest of the day was tough for us,” declared Henderson. “We want our customers to have a great experience and the morning didn’t start off well. But after that high wind died down, everyone was able to relax and have a good time fishing.”
“We have the best Team in the industry,” concluded Henderson. “From the SeaArk Employees and Pro Staff to our Customers we have been blessed with a great hard working team. They care about the sport and people in general. We will continue with the Owners Invitational, and look forward to seeing everyone next year. God Bless.”
