Twisted Cat Win on Keystone Goes to Chris, Kyli, and Kamber Baldwin
by Ron Presley,
Photos courtesy of Twisted Cat Outdoors by Tom Stolze
Twisted Cat Outdoors returns to Keystone Lake in Oklahoma.
Twisted Cat Outdoors (TCO) took their 13th and final tournament of the year to Oklahoma. The Saturday, October 19, 2024 event was their second time to visit the Keystone State. Seventy anglers making up 31 teams gathered in Mannford, OK to compete on Keystone Lake. There were 1,316.39 of catfish weighed in and a payout of $9,800 was distributed to anglers.
Keystone Lake is on the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers. Its primary purposes are flood control, hydroelectric power generation, wildlife management, and recreation. Lake Keystone’s 40.63 square miles of surface water and 330 miles of shoreline present many fishing opportunities.
Local anglers know there are good catfish in Keystone, but they advised competitors of the current drought conditions and a lake that is about 4 ½ feet below normal. Additionally, a post-cold front moved in and could affect the bite. Even the locals were struggling to find fish.
“Keystone is a great body of water but by no means easy street,” said Oklahoma angler Divan Liddell before the tournament. “Some say it’s the hardest lake in NE Oklahoma. I think the key this Saturday will be who can find them and if they are still there on tournament day. Another key factor is who finds the perfect unders.”
With the tournament being a 5 fish weigh-in with 2 overs and 3 unders, anglers need good unders (under 30 inches) just as much as good overs ( over 30 inches). The over/under regulations apply to blues only.
The action began Saturday at 5:00 a.m. with a boat check at the Harbor Grill on Keystone Lake in Mannford, OK. It was a chilly morning with light winds. Morning temperatures in the high 50s rose to near 70 degrees under partly cloudy skies.
The tournament kicked off with Boat Check and Registration at the Harbor Grill Docks at about 5 am and lasted until 7 am when anglers could have lines in the water. Legal fishing time ended at 3 pm with competitors required to be back in the weight-in line at the Harbor Grill Docks by 4:30 pm.
A legal limit of 5 fish could consist of any combination of channel cats, blue cats, or flatheads. The legal bag was limited to only 2 of the 5 fish measuring over 30 inches. Measurements are made with the Parks Planer Boards/ACA official measuring device.
First Place and Big Fish 
The husband/wife/daughter team of Chris, Kyli, and Kamber Baldwin had the right strategy to take the top spot at Keystone. This family team brought a weight of 81.33 pounds to the scales to earn the 1st place check for $3,720. Their bag included Big Fish of the tournament at 38.09 pounds to win Big Fish honors and add the Castaway Customs MWSC Big Fish bonus of $500 to their payday. In addition to their total earnings of $4,220, they received two pairs of Purpose Built Optics for winning 1st place.
“It was a nice day on tournament Saturday,” Kyli recalled. “It started off a little chilly with a light wind. Around noon the wind stopped, the sun started shining, and it got hot. LOL.”
“We began our morning north of the 412 Bridge in 35 feet of water,” continued Kyli. “We had caught a couple of ‘overs’ in the area while prefishing (Note, in Oklahoma you can only possess 1 blue cat over 30 inches per person). We realized quickly that the fish were no longer there.”
By 11:00 am, and not having any bites they decided to go south of the bridge on the edge of the river channel. This area was deeper at around 50 feet. They like to drift off the side of the boat drifting sidewise. When there is wind they put out drift socks and try to keep it about .5mph. The last rod on the end of the boat is a Parks Planner board. They were using cut shad that they caught the day before. Once the drift began they started catching some 5- to 7-pounders.
“Kamber was getting a workout in reeling in most of the fish,” Kyli said. “Then, as we were fooling with a fish she just caught I looked up front, and one of the rods was buried over.”
Kyli ran to the rod and reeled down on a big blue. Kamber asked to finish reeling it in.
“I almost handed her the rod,” said Kyli. “I had second thoughts and decided that I was going to catch one. Until I got it to the boat, I didn’t realize how big the fish was because the little guys were really feisty this week.”
Kyli was thinking that she should have let Kamber reel the fish but after seeing it she was afraid the fish could have dragged her overboard. The big blue weighed 38 pounds and helped them win the tournament and Big Fish.
The last part of the day the wind died so they pulled Parks Planer Boards for the remaining hours. They made drift after drift and managed to upgrade their smaller fish to 10-pounders. Chris lost a good fish during one of those drifts. Most of the fish they caught came on Parks Planer Boards.
“Keystone is my arch nemesis of lakes,” said Chris on a Facebook post. “I only fish it about 1 day a year for the last 10 years and it has been great for catching fish but not for winning tournaments. We finally broke the curse!”
“The twisted Cat tournament series is one of our favorites to fish,” concluded Kyli. “It is very well put together.”
Second Place
The runner-up spot went to Nolan Rummel and Joe Stringer. They teamed up to bring a total weight of 72.02 pounds to the scales and earn the 2nd place check for $1,860.
Third Place 
Third place went to Brad and Jocelyn Hoalt with a total weight of 70.52 pounds. This team traveled from Illinois to compete and earn the 3rd place check for $1,240. The placement secured them a place in the championship coming up in November.
Fourth Place 
The Oklahoma team of J.T. Ray and Robert Robinson did not have to travel far to fish the event. They teamed up to bring a total weight of 65.65 pounds to the scales to claim their spot and earn the fourth-place check for $650.
Fifth Place 
The fifth spot at Keystone went to Coia Sneed, Chance Sneed, and Larry Dudley with a total weight of 63.99. They earned the fifth-place check for $600.
Final Thoughts
Keystone was the final event of the 2024 season for Twisted Cat Outdoors. Its completion has qualifying anglers looking forward to the year-ending, no-entry-fee, invitation-only, championship at Helena, Arkansas on November 2nd. More than $25,500 in cash and other prizes will be distributed!
The top 50 teams have been calculated and can be seen on the TCO Facebook page.
TCO will kick off the 2024 season in Alabama. They have a new relationship and will present the long-standing Bama Blues tournament out of Decatur on Saturday, January 4th, 2024. An optional date of Friday, January 3rd has been set if an adjustment is needed due to bad weather. The Bama Blues presented by Twisted Cat Outdoors entry fee will be $300 per boat with a 100% payout. There is an added Big Fish pot from an outside sponsor.
For more information on Twisted Cat Outdoors visit their website or follow them on Facebook.
