Kayak anglers test their meddle in our 7-month, multi-species fishing marathon!
If you’re a kayak angler that loves a challenge, if you like to fish for a variety of saltwater species and you have a bit of that competitive edge, you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t sign up for the Coastal Kayak Clash (CKC).
A season-long tournament that pits you against your kayak fishing peers and that requires a healthy dose of planning and preparation, as you navigate a 7-month season, with the goal being to lead as many as seven species categories to net the grand prize.
You’ll have plenty of competition too, as a growing movement of yakkers have hitched their wagon to the Clash, seeing it as the ultimate challenge for the multi-species angler that chooses a kayak as their main means of piscatorial passage.
The Basics
How does the CKC work? Well, it’s really quite simple, anglers compete all season long and all eligible species are ‘fair game’ so long as there is an open season for that species in the state where the angler is fishing. We maintain a leaderboard at TheFisherman.com where the top three anglers are listed in each category, those positions earn points based on our points system, 3 points for a first place position, 2 for second and 1 for third. This means that the leaderboard is always in flux, leaders can be knocked down a level, and then upgrade the following week and land back in the top spot. Ultimately, the competitor with the most points on the final day of the tourney will be crowned the winner.
But wait, there’s more! There are also eight Largest of Species awards that CKC participants can set their sights on. Simply put, the fish that leads each species category (weakfish, black sea bass, scup/porgy, striped bass, false albacore/bonito, bluefish and tautog) on the final day of this 7-month, kayak fishing marathon will win a prize for that achievement.
CKC veterans may remember that we also have had Fish of the Month awards in the past, that awarded prizes for catching the largest of a designated species for each month of the tournament, fear not, we are still working out the details of the arrangement and we’ll provide more information when it becomes available.
Who’s Who?
First and foremost we have to square away your eligibility, the Coastal Kayak Clash is free to enter, for all current subscribers to The Fisherman Magazine. And that eligibility activates after just one day of your paid subscription. As the name suggests, the Coastal Kayak Clash is only open to kayak fishermen and only fish landed from a kayak are eligible, those that wish to participate will have to sign up on our website and agree to the official rules.
The other tools you will need are a camera (or camera-equipped smart phone), a measuring device such a ruler, tape measure or bump board and the Coastal Kayak Clash official tag which will be made available for download at the start of the event. Photos of your fish that prove its length by showing the fish next to your measuring device and with the tournament tag displayed are required to submit a valid entry. All entries must be emailed to coastalkayakclash@thefisherman.com.
The great thing about this tournament is that the scores are tallied in inches, making it possible (but not mandatory) to release any or all of the fish you enter into the event, thanks to our catch-photo-release format. Of course, all laws and regulations for the state or states where our participants fish must be followed, this includes open and closed seasons for eligible species, possessing the proper licenses or registrations and any other law that might dictate how a kayak angler can legally fish, this includes illegal baits and even illegal hook types, all rules must be followed.
All fish entered into the CKC must be hooked and landed while floating in a kayak and the participating angler must hook and land the fish himself, no handing off of rods, no hooking a fish from shore and paddling out to land it in a kayak, it’s call the Coastal Kayak Clash for a reason and we’re sticking to it!
What Are We Fighting For?
Now we get to the loot, and there are some pretty awesome reasons to put your heart and soul into fishing the CKC that go above and beyond the multi-species challenge, the competitive urge to fish harder and more often and the camaraderie that comes with a fishing competition. Thanks to our top sponsor, YakAttack, we have a fully-rigged and tricked out Hobie Mirage Lynx to give away for the winner of the 2025 CKC. This yak will be outfitted with all of the YakAttack accessories you could ever want, look at this list! A TowNStow Bar Cart Kayak Cart; Yak Attack BlackPak Pro Kayak Fishing Crate (with the Shortstack upgrade), a fully loaded TracPak Combo Kit, Two Boxes, Track Mount, Handle, and 3 Trays, the Yak Attack DoubleHeader with Dual RotoGrip Paddle Holders, their Omega Pro Rod Holder with LockNLoad Track Mounting Base; Yak Attack AR Tube and the LockNLoad base with no extension. The total MSRP of our first place grand prize is a whopping $3,646!!
The second place prize winner will take home the Humminbird Helix 7 CHIRP Mega SI GPS G4N fishfinder, this state of the art fishfinder will open a whole new world of angling possibilities for the person who wins it. The third place finisher will take home $300 in cold, hard cash! Which we strongly suggest should be spent on fishing tackle.
The eight lucky anglers who lead each of our seven species categories will earn the “Ultimate Yo-Zuri Prize Pack” which includes; a Mag Darter in ‘Black Back’, a yellow Mag Popper, a 3D Inshore TopKnock Pencil in Bone, a 3D Inshore Popper in Green Mackerel, a 3D Inshore Popper in Bone, a Hydro Monster Shot in ‘Double White’, a 100-yard spool of 40-pound test Yo-Zuri SuperFluoro and a Yo-Zuri Striped Bass performance shirt, the total MSRP of the Largest of Species category prize packs is $172.93.
Cast of characters
| CRASH THE CLASH |
| If you’d like to get in on the action and camaraderie of the CKC, the first thing you’ll need to do is make sure your subscription is active. If you’re not a subscriber, that’s no problem you can sign up at TheFisherman.com and begin fishing in the CKC 24 hours later. All Fisherman subscribers who plan to fish the CKC must sign up on our website and agree to rules, that’s all there is to it, once you’re an active subscriber, you can fish for free! |
The Coastal Kayak Clash has grown into a fierce competition and some top-tier kayakers have literally made a name for themselves by repeatedly making waves in the CKC. Look back through the leaderboards from past events and you’ll see a lot of familiar names like Todd Treonze, Bob Wagner, Mike Radszisewski, Greg Vergaray, Tom Houde, Larry Newman and three-time winner, Justin Oser. Ask any of these guys about the CKC and they will tell you that your competitors become anglers that you respect, as you all fight to hook category-leading fish. There’s an understanding about the kind of effort that’s required to put up numbers in an event like this one and that understanding breeds that feeling of mutual respect. In many cases, these anglers become friends through the competition and following each other on social media.
That’s what makes the CKC truly special and we sincerely hope that many more of our readers will join the game. We’re pretty sure that once you do, you’ll find yourself addicted to it, just like those competitors listed above and the many others that throw their hats into the CKC ring each season.
