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M
atthew Brannon is one of the first kayakers
that was around when the kayak competition
first started. He has traveled across the United States competing in kayak events. Matthew has
watched the kayak fishing competition go from a few
anglers competing in small events to recent big circuits like
Bassmaster Kayak Series, Kayak Bass Fishing (KBF), and
the Hobie trails with over 200 anglers at some events. He
has won several big events during his career and has been
a big part of the growth with the new motors and kayak
configurations for the tournament anglers.
Here, Matt shares his hot weather strategies for kayak
catching at California’s big bass fishery – Clear Lake.
WB: How did you get started kayak fishing?
Matthew: I’ve been fishing since I could walk. My dad fished the Redman circuits back in the day and I would go fishing with him all the time. One hundred percent of the time bass fishing was with artificials.
My first Kayak was a PA in 2009 and shortly after that I started fishing KBF online tournaments. Currently, I have a 2023 Hobie PA 14 180 and a Torqeedo 1103 on the back with an innovative Sportsman’s foot control steering system.
I got my first pro angler in 2009. I was in Jacksonville, FL at the time. It was really before the kayak bass fishing thing took off, but we had a saltwater tournament, so I was fishing for redfish, flounder, trout and our speckled trout, and sea trout.
Shortly after that, I found Chad Hoover was doing online tournaments with KBF. You just posted your pictures online to a forum. This is when I started competing in tournaments.
WB: What’s your advice for trophy bass on Clear Lake in the summer?
Matthew: At Clear Lake, 100 percent at night, during the summer. This is my favorite thing to do of all time, to power fish at night. In my experience, you get that good evening bite as the sun starts to fall and then everything shuts off and it takes some time for the night bite to catch up.
You’ll have a lull when it first gets dark and then it fires up for a couple hours. Then there’s a dead zone in the middle of the night, but around 2:00 a.m., it’ll kick on again.
To catch a trophy bass, I’m throwing big baits whether it is a soft plastic like the JSJ or the Burrito, or big glides like the S-Waiver 200, Deps 250. The key
areas have good access to deep water, big rock bluffs, rock piles that drop off really fast.
WB: What are your baits of choice during the summertime?
Matthew: Like I said, I do feel a lot of big bass are caught at night. As far as conventional tackle, generally, I’ll throw a swim jig. I’ll throw a big worm, a 10- or 12-inch power worm or I’ll throw ChatterBait. This is the conventional tackle I would use if I’m not throwing my big swimbaits.
I’ll rotate through this conventional tackle but making sure I am still fishing areas that have immediate access to deep water. It (Clear Lake) is different each day. One of those conventional lures will outperform the other one. It’s going to be all ChatterBait or some nights it’s all the big worm and some nights it’s all swim bait.
For which end of Clear Lake to fish, I am a south-end of the lake guy, just because of the amount of rock piles and ridges down there. I did fish North, last year, a fair amount, and I did pretty well up there at night. Fishing in the north- end now is different due to the amount of structure that grew during the drought and most of the tournaments were held on the north end of Clear Lake. This may have had an impact on why the north-end has been better to
Summer 2024
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