Fall fishing is here! Prairie Queen Lake in Papillion, Nebraska played host to the second “Catch All You Can” event for the fall season of 2025. This lake is where this derby started back in 2017. As the morning sun gave these 15 anglers a gorgeous sunrise the battle begin in earnest with numerous catches in the first hour.
Prairie Queen lake can be fished in a variety of ways from deep timber, shallow flats, rip rap shorelines, and numerous main points. Even with the constant fishing pressure this lake gets throughout the year it is still a great place to catch a lot of bass.
This unique event has always been a lot of fun for area kayak anglers with close finishes just about every time. Today was no different! The top three anglers in the Red division were a mere 26 inches apart! That’s basically a couple of catches and any one of those anglers could have taken the title. But Michael Thomas stayed on top and got the win after Marty Hughes led the competition most of the day with Tyler Alexander a close third. Thomas caught two key bass late in the day to extend a six inch lead and hung on for the win. Tyler had some key catches as well in the last hour and a couple more that he had on would have made a huge difference in the standings. Thomas took back-to-back wins in the first two events of the “Catch All You Can” series. He is always in the hunt and makes some amazing adjustments to keep himself withing reach of a victory.
There was a log jam from 4th to 6th place with Robert Lutz, Chris Henry, and Kevin Mach finishing within four inches of each other! Every angler caught fish today with 11 of them over 100 inches.
In the White division Abbie Alexander fishing just her third kayak fishing tournament took top honors with 98.5 inches. She earned some very valuable Angler of the Year points with her effort. Finishing in second was Kyle Wagner followed by Kevin Wagner.
The Top Three Places in each division:
There were several contests within the contest besides the angler catching the most inches of bass. There was also a big bass contest and we had two anglers, David Hutsel and David Harrie catch an 18.75 inch bass. Harrie caught his earlier in the day to break the tie and win the big bass of the day. He took home a ZMan Fishing Products prize pack. And Hutsel wouuld also take home the top five bass limit at 78 inches despite finishing 7th overall! He pocketed the $270 side pot as well!
The “Micro Bag” also sponsored by ZMan had Hunter Krueger turning in a record bag of 31.75 inches with the smallest fish going 4.75 inches caught on a 12” worm! Krueger was awarded a nice big bag of ZMan Micro baits!
Some of the top baits used today included a buzz bait, spinner bait, Neko Rig, and shakey head baits. The winners of each division were also awarded a “Kayakjak’s Bass Kit” full of baits from area bait makers.
We want to thank our sponsors, YakAttack who provided gift cards to all the anglers who placed in the top three of their respective divisions and ZMan for providing the lure packs. Next week, we are hosting a drawing for four major prizes including a kayak by Hoodoo Sports, a Little Miami Outfitters fishing rod, a YakAttack Black Pak, and an Eco Fishing Shop 250 free entry (Sponsored by Kayakjak’s Outfitters). And LL Custom Baits for the nice looking award plaques and lures. We wish to thank these sponsors for their support of our events.
These events provide a variety of challenges that anglers can dedicate their strengths to and enjoy the camaraderie that goes along with it. We are looking forward to our final event next Saturday at Flanagan Lake northwest of Omaha, Nebraska.