Every year in West Virginia, the top kayak bass tournament clubs spend the season fishing the state’s rivers, creeks and lakes to determine who is the best angler. The state consists of two main clubs, Mountain State Kayak Anglers and Southern West Virginia Kayak Anglers. These clubs for the third straight year, have come together in a single event to determine who is the best in the state.
The format is simple but an outstanding accomplishment for whoever takes home the title. Throughout the year, each club’s tournament trail is used to decide their club’s corresponding angler of the year. At the end of the season, the top 12 in the angler of the year standings, plus the previous year’s champion, face off in the season’s “Best of the Best” event.
West Virginia crowns 2024 state champion
This year’s State Champion was Matt Ball. Matt is a seasoned angler that has been no stranger to the winner’s stage in his fishing career. Matt is not only a seasoned, local angler but competes on the national stage as well. Among Matt’s accomplishments, he was the first ever KBF National Champion in 2016.
“I am beyond proud to have claimed this title. Ten years ago, I began fishing tournaments with MSKA. This club along with many of the members of the SWVKA were there for me when I won the National Championship, nearly eight years ago, and they have become like family to me,” Ball said. “I have fished against some of the best anglers in the country and can honestly say the state of WV has some of the best of the best across the sport. To win against them is something that I am beyond proud of accomplishing. This event definitely was a tough bite with the conditions. I was able to figure out a deeper bite after my initial pattern had proved unsuccessful. I noticed a lot of bait and marks out, off the bank in around 10 to 15 feet of water. I decided to tie a Spro Rock Crawler on my Casion, John Crews signature rod and see if I could get some bites. It wasn’t long until I had a good solid limit and spent the rest of my day culling up to my final limit that would prove to be enough to take the lead.”
Recap of 2024 state championship
The event was on October 5, 2024, on the well-known Stonewall Lake in Weston, WV. The 2630-acre lake is a well-established bass fishing venue and known for putting up large stringers. Due to season long drought conditions, the lake was ultra-low and made fishing extremely difficult for anglers. Only two anglers put up the four fish limit for the day and 9 anglers didn’t turn in a fish at all. Matt had a winning stringer of 84.25” and was not only the 2024 State Champion, but also named Mountain State Kayak Anglers, Best of The Best.
Also fishing for Mountain State Kayak Anglers, Jonathan Carte took home the second largest stringer of 78”. Dennis Treadway was named Southern West Virginia Kayak Anglers, Best of The Best for 2024 with a third largest stringer of 63.75”.
The tournament was sponsored by many companies that always come through with supporting the sport of kayak fishing.
The event venue was hosted by the beautiful Stonewall Resort, a must stay if visiting West Virginia. For more information please visit: https://www.stonewallresort.com/
A major thank you goes out to the event sponsors
- NuCanoe for providing a U10 kayak.
- Kayak Angler Magazine for covering the story and providing anglers with a digital subscription.
- Fishing Online for providing a team spot to the winner and gift certificates.
- XTRATUF for providing a boot and prize package.
- ZPRO Lithium for providing a battery prize package and gift certificates.
- Torqeedo for providing a brand-new motor to the winner.
- Stonewall Resort for hosting the event, providing a prize package and refreshments.
- First Responder Woodworking for making the trophies.
- Yakattack for providing a new Leaderboard prize.
- And as always, the event was organized and ran through TourneyX.
See complete results of the 2024 West Virginia Best of the Best State Championship.
