2024 HKB STATE CHAMPIONSHIP | PREVIEW

Join us as we preview the upcoming 2024 Soremouth Tackle HKB State Championship - powered by Dakota Lithium!

In just a few hours the best of the best will be competing for the title of State Champion. This year's championship will take place in Rochester, Indiana on Lake Manitou. This will be the first time a kayak tournament has taken place on these waters with the exemption of the former KFL Team, Indy Knights, which hosted their home games on Manitou between the 2021 and 2022 seasons. GRBY will also host an event on Manitou in July of this year.

Manitou is just shy of 800 acres and though it's not a large lake, it features everything from docks and canals, to grass flats and offshore structure, giving each angler on the roster a chance to find multiple patterns and fish their strengths.

We will have a full breakdown on Lake Manitou coming out shortly, so stay tuned for that.

The Championship schedule kicks off Thursday with an official practice day. Though there are no off-limits periods for this event, Thursday is the final day for anglers to figure out their winning patterns. We will also be at the ramp and on the water with the anglers documenting their days, as will be the case for the entirety of the event. Official practice ends at 4:00 PM Thursday.

After practice, anglers will travel just south of Rochester to Kokomo, Indiana where they will gather for the 4th annual Night Of Champions at Soremouth Tackle.

The Night Of Champions is a private event for the championship qualifiers to celebrate their achievements. Each angler will be recognized and receive a sponsor prize pack. Dinner and drinks will also be provided for the anglers, thanks to the support of our sponsors. In addition to dinner and recognition, this is each angler's opportunity to see what's up for grabs, including the custom hardware from Ketch Products.

Before these anglers can hoist the trophy, they have to put in the work and that starts with day one of competition on Friday when the anglers take off in a shotgun launch at 6:15 am. Lines in will be at 6:30 am and anglers will have until 2:30 pm to put up their best 5 fish. We will repeat that process on day two with another 8hrs of competition.

You will be able to follow the leaderboards each day until noon on FishingChaos, at which time they will be shut off. For our anglers, this will add a unique aspect to the competition giving them access to see how their competition is doing early but the final hours each day will be a bit of a mystery.

After day one competition, we will announce the results shortly after check-in. This will either be streamed live or recorded and posted shortly after.

For Saturday's HKBs Trophy Ceremony, presented by Ketch & KBF, we will return to Soremouth Tackle where we will announce the final results and crown our 2024 State Champion. This will be open to the public and streamed live on socials. The trophy ceremony will begin at 5:00 PM. Following the event we will host a Live Streamed recap with our Champion.

Should we have any technical issues we will post the recordings Saturday evening.

One additional thing to note, the current forecast does show some signs of potential severe weather and high winds. There are no back up dates or locations for this event. We will be monitoring the weather and will make adjustments as needed. Sunday is our backup day, should day one or two need to be postponed.

Stay tuned for additional coverage details, as well as the lake breakdown and how you can qualify for the 2025 State Championship!