By Bob Druckman – Publisher
South Huntsville Neighbors
By now many of us have heard that Kayak Bass Fishing (KBF) is coming to Ditto Landing right here in South Huntsville. Chad Hoover is the Founder and President of KBF. Chad is a retired naval aviation officer, who spent his formative years hunting and fishing in both Louisiana and Georgia. Upon his retirement from the Navy in 2012 he opened up a kayak fishing shop in Hendersonville, TN. It was very successful and four years later he sold it to concentrate on his tournaments.
I caught up with Chad as he was driving to his most recent tournament.
What is Kayak Bass Fishing?
Kayak Bass Fishing is a community of over 60,000 members. We have tournaments around the country and we wanted to have a tournament in North Alabama. We are known for our tournament series, but we are also known for our Catch Photograph and Release policy. CPR as it is known is a conservation effort that we started using an online format in 2009, it is better for the environment and the fisheries and we are able to provide a ton of information to the various Bureaus of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Why Did You Choose Ditto Landing?
I love the Tennessee River. It is centrally located between Wheeler Lake and Lake Guntersville. As a retired naval aviation officer I saw that Huntsville was a great opportunity. With its growth, proximity to Redstone Arsenal and the Space Program, Huntsville is really perfect for me. The area also has outstanding fishing, hunting and biking opportunities.
What Will You Be Doing At Ditto Landing?
We will begin the Ambassador Series in Fall 2022. We will then bring our most prestigious event, the KBF National Championship, here for 2023 and 2024. We will also be constructing our media headquarters here. It will consist of rooms for video and social media. The building will be known as the KBF Media Headquarters or HQ and it will be billed as the YakAttack Kayak Shack.
When Will The Building Be Ready To Go?
We need to work closely with TVA because they have ownership of the building and it is quite old. We have to make sure that TVA is ok with everything that we do. That being said, the outside of the building will be ready before the 2nd week in November. The Podcast Studio for our live show will be completed about the same time.
Other modifications that we will be working on will be a full kitchen studio for healthy cooking videos, along with a rigging and outfitting shop that will function as a co-op studio where other content creators, can use our tools and studios to outfit their kayaks and create instructional videos.
As Chad put it,” We are so excited to be at Ditto Landing.”
South Huntsville Neighbors 