Kayak Koz

I have seen integrated rack rollers and window suction cup rollers to help with car topping, but I am nit sure of their weight capacity.

Lots of good advice here. I'll add my two cents, but some of that repeats what was said earlier. What's your budget? That narrows it down quickly. As mentioned earlier, how will you transport it? Car topping isn't as easy when you get to our age. Are you fishing big water or ponds? In big water I wouldn't go out in anything less tan 12 feet nor would I fish big water out of a paddle kayak. You'll be easily frustrated and wish you would have invested in a pedal drive. Read a lot of reviews, especially those involving customer service. Some pedal kayaks look tempting, like Brooklyn Kayak - until you read about their customer service. There's nothing wrong with a used kayak that's a bit dinged up. Get a good PFD. @Swamp Girl is a great resource for canoes. My first kayak was an inexpensive Seastream Angler 120 pedal drive and I loved that thing. But it had limitations, including it was cheap plastic compared to my AP120 or the XTR I'm buying next. But it was still a good entry level pedal kayak.

It did. I do give them points for innovation. I just don't think it will be a great fishing platform.

I heard on a podcast that Flux Jet has fulfilled a few orders, but then again no one out there is providing any real world feedback. Personally, I did not understand the hype about FluxJet as a fishing platform and in the back of my mind I thought it was vaporware. I was about to sell my AP, but some (good) things happened recently that caused me to delay listing it and buying the XTR/Garmin Force Current setup. Maybe something coming out at iCast will make me change my mind on that setup.

Is anyone else excited about iCast 2027? I imagine it will be dominated by urchin baits and urchin bait rigs. But I've heard rumors of new, more powerful kayak motors that will be unveiled this week, as well as a lot of new kayak accessories including streamlining electronics and lighting.

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I run two 100Ah 12v Weize LifePo batteries on my kayak. One is for the motor while the other runs electronics and serves as a backup if I run down my trolling motor (which does happen now and then). I swap places with them every trip so they alternate between powering the kayak motor and the electronics. I've been running them for 3 years with no issues until recently. I don't have a meter, but it seems like they are not holding a full charge. My new rig will require a 24v battery and I will probably go with a LiTime battery to power the trolling motor.

The July/August issue of Bassmaster magazine lists the top 100 bass fishing lakes in the US. Of the lakes in that list, how many have you fished? I have fished 12 of them including 3 that made the top 10 overall.

The first thing I saw was up to 20% better imaging. That phrase "up to" is interesting. My guess is that's under certain specific conditions and not overall performance gain. But I do like the idea of no more black box. On my kayak, that's an important savings on space, weight, extra wiring, and hopefully less amp draw. But is it worth it for me right now to try and sell my now outdated LVS34 and buy this? Not a chance. I'm sure that I'll end up buying this or the next iteration in the future, but that's probably 2+ years away.

At my age I make it a point to avoid sugar whenever I can. I look at food packaging labels to see both the sugar and carb content. If it's not low I avoid it. As we age our metabolism slows down, and that means I need to make changes to what I eat if I don't want to spend a lot of my last years being in poor health when I could be fishing or spending time with the ones I love. I do still indulge now and then, like apple pie and ice cream over the 4th of July weekend. Getting old sucks, but everybody's doing it.

Fun fact: I'm in my early 60's and in my entire life I took one tiny sip of coffee, spit it out, and that was the end of my coffee drinking forevermore.

Thanks. And this time of year I’ll be fishing main lake for spotted bass unless I can find smaller creek channels on the north end holding LMB. But that’s not the smart play on this lake this time of year.

Thanks for the information. I'll try and get to Juliette sometime soon. I'm going to be at Clark's Hill (Strom Thurmond Lake) the next three weekends where I will enjoy the morning topwater bite and then try to execute patience by fishing a drop shot. That will be hard for me. I may have to bring only two rods to practice: One with a spook tied to it, and another with a drop shot and only bring drop shot baits and rigging with me. OK, maybe a shaky head setup as well. Rumor has it the heat index will only be 104 this weekend.

One thing we really haven't touched on in this thread is the different modes for FFS. Almost all of the time I am in standard forward mode. On occasion, when I fish shallow water I have tried perspective mode, but I haven't quite figured it out. In perspective, I'll sometimes see fish motoring along, and on a few occasions I've landed those fish. Maybe I need to change some settings, but I see more clutter than anything. One mode I have not tried is the down mode. But I'll be fishing deeper water for spotted bass much of this month and I'll give that a try. On standard FFS mode, I can see my bait hit the water and see the retrieve. But with a 9" screen, that doesn't work as well if I set the range to 100 feet. I hear that bait monkey calling! But really, a 12" screen would be too much on my current kayak. Another thing not mentioned is that in close and mid ranges, the cone is very narrow. Many times I'll see what is obviously a bass swim by quickly, but it's hard to try and track it, at least on my kayak. The transducer is attached to a Sniper Marine pole, off to me left side. I imagine it would be easier to track fish if the transducer was attached to the trolling motor, something that I don't believe is possible with my Minn Kota Autopilot motor. Also, it would probably be impossible to change modes on the water. Right now I can pull my Sniper Pole up and with a few quick turns of an allen wrench quickly change modes.

I've fished Dodge, High Falls, and Ocmulgee. But each of those are at least an hour away. Sometimes I just prefer to fish close to home. I travel enough to fish. Tobo is about 30 minutes. Flat Creek PFA is 20 minutes but it's junk. I've also fished Varner, Big Lazer Creek, Hugh Gillis, and Marben. I keep waiting for Lake Margery to reopen at Marben. It's been almost 2 years now. But I have not fished Juliette. Is it true that spotted bass have pretty much taken over? I'm not a fan of clear water, spotted bass lakes. Unfortunately, I'm fishing one of those next on my schedule.

I don't have the stones to kayak fish at night with big gators around. Nope. Even a bass boat would be scary. I've seen gators climb. I didn't hit the lake today, either, I got up at, opened the garage, and got a good sample of the 100% humidity and stifling air. I backed my Bronco out of the garage to turn around and hook up my trailer and then I just sat there for a few minutes thinking, "Do I really want to do this today with the heat, humidity, and what will probably be early morning boat traffic on main lake?" I parked it and went inside. Now I'm doing some map study and research on Clark's Hill Lake before I head down there on Friday and then later at the end of the month.

I woke up at 5 this morning, stretched, let the dog out, and went back to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I like this one, but then again I'm biased.

So, how many of you are brave enough to hit the lakes this weekend with all of the pleasure boats - and rental pleasure boats - that will be out on the lakes? I may head out and fish the north part of Tobosofkee on Saturday morning. It's shallow and essentially a bunch of small finger like channels so that keeps the pleasure craft away. But that also means the water will be hot and most of the bass will have moved to deeper waters in the main lake. All of the lakes around here are very narrow, so fishing deeper, main lake waters in the is tough because of all of the pleasure boaters flying by and the constant wakes that rock my kayak around. It's probably not much fun in a bass boat, either. But I also thought about fishing one of the many Georgia Public Fishing Areas because they are limited to idle speed or electric motors. Ocmulgee PFA is highly pressured, but features some big bass. That would be the perfect situation for me to learn to be patient and fish a drop shot or shaky head. I also thought about heading to try out Paradise PFA. They have a ton of lakes out there. But it's a 90 minute drive and with a heat index approaching 110 I was only planning to fish in the morning. I'd love to spend the day there in the fall and hop from lake to lake. Then again, maybe I'll just stay home in the air conditioning.

With my current trailer, my feet get wet when I launch my kayak. When the water is warm I wear either some Keen H2's or Skechers Ultra Go Slip Ins. When the water is cold I wear muck boots. But I have to say, I worry about going overboard in muck boots and having them fill with water. So most times I'll swap out the muck boots for some sneakers once I'm out on the water.

Album drops at midnight tonight on all download and streaming platforms! Honestly, if you want to get pumped up on the way to the ramp this will get your toes tapping and blood pumping. I'm tempted to post a link o the previews, but I don't want to violate any rules. Search your favorite platform tomorrow. I'd love to hear everyone's feedback - even if you think it stinks. That's how to make things improve.

This is where I believe that I have an advantage fishing out of a kayak. I can pull up close to those bushes and then fish parallel to the bank with a spinnerbait or another moving bait looking for a reaction strike. I creep to the bank and make short casts so I don't blow out all of the bass hanging under the bushes or in the weeds. I suppose that you can do that from a boat, but I don't think I've ever seen a boater do that.

The heat index was around 105 this past weekend and it will be 111 here this week. I had too many other things to do this past weekend so I didn't fish. Next weekend I'm supposed to be with my girlfriend at her place on Lake Keowee, but with it being the 4th of July weekend and all of the pleasure boaters I don't think that I will bring my kayak. I'll stick to the bank for a few days. That being said, if I'm fishing for fun when the heat is brutal I'll head out on the water between 5 and 6 in the morning and be off the water no later than 10 or 11. I have to gut it out on tournament days.

I saw a video review on YouTube and the guy said it was fantastic. The caveat is that the winds were not very gusty. I still have reservations about that motor, but seeing this news, talking to some owners, and talking to a top rated kayak shop has me just about ready to go all in.

Garmin may have just won the kayak trolling motor wars. If you're familiar with the Garmin Force Current, you know that it's a stern mount motor. Among its many features is Anchor Lock (their version of spot lock) which positioned the stern of the kayak into the wind or current. But I just saw the latest release includes Bow Lock, positioning the bow of the kayak into the wind or current. This is an absolute game changer for that motor, and despite the cost takes me one step closer to choosing it in my upcoming new kayak build.