Kayak Koz

Only one of those is among the valid choices.

Years ago I was the GM of a Marriott in Lafayette, LA and McIlhenny's was one of our top accounts so naturally I used their Tabasco. Their guys were great and always brought my staff gifts including their product, shirts, ties, and hats. Speaking of Louisiana. while in Lafayette I was also introduced to Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning. Man, that stuff is good on everything including eggs, chicken, pork, steak, burgers, fish, and more. I do like sriracha, but there's a catch. The only sriracha I like is Texas Pete's. I've tried other brands and was grossed out. Sriracha Chili is a staple during the winter around my house. In fact, I'll be making more tomorrow.

My game, my rules ? By location I mean finding where the fish are in that body of water. Depth is not a consideration in my question because it rolls up into finding the fish. Again, I'm keeping things general here. There are plenty more options that could be added but chose not to do so. As for my mentioning the bank, I stated that because in many cases fishing the banks there are many times where I can't fish locations because I'd have to walk in someone's private property whereas in a boat you probably have access to that location. Some boaters also have the advantage of electronics in finding fish. That can help them better target location and depth whereas from the bank anglers like me have to thoroughly work a location at different depths before moving on or we could easily miss out on catching anything. And again, part of this question is to see if there's a difference between boat anglers and bank anglers in ranking these options.

I have a story that involves boating and fog. Years ago I had an oceanfront condo on Hilton Head Island. Now Hilton Head is a bit strange because there are all sorts of bylaws and restrictions regarding illuminated signs and lighting and there are no street lights. So things are pretty dark all around at night. If you live on the beach you are required to have black out curtains because lights from your home could confuse the baby sea turtles. Anyway, we had a dense fog one night during the off season and the island was free of crowds an most tourists. About 10 o'clock at night there's a woman pounding on my door and screaming for help. She and her friends (all tourists) had rented a small boat and got lost in the fog for hours until they got lucky and accidentally beached the boat. I say lucky because they started off on the intracoastal side between the island and the mainland and I lived on the open ocean side. If they hadn't beached they could have easily headed out to the open sea in this little 14 foot boat. We had two boats (25 foot and 42 foot) but thankfully never ended up in a position like that. Heck, it was hard enough navigating the intracoastal and the marshes at night to get to our slips. I can't imagine trying to do that in the fog AND the dark.

I was surfing the web tonight looking for a 3D abstract t-shirt for my son and came across one of those websites that sells all sorts of cheap products. They had a bit of everything including fishing gear. So of course I poked around and looked at the baits and lures. When I came to one listing I burst out laughing. OMG! The picture of these lures is a bit inappropriate, so I won't post it here. I won't even link to it. However, the website is called Light In The Box and you can search for it. Once you get to the website search for this item: 2 pcs Fishing Lures Hard Bait Buzzbait & Spinnerbait Spoons Outdoor Sinking Bass Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

I'm going to disagree. Between cadence, twitching, pumping, lifting, dropping, depth and more I can fish any bait a number of ways. Some topwaters have more limitations, but you can still be creative in your presentations with them.

What I mean is the timing of the feeding cycle of bass. For example, you might find the bass with your electronics but they are not actively feeding at that time and all you get is the occasional reaction strike (which ties into presentation, bait type, etc). For us bank guys, we may very well be casting in the right location that holds a number of bass but they aren't biting and we'll never know they were there. That's why I'll stick around in one area, vary the presentation of the bait I selected, then do the same thing with one or two more baits before moving to the next location. And BTW, I roll speed as well as technique into the topic of presentation.

I would, but the alligators treat those like bubble gum with me as the juicy filling.

I'll chime in with mine now. Location - you need to find the fish first Timing - if they're not hungry you have less chance of a strike Presentation - What is going to trigger them, especially if they are not actively feeding Type - for me the type of bait I use is primarily based upon the clarity of the water and the depth that I want to fish at. Color - I could get by with white, green, and dark blue/black for just about any bait. Water clarity plays a part, as does cloud conditions in some cases. I'm sure your reds and yellows have there place in certain regions, but overall I think color is the least important factor,

So the other day I'm out there doing a LOT more casting than catching and per usual it gave me time to think about the factors that go into catching a bass. Keep in mind that other than a few kayak trips a year I fish almost exclusively from the bank and that means no electronics and I can't access all areas of the body of water so my thinking is probably different than that of a regular boater. So my task for everyone is to rank the importance of the following factors in fishing: Bait presentation Timing (not seasonality) Bait type Bait color Location I purposely did not include weather or seasonality in this list because those variables may impact the choices above. Just assume it's an average fishing day sometime after the spawn and rank the importance. I do have my own opinion on this, but I'll post that later. I don't want my own fishing prowess to influence anyone (/end sarcasm).

As someone who used to build web platforms and apps for a living, I have to say I like the cleaner look. I especially like the change in the layout and the addition of the bottom toolbar on smaller screen mobile devices. Well done. I did notice what appears to be a breadcrumb issue. For example, while in this General Bass Fishing Forum the breadcrumbs are: Bass Fishing Forums > Bass Fishing Forums > General Bass Fishing Forum The first breadcrumb lists all of the forums while the second lists only six of the forums.

There's a small, public lake for bank fishing near me that has utility lines running over a fair portion of the water and it looks like that as well. Maybe it's done by accident, or maybe it's a ritual sacrifice to the fishing gods.

They were still there but not feeding as much. That’s the really frustrating thing right now. When it’s good I catch 2-3 bass an hour where I bank fish. This past few weeks my biggest haul was three landed over a four hour period. I’ve been skunked more than once and had a bunch of one dink days. What makes it really frustrating is that the weather is in the 70’s and perfect outdoor weather. I’m starting to look forward to spring.

The weather has been consistent here but the fishing has not been consistent at all. Some days have been dink days and I have even been shut out. Other days have been great. Fished for an hour today and managed a single 3 pounder.

When I see a bait ball or bass scattering shad I throw a big buzzbait. Specifically a Strike King in the sexy shad color combo. That rarely fails.

It’s weird because for one season the Whopper Plopper was absolute fire for me from the small to large sizes. Some days the action was ridiculous. That was 3 or 4 years ago and since then I may have caught two or three on them. Every now and then I’ll give one a try until it attracts a gator. I’ve moved on to buzzbaits as my primary top water bait and I have not been disappointed.

I usually pack 3 or 4 when I head out to bank fish but they are usually last out of my tackle bag. In fact, I went for years without catching anything on a crankbait until this year where I found moderate success.

I went out for a few hours this morning and caught a couple under two pounds. I decided to try and mix things up by fishing lagoons that I usually don’t fish. The best part of the day was flopping a big spinnerbait towards cover and inadvertently landing it on a big catfish and seeing the spooked catfish grab a little air time. We’re having a virtual memorial service for my father tomorrow since the Canadian border is closed and we can’t intern him at our family plot. After that I’m heading home so my fishing season might be done for the year.

Where do you fish in the Savannah area? Bank or boat? We have thousands of lagoons here but I mainly fish Sun City Hilton Head.

So I was out fishing today and got to thinking: If bass see one of their buddies being dragged away do they call an “Angler Alert”?

I’m visiting in Bluffton for a while. I used to live here for about 15 years.

I finally found a pattern the past few days. I had been thinking an umbrella rig might do the trick, but when I left town I did not bring one nor did I bring a heavy rod. I brought only a MH baitcaster and a medium spinning setup. So instead I tossed a big, double willow spinnerbait with a Keitech paddle tail out as far into the widest part of the lagoons as I could. That did the trick. While it wasn’t big numbers, I found the 3 and 4 pounders. So then I thought, why not go and pick up one of those smaller Yumbrella rigs and see if I can find the bigger bass? I’m not keen on loading my the MH rod I brought too much so I kept the jig heads and swimbaits small. And guess what? Not one bite. But that’s probably because I didn’t want to load the rod that much and that sacrificed casting distance. But I’ll give it another go tomorrow. And the good news is that the big spinnerbait and trailer fired on all the different lagoons I fished. For a few hours I felt close to normal today. Baby steps for now, but our virtual funeral service is on Saturday.

We received the death certificate this week. Interestingly, under cause of death neither Covid nor pneumonia were listed despite the hospital discharge report listing those as his primary ailments when he was released 12 hours before he passed. Under cause of death they just listed the ailments he was diagnosed with over the past few years. And again, because he had been diagnosed with Covid the county coroner did not perform an autopsy. I’m venting here but it helps a little bit. I also post this as a warning to be vigilant if one of your loved ones is diagnosed with Covid. I regret not being able to get to town in time to confront the doctor and hospital. I never thought he would pass so quick.

I loved those when I was growing up. If I remember correctly we had to actually cut and glue the balsa fins. I think those are now just a snap on plastic assembly.

I’m going to disagree a bit on the discussions regarding water temperature. It should be remembered that how water temperature effects bass is dependent upon your location. So while temps in the 40’s or 50’s may be productive in NJ, down here in the south that’s frigid water for our bass. For example, we’re in the fall transition here and air temp is upper 70’s and 80’s and water temp is still in the 70’s but the bass have shut down for now. In lakes during the transition you can expect bass to move to the shallows later in the day. But in most of the stormwater lagoons I fish have little or no depth change so the bass could gather anywhere. Also, there are no feeder streams. But we do have inlet and outlet pipes that connect the lagoons that balance water levels during heavy rains. Pressure from larger lagoons can create a stream like effect on connecting smaller lagoons nearby. What this all means is that in the uniform depth lagoons the bass may be huddled in places out of casting range if the baitfish are in that vicinity. The only lagoons I have had success in this week are those without uniform depth and actually have shallow 1-2 foot water in some areas. But most lagoons are at 5 or so feet at the bank and max out at 7-9 feet. In my experience that’s not enough disparity to create a difference.