Kayak Koz

The first golf shot I ever hit was a "fade". It was unintentional. ?

Three or four years ago when my son was playing travel ball the team had a fundraiser to help pay for part of the season. To raise money they sold smoked port butts. I like BBQ, but I'm not big on smoked meats and pork butt is just a cheap, cheap cut. Holy cow I was wrong! It was one of the best pieces of pork I have ever tasted. I kicked myself for buying only one of them.

Speaking of the Cardinals, I just heard that Bob Gibson passed away. He was an absolutely dominating - and intimidating - pitcher.

Stanton not ready to play? He homered in both games! But don't get me wrong - I think signing Stanton was a huge mistake. He has the worst swing in baseball and his success relies on raw power. If he loses any power as he ages he's going to be brutal. Sanchez is an enigma. Other than power in spurts he can't hit and he's not very good defensively. But I think the Yankees keep him through his arbitration years. It would be great to see him get out of his funk. I was glad to see Frazier finally get an extended chance this year but I wish they would have done teh same with Clarke Schmidt. Maybe next year. The series with the Rays should be good, especially since it's in a neutral park. Because of COVID this was the first time in years my son and I did not travel to Tampa to see the Yankees and Rays play and catch a few Tampa Tarpons games as well.

Yep, always something. Especially when I throw a Booyah Pad Crasher. I got one back with the little one. The big one there is trying to swallow it after I had to cut the line so I wasn't dragged in.

I've never had that happen. I'd be worried about line abrasion and losing a fish or a bait.

I've never heard of adding cocoa to chili. I'll have to check that out. UPDATE: The house smelled great with the chili simmering all day and it came out delicious. Now the house smells like what happens after you eat two bowls of chili.

Who had the Marlins on their bingo card this year? Holy cow! I think Bauer stays with the Reds **IF** they let him pitch every fourth day. He stated pitching every 4th day, playing for a World Series contender, and a team that is deep in pitching analytics are his keys to signing. If you haven't checked it out, his YouTube channel and the Momentum YouTube channel (features Bauer & baseball) are great. Bauer's channel is good for personal insight and Momentum has some great group conversations.

Peanut butter? I have never heard of that. Very interesting - I may have to try it on a small scale.

This time of year and especially in your northern location I don't think the bass are going to be hiding deep in there very often. In the summer heat that would be a different story. If your water temps have already started to cool they may be along the edges as the sun starts to beat down on those areas as the heat will transfer from the bushes to the water. But the biggest thing is finding out of the bait fish are hiding in there. If so, the bass will be patrolling the area looking for a meal. Again, I would throw a moving bait parallel and close to the bank and look to see if the bait fish are scrambling out of the way. If they are, the bass will find them. I have found that as the water cools down in the fall THE most important factor in catching base is finding the bait fish as pond bass don't seem to cruise as much as when the water is warm. If there are any drop offs or channels that's usually where the bass will come up from. For example, in the bottom left of that picture it looks like there's a concrete inlet pipe. Often water movement from that inlet causes a channel to form out into the pond. Those channels are like highways for bass and are usually a good place to start all year long. If you can wade in the water a bit you can position yourself to cover a lot of that bush line.

It's October 1st and that can mean only one thing - it's time to make a pot of chili for the first time this season! Well, OK, I don't use a pot. I use a slow cooker. And I add red and black beans to it and for some that means it's not chili. And I use very little chili powder, but I do have a secret ingredient. What's my secret ingredient? Sriracha. To be more specific, Texas Pete's Sriracha. I like it because the initial taste is sweet and then it brings a little heat as opposed to those watery and fishy sriracha sauces. So, a pound or so of browned ground beef, red and black beans, large can of diced tomatoes, large can of tomato sauce, diced green peppers, a diced chili pepper, some diced garlic cloves, diced sweet onion (preferably Vidalia), a little bit of chili powder, a little salt, and of course the Texas Pete's Sriracha. Don't over do the sriracha just yet. Three or four squirts is enough for now. Some people add cumin. I hate cumin. I prefer a more hearty chili so I often use 2 cans of red beans and one can of black beans or substitute white beans for one can of read beans. As for exact quantities I go by looks and taste. With something like slow cooked chili it's easy to modify to your specific taste as you cook. The reason I prefer a slow cooker to a pot is because if you have cheap pots your chili will have a metallic taste when you let it cook all day. I set the slow cooker to low for 8 hours. About halfway through the tasting begins. If it tastes a bit acidic I'll add a little bit of sugar to help cut that. At this point I usually add a bit more sriracha, then check back again in an hour. Sometimes I might add a little more salt to taste as well. I'm pretty stingy with the salt and it's always easier to add than try to cut it. I check the taste frequently during the last four hours to get just the right blend of sweet heat that I prefer. When it's done it goes great with corn bread. A few years ago I actually won a local chili cook off with this recipe. How do you like your chili?

It's a good day to be a Yankee fan!

Then I would go parallel to that grass line with a moving bait. Chances are the bait fish are also going to move into that type of grassy area for cover. If they are there you will see them scatter when you drag a bait by that area. To get even more specific, I use white or sexy shad spinnerbaits and buzzbaits in these conditions, but your results may vary depending upon the forage available in your area. The caveat this time of year is that if this is a shaded area I wouldn't expect much action. I'd try it, but if I didn't get bit quick I'd fish deeper and slower.

What kind of grass was covered up by the rising water? If it's a grass lawn I never see bass move into that type of territory. Fish from the middle in by fan casting with a Senko, t-rigged worm, or whatever you would normally fish out there. Now if the water has flooded into some tall grass that's a different story. Bass will move into those areas because that tall grass usually attracts insects. I remember one day in that type of a situation where a few feet down from me a bass suddenly leapt out of the water and into the tall grass and got stuck. I had to help him out. And yes - I counted it as a catch! Any time I get aquatic grass sticking up out of the water the first thing I throw is a buzzbait parallel to the grass line. If for some reason that doesn't work I'll throw a spinnerbait parallel to the grass line. But in these cases instead of casting farther out and working my way in I cast tight to the grass line and work my way out.

He spoiled a great outing by Bauer. But it was a great game.

Dozens of others on this site have posted about this as well. I was just the first one today. Here's a link to the weight estimator on BR: https://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html

Hands down it was the 1/2 oz Strike King Sexy Shad buzzbait. I didn't fish as much this year as I have in the past few years, but I caught a ton of 5 and 6 pounders on this bait. In fact, I'm on my 3rd one this year because the bass blew up the first two.

You can also grab some fishing line and cut it to the length of the fish. Repeat the process cutting line to measure the girth of the fish. Not only will you have the length, but you can utilize one of those online weight calculators to estimate the weight of the fish.

I'm a lifelong baseball fan and Yankee fan but I'm just not feeling the same excitement for the playoffs this year. I'm sure it's because of the shortened season, no fans in the stands, and the weird playoff format. Still, I'm rooting for the Yankees and hoping they can break the Jekyll and Hyde routine they've been on for a while now. Another team that interests me is the Reds, mainly because of Trevor Bauer. But before you go off on Bauer, he's really an interesting guy who got a bad rap in the press. It's amazing how meticulous he is when it comes to getting the most out of his mind and body in order to improve his game. And all those pitching analytics you see about spin rate, tilt, release, and axis - that's because of Bauer. He was the first in MLB to start capturing data and video rather than just ask his catcher, "What did that do?" As a former pitcher myself and the father of a budding college/MLB prospect this stuff fascinates me. While I never had the talent to be an MLB pitcher, I often wonder how much better I could have been had I knew what I know now and had all of these tools to help me improve. Heck, when I was in HS and college we were lucky if a coach knew ANYTHING about pitching. We had to go to the library and take out one of a handful of books on the subject if we hoped to get some real instruction. So, who do you have in the playoffs?

What you need to do is update your driver. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028443/windows-10-update-drivers

I think that's called a trellis. Great job. It's always a sense of accomplishment when you build something and it turns out well. On the flip side, I have a barrel of scrap wood in my garage!

You've got the right team there.

The biggest factor in any pond transition is going to be the depth of the pond. Ponds with depth and ledges will have more similarities with larger lakes. However, stormwater ponds or ponds with little depth change will be much different. In the latter case I start by following where the sun is hitting the water looking for bass to be feeding in these warmer parts. This could be a specific bank where the sun is shining or it could be structure protruding out of the water (trees, vegetation, outlets) that radiate heat. If that fails I look for channels. These could be channels created off points or channels created by the flow of water from inlets into the basin or flowing from inlets to outlets. Even if that channel results in only a depth change of half a foot or so I often find bass hunkering down in those channels or running those channels to the shore when they go to feed. Still, when the water cools to at or near whatever the norm is for winter temperatures the bite gets tougher as the feeding periods for bass tend to shorten. But in my experience where I locate the bass in ponds in the winter becomes more consistent than the summer, but the bite times and rate are inconsistent.

I thought about trying to make some lures, but after watching Marling Baits on YouTube I realized I don't have the artistic skills to make something that I would be happy with. Maybe one day I'll give it a try. Here's a link if you haven't seen him in action: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa-xsrfvLmgaUfPFE1TK7OQ

In that situation I start with a 1/2 ounce buzzbait. From there I'll work down the water column with a spinnerbait. With the bait fish boiling my motto is "splash and flash".