Kayak Koz

I happen to make a pretty good sriracha chili using Texas Pete's. What I like about it is that it provides both sweet and heat. I even won a chili cook off with that recipe a few years ago. Being a full time, single dad I do a lot of cooking (we only do fast food when we are on the road). I even did most of the cooking when I was married. I love to cook on the grill although for some reason I haven't done much of that lately. I don't do anything fancy in the kitchen, but I'm also not afraid to try different spice palates and throw something together. If it comes out bad I can just make pizza dough and heat up the pizza stone. My son is 14 now and since he was 11 or 12 I've begun showing him how to cook, how to handle a kitchen knife, etc. Some days he's into it, some days he could care less. I told him that while it may not mean much to him now, but when he gets to college if he cook a decent meal the girls are going to be falling all over him.

Just For Men shampoo will help reduce that gray hair. I gave myself a clipper haircut a month or so ago and accidentally cut it too close to my part and left a nice thin spot. I did get to the barber the other day to clean things up and I feel human again albeit my hair is a little shorter than usual. Hopefully my mistake grows back but at my age you never know.

Although some say they are out of style, I bank fish most of the time and wear cargo shorts. This allows me pockets for my phone, fish grippers, and pliers. If I'm fishing alone I usually find it too much of a hassle to snap a picture trying to hold the fish and I don't feel like strapping a tripod to my backpack. So the only decent pics I get is when I'm fishing with my son or someone else or someone happens to be nearby who can take the picture. True story - a few weeks ago I was fishing a lagoon along the road and had just landed a five pounder just as a woman was driving by. She actually stopped and asked if she could take a picture. I have no idea who she was, but obliged. Maybe she thought I was handsome and wasn't interested in the fish.

I do most of my fishing i waters where 2 and 3 pound bass are common. So for me, a 4 pound bass is decent and anything over 5 is good. What I find frustrating is that my PB is a hair under 7 pounds and I catch a ton of 5 and 6 pounders every year. To top it off, a decent number double digit bass are taken out of those lagoons every year. Someday...

One of the coolest things I have ever witnessed was a giant Red Tailed Hawk swooping don and grabbing my Whopper Plopper. It got about 10 or 15 feet in the air and thankfully dropped it. I've had plenty of gator encounters over the years including landing a baby gator on a frog and having a full grown gator hiding in the bushes grab my frog (I didn't land him - just cut the line). I've even been chased around teh bank by a gator. But the coolest gator memory involves my son. We're fishing a small lagoon and as he's reeling in a topwater I see a juvenile gator (4 or 5 footer) start heading for his lure. Then the gator picks up speed. My son is standing there oblivious to everything. Now what was cool was the gator's tail was propelling him so fast that his body raised out of the water and he was skiing across the water like a hydrofoil boat. And man was he moving fast! Thankfully my son snapped out of his stupor and didn't lose his bait to the gator. Oh - and speaking of turtles, did you know that they blink their eyes? There's one spot that I fish where just about every time this turtle comes and hangs out with me. He just sits there looking at me while I fish. I thought he was staring, but the little guy actually blinks.

It's ironic that the more we become connected via social media the less we become connected in real life.

I use either an all white, chartreuse and white, or sexy shad half ounce spinnerbait. If they are not hitting the spinnerbait as is I ad a Keitech Swing Impact trailer. Money in the bank!

I lost my job due to COVID-19 but as it turns out I would have had to quit anyway. Both my father and stepmother are in poor health and both were hospitalized at different times and my son and I went down to take care of them. We ended up spending about 7 weeks there coming home only once for about a week. On the bright side, they live in Sun City Hilton Head and there are almost 300 lagoons there to fish. So yeah, I did a lot of sihing. I mean a LOT of fishing. For the first two or three weeks the bass were crushing a half ounce Sexy Shad buzzbait (no trailer). Withing two weeks they hit is so much it was bent up and the blade broke off and I needed a replacement. I caught a couple of 6 pounders and a ton of 2-4 pounders. Then the fishing went flat for a week or so. I was still catching them on soft plastics and a few other lures, but the baitfish had moved off the banks and the bass stopped hitting the buzzbait. But I don't think I caught anything over 2 pounds during that time. After that the bass started crushing any white or mostly white spinnerbaits. Blades were popping off right and left and they were bending the crud out of all of my spinnerbaits. Quality was back up and I was catching at least one four or five pounder every day. There was one lagoon I ended up fishing frequently that I had only fished once before. There's no more than 30 yards of bank access and there's high, thick aquatic vegetation along the bank. I normally don't like to fish in those conditions because it's hard to see if a gator is hiding along the grass. But this lagoon turned out to be a great spot for mid afternoon fishing just about every single day. I did have a first in that lagoon - I caught my first bowfin. What a nasty fish. I'm glad I had fish grips with me. I ended up catching two of them. The first was close to 30 inches long and hit a spinnerbait inches from the bank. The second was only about 18 inches long and this one not only hit right at the bank but ended up in the thick grass as the timing of my hookset and his moving towards the bank sent him airborne. The first one I caught lived up to its reputation as a good fighter. I had another rarity for me - I caught bass on crankbaits. I don't throw them a lot, but I throw them enough and I have about a zero success rate. But when I replenished my buzzbaits and spinnerbaits at Dick's they had a buy 6, get to free promotion going on and I picked up a few 1.5 crankbaits and they ended up paying off. All in all, it was great fishing. I've been back home for a few weeks now and have not fished any of the waters up here. I may try this weekend, but the fishing up here has just been terrible. I may have to rent a kayak and see if that helps.

I find it amazing that after these many months of lock down and social distancing that most stores still have empty shelves that used to be full of toilet paper and paper towels.

Every now and then I like to undertake a woodworking project and build something instead of buying something. For example, an entry table, TV stand, or something of that nature. I am not an expert carpenter by any stretch of the imagination. My tools are fairly basic. Things like a table saw, miter saw, circular saw, clamps, and just recently a small detail router. I haven't tried out the router yet, but I have a bunch of scrap wood to practice with. Anyway, I needed something for rod storage in my garage and after looking at purchasing one I decided to build one instead. I find a few plans online, then modified them for the size I needed and added some additional support. The plans called for using oak, but I went with poplar instead. The main reason was cost - if I screwed something up in the build it was cheap to buy replacement wood. The drawback with poplar is that even with treating it, it doesn't take stain very well. But since this was a garage piece and not a show piece I could live with that. Anyway, it was a straight forward piece with only basic joinery. I have fine blades on my miter saw and table saw so the cuts went smooth. I spent most of the project sanding everything down with increasingly finer grads of sandpaper. The build went smooth and it all turned out well. Solid with no wobbles. Stain, sand, stain, sand, and stain again. I still have some touch up stain to do but I got a bit antsy and after the last coat dried decided to put my rods in their new home. For my next project I'm going to work on a decorative platter for my oversized counter, but this time I'll use walnut or oak. I'm also going to up my joinery game, maybe with some finger joints. I sketched out a few things but haven't decided on the final layout yet.But first I may bet a plunge router and build a router table or build a jig or two for my table saw. I'm still undecided.

The Hyundai label, and especially the Genesis brand that my car falls under is actually pretty decent. I honestly think the last two turbo issues were the fault of the dealer in their installation and/or rebuilt instead of new turbo. I have to say that with the latest turbo the acceleration is "crisp" and the response is great with much less lag than before. Now that I'm in a new city I am using a different dealer. Overall, except for service department issues at my last location, my Genesis Coupe has been one of my favorite cars. But I will admit as I get older the stiff suspension isn't a great daily drive. The cabin noise is a bit much as well, but that's to be expected. I suspect I'll trade it in within the next year, probably for a crossover or a small SUV.

He did. He was so concerned about getting her back in the water he didn't take time to cut some fishing line to measure the length and girth.

True story - when my son and his friend named him I mentioned to them that the females are the big bass but they didn't care, so Big Hank it was.

About 4 years ago when I was living in the SC Lowcountry we used to fish a private pond that the owners were gracious enough to let us fish. On one end there was a lot of tall, aquatic grass and on the other a small dock with a tall safety rail around the perimeter. This made is awkward to fish, but back then my son was only 10 years old and it was a nice added measure of safety. We caught a decent number of bass in there, but nothing over two pounds. One day we were out there fishing with a buddy of mine and his son with the kids fishing from the dock. Suddenly they yelled out in amazement. The water was clear in this pond and they spotted a big bass near the dock. A really big bass. A really, really big bass. They started tossing baits in its direction but it wouldn't bite at anything. On the way home the kids dubbed the fish Big Hank. We fished that lagoon again and again and occasionally we saw Big Hank just sitting there near the dock. Try as we might, he never hit at any bait we tempted him with. Then one day my son is fishing the dock while I'm fishing the bank nearby and he yells out, "Got one!" I look in his direction and I'm immediately taken aback and start running in his direction. At the time my son was fishing a 6 foot, medium-light Abu spinning rod. I was taken aback because when I looked over at him the rod was nearly doubled over. Whatever he had on the line was big. As I get to the dock the fish comes to the surface and does a roll back to the depths. It was a big bass. It was Big Hank. But now we have a problem. Not only does my son have the wrong rod for this situation, he's only about 4' 9" at the time and there's no way he's going to get that bass over the rail. Not only does the rail surround the dock but it also surrounds the walkway to the dock. Luckily, we brought a net. Unfortunately, the net was still in the car which was way over on the opposite side of the pond. I tell my son to try and keep tension on the line as I start running to go grab the net. I make it no more than 10 feet off the dock and Big Hank breaches, the line slacks, and he slips off the hooks. My son was crushed. The next day we went out and bought him a better rod. Fast forward four years and I'm living in the SC Upstate and I get a text message from my buddy who my son and I fished with at that pond years ago. He was fishing that same pond with his son and landed a big one. A really big one. I think that after all of these years someone finally caught Big Hank. Unfortunately, he did not have a scale with him and was so excited he did not grab some fishing line to measure the length and the girth for a weight estimate. Anyway, below is a photo of what might be Big Hank. Any weight estimates would be welcome. If it helps, the angler is about 5' 7" tall.

No worries. I use trailers on jigs and chatterbaits and when timing calls for it put a Keitech on spinnerbaits. But where I fish it is counterproductive to put them on buzzbaits. The fact that bass destroy 2 or 3 buzzbaits each year for me tells me all I need to know.

I've had the Plano A-Series 2.0 Tackle Backpack for a few years now and it has been great. I bank fish and I often covers miles (usually 3-5 miles) of ground walking from lagoon to lagoon and have never had a problem with comfort. It's also comfortable (and balanced) if I'm riding a bike to different fishing locations. In fact, the only problem I have had is that with five 3600 StowAway boxes plus all of the other storage for plastics and gear I tend to pack too much into it. Of course, the fact that I'm getting older and weaker has something to do with that as well. So I usually carry only 3 or 4 of the boxes. I'm sure there are other great backpacks out there as well. But I can tell you that as a bank fisherman changing from a tackle bag to a backpack was one of the best moves I have ever made.

STRONGLY disagree with that one. When the water is choppy in the spring a 1/2 ounce Sexy Shad colored buzzzbait is killer. I'm on my second one this season already because the bass hit the first one so much it broke apart. Almost all of my catchers were good sized - 3 pounds and up. The biggest was just under 7. Most of the bass I caught were along the shoreline where the baitfish were hanging out, but the 6+ pounder was out in open water. If you see a bait ball or boil out in open water toss the buzzbait! Oh yeah - NO TRAILER on the buzzbait. Just let it do it's thing. Personally, I sometimes think we all get too cute with "trailer fever". Buzzbaits are one of those baits that perform better without them. Plus, without the added weight you can crank them in slower if needed,

Bass have been crushing spinnerbaits for me the past few weeks. How much? They destroyed two of them and I've had to go out and buy more.

Holy crap I lost another turbo on my Genesis Coupe this week! This time it was just 30 miles into a 250 mile drive home and let me tell you that sucked, especially when I reached the hilly areas in the SC Upstate. On the bright side, I'm still within my 10/100 warranty so it's all covered. But this is getting ridiculous.

Sorry for your loss and the frustration of dealing with it all during the COVID-19 outbreak. I've been dealing with issues with my elderly parents as well and spent most of the last two months taking care of them. My dad has been in and out of the hospital and eldercare rehab facilities a number of times this year. A few months ago he went in again and my son and I had to head down there and take care of my stepmother. She has had issues due to not eating most anything in the past year (long story). Because of that and dehydration she was all out of sorts and not thinking straight. We called an ambulance to take her but she refused to go. After 3 weeks my dad got out of the hospital, we came home for a few days, and then had to go back to take care of dad when she finally agreed to go to the eldercare rehab hospital. But before she could go there her blood pressure crashed and she went into ICU for a few weeks then to the facility. But they did get her to start eating and drinking properly again and she recovered. My ex-wife also lives down there, and just before my son and I were heading home her mother took a turn for the worse and then passed away. I stayed another week while my son stayed with his mother, but I had to come home. He's there taking care of his mom for a while. But with COVID-19 going on they can't get a death certificate produced and a week later her mother still has not been cremated. They can't even plan a funeral at this time. I expect I'll be traveling back and forth a lot (4 hour drive) for the foreseeable future. But that's what family is all about. The one positive thing about it is there's great fishing down there. So when I need a break from cooking, cleaning, shopping, and taking care of them I head out and fish for a while.

There's a good perpetual thread on jig fishing:

The only time I worry about weather and fishing is if it is dangerous conditions outside or it’s too uncomfortable to fish. Every minute I can spend fishing is another chance to catch a PB. Just fish it!

I like to visit Charleston but have never really fished there. My son had a few baseball tournaments just north of Charleston and one time we stopped and fished a big lagoon along the way and landed a bunch of 2 - 4 pounders. I fish further south in the Hilton Head area where we have thousands of lagoons to choose from.

I’ve been fishing a lot the past few weeks and have become comfortable wearing Huk gaiters out in the warm sun. The only time I have a problem with my glasses fogging is when so wear it inside the grocery store in place of a face mask. Funny story - I changed my Twitter profile pic to the photo below and later made a comment on someone’s political tweet. I was accused of being a conservative terrorist hiding behind a mask. I had to point out is was a brand name fishing gaiter and fishing hat and there was a big lagoon behind me and that I fished almost every day. Some people...

If you have a boat then places like Hartwell, Jocasee, etc can produce good fishing but you also have to deal with lots of traffic on the water and pressured fishing. Personally, I like bank fishing because it helps me get a ton of exercise. I bank fish like a boater. But my trolling motor is my legs and feet and I cover miles walking the banks of lagoons. There are usually 3-5 lagoons in each area I fish. For me pulling up anchor is getting in my car and driving for 5 minutes to another cluster of lagoons. If you like boating then the S.C. Upstate is the place to be. If you like lots of trophy largemouth bass and walking the banks to fish from your choice of thousands of lagoons then the Lowcountry is the place to be. The Upstate does have one other advantage- no alligators! And right now it’s gator mating season and the bulls are aggressive. I had one come out of the water and chase me off the bank today.