Kayak Koz

Dad and stepmother are still struggling health wise but they are out of the hospital. Thank you for asking.

I paid only $1.89 a gallon for gas in Greer SC on Friday. Today I’m in Bluffton SC visiting family and running errands for them and gas is $2.19 here. I also did some grocery shopping for my parents and sure enough there was no toilet paper, tissues, or paper towels. Milk, eggs, bread, and almost all meats were gone as well. I just don’t understand the panic some people are displaying. It’s making mountains out of mole hills. That being said, if the US ever faces a massive killer virus, war, or some other big event we will not survive. You can bet that China and Russia are taking notes now. Americans have gone soft.

I was back in the S.C. Lowcountry today visiting family and spent some time fishing the lagoons. At one point I felt my chatterbait hit something and stop. Snagged. So I start with the bow technique trying to vibrate the line and knock it free. No dice. So I move down the bank trying to get behind the snag and free it up. No go. I let out some line and move further down the bank still keeping tension on the line. I snap it and nothing then drop the rod tip to grab the line by hand and the rod bows. I’m not snagged - there is something on the line. Sure enough, I let out line and it moves off slowly. So now I lock it down and try to reel it in and it doesn’t budge. Every time I give it some slack it moves off and bends the rod again. For about 25 minutes I’m trying to reel it in and barely make any headway. Then the line goes slack and I reel in my chatterbait. I figure I snagged either an alligator or maybe a big turtle, but more likely a gator because turtles tend to try and swim off. Too bad I’ll never know what it was. Anyway, after a slow start it turned into a decent day. I caught 8 or 9 in the 1-2 pound range and ended the day with a 5 pounder. Back at it in the morning.

That stinks. Still no cancellations here but that may change. Went and saw the local HS varsity and JV teams play last night. The kid that was pitching is a Clemson commit and the #1 rated player in SC. There were at least 20 scouts watching him. I stayed through 4 innings and he had struck out 11, but 3 walks, 4 errors, 1 hit, 1 wild pitch, and one passed ball and we were down 2-1. My son had medical issues last fall and missed too much school to be able to play for his middle school team this year so we're hoping rec ball and travel ball aren't canceled later this spring. He's itching to play after a year off from team play.

That's what we've done. The first steps were taken by our government when the news came out of China that they were in the midst of an epidemic. Unfortunately our politicians are doing what they do best - politicize the issue. The other issues we seem to be facing are that of lobbyists trying to steer profits in their direction and companies trying to financially capitalize on the issue. While I support a free market economy, it seems too many companies still put shareholders above all. At least Mark Cuban stepped up and said he would do the right thing.

When the H1N1 virus hit the US in 2009 it wasn't until over 20M Americans were infected and over 1,000 died before our federal government took action. So while I understand why we all need to be cautious now I don't understand why so many people are in a state of panic and why so many seem to be overreacting. FWIW, H1N1 ended up infecting over 60M people in the US and killing over 4,000. But I don't recall mass closings of universities or pro sports shutting down. In the US the 2019 flu season has led to 280,000 hospitalizations (millions more infected) and 16,000 deaths. All of the reports thus far have stated that the although it can be passed rather easily, those at high risk for death are the elderly and those with underlying conditions. Take China and most Asian countries, for instance. They have a high rate of people who smoke and they don't live in the healthiest conditions compared to western standards. So by all means lets be cautious out there but at the same time lets take our finger off of the panic button - at least for the time being.

Interesting that so many have no luck with a chatterbait. With the right trailer it's been the top producing bait for me over the last year including a ton of 5+ pound bass. As for me, a lipped crankbait has been my kryptonite. I have even made it a point to go throw them for an hour or two straight and - nothing. However, I do fish from the bank and I think that their design makes them more efficient being reeled in from shallow water to deeper water than casting them out into deeper water and reeling them into shallow water.

We had that situation around here yesterday. After cloudy, damp, and cool weather during the day yesterday was a sunny day that warmed into the low sixties late in the afternoon. Earlier in the day the bass were sitting down the drop offs near the flats. But as the sun beat down more and warmed the many laydowns the bass moved to those downed trees as they absorbed more heat and transferred it to the surrounding water..

Run a buzzbait over the top of them. Sexy Shad color gets their attention in my neck of the woods. Trust me on this.

Forget the boat. Go down to Hilton Head Island, SC and do some bank fishing in any of the THOUSANDS of lagoons. Whether you stay in Sea Pines, Hilton Head Plantation, Palmetto Dunes, Shipyard, or anywhere else there are tons of stormwater lagoons with big bass. How big? If you're not regularly pulling out 3 and 4 pounders you're not trying hard enough. Lots of 5 and 6 pounders around and you can even run into double digit bass. There are a few things to be aware of. First, you cannot fish on the golf courses but there are still thousands of lagoons to choose from. Second, you can't always park your car next to lagoons. You may have to park down the road. My suggestion is to rent a bike so you can cover a ton of ground. Last, there are alligators. You need to be cautious, especially around high grassy areas. The good news is that the grass around most lagoons is cut down. Just keep your head on a swivel when fishing and you should be fine. Don't wade into the lagoons and fish in open areas instead of tight spaces.

From the time I was 8 or 9 years old we would go camping at Bantam Lake in CT and Lake Bomoseen in VT and my dad introduced my brother and I to fishing. My dad also introduced me to the phrase, "Just one more cast." Back home we would ride bikes and hit a few ponds. One was Taunton Pond that had some decent bass in it, but it also had a lot of homes around it. There was another pond where we used to go fish at that had an old pump house there and a few giant boulders to fish from. It was isolated and there were no houses around it. I can't remember where it was located in our town, but I remember we caught a lot of bluegill and yellow perch there.

I lost respect for Ike a few years ago. I called in to Ike Live and we swapped alligator stories. He then told me on air that he was going to send me a bunch of gear and read off what was going to be sent to me. I'm still waiting despite contacting him about it at least half a dozen times. What ticked me off is that this was just before Christmas and I was going to give this stuff to my young son who was just really getting into bass fishing.

This our our dog Boomer. He's a Chiweenie (Chihuahua/Dachshund mix) we picked up at a shelter where he had been abandoned twice before. He had previously been named Chico and Grover, but those just didn't fit. So my then 8 year old son started rattling off names and nicknames of Yankee players and when he said Boomer (nickname of David Wells) this scared little dog popped up his ears and tilted his head like, "Yes! Finally a cool name for me!" The second weekend we had him we had a baseball tournament and had to be gone for most of the day so we crated Boomer while we were gone. When we got home he was still in his crate, but the crate had moved almost 10 feet across the floor! So the next day we put a towel over the crate hoping to keep him calm. When we came home he had eaten most of the towel and was pooping bits of terry for days. So the next times that we had to go out we decided to let him roam the house. Over the next week he tore up 3 sets of window blinds. This little dog would climb on desks and furniture and just rip them apart. He had abandonment issues and had been mistreated in the past. For the first few weeks he'd sit near us but not with us, but he slowly warmed up. That was 6 years ago and now he's a great companion dog. If I go to the living room he follows and sits with me or my son. If I move to my office he gets up and moves to his dog bed in my office. At night he goes to bed with my son and halfway through the night he jumps on my bed. As for fishing, I didn't take him with me when I lived in the SC Lowcountry because he'd end up being a gator snack. But we've gone to the lakes here in the SC Upstate and he's come along for the walks, but he likes to be on the move when he's outside so I don't see him being a fishing buddy. But that's OK, my son is still my fishing buddy for a few more years.

I lived in Maine in the late 90's and I remember getting twin 1-1.5 pound lobsters for $9.99. Life was good. I also lived in the Hilton Head Island area for many years and we could but shrimp fresh off of the trawlers. We would also set out crab pots and and there were plenty of places to harvest your own oysters. Add some corn and potatoes and you could make your own Lowcountry Boil.

Growing up I listened to The Who, The Kinks, Rolling Stones, Kansas, Eagles, Boston, and Meatloaf. I still have some of those on my phone but my taste in music is a bit more diverse. I have classic bands like AC/DC and Aerosmith along with country music, Frank Sinatra, Bowling for Soup, Imagine Dragons, and more. I think with the way we can now purchase individual songs instead of having to buy entire albums I'm more apt to listen to and purchase a wider array of music.

While I don't miss those high cable bills, I do miss not having A&E and watching LivePD. Unfortunately, I don't see YouTube TV picking up A%E anytime in the near future without raising the base rate.

I am not retired but until I moved last year I had the ability to fish every day if I wanted to do that and usually fished 4-6 days a week. I bank fished and literally had thousands of lagoons to choose from and the fishing was usually great. For me it was a great way to decompress. For the most part there were no "deep thoughts". In fact, my mind usually went blank and I just enjoyed the outdoors, the flora and fauna, walking the banks, and biking from lagoon to lagoon. Sometimes I fished alone and sometimes with my son or friends. But in each case it just allowed me to clear my mind. I guess that's why I enjoyed it so much. Everything going on in my life melted away and I could truly relax and not worry about or think about anything. I could use some of that right now!

Bobby Lane, Brett Hite, and Casey Ashley caught zero scorable bass in two full rounds of this week's MLF tournament in Okeechobee. Three more anglers are blanked into their second round today. These guys probably have the best electronics and use them to put food on their table. I bank fish and live and die by the areas I can access. But I do understand how you feel. Since I moved last year I have not caught one bass in the lakes I have fished. Thank goodness I go visit my parents at least once a month and have access to some great fishing.

Hard to believe because they are probably THE most productive bass baits in the world, but the bane of my existence is lipped crankbaits. I catch more bass on a chatterbait in one week than I have caught on lipped crankbaits in my entire life! It's not like I don't throw them, either. Last weekend I was determined to catch something on a lipped crank and I tossed them for just over an hour straight without a single strike. The issue may be that I bank fish. I think the way crankbaits are designed they are best served by tossing them from a boat and swimming them away from the bank or using a deep dive crank out in the middle of the lake.

Are you putting a trailer on them? Black and blue Chatterbait Elite with a blue Zoom Vibe Speed Craw in stained water has been killer for me year in and year out.

Does the recliner have a bluetooth connection, say for speakers or for an app that can work the chair controls?

The conveyance pipes and the outlet are both blocked with sediment. Because of the blockage, the lagoon has grown in size and the outlet control structure is under water most of the time. At a minimum, the basin needs to be dredged and the dam needs to be built up again at the outlet control structure. Based upon my prior stormwater experience it's a $50k+ job. I don't think they undertake that until the county inspects their lagoons.

My son showed him the picture. The funny thing is that he lived on that tiny lagoon for a decade before I though of trying to fish it. We were taking down storm shutters for him and his neighbors after a hurricane warning and I saw something white and green jump in the water. When we finished the job, my son threw a line in there and he caught a 2 pound white crappie. He was happy as a lark and went inside so I decided to fish it. I caught a 4.5 and a 5.8 LMB that afternoon. Now I fish it for at least a few minutes every time I get to town.

Thanks. I must admit that I'm blessed to get to fish in an area where 4 and 5 pounders are actually fairly common. Well, at least where my dad lives (and where I used to live) it's fairly common. Where I live now the waters are so pressured I don't see many people catching anything.

It's hard to believe that we're coming up on the 40th anniversary of Team USA's 1980 Olympic Hockey gold medal. I honestly don't think that the young folks today can appreciate what a huge moment that was in both US history and the world of sports. For those of you not old enough to remember, it was a bleak time for the US. We were in the midst of the Cold War and the USSR was flexing its political and military muscles. Iran had stormed the US Embassy taken 52 Americans hostage. While Jimmy Carter was likeable as a person, he seemed ineffective as President. We had gasoline rationing and long lines to fill up your tank. But then came the 1980 winter Olympics. Back in those days the Olympics was an amateur competition and the US hockey team was comprised of a bunch of college hockey players that no one had ever heard of. Meanwhile, the Soviet "amateur" team was composed of grown men from their Red Army team and what most considered to be professional athletes. The Soviet team routinely crushed every opponent, including crushing the Americans 10-3 in a pre-Olympic event. Some how, some way this upstart group of young men dethroned the might Soviet team in the medal round on their way to Olympic gold. I was a young high school hockey goalie back then, first born in the US in my family. My great grandparents had escaped Stalin and the Russian Revolution with my grandmother in tow and escaped to Canada where my father was born. My connections to hockey, Russia, and the US all collided during that Olympic season. Beating the Soviets placed team USA in the gold medal game versus Finland on a Sunday morning. And Sunday mornings in my family meant church, no matter how deep our ties to hockey (my father had player Jr. A's for the Niagara Falls Flyers). But as luck would have it, our Reverend was a hockey fan and was fed updates every 5 or 10 minutes that he relayed to the congregation. I did manage to get home in time to see the end of the game. Beating the Soviets and winning the gold medal was more than just winning a game. It instilled pride back in Americans and bloodied the noses of the Soviets at a crucial time in world history. I believe it also paved the way for Ronald Reagan to capitalize on that spirit and rejuvenate American pride. For me personally, it meant a lot. Suddenly hockey was a big sport at my high school. My teammates and I rode that wave and went 48-3-2 in that my junior year and into my senior year. It got a teammate of mine and myself noticed by college teams and enabled us to supplement the cost of our education. I even got invited to a regional tryout for the 1984 Olympic team - and was cut within the first 10 minutes. Good times. The movie "Miracle" does a decent job of telling the story, but it really doesn't do justice to how those games changed our nation and changed the world. I've embedded the game versus USSR here but you should also go yo YouTube and watch the Gold Medal game versus Finland. Side note: At 16 years old I spent the summer of 1981 in what was then West Germany working for a division of my father's company. Tensions were high with US military bases in Germany and Ronald Reagan staring down the Soviets. I remember seeing US F4 Phantoms flying overhead and even saw US tanks on maneuvers outside of the Black Forest region. It then dawned on me I was on foreign soil seeing US military. While I was there I proudly wore a t-shirt that said USA World Hockey Champions - and twice German locals cursed me and spit on me while I was wearing that shirt. They were afraid WW3 was about to start in their back yard.