Kayak Koz

Unfortunately, my father was back in the hospital again and that necessitated a trip back to the Bluffton / Hilton Head SC area for the weekend. He's been in and out of the hospital for extended stays over the past 5 months, but he should be home on Thursday. I've got to say, it's tough to see my parents age and it's difficult being a 4 hour drive away. I'm thinking of quitting my job and moving back down that way again. But I digress... I did manage to get some fishing in over the weekend. On Saturday morning it was cold (low 40's) and damp outside but with the poor fishing I experienced in the SC Upstate last year I knew winter fishing in my old stomping grounds would still be better than that. I hit my favorite lagoon and fished it for a few hours but had only one strike on my favorite blue and black Chatterbait Elite with a blue Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw. I guess I was a bit rusty and missed the hookset. I hit another lagoon on the way back to my dad's place and landed a couple of two pounders on that same Chatterbait setup. I got back to my dad's and still had 45 minutes before he finished his PT so I hit the tiny lagoon out back of his house. When I say tiny, I mean tiny. It's barely a third of an acre. But it does connect to two larger lagoons through the stormwater system. It's also near a boggy area in the woods where mama gators seem to lay eggs every year and invariably there is one juvenile gator that declares dad's lagoon as his own each year. And sure enough, another gator tyke was there but it was too cold for him to be too active. But this lagoon also produces decent size bass catches every year. It's feast or famine. Some weeks I get skunked there and then another week I'll pull out 4, 5, and 6 pounders. Anyway, after half a dozen casts I landed a small crappie. At least something was in there. On the very next cast I had a nice reaction strike as the Chatterbait hit the water. It didn't fight much and as I was reeling it in I figured it was a three pounder. But I was surprised when I pulled it out and weighed it - a nice 5.7 pounder (picture below). I guess the cold water took some of the fight out of her. I fished a little more over the weekend, and for cold, wet, winter fishing it was actually pretty decent. I caught a handful or so more, all in the 2 pound range. I fished one lagoon that is usually a decent producer despite sediment and algae problems. But the water isn't chocolate milk color - it's closer to a milky white with green tinge. The bass I caught there were pale as can be and I dubbed then Ghost Bass. They were also skinny, so the winter forage must be sparse. This lagoon is dying. It's a large lagoon and is supposed to connect to another large lagoon via conveyance pipes but those are blocked with sediment. I don't know why they have not fixed it since the community and the fishing club are very proactive in waterway maintenance. Anyway, it was a decent start to the fishing season and I will be back there again in two weeks just as the pre-spawn feeding frenzy usually takes place. I can't wait!

That's the exact setup I use as well.

That's not always the case. Phase 2 of the EPA's MS4 program is in effect and their are a number of regulations in place regarding stormwater runoff and waterways that includes controlling different types of weeds both in and around the basin.

I like chatterbaits in those conditions, but not necessarily just dark colored one. I;ve done well with dark ones and a Havoc Pit Boss trailer, but I've also done well with white chatterbaits with a white paddletail trailer in those same conditions.

The marlin dragged him around for about 15 miles and he finally had to switch to another boat so he could land it without tiring it to death. I guess when you catch one that big on a kayak you try to lock down your reel and hold on for as long as you can.

Anywhere and everywhere. But the truth is, I probably don't fish it enough. It's just not as sexy as the other baits in my arsenal.

On Thursday we had torrential rain and flooding, wind guts up to 45 mph, and what appears to be tornado damage in some areas. On Saturday it was freezing out and it snowed for 4 hours, but with the wet and warmer ground there was only half an inch of accumulation before most of it melted.

I don't keep a fishing log, but a lot of fishing logs have kept my lures.

While this may not appeal to you, it might be an option. In May or June, go to Hilton Head Island, SC and stay at one of the resorts in Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes, or just about anywhere. While your family hits the beach all day you can hop from lagoon to lagoon and do some bank fishing. In Palmetto Dunes you can use canoes and kayaks in their 12 miles of connected waterways, but some of that water is brackish and may not be conducive to bass fishing. Depending upon where you want to fish it might be best to bike rather than drive and park. Check Google Maps and you'll see hundreds of lagoons to choose from excluding the ones surrounded entirely by a golf course. What can you expect? Lots of 3, 4, and 5 pound bass. You may even run into some 7-10 pounders as well. The best time to head there is before July. About then things can get really hot during the day. The fish are still biting, but the heat can be killer. The heat in the mornings of July and August are bearable, but the humidity is high. Early evening is usually bearable, but as it gets dark you can't see the alligators. And if for some reason the bass fishing isn't good, you can always get on a charted boat for some ocean fishing if you like that sort of thing.

You stole my answer!

Welcome to winter fishing. The fish are there, but with a slower metabolism this time of year their feeding windows are much smaller. As WRB said, find the bait - but even then it might not be in their feeding window. But sometimes if you manage to get a jerkbait in front of their nose it triggers a strike. My advice? Every fish you catch in the winter is a bonus. In the meantime, think spring.

Before you call the EPA call your local/county stormwater authority and find out if your area is designated as an MS4 municipality. If it is you can press your local authority into action by talking up contacting the EPA. There's no way they want the EPA in their back yard because it will open up a can of worms as most MS4 designated municipalities are still well behind the EPA's MS4 requirements. Even if they are not a designated MS4 they still probably don't want the EPA around and will look into rectifying the situation. Ultimately, even if the EPA is involved it is local landowners/government that will be responsible for taking action.

I was actually thinking that as well using the bluetooth connectivity. You could also have different vibration patterns and strengths for types of fish strikes, pulling the lure through weeds, dragging it over rocks, etc.

Are you developing this for a specific platform? I guess it depends upon who you think the targeted demographic is. I think younger/casual gamer skews mobile devices while older skews PC. Then there's the console crowd somewhere in between.

The first coding I ever did was on an Apple II Plus with 48K of RAM. I built a mainly text golf game where you first selected your club and then used the clicker on the game controller paddle to start and stop the swing. There was a meter on the screen and you would click as the bar went up to set the power and then click again as the bar went down to determine hook, slice, or straight. That was back in 1979-1980 and the irony is that is still the basic premise of golf swing meters in video games today.

I was spoiled for a lot of years living in the SC Lowcountry. I literally had thousands of lagoons to choose from within half an hour's drive. I had 12 within my own community and down the road where my father lives there were another 300. And the fishing? Three, four, and five pounders all day long plus some big girls out there. As a bank fisherman, it was paradise. Now that I moved to Upstate SC the only small bodies of water are on private property and have posted no trespassing signs. I have a number of reservoirs within an hour's drive but the bank fishing is almost non-existent. Even the kayak fishing is lousy. I talk to a lot of anglers and no one is catching much of anything, let alone anything of decent size. But thw good news is that when it gets warm I'll be able to head back to the SC Lowcountry one or two weekends a month and get my fishing fix. But I really miss being able to head out for an hour or two after work. The good news is that I'll be retiring within 10 years and hopefully I can spend the rest of my days fishing and watching my son play ball.

I went to DSG in Greenville for the first time a few months ago and I was surprised how small the fishing section was compared to my old, smaller DSG in Bluffton. I also went into Acedemy once or twice in Greenville, but was not impressed with the selection. So I guess Cabela's will be my go to store - or one of the 6 Wal Marts in the area, Dick's is ridiculously overpriced for just about everything. About the only time I buy something there is when it's on sale.

Thankfully I've never been caught out on the ocean or a lake during a storm. One time when we were fishing Lake Murray it was close and managed to get back to the dock about 20 minutes before the storm hit. We were tent camping on the lake and rather then huddle up in the tent we went to a nearby bait shop / pizza place. We went back to the campground after the storm and saw a few tents that had been blown out into the lake. Luckily, none of them was ours.

Fishing Planet gets boring very quickly. While the game is free, you really have to grind to be able to improve your gear and unlock other lakes. Then you need fishing licenses at each lake to be able to keep fish to generate more in game currency to travel to those lakes and renew licenses, so most people end up spending money to do that. The fold that developed Fishing Planet developed a premium version of the game that for $39.99 which takes away some of the grind, but it still gets boring. While the bite gets better or worse depending upon the time of day, the same fish species are in the same exact places all of the time. Fishing Planet also nickels and dimes you to death if you let it. Collect enough gear and you have to pay real money for extra storage. And as long as the nite window is good the fish will hit just about any bait your throw. The game seems pretty good up front, but after a while it gets boring. Playing a tournament against other players? Forget it. There are folks out there that have gamed the system and because there is very little randomness and a handful of folks figured that out (or cheat) they win every tournament. I downloaded Fishing Sim World Pro Tour for the PS4 last night as it was on sale for $9.99. It has some bugs still, there are some quirks to it. but compared to Fishing Planet it seems better overall. I have only practiced and played the solo tour events and not any multiplayer tournaments as of yet. I have no idea if there are tournament exploits like in FP or if the same fish are in the same places at all times of the day. But the lakes are big and unlike FP you start with a boat and boats are available at every lake.

Let's assume your lake has different zones such as a rocky zone, a woody vegetation / laydown zone, an aquatic grass zone, a millfoil zone, a lily pad zone, etc. Each zone gets a seed or multiple seeds based upon time of day, weather conditions, seasonality, sun angle, etc. Each zone has primary, secondary, and tertiary natural bait types and these are weighted on seasonality, time of day, etc. This could take a lot of code, but you could start out with a simple model like baitfish hide out in the weeds, frogs are in lily pads or on logs, etc. The "will the fish bite" routine factors in how closely the lure matches the primary, secondary, and tertiary natural baits based upon shape, size, color, speed, depth, etc. probably combined with a minor randomness factor applied by either the lure or the actual fish (i.e. some fish hit anything or are really hungry at that moment). It could be a huge pile of code, or their might be a way to develop each seed then create an algorithm to determine the bite. I think the primary seed or primary algorithm base would be seasonality. First off, is the game play clock accelerated or real time? Or will it be real time and you let the players jump ahead to more favorable fishing times or night fishing? Or jump ahead to more favorable seasons? You could have a game play clock and an environment clock, but I don't have an elegant solution of the top of my head for those to mesh. Heck - keep it simple - have it follow the actual calendar date. When a player logs in on any given date the game play start time is 5 am or 6 am for that calendar day. Players can accelerate time up to the actual time and date. Then you could run a master game on your server and when a player logs in that day the new variables are uploaded to their device. Maybe push data only once a week or once a month. Anyway, it's a HUGE undertaking. My guess is that it will push the boundaries of memory usage and processing power on handheld devices. It may be better to develop for PS4 or XBox.

The biggest gripe I have with fishing games is that just about every catch - no matter the size and species - is like fighting a Marlin. If I hook a 3 pound bass in a game it shouldn't take me 5 minutes to reel it in, even if I'm using 6 pound line. So if I had my game design wish list it would be: 1. The first challenge is finding the fish based upon seasonality, time of day, and weather. But there also has to be an element of randomness as well. I hate fishing games like Fishing Planet where the a specific species of fish is always going to be in the same few spots. 2. Outliers. Even the perfect bass spot under specific conditions will contain other fish species - even if they are the prey. 3. Have different, subtle clues at different times as to what the bass are likely to feed on. Is that a bait ball over there? Frogs on jumping in from the bank or croaking? Are those dragonflies over there? In other words, most games add these items as ambience. Make them mean something at different times. 4. While a lot of lures can catch fish at any specific moment. not every lure works at the same time. Sometimes lure choice is key, and sometimes lure color is key. 5. Once the fish are located, lure depth, speed, and presentation should also factor in. You may catch a few ripping a crankbait, but you may catch even more at that same place and time by lifting and dropping a jig. 6. Mix it up with water clarity and adjust lure production accordingly. 7. Instead of every fish fighting like a marlin, make the hook sets the first key in landing a fish. But again, if I'm fishing 50 pound braid on a MH rod it shouldn't take all day to reel in a 5 pound bass and my reel shouldn't get spooled nor should I worry too much about the line breaking unless I screwed up the drag or clipped it on rocks. Of course, if I'm using 4 pound test that's a different story. 8. Teaching moments - matching the right rod and reel combos with the right lures and fishing lines. Pick the wrong mix and good hook sets are harder to achieve. 9. If you make a lake in the southeast there must be alligators. Even some that might try to eat you, your catch, or your bait. ? Anyway, that's a few things off the top of my head. I'll let you know if I come up with more. Best of luck on your endeavor.

Lately, catfish have been my nemesis when I'm bass fishing. They seem to hit anything. There's nothing like getting a bait hammered by something big and for a fleeting second you wonder if it's your PB largemouth bass and by the time that second is up you realize it's the pull of a catfish on the end of your line.

Chatterbaits. Specifically black and blue Z-mans. I did not lose a single chatterbait of another color, but I lost a pile of the black and blue ones fishing for shore. If you ever need to know where the hidden, submerged laydowns are in a lake or pond just invite me along fishing and me and my black and blues will help you map the basin.

I've mentioned before that my son plays baseball and I have coached him since he was little but now that he's 14 I've stepped aside for a few reasons. The first is that he has to grow and develop on his own and while I'm decent there are far better coaches out there. The second is that I'm getting older and he's getting bigger and stronger. He just turned 14 and he's now 5' 11" and while only 145 pounds he's all muscle. The scary part is he's wearing a size 13 shoe so he will probably grow at least another 4 inches. Between my older eyesight and reflexes and his maturity I'm not comfortable catching his bullpen sessions anymore, and when I throw batting practice I spend a lot of time ducking behind the L-screen so he doesn't take my head off. Anyway, this winter we started working out at a local indoor baseball academy and he wanted to take some batting practice. As he's getting ready he sets up his phone to what I thought was taking video of his work out. But he corrected me and said he was live streaming his session on Instagram. I told him I could see making a video and then analyzing it to help him improve, but I wasn't sure what the point was of live streaming it so a handful of friends could watch for a few minutes. It seemed silly to me, but I guess that's what teens do these days. I was wrong. Really wrong. As it turns out, a scout for the San Diego Padres watches his workout. Not only that, but the scout posted comments on my son's ability, followed him on Instagram, and told him he would keep checking in on him as he developed. Then a college recruiter from some college I never heard of complimented his swing mechanics and followed him as well. Then a handful of college players paid him complements on his hitting ability. Back in my day you had to hope your coach knew some recruiters or scouts and begged them to show up at your games or at least hoped a scout was in town watching another kid. But this social media has changed everything. In one session he got more exposure as an 8th grader than most high school sophomores and juniors, at least back in my day. I guess I'm old school, but I thought it was amazing.

The best I can do is rent a kayak every now and then. There are no rack systems available for my car and I'm not inclined to sell a perfectly good and paid for vehicle. I really enjoy having no car payments. The thing I enjoy about bank fishing where I used to fish is not only how good the fishing was, but also being able to walk or bike to dozens of different lagoons and enjoy the diversity of the wildlife (well, except the nuisance alligators). It was easy to relax and fish. When I fish from a kayak or a boat I don't get that relaxation because you also have to deal with maneuvering the watercraft, loading, unloading, and transporting. I just want to grab a rod and bad and go fish and walk. Part of why I fish is to relax and exercise and free myself from any of life's frustrations. That hasn't happened up here. Anyway, I appreciate all of the advice from everyone. I may rent a kayak and try it again in the spring or may limit my fishiung to when I go visit my parents back in the Lowcountry.