Kayak Koz

I'm in the camp that has little or no luck with crankbaits. I've caught some on lipless cranks, but almost nothing on squarebills. I still break them out and I've fished a 1.5 for hours and caught nothing. Something odd did happen to me last spring with a crankbait. I went out and bought a black/black/chartreuse 1.5 and within 10 casts I snagged it and lost it. So I bought another later that week and the same thing happened. Bought a third one and yep, within 10 casts snagged and lost that one. Bought a FOURTH and got in a few days of fishing with it, snagged it and lost another one. I haven't replaced it. I fish other color crankbaits with no problems, but that black/black/chartreuse is a jinx for me. Never again. Maybe...

The Whopper Plopper is probably THE most hit or miss bait in my bag. If I get one strike on it that day I know I'll get at least a dozen more. But more often than not over the past year it draws blanks.

If it's comfortable and makes you feel good then go ahead and wear it. I wear a Yankee cap or jersey now and then and I don't play for the Yankees.

Who do you think comes up with those fishing calendars that are wrong all of the time? Pure propaganda on the part of the fish to throw anglers off the track. Nah - I agree with Russ E. The fish are sensitive to their environment and detect the increased activity on the water. On weekends you have a lot of non-anglers speeding and splashing around making noise so the fish end up hunkering down somewhere. With less traffic on the water on weekdays they can find spots away from the traffic and carry on their normal routines.

I don't have dozens of reels like a lot of folks on BR, but of the handful I have two of them are Lew's. One cost me about $49 and the other cost me about $149 and I like them both. The feel and the performance work for me and I have confidence in my gear. For me, that's what matters most. When I add to my collection I'll look at Lew's again, Daiwa, Shimano, and anything else out there that has a reputation as a decent quality build and if it feels good I'll buy it. When it comes to my fishing gear I'm not brand loyal. Now my baseball gloves, that's another story.

Well, at least I SAW a bass today. I haven't fished a lot since I moved to the Upstate, but I did manage to get out for an hour or so late this afternoon. Bank fishing is horrible around here and I'm busy preparing a new hotel opening plus my father has been sick and I've been traveling to see him so I don't have time to rent a kayak and spend the day on a lake. I went out to Berry Shoals Pond today and as I was unpacking and setting up I saw what looked to be about a 2 pounder cruising the shoreline. My spinning rod wasn't set up but I had a chatterbait tied on to a baitcaster, made a quick toss and hopped it in front of the bass. Nothing. He just cruised on by into the murky waters. Other than pecking bluegills I haven't had a bite since I moved here let alone landed anything. I may just pack it up and wait until spring. Maybe I'll try one more day out on a kayak.

I'll pick an area to cast, evaluate what bait I want to throw, then make multiple casts covering that area using the same retrieve. If I don't get bit I'll cover that area doing another type of retrieve. If I'm feeling patient that day I may cover that same area again with different retrieve types. If I'm not feeling patient I'll try another bait or move on to a new spot.

Has anyone fished Croft State Park? If so, is there good fishing there? By good fishing I mean 4+ pound bass. It's about a 45 minute drive from where I live in Greer and I'd had to drive out there or lousy fishing. It looks like both Lake Craig and Lake Johnson have a decent amount of bank access, but I was planning to rent a kayak as well. Looking at Google maps I assume you rent the kayaks at Lake Craig and it looks like there's a creek that connects to Lake Johnson, but on the map it doesn't look like you could paddle there. I guess you would have to haul the kayak through the woods. Anyway, any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

I don't know - it could be just me or the area where I live, but I've always had more success fishing in water than in trees.

On the morning of 9/11 my hotels was undergoing its annual Marriott quality assurance inspection. As the GM of the property I needed to tag along with the inspector but I will admit when we started inspecting rooms I did not pay attention to the inspection and turned on the TV for the latest news instead. Either later that day or the next day when they showed the names and photos of some of the hijackers a chill went down my spine. I recognized the face and name of one of the hijackers (I won't post his name here, but it's the name of the most prominent one). Six months prior to 9/11 I was running a different Marriott property and he stayed at my hotel. I know this because one busy morning I was helping my front desk with checking out guests and I was the one that checked him out of the property. He said nothing when I checked him out, but the reason I remembered him was because of his eyes and facial expression. Honestly, he looked ticked off and evil and when I asked him about his stay he glared at me for a moment, said nothing, and walked away. I know hindsight is 20/20, but that day the guy reaked of evil and that's his name and face jumped out at me when it became news. I now know he was probably scouting airport security when he stayed with us. And needless to say, when the reports came out I called my old hotel and told them to pull his records and contact the FBI. It also turns out that this guy and some of his cohorts stayed at the hotel of one of my GM friends the night before the attacks.

I've done a lot of casting, but very little fishing I was back in the SC Lowcountry last week and over 2 days spent about 6 hours fishing my favorite lagoons. I didn't even see a bass and only landed two small crappie. Back here in the Upstate I went fishing, er, casting for a few hours after work and didn't even get one bite. Baitfish were moving, but no bass to be found. I've been out about half a dozen times around here since I moved to the Upstate and have not had one single bite (about 13 hours on the water). I can't find any accessible ponds around here so I've fished some of the lakes, but bank fishing spots are almost non-existent. I rented a kayak one day on Lake Cooley and caught nothing. Fishing around here is a huge disappointment. So much so that this weekend I'm passing up fishing and headed out to the golf course for the first time in 14 years.

When I was 17 the last thing on my mind was lakes and fishing...

OK, so more than a few have mentioned that they have a ton of plastic baits and even lures that they will probably never use and that gave me a few ideas: Donate them to a local boys & girls club, youth club, youth fishing club, or something similar Partner with a local organization or two and have a local Take a Kid Fishing day Donate them to the local middle school or high school bass fishing team Donate them to schools or other organizations as part of their annual raffle or silent auction Keep some in your vehicle and the next time you see a kid out there fishing give him a few bags or some old lures. That would be a great way for a young angler to build up their tackle box. Just make sure you don't say something like, "Pssst. Hey kid! Comer here..." The idea is to put them to good use if you're not able to use them. You can even take a tax deduction for your donation.

Buzzbait all the way. I've had my best results with a Strike King Banshee Sexy Shad buzzbait whenever I see the baitfish boiling up on the surface. Tons of strikes for me.

I'm kind of the same way. I have a tackle backpack that holds 5 Plano boxes and has a big compartment for soft plastics, tools, etc. That's pretty much all I need. I have two more Plano's in the garage, each with a few old lures that I never use. One thing about keeping one bag is that if I have a slow day on the water I'm never out there thinking, "I should have brought X lure instead". Another thing is that I fish from the bank or sometimes a kayak, so I'm accustomed to fishing with limited gear. If I had a boat I'd probably have more bait and tackle than I have right now. I'd wager that the anglers on BR that have the most bait and tackle are guys with boats or even tricked out kayaks with additional rod holders and storage.

33 pound catfish. Caught by a 4 year old little girl (OK, with help from dad). Fantastic! https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/girl-4-monster-fish-frozen-pole

Great responses so far. And no, I'm not someone's wife - I'm a dude Personally, I think there are enough baits that are universal in type and color that I don't need 37 crankbaits in various sizes and colors. And as for plastics, in general I think a few basic colors and shapes work most of the time. Sure, there are sometimes when an oddball color, shape, or slightly different action may work for that particular moment on that particular body of water, but in general I think the basics work the majority of the time. If you tournament fish or travel I can see increasing your baits based upon those specifics, but for the most part I still think for the average serious angler the basics will work just fine. Again, I'm not getting on anyone's case if they like to stockpile. Every now and then I walk through BPS or Dick's and get the urge to buy something, but for the most part I go to those places looking for a specific item and keep my impulse buys to a minimum.

Why? Understand that I'm not being condescending here, it's a legitimate question. I see photos on BR of guys that have giant, wall to wall peg boards with a bazillion soft plastics hanging from them and dozens and dozens and dozens of Plano boxes stuffed with lures. Some pictures are of a half a dozen of the same exact lure in a Plano slot. I have about 7 (mostly) filled Plano boxes with lures and 6-8 bags of different plastics and that gets me through any bass fishing that I need to do. If I lose a lure I go out and buy one of the same - or I don't. I wonder why some tie up so much cash in home inventory especially when there's a good chance that 25% or more of what was bought will never be used. So, why have thousands of baits and lures in your own personal storage?

Years ago I lived in a condo on the beach on Hilton Head Island and one fall night someone started pounding on my door. It was a frantic woman asking me to call beach patrol. It seems she and some friends were in a small boat on the mainland side of Hilton Head and got lost in the fog and by pure chance beached their boat. Because blackout curtains are mandatory (so as not to confuse sea turtles and hatchlings) there is very little light at night on the beach. This was before the days of smartphones and they had no compass or charts. What they did not realize is how lucky they were that they had beached. I lived on the ocean side of the island, not the mainland side they had been navigating. If they had not accidentally beached the boat they could have ended up out at sea.

I agree with the baitcaster comment. You can place your thumb lightly on the spool as the bait begins to land and slow down the velocity of the bait. You probably also need to experiment with the entry angle of each bait. Some will be quieter with a horizontal entry and some quieter with a vertical entry.

A woman is walking her dog out on a fishing pier when her little yappy dog spots something in the water and starts barking away and pulling on the leash. As the dog is leaning over the edge of the pier she loses grip of the leash and the dog unexpectedly tumbles into the water and as soon as it hits the surface a big muskie grabs the dog. "Help! Help!" she starts yelling. "My dog just fell into the water and was grabbed by a big fish!" Just as she's yelling a fisherman comes trolling by on his jon boat. "What color was it?" he yells back. "He was brown. Oh, thank you! Thank you SO much for helping," she replied. "Helping? Oh no, I just wanted to know what color they were biting on."

We were living in Bluffton (near Hilton head) when Matthew hit and decided to ride it out. The nearest hotel room I could get was either outside of Charlotte or west of Atlanta, We had metal hurricane shutters affixed to the windows so we could not see outside. Matthew hit in the middle of the night but it didn't sound bad outside where we were. But when we went out the next day we saw thousands of trees down and lagoons overflowing into the streets.

I recently moved away from the Hilton Head SC / Savannah GA area to the Greenville SC area but my hurricane troubles are not over. My father was hospitalized last week down in Bluffton SC and with the mandatory evacuation they moved him today. Meanwhile, I made the 4 hour drive to Bluffton to bring my stepmother up here since she does not drive much anymore. The drive back took over 6 hours instead of the usual 4 hours and that made for a very, very long day. And once the hurricane passes in a few days I'll get to do it all over again. With my dad being ill I've been making this trip once or twice a week. I've got to say all of this driving is tiring. There's no way I could drive for a living.

I've fished lagoons for years and for me the biggest factors are water temperature, weather patterns, and time of year. Consistent weather and water temperature usually means consistent feeding times, but where I am were not likely to have consistent weather for more than 3 or 4 days unless it's just blazing hot outside for a week. What I find is that when water temperature and/or the weather changes the baitfish move to a new location. Sometimes that's deeper water, sometimes to or from cover, or sometimes to a similar location in another part of the lagoon. If I can find the baitfish I can find the bass. It certainly ticks me off when I can't find the baitfish!

1. Line shy? I don't think so. Bass are predators that react on instinct. See the bait, eat the bait. 2. I use snaps all of the time. With bank fishing or kayak fishing I bring only 1 or 2 rods and it makes it easier to quickly change baits. If I had a boat and 5-10 rods with me I'd be more apt to direct tie. 3. Chumming is illegal for most species in most states. 4. If you think you have a record you need to get the fish weighed on a certified scale, like in a supermarket. You would also need to contact DNR for other requirements. That may be a phone call or looking on their website.