Kayak Koz

It's been about 3 weeks since my purchase and I've fished with my new baitcaster 5 times since then. Every now and then my cranking rhythm sputters for a second with the RH retrieve it's not a big deal. If you're switching to a RH retrieve and are RH dominant for the first time here are some things I learned: 1. It may take a few outings to get your rhythm down when reeling in i.e. your retrieve may not feel as smooth as when cranking with the left hand 2. Working the rod tip/lure may take a little practice. For example, when walking a frog or other topwater. At first my weaker LH didn't have quite the "touch" I had after all those years of experience holding the rod with my RH. At times it's still spotty, but I'm dialing it in again. 3. I haven't had a problem with hook sets, but I imagine for some that it happens to some holding the rod with their less dominant hand for the first time. 4. I still cast with my RH and then switch over, but that's probably not the optimal way when using lures like buzzbaits. Eventually I'll probably have to work on casting left handed. That ought to be super fun with a baitcaster - probably bird's nest city for a while! My main takeaway from all of this is that I actually like the RH retrieve. Since I bought the baitcaster I've only thrown my spinning reel once or twice with some lighter lures - but only after I tried them first on the baitcaster. To sum it up - it's been great. I just hope I find some time to go fishing this weekend!

Temperatures are still in the 80's here with the heat index ranging from 90-100. Morning humidity is around 100% but drops into the 70's or 80's by the afternoon. Hopefully it will cool down soon so the alligators go into hibernation for a while, but this time of year they frequent the banks (instead of staying in the water) to soak up the sun. The only drawback right now is that it gets dark early so I don't get to fish after work. But at least I still have most weekends to fish.

That's just part of fishing and it happens to everyone at one time or another. For weeks I was pulling out 4 and 5 pounders every time I went out and then last weekend not even a nibble. But I'll be back out next weekend. Be thankful you're fishing for sport and not for food.

F=mA Where F = # of fish caught m = Money invested A = Angler Ability Just a little Newtown's Second Law pun there for those that are not physics savvy.

Nice fish. I'd say it's in the mid to upper 3's. I base that on my own experience of catching some big bass that I swore were 6-7 pounds, then put them on the scale and found out they were 5's.

Not quite free. Every time you use a Google product they take a little piece of your soul.

Go out and get yourself a machete. Seriously. We have hundreds of lagoons in our area and many of them are overgrown. I bought a machete and carve out spots to fish all of the time. I just need to be careful I don't surprise any alligators. As for the weather, ours is close to yours but in fact our evenings are still in the mid 70's and we haven't seen 60's yet. But that's cooler than the 80's we've been experiencing all summer and the daytime highs now are only in the mid to upper 80's and that allows the ponds to cool down pretty quick.

The good news is that it looks like you can cast every square foot of that pond so that gives you the opportunity to throw just about any bait, anywhere. I fish a ton of small lagoons here in SC and what I have found the past few weeks is that the bass are cruising around a lot instead of hunkering down in one area. Afternoons between 2 and 5 have been great times to fish lately, whereas in the summer 6-9 in the evenings was best. They are also hitting on baits different than in the summer. In the summer T-rigged Senkos, trick worms, jigs, frogs, buzzbaits, crankbaits, and the Whopper Plopper worked best. I couldn't even catch a cold with a crankbait. But lately my Purple Tiger Rat-L-Trap has been crushing it with both LMB and crappies. I've also caught 5+ pounders with an 8" worm that I found on shore one day. But lately except for the Whopper Plopper none of my summer baits have produced in the last 3 weeks. For me it ended up being fun throwing stuff I haven't thrown in a while and actually catching good sized fish on those lures. So what I'm getting at here is if nothing is biting on your go to baits try some of the stuff you normally don't throw and see what happens. You have an advantage because you can pretty much cover the entire pond. In the mornings and evenings throw some top waters over and around the mats. But the rest of the day throw everything and anything everywhere. My experience here in SC tells me that the cooler water in these small ponds will have the bass cruising around looking for their next meal. Whatever you do cover lots of ground. Fan cast from one spot and if nothing is there move around. When you get to the end throw on a different bait and repeat. If there's bass in there you'll eventually run into them with the right bait. Take advantage of the small pond.

Those juvenile alligators are a pain, but my son found a way to "train" them not to bother our topwaters in one of the lagoons we fish where there are two juveniles. He spent about an hour tossing an old frog around the gator and ripping it past the gators when they went after it. Sometimes he'd let them get close and then rip it away. Other times he'd cast it so the gator had to swim to it and then he'd rip it away. After an hour or so the gators gave up. We've been back to that lagoon four times since then and those little gators don't bother with our lures at all. I can bring one a few feet from their snout and now they now leave it alone.

Here in SC the daily temps are still in the 80's but the water is finally starting to cool down. I've had great results on a purple and bright green Rat-L-Trap lipless crank the past few weekends and nothing hit that one in the summer.

I've had it for a few weeks now and have become more accustomed to the RH retrieve. Casting and switching hands has become more intuitive as well. One of the biggest differences is that the Lew's rod is much more sensitive than my Ugly Stick and that has been a good thing. I'm enjoying that and the light weight of the combo. The fishing has been great as well. Last weekend I caught a 5.5 pounder and another 4.5 pounder.

I got my first baitcaster within the last month and while I've been fortunate enough to have only one large bird's nest that I had to cut out there are a bunch of times where I cast and everything is fine only to find that after I reel in there are some overlaps and tangles. In my case, what I found is that I didn't set quite enough tension tight enough when I set up the lure. Once I set the tension slightly more than what I had previously thought was the correct tension all of that looping and twisting stopped.

I've been there a few times ad the best fishing is usually near the dam. I'm sure a local bait shop could give you the up to date hot spots.

For years the Husky Jerk Yellow Perch was my go to bait and it never failed to land something until this year. Part of that reason is that I've become a bit more diverse in what I throw. While it comes out of my bag a lot less now I haven't caught anything on it in 6 months.

That's the one frustrating thing about the WP is the inconsistent retrieval. Usually it's because of even a small hanging weed on the tail hook or a thin weed gets wrapped between the upper and lower body of the bait. I haven't tried, but it would be nice if the two sections popped apart so you could clean it out.

Most of our fishing is in mid afternoon or early evening. In fact, the biggest fish I have caught on the WP (including the one in my profile picture) were mid afternoon catches. I've fished the WP at dusk but really haven't caught much. At that time of day the fish around here seem to like frogs more than the WP.

With the 110's and 130's you usually need to let them sit for a second at splash down so they pop back up to the surface. Otherwise your reeling in the first 3 feet or so with it underwater. Here are the ways I fish mine and they have all produced on one day or another. Like most baits some days a particular presentation works and some days it doesn't. I use the 110 size. 1. Straight slow retrieve 2. Straight quick retrieve 3. Slow retrieve and pause for a heartbeat or two every 5-7 cranks 4. Stop and pop. 5-7 cranks on slow retrieve, pause for a heartbeat or two, give it a small pop so I hear the loud "blurp", then crank again. What has not worked for me is using a longer pause during retrieve. For me it has never produced on windy days. When it's a bit breezy, yes. But not on a windy day. Some days the Whopper Plopper is pure magic, and other days it's a big, fat, zero. But I guarantee you will remember the days when it is magic.

I bought a Spiderwire shoulder bag this year that came with four large boxes but I only keep three in the bag. In one of those boxes I keep my favorite lures / primary lures that I use that day. I bank fish and usually set the tackle bag down and bring that one box with me as I move around. The other two large boxes contain my secondary lures. I also have a small box for the terminal tackle I am bringing that day. Lastly, I have a large Ziploc bag that has the smaller bags of soft baits that I may use that day. But I will admit that every trip I need to reorganize things because when I fish I don't always put things back in the same place. Once I'm fishing every second wasted organizing things is one less cast I make that day

Great fish!Are you in the witness protection program? Wife or girlfriend a PETA member?

My guess is that it's probably between 2.75 and 3.25 pounds. A nice fish.

I don't mind sharing info with people that I know and I appreciate it when they do the same for me. But if a random person comes along and asks how the fishing is going or what baits I've been using I keep it pretty generalized.

I bought my first baitcaster the other day and it has RH retrieve. Even though my right hand is my dominant hand I find it hard to get my cadence correct cranking with the RH. Holding the pole with the LH seems odd as well and it's hard to get it in a comfortable place. I'm sure I'll get used to it (I've only used my BC that one day) but it certainly feels odd. I'll probably need to start lifting weights with my left hand so a hawg doesn't rip the pole out of my hand

It's about time. Within a few months the crank on mine was brittle and pitted. No saltwater, no bug spray, no sun tan lotion. Just humidity and sweat. Pfleuger directed me to the parts catalog to BUY a new crank. I wasn't happy.

My son broke yet another reel this summer so we headed to Dick's to get him a replacement. While there I noticed a Lew's American Hero baitcaster on sale for $69 and was tempted. Then I saw that Dick's had a promotion to get $20 off when you spend $100 and they had a $10 off flash sale. I couldn't resits. I set it up with some 20lb Spiderwire braid and my son and I headed off to Sun City Hilton Head to do some fishing for the afternoon. It was a little breezy out and within 15 casts I bird nested the reel so I went back to my spinning reel for a while. We decided to take my dad's golf cart and try some other lagoons and before we left I cut out the bird's nest on the baitcaster and was determined to give it another go. We hit a few more lagoons but had no luck. The good news is that it was pretty easy to get the hang of the baitcaster. I kept reducing the brakes and within an hour or so I was close to free spool and could bomb some casts when needed. I got the occasional loop in the line but no bird's nests. I'm sure I'll have my fair share of those in the future. The hardest part is getting used to the right hand retrieve. My cadence is really off trying to reel with my right hand even though that's my dominant hand. And holding the pole in my left hand seems odd as well. It just feels uncomfortable right now. This Lew's MH 6'6" rod is also a lot different than my 6'6" MH Ugly Stick. I liked the baitcaster, but everything felt "off". I hadn't had a bite yet and was wondering what it would be like to land a fish on this new setup. But as the sun went down I got my chance to find out. I was throwing a Rat-L-Trap lipless crank and didn't even feel the bite. I was casting far out from the bank and the line got heavy. About halfway in I was dragging the fish on the surface. It turned out to be a crappie just under two pounds. Throwing the Rat-L-Trap turned out to be a good idea because it helped me get a better feel for this new rod. The thump-thump-thump as I raised the bait felt a little more pronounced. It was also easier to feel when I hit the bottom as well as the slight "tick" when a fish bumped the bait. Then something slammed the bait and it felt pretty big. As I'm trying to reel in a decent sized fish, trying to get used to holding the rod in my left hand, trying to get used to fighting a fish reeling in with my right hand, and trying to adjust the drag, the nearby 10 foot gator takes note of the action and starts cruising over. As it turns out this fish wanted to fight. He makes a run away from the shore but lucky for me away from the direction of the alligator. I finally started gaining some ground on him and he gave me a scare when I got him in close and he paralleled the bank in the direction of the gator but luckily the alligator had backed off and stopped 15 feet from shore. It wasn't as big as I initially thought while I was landing it but still tipped the scales at 4.5 pounds. All in all, it was a good day for my first day with a baitcaster. I threw a lot of different baits with it today and overall it felt pretty good although I wonder if I should have picked up a left hand retrieve instead. Right now it just feels weird holding the rod in the left and reeling with the right. I like the feel of the Lew's American Hero rod and it seems to offer a lot more sensitivity than my MH Ugly Stick. I have no doubt this will be my primary rod even though I love my Pfleuger President spinning reel. And suddenly I'm a two rod guy. Next thing you know I'll have eight!

We fished the early evening before tropical storm winds from Irma hit our area with the wind blowing 20-30 mph and the fishing was very good. We fished the next afternoon where one minute is was breezy and no rain and the next it was blowing 45 mph with buckets of rain and nothing was biting. We spent the next few days cleaning up so I didn't get to fish post-storm.