Kayak Koz

Until recently, I wasn't using the remote for my AP120 kayak to its fullest. I'd use spot lock, spot lock jog (I have the heading sensor add on), control speed, and turn the motor for tighter or quicker turns in conjunction with the rudder. But yesterday I started using the lock route button (the N button). I'd point on a straight line to where I wanted it to go, set the speed, and hit the N button and it would route me in that direction. This allowed my to stand and fish while picking apart a bank. It was a lot easier than doing that and reaching for the remote to adjust my course when the wind or current moved me. I also used this function when traveling across the lake to another spot. This allowed me to turn around at speed and get to my cooler without having to worry about going off course. One of the drawbacks of the AP Minn Kota motor is that it does not pair with your Humminbird (or any) unit so you can't plot a nav course and go. But the remote does allow you to record and save tracks (I think it's up to 12 or 13 tracks). I haven't used that yet but will try it soon. There's also a cruise control feature to keep you at a constant MPH, but I don't see the need for that yet.

I love the spot lock on my Autopilot 120 kayak but sometimes it drives me nuts. I'm pretty good at positioning the kayak with wind and current to pick apart a spot, but on breezy and windy days that spot lock has me constantly spinning around. Yesterday I set up on some submerged timber off shore and it was a pain to fish. The constant movement with the spot lock also made it hard to target fish with Livescope. My thought is that the kayak is so light that it's easy to drift and spin. Because it's the back of the kayak that's spinning, I'm thinking that part of the reason is that my YakAttack crate with the ShortStak on top is so high that it catches the wind like a sail. Or maybe it also has to do with keeping the rudder in the water. Maybe I should pull up the rudder when I spot lock. What are your experiences with spot lock on a kayak? Is it more stable on a heavier boat or do you have the same issues.

Out on my kayak I've been targeting offshore weed beds with some luck. On Livescope I'm seeing bass holding close to flooded timber but I have not got them to bite. My company is building 2 new hotels that I will be running at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and they have some ponds on site that I occasionally bank fish for a few minutes at lunch. What I have observed is baitfish in very, very shallow water and the bass making hit and run attacks. They crash the shore, feed, and quickly run to deeper water. So the past few days I've been consistently catching bass in water only 3-6 inches deep while throwing a frog and spinnerbait. I haven't caught anything in deeper water throwing a spinnerbait or shaking a minnow. This same pattern held true last summer in the places I fished. I would sight fish bass in skinny water near deeper water. If I didn't see the bass in skinny water, if I found the bait there I'd keep casting in that area and usually a bass showed up.

And you won $1,000 for big bass of the hour during the event! There's another Native event at Fork on October 4th. Are you going? I can't - I'm opening two new hotels in mid September at the GA National Fairgrounds and Agricultural Center and the annual fair starts October 3rd and runs for two weeks. But I'm going to try to do the Kissimmee event in December.

I have posted about this many times before and you can search my profile for posts I made that go into more detail. If you're an avid kayak angler and / or plan to fish in tournaments, buy the biggest display unit that you can afford. You're going to want to see as much detail as possible, and trying to pick apart side imaging detail on a 5" screen can be difficult. Plan ahead. If you're not buying an FFS transducer now, even if there's only a slight chance that you will buy one in the future, make sure that your head unit is FFS compatible.

Just a quick update on my Sniper Marine setup. In the initial setup I had it mounted to the track on the rail. But with the weight of the unit and the plastic tracks there was a lot of flex. It also put the unit closer to the bow and that sometimes interfered with my fishing. So a few weeks ago I bought a Ketch rod tube delete with a metal track mount. I wasn't happy with losing one of my forward facing rod holders because that is where I usually temporarily put my net when I need to measure a fish on my Ketch board. The net helps prevent the fish from flopping back in the water. True story - before I learned that trick I once lost 3 spotted bass before I could photograph them to submit in a tournament. But it's more than worth the trade off. The Sniper pole is now firmly mounted, it doesn't flex and it doesn't vibrate.

While I don't own any KastKing rods or reels, I do like their gear. I have three of their UPF50, moisture wicking hoodies and they are fantastic. First off, they have the built in thumb loops that help keep your hands covered from the sun. They also have a built-in gaiter. But the moisture wicking is wear it really shines. I've been out there on days with 95 - 100+ heat index and at worst I feel a little warm, but usually fairly cool and never hot. I also wear moisture wicking, generic hiking/fishing long pants that do a decent job. Wear I get heated is on my head with the various boonie hats that I have, but my KastKing hat still performs the best on hot days. All in all, covering up with the right gear not only protects me, but it also keeps me cooler than being in shorts and a t-shirt.

Water temperatures here in GA have hit 87 and climbing. Summer fishing here is hit or miss for me. This weekend I fished for 4 hours, but it was over 6 pounds and was hiding in the weeds in 15 feet of water. I didn’t even see it on Livescope. The week before I caught nothing. The few times I found bass on Livescope and put a bait near them I swear they flipped me the fin, turned, and swam off.

I’ve been fortunate to meet a number of members and fish with them for fun and in tournaments. I’ve had guys come up to me at the ramp and say, “Hey - you’re Koz, right?” And this season I updated the graphics on my kayak so if you see me, you’ll know it’s me 😀

I have three answers to this question: 1. A lot 2. Too much 3. Not enough On my kayak I run a Helix for mapping and a Garmin for FFS. The Humminbird Lakemaster is a fantastic tool and important for me because many times I go to a new lake and have only a day or two of practice or no practice at all. FFS is a blessing and a curse. It's great for seeing fish, especially fish hanging out around structure in deeper water. But it can be distracting as well, especially when you haven't mastered it and I have not mastered it. There's an art to using it, but it takes time to master that art. I often head out with the intention of trying to master FFS, but I get distracted and start fishing instead of testing and studying.

I feel your pain. A few weeks ago I fished Tobesofkee and watched the spotted bad swim right by me while I fished the shallows in my kayak. I swear that one looked at me and gave me the finger when he swam by. Yesterday I fished Flat Creek PFA and on Livescope I saw in 18 foot deep water hugging flooded trees at about 4 feet deep. I couldn’t get anything to bite. For the most part, I think I’m done fishing for the summer. It’s 10 am right now and the real feel heat is 96. Brutal heat + tough fishing = no fun.

Accuweather and My Lightning Tracker. My Deep Dive app also has some weather functions.

Mistakes I made early on - and still make today. I'm a terrible tournament angler because I overthink things, get impatient, and suffer from paralysis of analysis. For example, I study maps and pre-fish and find spots holding fish. But come tournament day if I hit a spot and don't get bit quickly I move on when I should be patient, switch techniques, try different angles, etc. In a bass boat it's quicker to run from spot to spot. But in my kayak I end up wasting time motoring to the next destination. Patience, Grasshopper.

I'm lucky that I almost never get bit by mosquitoes. But they do buzz around my ears and that gets annoying. My son, on the other hand, is a mosquito magnet. There could be a mosquito three counties over and it will find him.

What do you plan to use it for? What kind of depths do you usually fish? If you fish shallow water, downscan or down imaging doesn't really do anything for you. Side scan can be useful for finding structure, but it can be difficult to fins fish. BEFORE you buy anything online, go to Bass Pro or somewhere else and look at the different screen sizes in demo mode. Stand as far back or even a little father than you would be from where the unit is mounted on your kayak. Next, realize the demo mode is an enhanced version of what you will actually see when you use the unit. You can find 5" screens that have side scan, but if you set the range to 100 feet or even 50 feet you're not going to see much detail on that small of a screen even if you have great vision. What I'm getting at is that you may not want to make the same mistake that I did and buy a small screen unit because it was more affordable. I started out with a 5" Lowrance with both down and side imaging and I found it hard to see any detail on side scan. Sure, it was better when I set it to 20 or 30 feet, but in a slow moving kayak that takes a lot of time to cover water and mark structure. I ended up upgrading to a Helix 7 with side scan and that was much, much better. As mentioned earlier, the Lakemaster map cards are also fantastic. Last year I added Garmin Livescope with a 9" screen while still running my Helix 7 for mapping. But you know what, I'm now kicking myself for not investing in a 10" or 12" display. So, along with checking them out in demo mode in the store, my suggestion is to read up on how to use a fish finder and make sure it's something that will benefit the way that you fish. Understand it's limitations as well as how you will use it. It's not a magic bullet. It takes a lot of practice to figure out what you are seeing and WHERE you are seeing the fish. Think of sonar as taking a picture of a ball being thrown in the air. When you look at the picture you know the ball is moving, but you have no idea which direction it's moving from that snapshot. LIvescope, on the other hand, is like watching a movie. However, you still have to track that ball as it moves. I would spend a lot of time watching videos learning how to use a fish finder and side imaging and decide if that's for you. If it is, check out the screen sizes in demo mode before making a purchase.

I've watched her skip buzzbaits under docks. But the most amazing thing I've seen with her is that she will stand on her kayak seat to fish. I have enough trouble standing on the deck of my kayak.

Strike King. All sizes. No trailer. Love squeaky. Hate the clacker.

I'm confident that I would tell the boater not to go WOT!😁

Lanier, easily. But 2.5 hours from Columbia SC is Richard B. Russell Lake (Lake Russell) and that has some good spotted bass fishing. The summer boat traffic on Lanier is ridiculous, so if I head out there in the summer I fish for LMB at the creeks and docks on north side of the lake. There are a ton of amateurs out on the main lake with rental boats. Give me a call if you want to fish Lanier this fall or winter. You can stay at one of my hotels at the GA Fairgrounds and we can drive up to Lanier. BTW, are you doing the No Limits tournament at Guntersville on 6/21?

I used to keep a full-sized paddle clipped to my AP120, but after a while I didn't see the point. Instead, I bought an Attwood telescoping paddle. First off, it's easy to stow. I mainly use it when pulling back into the ramp when there's high winds or currents and I've pulled the motor. But I also use it in lily pads, heavy brush, weeds, etc. - or when I get stuck in shallow waters. For me, it works great. It wouldn't be ideal to use if I'm ever 5 miles from the ramp and breakdown. I'm much rather call for help or flag a boat down for a quick tow.

Only when I'm fishing. I'm a suit and tie guy at work. But with my new hotels still under construction, I'm on site in a pair of jeans and a dress shirt. Actually, that's usually my weekend casual wear as well. My girlfriend tells me I'm too old to wear sneakers, so a few pairs of Rockports are my casual footwear.

CT, NY, VT, SC, GA, FL, AL, TX, PA, MA, LA, NH, OH, and Ontario.

If your car need the fob in the car to drive it, your car is vulnerable. My fob unlocks the doors and I can remote start with an app. But that RFID signal also allows me to unlock my doors by touching the handle when I get to teh car.

I’ve seen videos of people that walk up to a house with an antenna, grab the transmission of the key fob RFID, and use that to start your car and steal it. Normally, I park in my garage. But because I’m still unpacking and setting up my new house I have been parking in my driveway.

Are any of you using a Faraday box or sleeve for your car key fobs? After watching a few videos out there, I ordered the box with sleeves yesterday.