Kayak Koz

I tossed a lot of stuff as I packed, but now as I am still unpacking a few weeks later I find myself tossing more stuff or giving it away. And with the holiday sales this weekend, my girlfriend suggested we go shopping for more artwork and accessories. But the place is looking great, and I have a new oversized leather chair and ottoman arriving next week. Other than a few more pieces of artwork, that should do it for the house. Now I’m tackling the garage. I have a ton of fishing gear to sort and put up.

I’m usually out there at least four hours, but 6 or 7 is common. I was out there for 4 hours yesterday, and for the first time that I can remember, my back was sore last night. Getting old is no fun.

I have a Huk rain jacket with hood that also zips up to cover most of my face. It also has multiple velcro straps around the wrists to keep the water out. I have some waterproof, moisture wicking, lightweight, convertible hiking pants that I bought off of Amazon that I use every time I fish, even when it's not raining.

Aye - there's the rub. If you're not catching any bass you can't check their stomach contents. I use a lot of online resources including DNR reports to see what forage is in they lakes they report. In a small body of water, you may want to put a red worm on a tiny hook and see what bites.

I have the both the Expride A and B in 7'2" MHF and they are great all purpose rods. I use them mainly for chatterbaits and spinnerbaits, but I've also thrown Senkos and small A-rigs on them. As mentioned above, for your weightless of light weighted soft plastics you really should consider the Kistler Helium rods (full disclosure - I do have an association with Kistler). The rod is amazingly light, well balances, and will have the action that you are looking for. It has become my primary rod for Senkos and similar soft plastics.

I carry about 200 lures and 80 different varieties of soft plastics on my kayak. I'm bound to run into the right bait one of these days. 😁

I would look at your lake maps for humps and ledges as well as cruise the lake with side scan looking for other structure and cover. Mark those locations, then come back and see what shows up on sonar. If that doesn't work, see Jimbo at your local tackle shop 😁

Thank. I had ordered both the amber on the gray as those should suit the majority of conditions.

Lake Tobesofkee in nearby Macon is good, But it is narrow and there is a decent amount of boat traffic. I fished Houston Lake (pronounced Howston) the other day. It's a small, mile or so long lake that is idle speed only for boats. I was out there for only about 3 hours because an unexpected thunderstorm started moving in, and with that I only explored about half the lake. I caught 3 small bass and 2 pickerel. It has lots of weeds and lily pads out there, and even some timber and Cypress. I've seen online reports of double digit bass being caught in there. Right next to it is a smaller lake, Lake Joy. That's supposed to have even more weeds, but I have also read reports of double digit bass in there. I'm going to fish there this coming weekend. Last week I changed out to my Weedless Wedge prop just before I launched and didn't have any trouble navigating. Flat Creek PFA is also close by in Perry. I fished there for about 90 minutes one day. But they are having issues with the dam leaking and the water is down 5 feet or so. I didn't catch anything out there, but I barely explored it. I was targeting isolated timber. There were some areas I wanted to hit, but with the water so low parts of the lake were impassable. Ocmulgee PFA is about 40 minutes away, and that holds big bass. I've caught a handful of 21" - 22" bass out of there. But they are very finicky. Let me know if you come to town.

🤣🤣🤣 But seriously - she’s a wonderful woman AND she puts up with me.

I think that’s it. I had been single for a long time, but a lot has changed in the last six months. She even asked to take over one of the master bedroom closets 😱

I’ll have to think about that one.

I have heard that the Purple mattresses are great. I bought the Dreamcloud premier hybrid mattress with the adjustable bed frame. Last night was my first night and so far it's great despite not being fully expanded. The massage feature is nice as well.

You're not done. You only think you're done.

So, I recently moved from the lake on Lake Sinclair to Warner Robins for my job. As much as I enjoyed living on the lake, the 80 minute commute each way just wore me out and left me with little time to do anything other than chores. Now, paying for the movers wasn't all that expensive. What is expensive is my girlfriend telling me what I need for the new house and her picking out the furnishings, artwork, and decor! Suddenly, I needed a new adjustable bed, artwork, area rugs, oversized chair, book shelves, side tables, curtains, curtain rods, toilet paper holders, soap holders, new towels, and more. I never knew! 😄 In my old house, I didn't have a garage, just a shed filled with tools and such. So a lot of my fishing gear was in the house. Now that I have a garage that's no longer allowed, so she's filling up the empty spaces. I'm still not fully unpacked, but I do like that my kayak and trailer fit in the garage and there's room for my second kayak and tools as well. But I may put my second on a ceiling hoist to get it off the floor and free up some more space. Don't get me wrong, the place is looking great. I just never knew that paying the movers was only a fraction of my moving costs!

I have an odd little, 15 year old, 7 pound Chiweenie that still loves to run and play. I can toss one of his little soft toys around the house for an hour and he will chase it down and bring it back to me. But here are a few odd items: 1. He won't chase any toys outside. He's too interested in people, nature, sniffing, and soaking up the sunshine. 2. He won't chase a ball. Ever. Even if you roll it right at him he just moves out of the way and gives you the stink eye. But I am thankful that at this age he still runs around at full speed and still likes to play.

I'll definitely keep him in my prayers.

I've always wondered how people handled not having instant reverse. My second kayak is a Seastream Angler 120 pedal drive with the prop for propulsion and instant reverse. What I liked about it is that I could jog the pedals back and forth and bump the rudder to do a decent job of staying in one spot. It was my "manual spot lock." How do anglers without instant reverse sit in one spot and pick it apart?

When I used to tournament fish as a co-angler I limited myself to a maximum of 4 rods. I also used a KastKing tackle backpack for food and gear. Instead of tying baits on, I usually set my rods up with VMC Touch Loc snaps so I could quickly change baits. The exception was whatever rod I brought for soft plastics.

I just moved in to my new house at the end of last week. It's nice having an 18 minute commute instead of an 80 minute commute. The downside is that I no longer live on a lake. I haven't even fished in a month or so except for a few casts out back at the old house. But this weekend I'm going to try and hit two small lakes near me, Houston Lake and Lake Joy. I have no idea if they hold decent bass, but I've seen stories of double digits pulled out of there in the past.

That sounds like a mobile bait and tackle shop!

Whatever you buy, I would make sure that you can easily put a motor on it in the future. Ideally it could handle either a trolling motor with spot lock on the bow or a drive motor on the stern. Even if right now you are 100% against adding a motor, give yourself that option in the future. Your wallet will thank you.

Welcome! My advice is to start off simple: 1. 3/8 oz chartreuse and white willow blade spinnerbait 2. 3/8 oz white willow blade spinnerbait 3. 3/8 oz green pumpkin bladed jig 4. Hollow bodied frog 5. Popper bait That's all that you need to have a ton of fun on the water. One more piece of advice - DO NOT listen to the Bait Monkey. Ever. 😁

If you’re like me and wear glasses, it can either be expensive to buy prescription polarized glasses or they lack the quality of normal polarized sunglasses. A few years ago I bought a pair of Cocoons fit over polarized sunglasses and I was not disappointed. Fast forward to this year and I recently changed up my eyeglasses and the Cocoons are a bit too small. As it so happens, I received an email today from Cocoons offering two for one with the promo code BOGO25. This promo runs until 5/31. I picked up a pair with amber lenses and another with gray lenses. I bought the standard polarized but they also have photo polarized lenses.

During that tournament I saw what looked like a HUGE turtle sunning on a far bank. As I made my way toward it, there was a huge splash off the bank to my right. Instinctively, I knew it was a gator. I saw him surface coming towards me and all I could think about is at 3.5 mph my Minn Kota is not going to outrun a gator. It wasn’t a huge gator, but it wasn’t small, either. Luckily. as I kept going the gator stayed on its original track. I kept going and didn’t even bother checking out that turtle.