Kayak Koz

Not on video. I fished with her in practice for a Bassmaster event.

Practice! Actually, when seated your angle of attack is important. Much of that depends upon your kayak setup. For example, do you have anything on the rail that might get in the way? Do you have a captain’s bridge or pedal drive that is in the way? Seat height is also important. My seat in my AP120 is in the upper position. Some might even want to add seat risers. Because I usually cast from the right side and because I have a Captain’s bridge in front of me I will usually offset the bow of my kayak 15 degrees left of perpendicular to my target. Even with spot lock, wind and current make it challenging to skip from a kayak. One of the most amazing things I have seen on a kayak was Kristine Fischer skipping buzzbaits deep under docks from her kayak.

I had the benefit of living on a lake and practiced skipping under my own dock from the seawall on the bank. I actually prefer skipping with a baitcaster - until the bait bounces off the frame of the dock, Because I mainly fish out of a kayak and the weather isn’t always conducive to standing and fishing, my skipping rod is now a 6’ 9” Kistler Helium rod. On a boat I prefer skipping with any of my 7’ rods.

I run Yak Power components on my AP120: 1. Red and green nav lights because I am a powered vessel. 2. Two red button lights that face the deck from under the seat. 3. USB port in the tank well to my back and left. It has dual ports for both my phone and my Go Pro. These all connect to an 8 port Yak Power hub as does my UHD93, black box for FFS, GT56 transducer, Helix 7 for mapping and navigation, and my heading sensor. I power this with a second 100Ah battery. I could power all of this with a 36Ah battery, but I use the 100Ah in case my 100Ah motor battery fails or if I drain it. You will be fine with a 30Ah battery.

For those of you who are like me and wear glasses and don’t want to invest in prescription sunglasses, I recommend Cocoons fit over sunglasses. A lot of fit over sunglasses look like ski goggles, but not these. You need to measure the width and height of your eyeglasses, then select the appropriate sized fit over.

Get the biggest screen that you can afford, even on a kayak. You will appreciate the detail with all modes. I run the Garmin 93 with Livescope and the GT56 transducer. I also have a Helix 7 with DI/SI but I don't have the transducer hooked up. I use that unit strictly for mapping and Lakemaster. When I'm running Livescope I don't see the need to do a split screen unless for some readin my Humminbird doesn't have the contour map of a smaller lake.

I struggled when I first got my short, Malone kayak trailer. A tongue extender helped a little but I still struggled. Why? I was relying on the backup camera on my Bronco Sport. Once I opened the back hatch and looked over my shoulder to back the trailer it was a breeze to back up including navigating around tight corners. So if you're struggling when using your mirrors or backup camera, my advice is to go Old School and look over your shoulder.

I had not fished for decades, and one day when my son was 7 years old he said he wanted to go fishing. We had thousands of stormwater pounds in our area, so there was no shortage of places to fish. So we went to DSG and bought a couple of cheap rods and reels, some tackle and a tackle bag and we were on our way. Our fun together was endless. Fast forward nearly 13 years later and I'm about $25k into kayak and fishing gear! Enjoy fishing with your son - but beware the Bait and Boat Monkey!

One of these days I'm going to have to make the trek up north and fish with you. But instead of my Autopilot I'll have to bring my pedal kayak so I can drag it through the woods! 😁

When it gets to be over 26 mph it becomes a problem on y kayak, mostly because of the waves in open water on large lakes. But I imagine that your canoe becomes even more of a sail than my kayak. I can't speak for bass boats, but on my kayak spot lock is not a cure for the wind. Constantly shifting wind keeps spinning the bow of the kayak into the wind. Spot lock doesn't do the best job holding you in place in windy conditions, either. Thankfully, I have the heading sensor which allows me to move 5 feet forward, back, left, or right with a few presses on my trolling motor remote. Things are better with winds under 15 mph, but here in the south we are susceptible to strong, heat driven summer winds across the lake. 16-24 mph wind gusts throughout teh day are quite common. It's also funny in that every time I set out to fish on a windy day, the wind always seems to be in the opposite direction of where I need it to be to attack my spots. With that, I constantly have to loop around to try and fish the spots I'm targeting. So far me, while wind may be great in stacking up the bait fish, it's not always fun to fish in a kayak. And I can't imagine how the paddle kayak anglers contend with it.

First off, there are times when I become the king of paralysis of analysis when it comes to fishing, especially come tournament time. So when I struggle, I do my best to keep it simple with just a few baits, especially a Senko. But often times choosing the right bait isn't the issue. A lot of times it's the retrieve, so I force myself to mix it up. Sometimes it's the speed of the retrieve. Other times you need to hop it, yo you it, rip it, pulse it, let it sit, drag it, pause it, and the list goes on and on. I'm glad to hear you've had more success lately.

I'm in the midst of moving to Warner Robins for my new job in Perry and I'm looking to see if there are any other kayak anglers nearby that want to get together and fish in this area occasionally. There are three PFA's (DNR supported public fishing areas) in the area with Flat Creek, Ocmulgee, and Big Lazer. I like the PFA's because the fishing is usually good and they are idle speed only for the occasional bass boat. There are no jet skis, wake boats, and pontoon boats to contend with. Blackshear, Juliette, and Tobesofkee are not far away, and Seminole is only 2 hours away. We also have small lakes like Houston Lake and Lake Joy nearby. I'm sure there are others that I haven't discovered yet. If you're interested, reply here or send me a private message. I think I'm going to hit Flat Creek this weekend.

The trade off, of course, is those anglers don’t have spot lock. But they put their motors on Hobie pedal drives and use the pedals and fins as their spot lock. We can put the airplane style props on our motors to fan speed, but it voids the warranty of the motor. When my warranty runs out I may try it. I have also thought of ditching my crate to lose weight. Bring two speed bags and four boxes of hard baits tucked in that storage area next to the seat. I’d also probably ditch my cooler. It would be interesting to see if I can get 4.25 - 4.5 mph. it’s still not the 6+ mph the other boats are getting, but it’s an improvement.

I’m proud of you, buddy. I’m really sorry my new job prevented me from getting there. But I will definitely fish the No Limits tournament at Guntersville in June. For those of you not familiar with the Bassmaster Kayak Series, what Chris accomplished was amazing. The kayak fishing world is very competitive, and there were 233 anglers in this tournament. In a boat you can cover a ton of water. Get to one of your waypoints and there are no fish there? No problem. Hit the big motor and you can be miles down the lake in 10 or 15 minutes. In a kayak, you’re moving at 3 miles an hour. You can gut it out at that spot, make a 90 minute run to go 4 or 5 miles, or head back to the ramp, load up, and lose 90 minutes or more driving to another ramp. At the Bassmaster events, you’re also competing against 100+ men and women that fish the entire tournament trail across the country, pre fish for at least a week, and usually have fished these lakes many times before. You’re also fishing against teams of 3-6 anglers that spread out to pre fish and skirt the no information rules by being part of a team. Finishing in the top 50% as a part time angler is a big deal with these national events. Great job, Chris!

I’m still not buying that boat or pickup truck😀 The truth here is that in my opinion I wasted money on my kayak adventure. The reason for that is either not doing the research, not knowing what I wanted, or not planning ahead. I’m hoping that posting about this will help others avoid those mistakes.

I cannot say this enough - ALWAYS wear your PFD. Not just when the big motor is running. ALWAYS. Weather, wakes, and other boaters constantly put your life in jeopardy out there. If you don't like wearing a foam PFD all day, get a self inflating one. You hardly even notice it when you're wearing them. Skip the new rod or new reel and get yourself a PFD that you can wear all day long.

I just saw one news article where Flint Davis' girlfriend was asking for people to pray for him.

One news source is reporting it was an MLF angler. I won't name him here because I don't want to spread any potential rumors.

Are you using the Yakttack Sidestage holders? I have thought about horizontal rod storage, but I have my doubts and concerns. First off, I would be limited to putting it on one side of my kayak because of by FFS Sniper pole on one side. And since the horizontal storage is limited to three rods, I would still have to store the remainder vertically. Doesn't it get in the way of netting and landing fish? I realize that with the Sidestage Pro you can angle the holder up or down and that may make it easier, but I still think it has the potential to get in the way. I think they are a great idea, but probably not practical for my setup.

If ants had thumbs they would rule the world. The only way that I know of to effectively combat any bugs is to hire a pest control company and have monthly service.

I forgot to upload a picture of the new hub. The inside of the hull is uneven, so first I used velcro to anchor a piece of 1x3 in front of the FFS black box. Then I used velcro to affix the hub to the 1x3. The black box is also held down with velcro. I prefer using velcro because it makes it easy to remove any components or move them around if needed. I still have one available wiring connection on the new hub if zi find something else to add. Other than a Power Pole, I can’t think of many other additions. I have no use for a Power Pole. Actually, I have been thinking of a 10 or 12 inch Garmin unit and networking my 9” unit. If I do that, I might mount my Humminbird bracket upside down under the Captain’s Bridge so I don’t lose my Humminbird Smart Strike maps.

I’ve been sitting on some equipment for a while lately and finally took the time to install the upgrades today. I’ve been running the Yak Power 5 port hub and that’s not enough connections for all of my needs including: Humminbird Helix 7 Garmin UHD9 Garmin FFS black box Bow navigation lights Deck lights GoPro Heading sensor What this meant was that along with running my 100Ah trolling motor battery I was running 3 additional batteries: one for the Helix, one for the GoPro, and another for the Yak Power hub running everything else. So today I swapped out the 5 port hub with an 8 port hub. I also added a dual port USB to power my phone and GoPro. So now I’m down to a 100Ah battery for my trolling motor and another 100Ah battery for everything else. I also took the time to clean up and re-run all of my wiring and add some more through the hull wiring. Lastly, I had some decals left over from my registration so I added “Koz” to my kayak so you can all find me on the lake😀 Oh - and when I finished I gave my kayak a thorough cleaning. As you can see from one of the photos it was quite dirty. Overall, I’m happy with the finished product. I was going to fish the Native Watercraft event on Chickamauga next weekend, but decided to fish the GA Bass Nation event on Clark’s Hill instead.

I carry between 5 and 9 rods depending upon my game plan. As to where they are placed, that depends upon what rods and baits I plan to use that day.

VMC Touch Lok snaps in varying sizes.

That’s never going to happen. It’s a short cord it takes a bit to pull it. It’s more likely that you accidentally dunk it in the water like I did. Even then, it’s no big deal to squeeze all of the air out, roll the inner liner, and velcro the outer liner around it. Just make sure that you keep a spare CO2 kit around. Look at it this way: when people talk about a foam vest the biggest concern is if the vest is comfortable. You can spend a lot of money on a foam vest and end up being uncomfortable and hot. With my Onyx A/M 24 I don’t even realize that I’m wearing it.