Kayak Koz

The tournament is February 1st and 2nd. Are any of you entering the event? I’m thinking about it. It will probably be a last minute decision,

OK - now it’s calling for snow flurries here in GA on Friday.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. I didn’t go to FL because of the hurricanes and instead went to Fork in Texas. But as I suspected, there’s a Bassmaster kayak event in Florida this year. I’m not sure if I’m going to enter, but the venue is the Kissimmee Chain: Kissimmee Cypress Hatchineha Rosalie Tiger Marion Marian Arbuckle Jackson Toho East Toho Gentry Weohyakapka Toho is a bucket list lake, but I don’t know if it’s the smart play as it will probably have a ton of traffic on that first February weekend. If I go, I might hit the smaller lakes so I can cover different structure and depths easily. There’s only a 50/50 chance I am heading there as I may be changing jobs soon.

That’s good to hear. There’s a 50/50 chance I will be fishing the Bassmaster kayak event on the Kissimmee chain the first weekend in February. I’m clueless on which lake or lakes to fish, but my first instinct is to choose one of the smaller ones so I can cover most of the lake.

In about a week, an arctic blast is going to engulf most of the country. Even here in GA the temperatures are going to be in the teens with wind chills in the single digits. Frankly, I’m already tired of the winter cold. As it turns out, my first GA Bass Nation kayak tournament is scheduled for the 11th when the weather is going to be frigid. Worse yet, it’s on Lake Lanier which is a notoriously dangerous lake. I’m going to pass on this event. The cold only compounds the danger. Lanier is a spotted bass lake where you normally fish brush piles in open water. I can’t imagine doing that in frigid, windy weather. I’m too old for that.

He was asking about non BFS baitcaster reels.

You can, but in my experience you don’t get the same action on the bait and most baitcaster gear ratios are too fast. I’m typically a baitcaster first guy with most techniques, but this technique changed my mind.

You first 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I haven’t had the pleasure of catching one yet. I have a few years left in me, so there’s always hope.

I bought pair of KastKing Ice River Neoprene gloves. I’ve used them a few times and they do keep my hands warm and dry. But there are some trade offs, especially with spinning gear. It took some practice to get used to casting with them on and I have to grip the rod differently with my right hand. FWIW, KastKing makes great clothing for fishing. I have 3 or 4 of their moisture wicking hoodies and they are great.

First off, the model I have is the 7’ 4” medium fast. First off, despite the size, the rod is light. This is important as I can shake a minnow all day and not get tired out. Second, this rod is really, really sensitive. I have a picnic table on my dock and today I had this rod and a 7’ 2” Expride MHF leaning up against the table. When I walked onto the dock my footsteps alone had the rod tip of the Cashion bouncing while the Expride was still. This comes into play when I’m shaking a minnow. Just a slight shaking movement of the wrist transfers all the way down to the bait. I don’t need big movements to impart action. That’s great for attracting strikes and again, it doesn’t wear me out. The hook sets are also solid even with the smaller jig heads. I have my Cashion paired with a Daiwa Procyon 2500 AL. I like this reel because it’s lightweight and has a slow 5:3 gear ratio which allows me to keep the bait in the strike zone longer when reeling in the bait past suspended fish. I love to power fish with bait casters, but this Cashion has me loving spinning gear again.

My point is not whether this is a new technique or an old technique. My point is that I understand why it is so popular. Typically, hen I fish the first baits I am going to throw are going to be a chatterbait, buzzbait, spinnerbait, or a Senko. But my opinion of that has no changed due to the wide success I have had with this technique.

As someone who has fished a ton of paddle tails over the years, I can tell you that for me there has been a marked difference in getting bites on an FFS jig head and a pin tail minnow versus throwing a paddle tail on a traditional jig head. Shaking a minnow has produced considerably better results. I don’t do much hovering, but rather keep it shaking and moving. I don’t see much in the way of suspended bass where I would be more apt to hover the bait for an extended period of time.

It works everywhere. This winter I’ve been catching a ton of stripers and crappie throwing blind to deeper water off my dock. In early fall I was catching LMB in shallower water casting parallel to the sea wall.

In some ways I do miss my pedal kayak. It became intuitive to jog the pedals and bump the rudder to stay in place while still fishing. With spot lock I need to first position myself properly in the wind or current, and many time that means looping around where I want to fish to get in position. Other times it’s simply impossible to spot lock where I want to fish because it’s card to fish off the back of the kayak sitting down in a fixed seat. I am getting better at standing. Maybe I need to look into a swivel seat.

Over the last year plus we’ve seen the outcry about FFS and shaking a minnow. While it may make for boring TV, for me shaking a minnow has been a killer technique even without FFS. It’s been even better since I purchased a Cashion Icon spinning rod. So for the moment I’m all in and it’s my dominant technique no matter the depth. To treat myself for Christmas I just spent a few hundred bucks on jig heads and baits (Yum Sonar Minnows and Crush City Freeloaders). Of course, this won’t prevent me from throwing other baits, but more often than not it’s going to be my first cast of the day. Well, until it stops working. But I can see why it has become a dominant technique.

With winter upon us, I haven't been out on my kayak in about a month. I simply don't enjoy getting out there when it's both cold and windy. I had fished off the dock and bank at my house on Lake Sinclair, but I've caught only two largemouth bass all winter when doing that. But for the past few days I've had success catching alternative species, and today was no different. An emergency at the hotel meant I was up all night and had been up for 27 hours by the time I got home. I napped for a few hours, but did not want to sleep all day so I got up and my son and I had a nice Christmas afternoon dinner. To try and stay awake I decided to fish for a bit. The temperature was in the mid fifties, but a stiff breeze in my face kept me chilly and prevented the long bomb casts that I really needed. Armed with my trusty 7'4" Cashion Icon FFS spinning rod paired with a Daiwa Procyon 2500 I tied on a 5" Damiki Armor Shad to do some minnow shaking. I caught a few small striped bass, but then landed a nice striper that came in just under 22". After about 40 minutes I got cold and packed it in, but returned just as the sun had set behind the trees while my dog had his after dinner outing. With the same setup I landed a nice 15 1/2" crappie. It's hard to tell in the photo because it's spilling over the Ketch board, but the striper had some girth to it. I would guess it weighed about 5 pounds. The crappie was a good size. I probably should start keeping them and eating them. The photos are below. And yes, the fish grippers are still on the fish while on the Ketch board. It's cold out, the water is cold, and I didn't have my winter fishing gloves on and I didn't want to ice up my hands. So the measurements may actually be slightly smaller. But it's my fish tale 😀 The crappie and stripers seem to be schooling in the wide creek channel where I live, and hopefully it's not to windy on Saturday and I can chase them down with my kayak and Livescope and have a fun day out there. I'm really enjoying catching the stripers as they put up a good fight.

I fished off my dock a few times today. This morning I had a big hit on the A rig that had my 7’ MHF Expride bent over. Then the fish turned and ran at me. I couldn’t reel in quick enough, the line slacked, and it was gone. Felt like a striper. This afternoon I caught the striper in the photo below. I’m guessing maybe 3.5 pounds. I caught that one shaking a Yum Sonar Minnow. I followed that up with a hybrid that was probably 1.5. While shaking a minnow again I saw a disturbance on the surface off to my right, so I reeled in quick as the bait approached the dock. That must have triggered a follower as I felt a big hit and then nothing. Whatever it was snapped my 10 pound braid in a flash. As for shaking a minnow, I was doing that on the Cashion Icon FFS rod that I picked up earlier this year. I absolutely love that rod. Anyway, in the absence of largemouth, I’m enjoying catching stripers, even if I’m only fishing 30 minutes or so at a time. The weather is supposed to be nice on Saturday, so I think I’ll take out the kayak and target them for the day.

I have never understood people who don’t wear a PFD, especially on a kayak. I always keep mine on.

I can fish just about any bait on a 7’ MHF casting rod and did that for years. But over the past few years I’ve added other weapons to my arsenal. Often times the difficulty comes down to what my load out is on each trip. Space is limited on my kayak, so I have to choose wisely.

I did see that they made an about face on their original decision. I’m guessing they got a lot of feedback and changed their minds.

OK, I finally have something for you. It’s in the 40’s and breezy today, but I took 30 minutes to fish off my dock when I got home from work. The water is fairly stained right now and in the afternoon this time of year most of the castable area is in the shade. Along the seawall it’s 2-3 feet deep, but by the end of my dock it’s 11 feet deep and a long cast gets me to 15-18 foot depths. Anyway, I chose a small, 3 hook A-rig with some Crush City Mayor baits. A few casts in I caught a 1.5 pound crappie. Not long after that I caught the striper pictured below that probably weight about 2.5 pounds. He put up a nice little fight. The largemouth tend to disappear from around my house this time of year, so I was happy to catch anything. I’m hoping to get out on my kayak for a few hours on Christmas day.

A motor adds a whole new world of fishing. Most notably for me, I could fish longer periods of time and not be worn out from pedaling. That alone made a huge difference when it came time to load up at the ramp. What you need to decide is if you want a bow mount motor or stern mount. With the bow mount the benefit is getting a motor with spot lock. With the stern mount you lose spot lock, but you gain more speed. It’s also better for river fishing and can be better in heavy weeds. You can use your pedal drive in place of spot lock. Good luck with your decision.

I bought some Muck boots a few months ago and have been using them this winter.

Fished off my backyard for a little bit after work yesterday. Caught nothing, but there was a nice consolation prize.

The guy fishes for a living. How could he NOT be current with his license? I have fishing licenses in multiple states and always keep up with my notifications and renewals.