Kayak Koz

The one Malone is selling on their website is actually the Flambeau that retails for about $100 without the mounting hardware.

For those of you putting rod tubes on your kayak trailers, which tubes are you using? I’d like to add 1-2 tubes to my Malone Ecolight trailer, but the ones that Malone sells are $240 each. There has to be a good, cheaper option out there.

For everyday fishing, no. But I do have a checklist on my phone for when I head out of town to fish a tournament.

I keep a roll of duct tape in my hatch. I can use that to tape over the light. I was planning to put it behind the hatch near the seat. Don’t your side mount rod holders get in the way of landing fish?

I have close to 60 pounds in batteries alone. I may swap out one of the 100ah batteries for a 36ah or 50ah to save some weight. The second battery runs my lights, livescope, and two other transducers and head units. But on tournament days it also serves as a backup for the trolling motor so I can run longer at top speed. I dread being 9 miles out and running down the trolling motor.

The hull design and the weight of the craft play a huge role in speed. The fluid dynamics are similar to the aerodynamics that we see in race cars. Lighter weight, narrower kayaks are already getting 8-9 mph on Torqeedo motors. Weight is a big factor in my own kayak speed, but I choose to run with two 100ah lifepo batteries.

I just ordered the heading sensor and it’s due in on Friday. Hopefully it gets in early enough on Friday evening so I can get it installed for my Saturday tournament.

Speed will have to come from the hull design and/or decreasing weight. The Bassmaster Kayak Series limits motors to 3HP and 155 foot pounds of thrust. I’m sure the Hobie series has similar regulations.

Now you tell me. I’m supposed to fish MLF at Clark’s Hill in 2 weeks.Knowing my luck it will be 101 that day.

It was in the upper 60’s when I got up around 7 am and the temperature quickly climbed. It topped out at 99 today and now at 7pm it’s still 97 out. I didn’t even think about going on the water today. Did my yard work yesterday and cleaned house and sat around today. I can’t remember the last time I did essentially nothing all day. I don’t like it.

It looks like I won't be there on Friday. Work and life are getting in the way and I won't even have time to pre-fish. It looks like it's going to be 95 degrees out on tournament day. It will be brutal out there. I might end up bringing a bigger cooler than a bait crate! But I will be at the tournament, so maybe we can grab a bite after that or at least meet when I pick up my check and trophy 🤣🤣

That's the plan - but first I need to see the Bait Monkey and get some more deep cranks. I've got a kayak tournament next week on a lake I fished once a few years ago from the back of the boat and I don't have time to pre-fish. I marking spots like those on my Humminbird app and hoping for the best.

I think that you are probably correct on that. We'll see what the winter and next spring holds.

I did manage to land a two pounder from under my dock early this evening, so some bass are still around. Other than my dock, there’s not much cover or structure by my house. Maybe I should drop a bunch of brush piles. The water at the end of my dock is about 11 feet deep and drops to 18-20 feet within casting distance.

I’m hoping that now that I have FFS that I can get better at both summer fishing and deep water fishing. Deep water cranking wears me out, especially in hot weather. I’m hoping that a Damiki rig can land some summer bass.

It’s been warm here the last week and downright hot this weekend with temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s. In the mornings I fish off of my backyard while my dog does his thing and until the past week the early morning bite has been great. But most of the baitfish have moved off except for a few pumpkinseed. Even the catfish hives moved off. There’s been nothing around at sunset or at night, either. I haven’t been out on my kayak in a few weeks because of work and waiting for a new iPilot. But when I head out again it looks like it’s time for some deeper fishing and ledge fishing. I may do some night fishing again, but fishing off my dock at night I’ve seen more than a few snakes on the water. Now that the heat is here I’m wishing I had done a lot more fishing this spring.

That doesn’t help you when you’re out on the lake. Maybe if you hold your phone under the water with the picture. 😀

Congrats. I love my Old Town. I also just bought a 13x16 Blackpack Pro with 6 rod holders but have yet put it on my kayak. Hopefully I get on the water tonight.

It’s time you learned the #1 rule of baits - if you find a bait you really like, buy at least 30 of them 😀

VMC Touch Loc for me.

I used to carry just 2-3 rods and use the VMC Snaps on all of them but found many baits work better without the snaps. That led to carrying more rods. But on some kayaks it can be a pain to have to tie on baits. One reason I like my AP is the forward rod holders. It makes it easier to tie on baits and it gives me a quick spot to place my rod when unbuttoning a fish or taking pictures of it on a Ketch board.

As I get older, my Autopilot 120 kayak becomes more and more of a beast to wrangle. But this week it got a lot easier. I added a winch post and winch to my Malone Ecolight single kayak trailer with the bunk kit. My kayak is usually stored down by my dock and seawall and when I travel I put it on my Wilderness Systems cart, haul it up to my trailer, then wrestle it onto the trailer )it’s really nose heavy), then when it’s up on the bunks I release the kayak cart. With the winch today it was about the same keeping the cart attached, but with the winch I didn’t have to wrestle the kayak up onto the bunks and it took just seconds to get it up there. It will obviously also be a lot easier recovering it in the water. Instead of pulling it up on the trailer with the tow rope the winch will do all the work. I know this all sounds simple especially if you’re a boat owner, but I’ve always been hesitant to fish a lot away from simply because of having to wrestle with a heavy kayak. Now I wish Zi had added the winch months ago when I bought the AP 120.

Because I fish out of a kayak I don’t have the luxury of bringing a dozen plus rods on an outing. I would usually bring 6 or maybe seven rods. With that setup I would tie baits on 4 or 5 rods and on the other two I would tie on VMC Touch Loc snaps to be able to quickly change baits. But I did just decommission my Tuff Krate for a Blackpack with 6 rod holders. That will allow me to carry 9 or 10 rods on each outing.

I think that bluegills are territorial.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I’ve been looking at various ways to get more top speed in my AP120. There’s no way I would put two motors on it, plus that is illegal with many your. One thing of note - when I fished the Bassmaster series at Guntersville there were a lot of anglers with lighter plastic kayaks that were getting 8 - 9 mph with their setups. Meanwhile, I had swapped out my standard prop for a Weedless Wedge prop and I was getting only 3.1 mph.