Kayak Koz

My son is 20 years old now, but when he was 11 or 12 he caught a 5.5 pound bass and was on top of the world. A few days later I reminded him that there were people out there that fished for 40+ years and have never caught a bass that big and, in fact, that might be the biggest bass he ever catches and he should always savor that moment,

But are you having fun? My first kayak was a Seastream Angler pedal drive. It was made of cheap plastic, had no storage other than the tank well, and cost maybe $1,200. It was a bare bones pedal drive - but I loved that thing. In one way I loved it more than my AP because I felt more connected to the water and nature in it. The catalyst for buying my AP was because I live in the deep south and it is really hot and humid for a lot of the year and I fish big lakes and cover a lot of water and I'd be wiped out at the end of the day pedaling that thing 8-10 miles. If I was younger that probably wouldn't have been a big deal. It all snowballed from there as I dropped more money and started doing 4-5 tournaments a year. Now I have this beast. It's still great, but as I said, it's turning into a dinosaur.

I actually think part of the reason is that the hooks have changed. I think they are more brittle than years before. For example, before I could easily bend the hooks a bit upward and that seemed to improve my hookup ratio. But when I try to bend the Spro frog hooks they just snap. Maybe I'll look into changing the hooks to something I can bend and see if that helps.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to check out their boats.

I feel bad with the people who made those long drives only to have the tournament cut short. I did the math. If those two fish that I lost at the boat were 20” each I would have finished 7th. If they were 22’s or 23’s as I suspected I would have been second or third. So today I’m kicking myself a little bit. But I felt I gave them good hook sets. They both fought a lot and breached. Fishing with frogs is fun, but those are the risks.

I though about buying an NK300 to give me the option of using that stern mount or the Minn Kota that comes with the AP. But I am worried about stability and being on plane with a stern mount, so I decided against it. Plus, tournaments are limited to one motor only. I’ll sit tight for now and revisit the topic next winter.

My biggest issue with getting a boat is that my Bronco Sport has a 2,200 pound towing capacity. I don't want to have to invest in a new boat and a new truck, especially with the prices of vehicles these days. But even storing the boat is an issue. My kayak and trailer fit in my garage and I still have room for tools, a small tackle shop, and my Bronco. That limits me to aluminum boats. I did look at a Lowe Stinger 195 and 175 but I didn't pull the trigger on buying one. The Tracker Pro Team 175 and 195 are also options. But with either the Lowe or the Tracker I'd leave out the stock trolling motor and upgrade to one with spot lock. That adds another $3k+ to the cost. But I've heard that installing a trolling motor on a Tracker is a pain, so add another $1k+ to have it professionally installed. Then, if I sell my electronics with my kayak I'd need to shell out another $3k - $4k for a new Garmin Livescope package depending upon if I wanted a 10" or 12" screen. I can always mount my old Helix 7 on the console for mapping. I can put that all together for under $40k. My problem is that I'm frugal. Not cheap - frugal. Heck, that's why I haven't upgraded to a newer kayak. There's an RC prop that can give you more speed, but that's only about 1 mph. And since I fish a lot of weedy lakes, half the time I swap out my regular prop for a Weedless Wedge prop which is even slower.

Less than three years ago, in December of 2023, I bought my Old Town Autopilot 120 kayak. I love this little plastic boat. We've been on a ton of adventures, had some great times, and even had a few scary times out on the lake. But it has always got me home safely. This past week I was fishing the Bassmaster Kayak event on Santee Cooper and came to the realization that even though it's less than three years old, I'm riding on a dinosaur. Sure, having spot lock can be an advantage over those NK stern mount motors. And while those motors don't have spot lock, those little boats leave me in their wake. Fully loaded, I'm limited to 3.0 - 3.2 mph if I want to run all day. If I want to drain my battery in 2 hours I can get to 3.5 mph. Garmin has the new Garmin Force stern mount kayak motor and top speed with a 36v battery is about 6 mph. I really like this one because it does have spot lock and it can connect to my Garmin units to navigate waypoints. However, this week I talked to a guy who owns one he told me Garmin is still working through some issues with it. They have been responsive to the problems, but it might be better to wait until the next version. BTW, this Garmin Force motor with the foot pedals is $3,600. I paid $3,900 my AP 120 when it was on sale (retail is $4,500). The NK300 is $1,500. Part of the speed issue I have is the hull design of my AP120. Then again, it's a stable hull even in rough waters. But those NK300's can go 7 mph with the right kayak. That's more than double my speed. So if my first waypoint is 3 miles from the ramp, I burn an hour of tournament fishing time just getting there while other anglers are there in 25 minutes. My AP is 36" wide, but with the width of the gunnels my deck is narrow. The Bonafide XTR and the Native Titan are both 40" wide, but when I saw them up close this week I couldn't believe the deck space. What I'm getting at is that a lot has changed in the kayak world in just a few years. It's also getting expensive. I'm not looking to get rid of my rig, but if I bought an XTR, Garmin Force, and a new trailer I'd be in for around $13k. My current setup won't have much resale value, and I'd probably have to sell it with electronics and batteries to sweeten the pot. And no, I still don't want a bass boat, but a 17' Tracker can still be had for $20k. But adding electronics and I better trolling motor would add up quickly.

It really depends upon the type of grass and the location. Is the grass all submerged or is it also above the water? If above the waterline, some grass you can easily run through with things like a spinnerbait, bladed jig, or soft plastic swim bait. Frogs are also great there. When you get thick grass like hydrilla, look for openings and drop a weightless or lightly weighted bait in there. If it gets really thick, even the bass can have problems getting through there. But they will sit on the edge of or just in those grass lines waiting to ambush prey. In my experience, bass gravitate towards different types of grasses in the same lake based on both weather conditions and seasonality.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret that won't break the bank - Kast King UV50 moisture wicking hoodies. They even have a built in gaiter. I've fished in the summer GA and SC heat with heat indices in the upper 90's and these do a fantastic job of wicking the moisture away. Once that problem was solved, the next problem was a head covering that didn't trap heat yet still kept me protected. I tried a number of different hats and settled on the Kast King boonie (the plain, light tan one). It's breathable and has a detachable neck guard as well. It's the first head covering I found that didn't make my head overheat. I have no idea if Kast King makes decent reels or any other fishing equipment, but their outerwear has been great. I recently purchased their rain suit as well and while it did a great job of keeping my dry this past week, it it did heat me up a bit. The jury is still out on that one.

Unfortunately, Day 2 of the tournament was canceled due to the threat of high winds. Being such a shallow lake, that can mean big waves, especially on the main lake. I was only 10 minutes from my ramp when they made the announcement, so I continued to the lake. Winds weren’t a problem in that area, so a bunch of went out and fished. I was out there for less than an hour and decided to head home. I had a five hour drive and I have to get back to work in the morning. I’m still wishing I landed those two fish. It would have been interesting to see if they landed me in the top 10. I wish I had found a bait with a better hookup ratio that they were hitting on. But that’s the nature of fishing with a frog.

What a fun and weird day this was. To catch everyone up, I have been pre-fishing different areas of the lake for four days and on Thursday I found two patterns and my best 5 were 106 inches, so for the first time in these national tournaments I was feeling confident. One item of note - I also entered the Native No Limits Big Bass Power Hour tournament along with my Bassmaster enter. The Native tournament pays out $1,000 each hour for biggest bass plus the winner for total length of fish caught over 12" (no 5 fish limit). But instead of one lake, this was a nationwide tournament with designated lakes and Santee Cooper was on the list. Since I had been catching big fish, I figured I'd enter at the last minute. My AirBnB is in Cross, SC and I'm about a 6 minute ride from the Spier ramp. This isn't far from Rocks Landing and an area where the Elites were catching a lot of big ones a few weeks ago. I was launching from a different ramp almost an hour away. There are 214 anglers in this tournament, and as I hit the road at 4 am at least 40 of them passed my heading to either the south end of Marion or Lake Moultrie. I mean, a LOT of guys pulling kayaks were headed in the opposite direction. Did I make the right choice? At the tournament check-in the night before there were a lot of anglers saying that they hadn't caught anything in practice. So I was hoping they were just headed to that area because a lot of Elites fished there and not that they had found fish. I was also hoping no other anglers would show up at my ramp. But when I got to my launch there were maybe ten other kayaks launching from that ramp. We get to launch at 5:30 am and we have 30 minutes to get to our first waypoint before lines in at 6 am. It took me all of 4 minutes to get to my first waypoint while everyone else scattered far and wide. I did fire up Livescope to look around and I saw some bait but no bass. I shut down Livescope because I didn't need it for the patterns that I was fishing. After twiddling my thumbs for almost 30 minutes it was finally time to fish. I was fishing my favorite small, Spro yellow bellied popping frog. On the third cast my little frog got blasted and I landed a 19.75" LMB. I was the leader on the board for at least a few minutes. But here's part of the weird for the day - it was a good hook set but the body of my frog was 3 feet up my v braided line! Frickin' bass blasted my favorite topwater into multiple pieces. Here's the other thing - the Native tournament requires their own Identifier Card (a card with a code that must be in the photo you submit for your catch). Bassmaster gives us a laminated card, but Native has a paper one. I also have a sleeve that holds the ID cards and attaches to my Ketch board. But because of the design of that sleeve and the Velcro backing I can't flip it with one ID on one side and another ID on the other side. I have to physically remove the Native ID card while holding the bass on the Ketch board so it doesn't flop into the water, and position the Native ID and grab my phone and take a second photo. Well, Native disqualified my fish because I held their ID over the body of the fish, That will stink if it ends up being big bass for that hour. Anyway, I have a second dilemma - try and fix my Spro frog or tie on a white bellied popper? Lose my confidence bait and throw something else or take time from fishing to fix my bait. I tried to fix it and ended up cutting my thumb on the frog hook. Not only was my yellow bellied Spro my confidence bait, but I had also fine tuned the angle of the hooks to get better hook sets. I gave up and tied on a black popper, but when I tried to bend the hooks I snapped one of them. Dang! So now I tied on a new, off white bellied popper and I left the hooks alone. I left that area to let it reset and hot some other waypoints with no luck. Since the tournament is still going on, I don't want to give up the structure I was fishing, but I had 4 areas that I kept looping for a while. Sure enough, I got another blow up and this was a BIG girl - easily 20+ inches. But as I got her close to the boat she jumped, dove, big head shake, and I lost the hookset. That stinks, but I new one of my patterns was working. Not long after I was cruising another area and said "Good morning" to a couple sitting on their dock. Seconds later I hooked into one and she was another big girl. I landed this one and it measured at 22.75". Well, Native scored it that way. Bassmaster scored it as 22.5". Go figure. I won't know until the results are posted on Monday, but this one gives me a good shot at winning $1k in the Native tournament. And if it's the biggest of the day I also win a new Native Kayak. Next up, I made a longer run to another area to test out pattern #2. There was a boat in the first stretch of that run, so I rounded the corner to another waypoint. This area called for a 1/2 oz, white spinnerbait with two big willow blades, one silver and one gold. I love this spinnerbait because even with a paddle tail trailer I can get it to land soft and quiet. First cast and I get a blow up, and when it breaches the water I can see it's a smaller one. I'm not even sure if it meets the 12" minimum. But I reel down and then there's nothing. The bass never hit the hook - it hit the skirt. Not only that, but it took the skirt with it! Another weird event. And of course, I don't have a spare white skirt. I do have another smaller white, silver double willow spinnerbait but the skirt isn't long enough for my other spinnerbait. I fish that for a while in that area. But there's no wind today and that area doesn't produce with a spinnerbait or bladed jig. So I head back to my first set of waypoints. I get another HUGE blowup on that popping frog and start wrestling her to the boat. She goes under the kayak, then darts back out. She puts on a great fight for a while, goes back under the kayak, shakes, and she's gone. It was another 20+ incher. While I'm a bit frustrated, I'm also excited because I'm still finding big bass. I fish those waypoints for a while more, find nothing, then set back off to the area for pattern #2. I go back and forth a few times. Pattern #2 doesn't seem to be holding any fish. I can sight fish and see fish at pattern #1, and despite throwing a few different baits I can't get them to bite. It should be noted that earlier in the day we had full overcast and spotty rain, but now it's patchy sun and almost no wind. So after a bit of back and forth, I'm back at pattern #1 again with my frog popper and get blasted again. I should note that when I get one on, one of the first things I do after setting the hook is hitting my remote button to engage spot lock. But when I hit the button this time there's nothing - the motor dies and there's no beeps. So now I'm adrift, but I land the fish, take my photos, and then try to see what's going on. It turns out that I drained my 100Ah LifePo trolling motor battery. Believe it or not, I plan for this. I run my electronics off of another 100Ah battery. So, while it's awkward to swap batteries on the water, I got it done. But that means I have no electronics. That's not a big deal today, because I'm only using it for mapping today. I didn't catch anything else and ended up with three fish for 59.75 inches. I'm in 95th place out of 214. But it's disappointing that if I had landed those two other fish and they were only 20" each I'd be sitting in 7th place. If they were bigger I'd probably be in the top 4 or 5. Sure, that's a bit frustrating. But really I look at it as a pretty good day. With a few breaks or a few less headshakes I'd be in the running. But I know I can compete. Tomorrow's goal is 100" and a finish in the top 100. The weather will be different tomorrow, but pattern 2 should be in play.

This morning I was on the lake for only a few hours, mostly scouting a new area of the lake and not doing much fishing. The hydrilla is really taking over the lake and I didn't find any of the conditions that met the two patterns I established the other day. I spoke with a local who is in this tournament (we can share information with other competitors) and he told me the lake is junk right now. At the tournament check-in tonight I listened to a lot of anglers saying the can't find fish and even when they do they're not catching a limit. I get it, because I only found fish under specific conditions. We get a cold front moving in tomorrow with temperatures dropping 10 degrees and a few downpours of 1/3 inch of rain predicted each of the two rain periods. I still think my patterns will hold out, but I do have some backup plans. I did mark some hydrilla weed lines and shell beds. We'll see what happens, We now have 215 anglers in the tournament. Most guys have been fishing the Bassmaster Elite series areas. I'm nowhere near those and hopefully that continues.

I know some people that carry handguns out there.

So, I'm in South Carolina for the Bassmaster Kayak Series event on the Santee Cooper lakes. I came to town with a handful of coikes and a plan, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. For me, one of two things are consistent with my tournament fishing. Many times I just show up at a lake I've never fished before, don't have time for practice, and wing it based upon map study and an AI prompt. That never works. Sometimes I get there early to practice, but I usually bring bad weather with me. When I fished the Kissimmee event in February I'd get up in the morning and knock the ice off my kayak. In Florida. During that same week, winds of 15-20 mph were the calm days. For two days of practice the winds were 25 - 30+ mph and I stayed off the lake. This week, I rolled into town midday on Monday, and went to a ramp close to my rental. Some guy who had no business being at the ramp walked up to me and another kayak angler asking about our gear and how much it cost while also peeking into the back of my Bronco. He walked away, but then I saw him in his old, beat up car parked in the bushes at the end of the parking lot. No thanks - I don't need anyone breaking into my vehicle. I went to another ramp a few miles down the road, launched, and 30 minutes later turned back when a thunderstorm rolled in. End of day. On Tuesday I launched out at Jack's Creek where a lot of the Elites were fishing a few weeks ago. The hydrilla was thick, thick thick. So much that it reminded me of Toho, I was finding nothing in the hydrilla. I started fishing Cypress trees but they were now choked off with hydrilla. So as the sun peaked through I switched to fishing lily pads but even they were chocked with hydrilla. I found some clean water in a larger pocket along with the type of shore grass I was looking for and landed a 2 pounder on a frog. But after a few more blow ups and misses it attracted a big gator who let me know that I was no longer welcome in that area. I should have pushed further out to the main lake, but the weather was dicey and I didn't want to get caught in the middle of nowhere in a thunderstorm and have to take cover in the creepy Cypress groves where the big gators live. Side note - I was told today that they began spraying the hydrilla out at Jack's Creek. Wednesday rolls in and my plan is to fish main lake and skip and pitch docks with a coike and see what it's all about. I launched from a marina in a protected creek channel, slip around the breaker channel and wall and it's nautical out there. The wind is probably 18-22 mph in in this shallow lake the waves are rolling. Since I was going into the wind it wasn't too bad. I could pull up to the dock, spot lock, and do my thing. I had my FFS and all electronics shut off because I wanted to practice patience and pick apart docks. But after 30 minutes or so in that wash tub I felt the waves pick up and decided it wasn't worth the risk. I headed back for that protected cove. What I failed to mention is that my battery for my electronics is in a battery box in my tank well and when I charged the battery and put the box in the tank well the night before I forgot the wind nuts that tighten the power cable. All I had with me was some masking tape to try and hold the connectors in place. So I'd have electronics for a while, then the connection would fail and I'd have to tape it up again. So when the connection was working, I decided to take time to play with my FFS and holy cow did it pay off. I finally got the picture I was looking for. Unfortunately, all I saw were little fin nippers chasing my bait. I packed it up and headed to the ramp where that guy had spooked me off a few days ago. I start making a run to my first waypoint and mt lightning alert goes off, so I had back to the ramp. Cell phone connection is spotty at best out there, but when I got to the ramp I checked the radar and the storm had moved off. So I make my run again, get about a mile out and the skies open up with a HUGE downpour. Luckily, I have rain gear in a bag in my tank well. But one rule we have in this series is that your PFD must be outside your clothing. So by the time I get off my PFD and get on my rain jacket I'm soaked. It's getting late and more weather is on the way so I call it a day. After two and a half days I have nothing. A few fish and no pattern. So today I head to an area that wasn't really talked about much in the Elite Series event. For the tournament this weekend, we launch at 5:30 am and lines in at 6 am, but today I didn't launch until almost 8 am. For the tournament, lines out is at 2:30 pm. I bring this up because it plays into what happened today. As I launched I saw an area across the lake that looked interesting and decided to check it out even though it was in the opposite direction of my first waypoint. I'm glad I did. On my 3rd or 4th cast I got a blowup on a topwater and landed a 23 incher. As luck would have it, the batteries were dead on my scale, but she probably weight 7+pounds. The picture is below. Then for the next three hours or so I had nothing. I tried tossing a coike under docks, but the water under the docks in this creek channel was only 1-3 feet deep. I got one little bump, probably from a bluegill, and nothing else. Next, I fished spinnerbaits and bladed jigs over hydrilla and caught nothing. Next I moved to the hydriilla grass lines and caught nothing. The wind picked up a little and I started throwing buzzbaits over hydrilla and along the banks but that only attracted every alligator in a 5 mile radius. Speaking of gators, at one point I'm out there and I thought to myself I'm going to throw a bait next to that big old log offshore. Wait - why is that big log moving towards my quickly. Crikey - gator! I whipped my kayak around and back and forth quickly a few times (sperpentine?!) to create a wake and noise and luckily the gator took off in another direction. So now I'm hours into the day with just one fish and thinking, "Here I go again with another crappy tournament and not putting it all together." So now I head back to and past the ramp and push deeper into the creek channel despite my instincts and the Depp Dive app telling me to head to the main lake. I won't say what I was throwing or what I was targeting, but I can tell you that it was game on after that. My five best fish came in at 106 inches and my smallest was 18 inches. The biggest was still that first one I caught. Not only did I find a pattern that worked in a large stretch of the lake, but when I looped back to check the fish had also reset on my main stretch. Tomorrow is another day and the last day of practice and I plan to fish a completely different part of the lake. And while chances are I won't pull off another 106 this week, I do have confidence that I can find fish. The weather will cool a little bit this weekend, and that may change things some. But the cloud cover will be relatively the same. So far there are 200 anglers in this event, and it will probably push 250 by tournament day. My goal is a top 100 - but I can always dream.

I’ve rigged one on a #1 treble with a stopper and a 1/8 oz bullet weight on top, but will probably change that to a Neko weight. I’m on Santee Cooper this week and headed out to the main lake specifically to fish a Coike under docks. But strong winds today meant big waves on this shallow lake and I got off the main lake. Hit another ramp and lightning in the area kept me on and off the lake all day and close to that ramp. Coike plan is back in action tomorrow on a different part of the lake. Excited to see if this pays off.

A while ago I was listening to the Bass After Dark podcast and the discussion was crankbaits. I can't remember who the experts were that night but one of them said that you can't reel a crankbait fast enough, meaning let it rip.

Does anyone want to take a guess where I stand on this one? 😃 I love the versatility of my kayak. I use my motor and spot lock all of the time, but when needed I can pull up the motor and paddle to fish really skinny water or navigate through heavy weeds and pads. I can either sit and fish or stand and fish. Since I trailer my kayak and use a winch I can load and unload in 2 minutes if I want to jump from ramp to ramp. I'm definitely not knocking canoes, but I really love my kayak.

So, how many of you are fishing with the Coike / urchin style baits? I'm sure most of you watched the Bassmaster event at Santee Cooper last week and saw that most of the leaders were using them. There are a few problems with them. First, they are flying off the shelves and tough to find. The second is that they are EXPENSIVE. But from what I hear, the good ones last a long time. As fate would have it, I'm headed to Santee Cooper for a tournament next week. And unlike 99% of the tournaments that I fish, I'll be there for 5 days of pre fishing. But I'm not sure if I'll get in 5 days because the weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms a few days. And of course, the tournament days are calling for bluebird skies which will change everything. Naturally, Coike's were sold out. But from TW I picked up some Yamamoto Uni's and some Aros Double Nex Mankai. Then I went on Amazon and bought some cheap knockoffs. I've seen these fished a few ways including as a drop shot. I have some smaller ones to try that, but I think I'll start off throwing one on a big treble hook. I do have to say that this will probably be an interesting tournament with 230 kayakers fighting for the same spots and throwing the same baits.

I didn't realize how much I missed this place.

Congrats. Great catch! I'm going to say that's Sun City Hilton Head where you're fishing. If it is, DM me and I'll tell you some good places to fish in there. Yes, there are double digit bass in there. And there are over 300 lagoons in there.

I've been stalked and even chased by alligators while bank fishing down there. Always, always, ALWAYS, keep your head on a swivel. That means scan all around you while your working your bait. If you're not sure what a baby gator sounds like, please Google it. If you hear that sound, go fish somewhere else. Mama is nearby and she will protect the nest. Get some polarized sunglasses and look into the water BEFORE you approach the edge of the bank. Gators will sit just under the surface looking for prey. Juvenile gators (usually 4 feet or less) are a pain because they chase every bait. Unless people have been feeding gators, the bigger ones usually (but not always) keep their distance. Many times they'll just setup 30-50 feet right in front of you. You probably have other lagoons nearby, so just move on. Keep a readily accessible, sharp knife on you in case a gator grabs your bait or a catch and you have to cut the line. I think one of my old posts has a video of a bigger gator that grabbed my frog. I've also posted a list of gator safety tips somewhere on here. I have no fear of fishing in gator waters, and most of the lakes I fish now in my kayak also have gators. But I have a healthy resect for them and I am always watching out for them. I absolutely do not bank fish or kayak fish at night in waters with big gators. Other people here on BR are that brave. I am not.

I see that you're in the SC Lowcounty and I lived in both Hilton Head and Bluffton for many, many years and fished a hundreds (thousands?) of lagoons within different communities. If you're in that area, many of those lagoons are essentially bowls without a lot of differentiating features under the water. What I looked for was any aquatic vegetation along the shore that bass could hide under. Some lagoons had thicker mats away from shore, and dragging a frog over those usually caused a blow up. I also looked for any single, overhanging trees. I never found much in areas where there was a line of overhanging trees. But one low, overhanging evergreen usually produced. If you're in an area where the lagoons are connected via stormwater pipes (to balance water and prevent flooding), many times there would be slight channels with drain pipe outflow. Those would draw bass and baitfish. Of course, steeper banks usually led to more silt runoff, creating areas that were shallower than the rest of the lagoon and that could create more of a dropoff. Look for washed out, undercut banks as well and cast parallel to them. Gators also like to hang out under those areas. In all of the years I fished down there, the overwhelming majority of fish I caught were casting parallel to the bank or casting diagonally from one bank to another. For example, standing on the south bank and casting diagonally to the east or west bank. For a small investment you could try one of those castable sonar devices. But just beware that they are also alligator magnets. Use a high speed reel!

I run hotels for a living and every fricking single morning I'm picking up trash in our parking lots as I make my way from my vehicle to my office. Every single morning. People walk right past trash cans and dumps stuff on our grounds. Or they just toss stuff out of their car and into our parking lot and grounds. I can't even fathom how someone's mind does that. On Google maps just the other week I noticed a retention pond down the road from where I live and drove down there to check it out. The amount of trash surrounding that pond was staggering. I don't see how anyone can just dump trash anywhere and everywhere. How does someone's brain even work that way?

When I ran my fishing program for kids at my old hotel I gave out spinnerbaits and a certificate of achievement to each participant.