Kayak Koz

But now I'm wondering just how long it will be before I decide to add a live targeting system and power poles!

There are THOUSANDS of stormwater lagoons on the island and they are all holding lots of big bass. If you're not pulling 3, 4, and 5 pounders regularly you should take up knitting. Double digit base are there as well. I lived there for over a decade and it was some of the best bass fishing I have ever encountered. Most of the communities are gated, so that may impede your fishing. But you can pay a gate fee and get into Sea Pines. Bring a bike, one rod, and some tackle (make sure you bring a black and blue chatterbait in the winter and a green pumpkin chatterbait in the warmer months) and bike from lagoon to lagoon and fish. If you're in Palmetto Dunes there are both freshwater and brackish lagoons. Jarvis Creek Park is a public park on Hilton Head. I've caught some 3 and 4 pounders there. I also endured a gator tsunami there and two gators climbed the concrete fishing pier just as I left. Sergeant Jasper Park in Hardeeville (mainland near Exit 8 on I-95) has some good fishing as well. Make the hike to the lagoon where they have the primitive camping area. As always, keep your head on a swivel and look out for gators, especially in Sergeant Jasper Park.

I know you're being tongue in cheek, but that's part of how I justified the purchase! I'm not one to throw money around, and I've been thinking about an Old Town for a year now. I don't coach baseball anymore, my son is out of the house, and I recently moved into a lakefront house. I've always enjoyed fishing and now I have the opportunity to do it even more. I also turned 59 the other day and I realize that my life is now on the back 9. I've spent my life taking care of others, and now I'm going to treat myself and take care of me. I'm going to be a bit selfish for a change. I seriously contemplated buying a boat. In fact, I had planned to buy a Lowe boat in the spring. But for me I think that's too much money and too much maintenance and upkeep and a continuous cash drain. While I can't make long runs like a boat, I do have a trailer and I can launch at any number of lakes at any number of boat ramps. I can also launch right in my back yard (I have a dock but no boathouse). I'm not sure I'd ever get my money's worth out of a boat, but I know I will with this kayak. I got more than that out of my last one.

Well, that's it. I bought the Old Town Sportsman Autopilot 120. It will be here by the 5th. Looks like my Seastream Angler pedal drive and some electronics and accessories will be for sale in a few weeks.

I don't have a garage, so mine sites on my trailer with a Covercraft cover on it. BUt it's easy to slide off the trailer and launch it off my dock. I do have two sheds, with one being a permanent building (my fishing shack) and a longer aluminun shed in need of a few repairs that could house my kayak. I also need to build a ramp so I don't have to pull it over the lip. Right now I just drag my kayak across the grass to launch it off the seawall, but if I use the aluminum shed I'll have to cart it to get it across the gravel. Now you got me thinking and I'll have to go out and set up and repair that shed tomorrow.

I successfully avoided the Bait Monkey yesterday as I had to run to the store for some chain lube for my pedal kayak and by the time I got back it was time to hit the water. But today I see that the Old Town Sportsman Autopilot 120 and 136 are 10% off. Have mercy!

The only real negative I have heard about Trackers is that due to the way the bow access is designed that it can be hard to do a DIY electronics install and an upgraded trolling motor install. There are a bunch of articles and videos on those issues. For an aluminum boat, I've heard good things about Lowe and they allow for more customization at the point of purchase.

It was the biggest bass on my kayak for sure. But I previously caught a 25 pound flathead on the yak. I'm thankful that I lipped it, other wise I probably would have had to cut the line or drag it to shore to get the hook out. I keep my phone in my dry bag and stow the bag behind my crate. It's a pain to get to, and if get a phone call I can answer it on my watch. I definitely would be "that guy" that drops his iPhone in the lake. I do have some Go Pro type action cameras somewhere that I should dig out, but I haven't finished unpacking from my move. What I should do is buy some Gear Trac and mount the cameras on my kayak.

I'm sitting here waiting for the temperature to warm up a few degrees before I head out on the lake. TW is opened in the other browser tab. It's Black Friday. Reels are on sale. This probably won't end well for my bank account.

Well, it was kind of a weird holiday for me, but still a good one. Normally I work on Thanksgiving and give members of my team the day off. But this year my birthday falls on that day, so I wanted to take a day for me. My son is out of town, so it was just me and the dog today but that was just fine. I got some work done around the house, then set up ,y kayak for an afternoon on the lake. My house is on a large cove with mostly deep water (12-35 feet) but it does have some shallow areas. Since I moved in just a moth ago, I haven't done a lot of fishing there. I've skirted the banks a few times to fish but haven't really explored the area. But today I had some time. My first stop was a big hump out in the cove. The hump is about 10 feet down and drops to just over 30 feet. The water temp was 63 degrees, and in these parts that's a bit cold for our southern bass. I get out there and my electronics show absolutely nothing. I had passed over some bait balls along the way, but not a predator in sight. So I headed to shallower water to fish some rip rap and some grass lines, but I still wasn't seeing any fish but I finally got a strike on an underspin, missed the hookset, and it shook off. Next, I decided to hit a secondary point. I was slow dragging an underspin along the bottom, bouncing off some rocks and branches when I got a good bite. This time I didn't miss the hookset. I fish with braid and I keep my drag a little tight, but when I got the bass close to the kayak it started pulling drag. Cool. That's a good sign. I bumped the drag and even then we had a good little fight before I managed to grab it with my grippers. I grabbed my scale in she weighed in at just over 6 pounds. That was the only one I caught today in just over 2 hours on the lake, but it was worth it. While I was out there floating around and beating the banks, one of my neighbors came out too introduce herself and wish me a Happy Thanksgiving. She said she had been watching me for half an hour and it looked so relaxing out there. It was. Not another boat in site, calm waters, and very little wind with partly cloudy skies. That made it easy to track, drift, and fish. It was just about perfect out there except for the chilly weather. On the way back in my sonar it up like a Christmas tree and beeped like crazy when a school of decent sized fish passed, but by the time I grabbed a rod they were gone. I casted around to no avail. It also started getting cold so I left them for another day. My pedal drive also started making noise, so I'll have to address that before I head out again. So although I didn't have family around today, it was still a great day. I got some much needed lake time to relax and clear my head and I caught a decent fish. I'd call that a good day. But it's back to work tomorrow.

I've stopped at Buc-ees somewhere along the drive of bringing my son back from Texas to Georgia. I've made that trip twice, and each time we stopped there it was about 2 in the morning - and the place was still busy. But one thing that annoyed me there is they don't have squeegees to wash your vehicle windows. I guess they want you to pay for a car wash instead.

I have the Humminbird HELIX 7 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G4 and it runs all day on my 10Ah lithium battery. I moved my CellBlok off the rail and put it behind my seat. It was fine on the rail, but with the head unit mounted on it the height could be intrusive since my seat is not raised. Lately I have not been happy with the detail of the base maps so I just purchased the Lakemaster Premium SD card for my region.

I have the Humminbird HELIX 7 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G4 on my kayak and I like it. I previously had a 5" Lowrance Hook2 with side imaging, but the side imaging on the Humminbird is much better. I also suggest getting the biggest screen that you can afford, especially if your an old guy. For me. moving from a 5" screen to a 7" screen made a huge difference. I would have preferred the 9" screen, but that's pretty big for the side rail on my pedal kayak. Because I could see it better, I took a deeper dive into getting the most out of it. I strongly suggest not only watching videos on how to use it, but also spending hours on the lake tweaking things. One conclusion that I came to recently is that the base maps included on my unit are just adequate for fishing and that I need more detail and features. So just this morning I ordered the Lakemaster Premium mapping SD card. It's normally $200, but the Humminbird store on Amazon has it for only $140. The Lakemaster Premium has the SmartStrike mapping capabilities built in so you don't have to buy 2 separate cards anymore.

Electronics changes everything for better and for worse. Some days I long for the simplicity of bank fishing from the hundreds of lagoons (ponds) that I had to choose from when I lived back in SC. Now, fishing on the big lakes there are almost too many choices and with that I spend too much time looking at my electronics. Maybe I should just pick a "fishy" looking spot and fish it out. When I fished the lagoons I would take the time and pick areas apart, but on the big lake it's run and gun. Of course, the run part is a bit different on a pedal kayak. At a cruising speed of 3.2 mph I'm not getting anywhere fast.

I have Expride A's and Expride B's. By far they are the favorite rods in my arsenal. I actually prefer the A's over the B's, but not by a lot.

I run 30, 40, 50, or 65 pound braid on all of my baitcasters depending upon what I'm setting up for and throwing. For years it was straight braid, but this past year I've experimented with flouro and mono leaders in certain water conditions. I've fished with 15 or 20 pound braid on some baitcasters but find that they get nicked or stressed to easily and than means a greater risk of breaking them off. I absolutely hate straight flouro on a baitcaster. But I should try straight mono sometime.

What do you need? Nerves of steel helps. I have the benefit of a pedal drive kayak, so I rarely get wet out on the water. I don't have to worry about splashes or drips from the paddle. The first thing I make sure of is that my kayak is lightly packed. I'll take the bare minimum and sometimes I even strip off the electronics. My phone and a spare set of clothes stay in my dry bag. Yes, dressing in layers obviously helps. But on the off chance I end up in the water I don't want to be wearing layer after layer that will weigh me down if I get wet. So that means when the wind chill dips too much I sit it out. And speaking of wind, my top layer needs to keep the wind from going through me. On windy days I stick to fishing off my dock. As far as my PFD goes, no matter the weather, warm or cold, I always keep my PFD on when I'm on my kayak. But during the winter I stay close to shore. My thought is that if I get in trouble out there I will have to rescue myself. Other than sun gloves, I just can't fish with gloves on. With that, I keep some of those chemical hand warmers with me.

My personal opinion is that it's simply not worth hanging out with someone like that. It can only drag you down and dampen your spirits. I'm lucky that i pair up with @flatcreek a lot to go fishing and we genuinely root for each other to do well out there.

Yet another reason to own a kayak. But I will say this - kayak fishing in the middle of the night is downright creepy and sometimes scary. You hear EVERYTHING out on the water and on the nearby banks and then your mind tries to convince you of what you just heard. It's something you have to experience to really understand how different it is out there in the dark and quiet with no one else around.

Those would be a great option if my seat wasn't so low. As it is, I can slip just one Plano box under each side of the seat tie down. Because my seat is low, I've actually made an effort to remove items from the rail so they don't interfere with my fishing. For example, both my head unit and transducer arm were mounted to my YakAttack CellBlok which sat on the rail. The stack of the CellBlok and head unit was pretty tall. So what I did recently was move the CellBlok behind my seat, then mounted the head unit on one side (very close to my seat) and the transducer arm on the other side. I have thought about raising my seat, but as an old guy I worry about changing teh center of gravity. Right now I enjoy the stability level that I have. The solution I have come up with is simply to pare down what I take. Instead of my Flambeau Tuff Krate being packed with 8 or 9 storage trays, bags of plastics, tools, etc. I keep my Plano Edge terminal tackle box in there with a few bags of plastics. But then I bring along a Plano Two-Tier Stowaway 3700 with whatever I plan to use that day and stow it behind my seat. I can easily grab it, take what I need, and then put it back. Also, instead of bringing 4 rods I'm bringing 6. I'll tie on baits to 4 of them, and with the remaining two I use VMC Touch-Loc snaps so I can quickly change hard baits instead of having to tie on new baits. My new philosophy it to simplify things and keep the weight down and not test the weight limits of my kayak. But as I say that, I'm seriously considering selling my Seastream pedal drive kayak and buying an Old Town Autopilot or a Lowe boat. Or I may keep what I have. Decisions, decisions.

Definitely listen to @flatcreek on this one.

I feel your winter pain. In fact, I might have to put a light jacket on when I head out on my kayak this weekend 😀

When I launch my kayak from a boat ramp I don't want to be "that guy." I park and then load my kayak onto my cart and wheel it down to the ramp and launch alongside the dock while giving the boaters plenty of space to do their thing.

Ramps - piece of cake (sarcasm). For 2 years I pulled 150+ pound of kayak and gear up and down this hill out back of my hotel. Where you see the path end it actually gets steeper and makes a right hand turn. We have guests that get winded just walking up that hill. On hot days after fishing 4 or 5 hours and then pulling it up the hill I thought I would die of heat stroke or a hear attack. I swear, one day I looked so bad after doing that my staff was ready to call an ambulance for me. This was what made me break down and buy a trailer earlier this year. I'm really, really glad I don't have to do that anymore.

They key to putting your kayak on a cart and pulling it - especially uphill - is finding the center of gravity. Miss by a few inches and it's a lot heavier. Here's a video that gives a great demonstration of this: