Kayak Koz

Most of the fish I caught last weekend (and the turtle!) were casting off the back corner of the boat parallel to the shore, about 20-30 feet from the bank. I saw no reason to keep casting tight to the bank when we weren't catching anything and I figured that there was a good chance the bass were cruising water that was a little deeper. You do bring up a good point that in some situations can actually be an advantage for a back seater. If there's a drop off, ridge, or ledge off and parallel to the bank, as a back seater you can long bomb a cast off the back of the boat and give yourself a large target area to cover. In some cases that may work out better than pitching to a single tight spot on the bank. Those people that bank fish know what I'm talking about. Many times we position ourselves on a small outcrop so we can cast parallel to the bank and cover a large potential strike area.

You read that wrong. I stated I have no EXPECTATIONS in these tournaments. Sure, I want to do well. But I'm not going to blow a gasket of I don't. I also think I've been fully transparent here on my communication with the boater and the fact that I'm along for the ride. I've talked a lot about adapting to the situation - it's one of the main points I try and drive home in these recaps. And since we are not competing against each other, if I get intel from a local guide I'm willing to share it. But I have no expectations - again - that the boater will use that intel. That being said, the winners in the first two events seemed to have the same intel that I had. Catching them, of course, is another thing. I'm also very good at casting. But it's not always ideal positioning to catch fish when the bow is pointed at the bank and I'm left hanging out in open water. I won't cast towards the bow of the boat unless the boater tells me it's OK to do so. But when that does happen I grab my Navionics map and look for humps, channels, and ledges. There's still a challenge in that as it's not always easy to quickly swap rods on the back of a small deck. And with bringing only 5 or 6 rods, early on I might not have the right bait tied on for that positioning. Again, more adapting as the day goes on. Sure, it would be easier if I spread out my gear, but that's not a great thing to do when the boater wants to go on the move quickly. And again, I don't mind any of this because this is the life of a co-angler. My purpose here is to relate my experiences in case others want to do the same and point out that it's a lot different than being a co-angler with your buddy or in a team tournament.

Background: I decided to fish the MLF Phoenix Series (BFL) this year for two reasons. The first, I'm an older guy and this is a bucket list item. Second, it's good PR for my hotel. My hotel has provided me limited sponsorship for the events. Also, some of you know I have the Fishing with the GM events at my property, and this year I asked for donations from bait companies and in return one of the things I do to promote them is have their logos on my tournament jersey. I'm an average recreational angler with very little club tournament experience and with that I have no expectations entering these tournaments. I'm in them to have fun and for the hotel PR. This narrative is going to discuss some of the challenges of being a co-angler in a non-team fishing tournament. Event 2: West Point Lake Prep Day Going into this event I felt that West Point Lake set up better for my style of fishing, especially compared to the first event at Lake Lanier. With things going well at my hotel I decided not only to take off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the tournament but I also decided to take off early on Thursday afternoon to get a few things done around my house, wash my car, and prep my gear for the weekend. Well, that was the plan. I left the hotel just before 2pm but at just after 3pm I got a call from an employee stating something was wrong with the girl working the front desk and that she might be drunk Then I got a text from another employee saying something bad was going on with that girl. The girl working the desk was still new to my team, having worked with us for under one month. But the week AFTER she was hired she did tell me that she was an alcoholic and had been sober for about two months. I thanked her for telling me and told her we would be there to support her if I could. I won't go into details, but when I got to the hotel she was disheveled and drunk. It was pretty bad. I had no choice but to terminate her on the spot. You simply can't come to work that way. What bothers me is she could have called off sick or even called and told me that she fell off the wagon and I would have worked with her and her job would have been spared. But now the issue is that I'm worried about missing the tournament. We're on bare bones, off season staffing and just beginning to conduct interviews for peak season staffing. The girl I fired was due to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and I needed shift coverage. But then I got texts from the rest of the team telling me, "You are NOT going to miss your tournament. We have this covered." I have to say, I love my team! We all take care of each other. So I called them, we juggled some things around and they picked up Friday and Saturday and I said I would cover Sunday night. Getaway Day It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to my hotel and I hit the road mid afternoon so I'll be there in time for our virtual meeting at 6:30pm. But the latest weather report has severe weather moving in. I decided to take the back roads to avoid the Atlanta traffic, and while I'm driving I'm watching the tall pine trees REALLY swaying. About 40 minutes out traffic comes to a brief stop. There's what's left of a tree partially blocking the road and a good Samaritan with a chain saw clearing the road. I stayed at the Wingate in Lagrange, a pretty decent hotel. It was clean, and that's what mattered most to me. But their door closures don't work right on some rooms and all night long as people were coming and going doors were slamming shut, keeping me awake so I ended up getting only 4 hours or so of sleep. I talked with my boater earlier in the night and he was a good guy and had a good finish at his home lake of Lanier in the first event. He wasn't all that familiar with West Point, and I gave him the intel I had from a guide and a few online articles. That week that the bass were feeding in the backs of creek channels, hitting on Rat-L traps, lipless crankbaits, and crankbaits . I provided some GPS coordinates from that intel if he wanted to use them. But the big question was would the bass still be there after the front moved in on Friday? Tournament Day We were in the first flight which is usually a good deal because there aren't as many boats to contend with for spots to fish. But West Point Lake is a smaller lake and there were a lot of tournament boats on the water along with a lot of locals fishing. Boats were already 3 or 4 deep in the creek channels so we started fishing some inlets, points, and wherever we found an opening in a creek channel. I landed the first fish of the day sometime within that first hour. It was off a point on a Carolina Rig with a big watermelon lizard. It looked to be only about a pound and a half, but I was on the board! When we made it into some of the smaller creek channels I was tossing Rat-L traps and cranks, but nothing was biting on those despite the intel that I had received. I switched to an underspin with a Keitech and landed a second, but it was barely a keeper. The Solo Tournament Co-Angler vs, Buddy Co-Angler Difference Disclaimer: I do not mean this to be controversial nor have it be a knock on any boater. I'm appreciative of all boaters that give me the opportunity to fish on their boats, and if I was the boater in a non-team tournament I would probably fish the same way. I'm just trying to discuss some of the challenges you may face in the same situation. If you and your boater are both fishing on the same side of the boat you're generally getting second choice of what may be prime bass locations but it's really not that bad when you're trolling down the bank. The boater won't be able to cover everything, so you should always keep an eye out for where they cast and look for those good second options or primary options that they missed. I also try to keep a follow up bait like a Senko on a rod nearby if he misses and we're still moving down the bank. But the real key to fishing the back of the boat is the angles. If you're fishing with your buddy for fun or in a team tournament, your boater usually gives you good angles to cast. I fish with @flatcreek for fun and club tournaments and he does a good job of giving me angles to cast. When we head down a narrow creek channel he usually sticks to one side and I usually stick to the other on the way in, and we swap banks on the way out. That may not always be the case if you're not fishing with a teammate. It can also be hard to get good angles simply because of the size of the back deck, especially if the boat has a big motor, or if there are Power Poles or something similar on the boat. I will say this if you fish off the back - learn how to backhand cast and flip! I'm pretty sure that Glenn did a video on this. And when you get paired up last minute like in this tournament, you have no idea of the boat size and configuration you are fishing. Most of my rods are between 7' and 7' 6" and if you end up on a small boat that may mean that with those rods it's harder to sidearm or roll cast. Because of that, for this tournament I added a smaller, 6' 6" rod to my arsenal. One thing that was different in this tournament is that my boater had Livescope. How they use it and where they set up to fish when using it can impact your angles as well. For example, with most setups the Livescope can be rotated independently, but some boaters may prefer to keep it forward facing and choose to look at other areas by navigating with the trolling motor. When this happens you may find that you don't have a good casting angle to where you would like to cast. But again - reiterate - this is not a team tournament and your boater is trying to win their division and they are not trying to freeze you out - they are focusing on what they need to do to win. As a co-angler, you need to adapt. Case in point - as we hit the last two hours my boater wanted to fish deeper water where he was seeing activity on his Livescope while I wanted to push into a creek channel that was on my list of targets. We were actually headed there and at first there were a few boats there, so we fished a point and secondary point and as we made our way to the creek channel when it cleared he saw the activity on his Livescope. And this is where I didn't adapt - I threw some deep cranks and dragged a Carolina rig around with no luck. But instead of doing that same thing over and over I should have taken the time and set up one of my rods with a drop shot or even a shaky head. Overall, I did a better job of adapting this tournament than I did the last one, but not at the end. My boater ended up catching a catfish and one small spot. Personally, I also thought we would probably find more morning bass on points and flats in the sunshine after that front had moved in the day before. We did see one boat locked in on one point for over an hour and they looked to be catching a lot of bass there. As it turned out, the boater that won stuck to the backs of the longer creek channels. I did take some time to throw both a Ned Rig and a Senko, but once again not even one strike. I always find that odd, because those two baits are usually good fallback baits, even if it's only landing dinks. The "Big One" After I landed my second keeper I tossed back off the back of that boat to the same area hoping to hit upon a school of bass. Sure enough, I feel something and set the hook. The line takes off as I'm reeling in and I'm trying to work around one of the power poles. The line pulls sideways to the opposite side of the boat and then I see it - a turtle doing a barrel roll trying to get away. My biggest catch of the day was a 3 pound turtle that I snagged in the leg. But I swear it fought like a 6 pound bass. My boater cracked that I should keep it and tell the officials that it actually identified as a bass. LOL! The Weigh In I ended up catching 5 on the day, but only two were scoreable. I ended up with just under 3 pounds. It was amazing how many that caught a full bag weighed in at only 6 or 7 pounds. The winning co-angler weighed in at just over 12 pounds, but the winning boater came in a 20 even - including Big Fish of the day with one over 6 pounds. He was one of the guys that did make it to the back of creek channels and caught them on square bills. I was also surprised at how many fans (I assume mostly family members) were at the weigh in. Compared to Lanier, the place was packed. After the weigh in - despite my measly two fish - I was shocked at how many of my friends and family were blowing up my phone with texts because they watched the live stream of the weigh in. I didn't know that they knew about it. Wrap Up In all of the club tournaments and that first MLF event I fished we were rarely around other boats. But at West point, every time you looked around there were 4, 5, 6, or 7 boats fishing nearby. It was hard to find "virgin ground." I'm happy to say that my boater was a good guy and we had good conversation and joked throughout. I did get a bit frustrated and lost focus at the end of the day, but I think part of that was being cranky from not enough sleep and not snacking and staying hydrated during the day. I need to work on that. The next event is on my home turf, Lake Oconee. While I don't have any secret fishing spots, I do know which baits work well on Oconee and I think that's a big deal. I had never fished Lanier or West Point before, so I had no confidence bait. At Lanier I was all over the place throwing different baits. and that added to my frustration with the extremely cold weather. At West Point, I cut down a bit on the baits I brought and focused more on changing colors. Sure, I had researched the lakes regarding forage and what baits other people used, but there's nothing like knowing the lake and having a confidence bait. Getting shut out at Lanier was a killer in the points standings, but at least I moved up in points. I'm hoping to have enough points to qualify for the regional tournament at the end of the five scheduled events, but even if I don't, by fishing in all five events I can still get in by doing well in the Wild Card event. I also have to think that a lot of guys won't fish all five qualifier tournaments. But in the end, I'm still having some fun out there and learning more each event. Being a co-angler certainly is not all that easy.

Stay tuned. We fish at West Point Lake this weekend. Unfortunately, a front is moving in on Friday night and after a warm week it looks like we'll start out with temperatures in the mid 30's, but at least it will be above freezing. I've had a lot of time to think since then and one item I want to address is being a back seater in a non-team tournament versus being a back seater in a buddy tournament or fishing with a friend.

You bloviated without addressing my primary premise.

I don't agree with that all. A lot of people don't have storage space for a boat or a vehicle that can tow a boat. But they still want to get out on the water and not be tied to bank fishing. And with a kayak, you're generally limited by space and weight with what you can add, so you have to be selective. But I'd venture to say that most avid anglers who buy a boat end up going down the rabbit hole and spending a heck of a lot more than they intended for their boat and upgrading electronics and equipment multiple times, then get fed up and buy a bigger boat and start the cycle all over again.

Get a pedal kayak or or - wait for it - add a motor to your kayak.

As mentioned earlier, it would help if we all had some more information. But let me throw something out there - do you find yourself throwing the same few baits with the same techniques? If you do go through your tackle box, are you just burning through different lures or are you putting time into them using different techniques? Do you try a variety of colors or are you locked into a few colors across multiple baits? Do you have the skills to adapt to the techniques needed? I was a back seater at a tournament last weekend and I stunk it up big time. With the forecasted weather I was prepared to fish deeper water off shore. But my boater had another plan in mind and I was unable to adapt. Long story short, on my home lakes I can pitch under docks. But where we were fishing I needed to be able to skip a bait through narrow openings to reach further back under the docks. I struggled with that (and the cold!). So two days later I went out on my lake and practiced for an hour until I got proficient at it.

Bulldog Division, but I was also thinking about signing up for a Florida event or two. Oconee and Sinclair are practically in my back yard, and Lanier is only a few hours away. Even West Point Lake is only two and a half hours away.

Well, it stings a little less today. Just under 25% of the co-anglers were shut out this weekend, so I wasn't alone. I'm going in with a different attitude for the next event. Participating isn't enough this time. The goal is a top 20 finish.

https://newportvessels.com/products/nk300-kayak-motor It's expected to ship in March at a retail price of $1,299. But the kicker is that it requires a 36v battery, so you cam add another $500 - $1,000+ to your investment. The Torqeedo is $1,999 which includes the battery. Personally, between that investment and an investment in your fishing kayak I think you'd be better off selling what you have and buying a purpose built, trolling motor kayak with spot lock like an Old Town.

Yup.

Thanks. I am familiar with being a back seater. We did fish a few narrow creek channels which allowed each of us to target one side on the way in and the other side on the way out.

Background: I decided to fish the MLF Phoenix Series (BFL) this year for two reasons. The first, I'm an older guy and this is a bucket list item. Second, it's good PR for my hotel. My hotel has provided me limited sponsorship for the events. Also, some of you know I have the Fishing with the GM events at my property, and this year I asked for donations from bait companies and in return one of the things I do to promote them is have their logos on my tournament jersey. I'm an average recreational angler with very little club tournament experience and with that I have no expectations entering these tournaments. I'm in them to have fun and for the hotel PR. Event 1: Lake Lanier Getaway Day I will not make that mistake again! The hotel I was staying at is in Gainesville, GA and for some reason I took the main roads to the hotel. Despite it being early afternoon the traffic going into the Atlanta area was brutal. In heavy traffic, an 18 wheeler on my left cut into my lane just as his cab passed the front of my vehicle. Luckily the car behind ne in the right lane saw what was happening and slowed down so I didn't get crushed or sandwiched. Not a great way to start the trip. While driving I get a message that there is no in person, pre-tournament meeting at the marina that evening. A virtual meeting is scheduled instead. I'm a co-angler, and just before the meeting I get notified of the contact info for my boater. I give him a call after the meeting and he's a great guy. He's been pre-fishing for two days and provides me with his insights. But I'm not sure it matters that much because after a few days of mild weather a cold, cold, cold front moved in. I'm staying at the Hampton Inn, and despite a tired looking public area the room is OK and best of all it's clean. I try and go to bed at 8:30, but it appears that everyone in Gainesville is either driving without a muffler or they are all driving Chargers and Challengers. Seriously, the street noise is maddening. Just as I finally doze off, my son starts blowing up my phone with texts. He's supposed to pitch for his HS team tonight, but after a few weeks of rest his elbow starts hurting again when he warms up in the bullpen. It looks like he'll need an MRI this week. I finally fall asleep at midnight. Tournament Day We drew a 7 am launch time and the marina is only 15 minutes away so I sleep in until 5. I shower, start packing, and get a weather update. It's 26 degrees outside. When I had checked the forecast two days ago, it was supposed to be about 40 at launch time. I should have checked again on Friday. I had thermals with me, a heavy jacket, rain/wind jacket, jeans, fishing pants, and extra socks but it still didn't prepare me for the cold. I'm wishing I had some of those chemical hand and foot warmers. I get to the marina and meet my boater in person. I'm going to tell you that I lucked out and couldn't have been happier with the pairing. I was worried about this going in because, well, you know, there's a chance you get paired with THAT guy. This made the day a lot easier. He shared knowledge of the pre-fishing he did earlier in the week, offered up storage space on his boat, and shared some great conversation. I gave him a couple of $20's for sharing his boat, local knowledge, and gas. He declined, but I insisted. We're Off! We launch on time and by the time we get to our spot I am mind numbingly cold. We start to fish and my hands are so cold it feels like someone is driving nails through my fingers. I probably should have started with a shaky head simply because I could not stop shivering! Lake Lanier is known as a spotted bass lake and the major forage is Blueback Herring. All my research on Lanier says to fish the rocky ditches and rip rap in February. With that, I had a number of Blueback Herring crankbaits for different depths, swim baits for an A-Rig, and some matching paddletails. If things were really slow I was prepared for drop shots and Ned rigs. But as I mentioned, my boater had been pre-fishing for a few days and had other plans. He is also from Florida, and prefers working the banks and docks. I love beating the banks on my kayak, so I'm good to go. Or so I thought. I packed my gear in a pretty big Plano Duffel bag, but because of the cold weather I had consolidated baits and pulled one box to make room for extra layers. As it turns out, one of the baits I left behind was what my boater had success with - a black and blue jig. I had a few other jigs and a black and blue chatterbait, but I couldn't get a bite on them. Anyway, it's brutally cold and I can't get my hands or toes warm. They eyelets on my rods are freezing over quickly. Despite trying to clear the ice from my reels each cast, the line guides on two of my Curados freeze up. I switch over to spinning gear and toss a Ned rig with no luck. After a few hours the cold finally becomes tolerable and my boater landed a keeper on his black and blue jig. I'm throwing jigs with no luck. I don't have the black and blue, so I try dragging a chatterbait. No luck. My boater is fishing slow, and because he put a few largemouth bass in the boat this is where I make my mistake. I didn't stick to my plan or my strengths and followed his lead. I slowed down and tossed soft plastics including a worm and a craw. I went back to the jig and the chatterbait. My boater had said he had a few hits on a red crankbait teh other day, so made a few casts with a red crankbait and not the Blueback Herring. Now let me say this - my boater was doing everything he could to help me out based upon what he saw earlier in the week. But I should have went with my confidence baits and stuck with my own plan for a few hours instead of chasing his strength. As it warmed I did through the paddletail on an underspin and got a few week strikes hitting the tail but not the hook. I should have thrown crankbaits in the deeper channels and I should have broke out the A-Rig at some point. My boater ended up with 5 keepers for 14 pounds including a 5 pounder, 4 LMB and one spot. I ended up with a goose egg. But I learned a lot and met a new friend. We're going to request to be paired again when he comes back to fish Oconee and Sinclair. What I learned this weekend: I absolutely hate fishing in brutally cold weather. I'll take the heat any day. When you do your research, stick to your plan. Stick to your strengths and don't chase what everyone else is doing. I need to be more well rounded and work on my weaknesses including jigs and skipping. Either load my own depth maps on my phone or ask the boater to put the depth map on the unit at the driver's console. This will help me pick out ledges, channels, and drop offs from the back of the boat. Despite not having the jig I needed today, I actually need to pare down the amount of baits I bring. I had too much redundant stuff and stuff I was never going to use, and that leads to paralysis of analysis. I did my research and should have trusted that even though I had never fished Lanier before. Stage 2 is at West Point Lake in a few weeks. Despite getting shut out today I'm still excited for the next event. I just hope it isn't freezing out there again.

There was a news report yesterday that stated some of the US equipment found in the balloon wreckage was banned for sale to China. But let's face it, it would be pretty easy for a 3rd party to obtain it here in the US, send it to someone in a neutral company, and that person sends it off to China. Or it gets secretly loaded on a container back to China. The hard part of being a free nation is that there are always those - including our enemies - that will exploit that fact.

While I think that with the vastness of the universe that it would be naïve to believe that we are the only intelligent life, I do doubt that we have every been visited by extra terrestrial beings. But the events of the last few days certainly are interesting. Imagine how much life would change if they were extra terrestrial craft. But my best guess is that this is either a false flag operation (distraction) or these are advanced drones deployed by a foreign country designed to test our detection systems and response times. I'm sure most of the parts are labeled "Made in China."

I've seen a few foxes around here and every now and then I hear the coyotes at night. With that, when I take my dog out in the back yard at night I always stay close to him.

I like my YakAttack Switchblade transducer mount for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, I don't have to worry about it getting dinged up with it permanently mounted underneath the kayak or even temporarily mounted when getting the kayak in and out of the water. My Switchblade/Cellblok/head mount stays together as a single unit and I connect it to the rail when I launch and take it off when I get back to shore. Everything is mounted on the CellBlok. Because the battery is in the CellBlok I don't have wires running everywhere, didn't need to drill anything, and I don't have to connect/disconnect the battery on each trip. You may find it's more convenient for you to drill holes and run wires but before you do that I suggest you use a temporary setup and make sure that head unit is exactly where you want it. Try it on the left rail and right rail in different positions. I tried it on both the left and right side numerous times. Because I usually cast left I prefer it on the left so I can fish and look at the fishfinder at the same time. But again, with everything attached to the CellBlok it's easy to switch sides if I need to (I just need to turn around the Switchblade arm). The Hook Reveal 7 is a great unit and they are a bit more beginner friendly than the Humminbird units. I love my Humminbird, but I bet I'm still not getting everything I can out of it. I should probably take an afternoon and just fiddle with it instead of fish.

You're going to need to narrow down a few things first. 1. Are you just looking for down imaging or side imaging as well? If you want side imaging your transducer is going to need line of sight. For example, with simple down imaging you can place your transducer inside the hull or mount it in one of the underside hull cavities. 2. Where are you planning to store your battery? In the hull? Behind your seat? On the rail? 3. How well your vision is may play a part in what size screen you choose. My initial purchase was a Lowrance 5" with both down and side scan but after about a year my old eyes decided to upgrade to a 7" Humminbird and I could not be happier. 4. Where do you plan to mount the unit? Side rails? In front of you? Think about where your rod holders and other rail gear are currently loaded and if you may need to move something around. Also, do you have a pedal drive in front of you? All this and head unit screen size are factors. 5. What other features do you want? Simple Sonar? GPS? Pre-loaded maps? I have a Yak Attack CellBlok attached to the rail for my battery storage and the Yak Attack Switchblade transducer arm attached to that for my transducer. It's a great setup. I also have a Yak Attack Humminbird Helix Fishfinder Mount attached to the CellBlok. I like this setup because I can lay the mount down and out so it's not too high. But you may find you need to mount the mount to the rail so it sits lower and doesn't interfere with casting or landing a fish. I have the Humminbird Helix DI SI MEGA GPS which runs around $750 and I love it. Currently, the Yak Attack Switchblade / Cellblok combo runs for $100. My fishfinder mount was another $50. I have a 10 amp battery that I bought for $50 on Amazon. I had a 7 amp with my 5" Lowrance, but it wasn't enough juice for prolonged use with my Humminbird. My NOCO Genius 10a charger was another $84, but with a 10A or less battery you can get a cheaper one amp charger for $30. But it will take 7-10 hours to charge your smaller battery. In my opinion, a good, basic starter unit is the Lowrance Hook Revel 5" or 7" with the Splitshot transducer (sonar and down imaging). The tripleshot transducer includes the side imaging. The 5" splitshot is listed at $389. But if you go to the Lowrance website be sure to check out their reconditioned units. My Lowrance was reconditioned and it looked brand new when I got it and I saved almost two hundred bucks. No matter what you buy, the needed accessories add up. I would also think about what you might want in the future and spend the extra money now. I wish I had bought the 7" right away instead of the 5". It's a HUGE difference. You may also want to search YouTube for videos related to fishfinder setup for your specific kayak. If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

I'm not wealthy enough to have a ton of technique specific rods. Plus, I spend most of my time fishing off of my kayak and in the past year I have pared down what I take in order to save weight. Most of my rods are 7' to 7' 4" MH baitcasters because they are great all purpose rods. But I also have a ML spinning setup and a two heavy baitcaster setups for frogging and punching. Where I fish determines my load out.

I'm glad the Bait Monkey bit me last month. I saved a few bucks.

When I first made the move to a baitcaster I went with something inexpensive for fear of wasting money if I didn't like it. So I went to my local DSG and picked up a medium heavy Lew's American Hero combo. If I remember correctly is was on sale and I had some DSG points to redeem so I git it for something like $69 or $79. All in all, for a first go at a baitcaster I really liked it. Unfortunately, it unleashed the Bait Monkey and that led to a lot of other baitcaster purchases over the years. But I used it for 2 or 3 years and it held up well. It was also forgiving when learning to use a baitcast reel. As far as what length rod to fish on your kayak, I think that's personal preference. It may also depend upon whether or not you cross under bridges when you fish. If you were standing and pitching or flipping there are times you might want a 7' 6" or 8' rod. I stay seated in my kayak and the rods I bring are all between 7' and 7' 4" because I'm comfortable with those lengths.

You're brave for giving out your personal cell phone number. I have a strict policy with my team to not give out my number for any reason. I will say that for the most part our guests treat my staff well. One of the primary things we look for when hiring most positions is an outgoing personality. For example, my housekeeping team is very good at conversing with guests whenever they encounter a guest. That helps to mitigate any issues. Oddly enough, the guests we have the most problems with are the anglers. Despite having boat trailer parking there are many who think they are entitled to park their boat and trailer across 8 or 9 parking spots or run their power cords across the parking lot and sidewalks despite the fact that we have power at our designated boat parking spots and our boat slips. Not on my watch. My room attendants are a crucial part of what we do and I always let them know that. My housekeeping manager also treats them extremely well and they have off site get togethers and she even makes them food and brings it in for them. The starting wage for my room attendants is also the same as my front office personnel. Housekeeping is truly the "Heart of House." Get ready for the price increases on R410a. The government is going to mandate that it be phased out beginning in the next few years.

One of the big negative aspects of what I do is that we are open 24/7/365. There is no opportunity to shut off or silence my phone. Getting a call or having to go in at 3 a.m. is not uncommon. When you run a big hotel you have enough layers of managers that you don't have to worry about that. But in a small hotel it can drive you nuts, especially when you first take over a property that has been struggling. This is one of the reasons why I plan to move on to become an RVP later this year.

I'm thankful that I make a lot for the size of the hotel and the market which is about 50% above what one would expect. But I've already told the owner that this is probably my last year at the hotel. I'm tired of the day to day hotel operations. My plan is to switch gears and work as Regional VP of Operations. The pay is better, although there is a lot of travel. But I know I won't have to unload shipments or work the front desk anymore!