Kayak Koz

Some of you have seen that I have been experimenting with having AI help me create music. I put a few tracks on BR, and since then I have changed up and refined those tracks a heck of a lot and I now have a total of 10 songs: All the Places You Will Go Bait Monkey Blues Big 'Uns Chasing Shadows Fishing or Me (your wives and girlfriends will appreciate this song) Five Fish Dream High Dollar, No Bass Motor On, Paddle Strong The Ballad of Kayak Koz Kickin' Bass I kid you not, I cannot believe how good these songs came out. The song styles include rowdy honky tonk, upbeat modern country, and more. But I like the rowdy honky tonk beats. What started off as a lark is becoming a bit more serious. And believe it or not, I'm in the process of getting these published on Spotify, iTunes, etc. There's a bit involved in getting them published, including things like cover art, album art, and even band art. I'll post again when the album is released, and maybe some of you will take a listen. It's really fun music and it will get your motor running on the way to the lake. Stay tuned for Kayak Koz and the Minnows. Here's my first concept for the bank art:

Bonafide make some very good kayaks. Enjoy!

Forward facing Livescope on Guntersville is tough because of all of the weeds. Have you tried perspective mode? But what you really should do is map sections of the lake with side scan. Look for open pockets in the weeds and fish those locations. I've had luck with paddletails in those areas, or ripping a bladed jig or spinner bait through the weeds and into those openings. The few times I have been there, main lake paid off more than the creeks.

There were a lot of gators out there. Aggressive ones are rare. It’s the little juveniles that are a pain because they chase baits. I had to abandon half a dozen areas because they kept chasing my bait.

Nope. I've had a few in the 7's.

I haven't done much tournament fishing this year and the few I did I stunk up the joint. But I have thought about fishing the GA Bass Nation Kayak Series event at Eufala next weekend. One problem - I've never fished there before. With that, I thought it best to drive out there today and check out the lake and get some practice. Just in case a competitor is lurking on here, I'm not divulging baits or locations. I did my usual "I've never been to this lake before" research include reviewing maps, the Deep Dive app, and checking with various AI models. At the lake, there was a lot of boat traffic as I set off for my first waypoint, a little over a mile away. But, as always, I decided to take some casts at some "fishy" looking spots along the way. I noticed a lot of boats heading in the opposite direction. Anyway, I moved into a bigger pocket and worked my way down the grass line. Missed one on a short strike. As I made my way towards the back a 6 foot gator came out of the weeds, But instead of moving into the water, stopping, and staking out its territory the gator made a beeline for my kayak. I quickly turned my kayak around and got out of there. Granted, the gator can move faster than my kayak, but it just chased me off and turned around. With that, I decided to change direction and head towards where all those boats were going. I didn't get bit for two hours. Then I gut a little bump-bump on a moving bait and figured it was a small fish. But it was about a 4-5 pounder that followed the bait all the way to the kayak and turned off. I quickly flipped my bait back out there and this time it grabbed the trailer and ran with it, but it didn't bite the hook and it was gone. I kept moving, and that's when the big girl hit. I knew almost immediately it was a big one, and confirmed it as it got close to my kayak. This is where it gets tricky in a kayak. I've got the fish on the right, and my net is behind me on the left in one of the built in rod holders. I always worry about losing a fish going one handed on the rod while grabbing the net and scooping up the fish. Luckily, she was buttoned up pretty good. But just one problem - she barely fit in the net. That was a good problem to have. I got out the scale and my Ketch board - 8.5 pounds and a tick under 23 inches - 22.75 in the photo but I forgot to straighten the tail. Big, big belly hanging over the Ketch board. One thing that bugs me is I forgot to bring my GoPro this trip. Normally it's in my rod box, but I left it in the house the other day. Ugh. Oddly enough, this wasn't the hardest hit of the day. Later on, a 4lb blue catfish absolutely crushed a spinner bait. So much so that it nearly ripped the rod out of my hand. On the day I ended up with 5 for 20 pounds. Hopefully the waypoints I found are still in play next week. But knowing my luck, the big girls in that area will have spawned out. We'll see. Oh - one more oddity. While driving out there and using Apple maps, at 6:30 am, Apple maps said my ETA was 6:00 am. It took me a quick second to remember that I was crossing over to the Central Time Zone in Alabama.

Be very careful out there, especially if you're in your canoe. You may want to use your kayak instead. But I understand the urge to get out there. I'll fish here in the winter when the lake temperatures are in the 60's, but only when the winds are not strong. I'll be battling weather myself this weekend. I'm heading to Lake Eufala in Alabama on Saturday and with the temperature in the 80's I'm worried about my first sunburn of the year 😁 (Sorry, couldn't resist) Be very, very careful out there.

Only a few pictures here, but I really don't get into posting pictures of my catches. It can be a bit of a hassle out on the kayak. My plan is to do some multiple angle video this year and I suppose that I can pull stills of that. I'm a bit camera shy, so there's that. I had a magazine come out to my hotels and do a story on me a month or so ago and I begged them to just take pictures of the hotel but they insisted on a few of me. I felt uncomfortable with that. I prefer to be silent in the background.

Dang! I was halfway to Michigan when I read that last line of your post...

I know you're going to love it. I had a lake house for a while and it was only 25 feet or so from the back of the house to the lake. I actually liked being that close to the water. The unique thig about the house was that every room except one first floor bathroom had a view of the lake. That house was big and ugly, cost way too much to heat and cool, and had a ton of problems. But it was on the lake!

Most vets are compassionate and will let you know when it's time. I can only imagine what you're going through. Many people don't understand that pets are not only family, but there's a special bond. My dog is 15 years old and while he's still perky and likes to play, he also sleeps a lot more. And sometimes he misjudges when he tries to jump up on the couch. I'm thankful for the time we've had, but I know that's winding down.

Looks like it would make a good bluegill bait 😄

The two constants are: Green pumpkin bladed jig with a Rage Chunk trailer (color varies, but always some contrast) Underspin with a paddle tail. Size and color vary by lake/season. Senko either T-rigged or wacky rigged in some flavor of green pumpkin Everything else varies by lake and season.

Don't cut the crossbars just yet. I slid mine over and then attached my Yakima rod box to the crossbars. I know that a lot of people like to mount racks above the kayak to put rod tubes and rod boxes, but I think that's a mistake. The reason is that if you put racks above your kayak, if you stand up rods in your rod holders that means that you have to place your rods AFTER you launch your kayak. I stage everything out in the parking lot before I launch. Rods, net, trolling motor, connect batteries, etc. Then I just back it down the ramp, launch, tie it off, park my truck, jump in the kayak and go. I'm not tying up the ramp or the dock.

In the warm months I wear a KastKing Boonie. I have no idea if they make good reels or not, but they may great outerwear. The boonie does a great job of protection and venting. Their SPF moisture wicking fishing shorts with hoodie and built-in gaiter do a great job of keeping me cool in 90+ degree weather. In cooler months I wear one of my Kistler Team ballcaps.

I was fishing Lake Hartwell yesterday and the lake was extremely low. There were many boats and docks out of the water. Some people had detached their docks from the walkways to keep them in the water. Worse yet, at least half my waypoints are now on land. Went deeper looking for spots in timber and on points but found absolutely nothing. I had planned to shake a minnow all day but that didn’t work out. Ended up shutting off livescope and fishing wind blown pockets in shallow water for largemouth. Not a great day but the biggest I landed was 20”. Had one that looked and felt bigger but she breached FOUR times and spit out my bladed jig.

When do Females follow Males up to Bed? After cleaning up the kitchen 😄 (It's a joke, people. Please don't tell my GF)

Right now my active licenses are GA, FL, and SC. I need to renew my AL and TX licenses soon.

As some of you have seen, lately I've been delving into working with AI to write songs and music. I'll write a song or key lines of a song, add prompts, style the music, have AI generate a first draft, then refine the music and lyrics. I have 7 or 8 songs in various stages of production and I'm constantly tweaking them as I learn more and more about the software. Once I finish, I'm thinking of putting them on Spotify and streaming services so I can make 50 cents off of them. Anyway, my latest one is Bait Monkey Blues. Here you go: Bait Monkey BluesListen and make your own on Suno.

One of the reasons I bought my Old Town Autopilot 120 kayak was because of its stability, and on more than one occasion I have been very thankful for that attribute. For me, battling the wind depends upon the lake, the situation, and the time of year, but my cutoff is usually anything above 25 mph. If I'm just fishing for fun, if winds are going to be over 18 mph for the day I'll usually find something better to do. Tournaments and pre-fishing are different. Many times with pre-fishing winds are 18-25 and I'll find somewhere to fish off of the main lake. But in Kissimmee this year that was impossible with the bowl shaped lakes. One day I called it early and the next day with winds hitting 30 I stayed home. If water temps are cold where hypothermia will happen quickly I simply don't risk it at all. For me, that's usually any temperatures below the mid to upper 60's, but even then being in the water 10 minutes is a risk. But even with winds under 20, some lakes start spawning bigger waves. In that case I head right back to the ramp. There's no sense putting myself in jeopardy.

I'm not doing this to make money. I don't care if I make a dime. I'm doing it for myself and posterity - if I end up doing it at all. More memories for my son and family. That being said, I like to try and do things the right way. That's all part of the journey and the fun. Years ago I did a YouTube channel for my son for a little while. Again, that one wasn't about trying to make money. He wanted to document some of his adventures when we traveled. Sorting through hours and hours of video is time consuming and not a lot of fun. Well, at first it's fun, but it does become a grind after a while. I do a lot of public speaking throughout the year, but speaking with just me in front of the camera is not my cup of tea. What I am interested in now is the technology and how AI could possibly make it more of a cinematic experience. I have some ideas on that and I want to try them out. Chances are it never sees the light of day, but it gives me something to do every now and then.

I'm not posting anything publicly yet. When I do this, I want to do it right and I just haven't had the time to get done what I want to get done and exactly what I want to do. What I need to come up with is a "hook." I need to find what would make it interesting. Why would people want to watch? What would make people watch an everyman grinder out there on the water? Right now my working title is, "The Miscellaneous Adventures of Kayak Koz." It may include more than just fishing. I'm experienced in editing video, so that shouldn't be an issue. The next step is to commission someone to come up with a logo/artwork. But the other thing is that I'm really getting into using AI to help me create music. I've posted a few songs here, but I've been digging deeper into this and have come up with what I think is some pretty good stuff. I'm working on "Bait Monkey Blues" today. Once I have 9 or 10 polished songs I'm going to make them available on different services. Since YouTube and Instagram will be part of that distribution, maybe that's the hook to tie in fishing videos.

I've been in a fishing funk lately between not wanting to fish and not fishing well, but I got some of my mojo back today. I fished a place that was new to me, High Falls Lake. One reason I picked this lake is because it has a 10hp limit and I didn't want to have to deal with wake boats, pontoon boats, and jet skis. High Falls State Park is there, but I didn't launch there because they have a $10 parking fee. I though I outsmarted them by launching from a ramp down the road in a residential and commercial area, but it turns out that's park property as well so I still had to pay the $10 fee. In my opinion, that's way too much, especially for the rutted parking lot and ramp. The water wasn't just stained today, it was dirty. Chocolate milk dirty. It's only a 650 acre lake, so I made my way north to feeder streams looking for cleaner or transitional water. There are also shallow flats up there, and with the water temperature in the low to upper 60's throughout I was hoping to find bass in that area getting ready to spawn. As it turns out, the feeder creeks were still pushing silt and there was no clean water up there as well. I saw lots of crappie, bait fish, and a few catfish on livescope but nothing that looked like bass. I switched to perspective view in the shallows, but again saw only baitfish and smaller fish. I ignored the livescope and fished some points and laydowns on the way there, but didn't have any luck. So I headed down to a southern creek arm that showed some clear water on satellite imagery from 3 days ago. Once I found some rip rap everything changed. I got a hard hit on an underspin and landed an 18 incher. It hard enough that it took the blade off my brand new, Dirty Jigs underspin. The fish was also a healthy green instead of the washed out colors you usually get in silty water. That told me the heavy staining was relatively new and with that I might not need to find clear water. Not wanting to tie on another underspin, I grabbed a rod with a Golden Shiner bladed jig on since it had the gold blades I prefer on sunny days in heavily stained water. They hit that as well. All-in-all, I caught five keeper +1 for the day. Everything was 14" - 16" except that first 18" fish. I had planned to take some GoPro and drone footage today, but I couldn't get my GoPro to turn on. As for the drone, I passed on it today. I wanted better looking footage then that heavily stained lake. Anyway, I had some fun out there today. I'm going to skip my next tournament on Hartwell next weekend, simply because I didn't get to pre-fish out there, But I'm sure I'll find other place to fish!

I’ve started something here. Pretty soon we won’t have avatars here on Bass Resource - we’ll have our own theme music.

New song, "High Dollar, No Bass" is posted in the Everything Else section.