Kayak Koz

I bought an air fryer last year and I have to say I love it. Sure, it's great if you want to cook up some french fries or onion rings, but I use it for a lot more. One of my favorites is chicken chili lime fajitas. I have also cooked burgers in them and they come out well. But tonight it was freezing cold out and windy and I didn't feel like firing up the grill for the Black Angus ribeye that I had waiting to go, so it was my air fryer to the rescue. I brushed on some olive olive and use Tony Chachere's Bold creole seasoning for a rub and cooked it at 390 degrees and 6 minutes each side. To my surprise, not only did it come out perfect medium rare, but it also had a nice crust and was perfectly juicy. I love cooking on my grill, but honestly this was just as good. I was worried about ruining a nice cut of meat, but I honestly think I'll do this again. I have a nice cut of veal that I may try next.

As a kid in the 70's, shoveling snow and mowing the lawn was expected. We had 5 acres and half of that was lawn and trees so I became very familiar with the lawn tractor and push mower. My father owned an industrial robotic centrifuge (and other things) company and at 12 I was sweeping floors. By 13 I was driving a forklift and did some welding and grinding. I took drafting in HS and by 15 I was a draftsman for his company, and at 16 I went to the sister company in Germany and worked there for a summer. But there was always a balance of work and play. As an adult, I forgot that for many, many years. I try to do that now, but it can be hard since the hotel industry is 24/7/365. I have three weeks of vacation coming and I do intend to use them.

Answer: Pedal kayak I'm at the point where everything is no instinctive in maneuvering my kayak with jogging the pedals and bumping the rudder to position the craft, even when bringing in a fish. The biggest fish I have caught was a 25 pound flathead, but it didn't run. It just sat on the bottom. So in that case I had to work the rod and use the pedals to slow my move to where it had hunkered down. I didn't want the line to slack. What I am hoping for is to hook into a 25 pound striper in open water and have it take me for a ride!

Very cool! Fishing out of the back is not easy, and a lot of it depends upon the boater your with. Luckily, for two tournaments my boater is conscientious and I know we'll be rooting for each other. Honestly, my goal is one fish at a time. For the first tournament at Lanier, if I can put 2 or 3 fish on the boat I'll be happy. The goal is to have fun and try and improve every tournament. Last year the winning co-angler number on Lanier was under 14 pounds, as were most of the winning totals for co-anglers on the other lakes we'll be fishing. While every day can be different, it does give me an idea of what to shoot for.

It will certainly be interesting, especially since I've only fished in a handful of club tournaments in my life. But again, this is for fun and I have zero expectations. One thing that I have had to do is make an investment in some equipment. For example, a culling system, a better scale, a weigh bag, and an Accu Cull weight recorder. That last one may or may not be superfluous, but it should make it quicker and easier to keep track of what I catch - if I ever get a limit! I also invested in a larger fishing duffel instead of using my tackle bag or backpack. This will allow me to carry a decent amount of fishing gear, any rain gear or additional layers, food, drink, and my trash. But more important it lets me keep it all in one spot so I'm not cluttering up the boat. As a co-angler, I don't want to be "that guy." I want to be respectful and keep my space tidy. Maybe as the season progresses I'll post some sort of Greenhorn Diary here about my experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

This year I decided to cross an item off my bucket list, fishing in the MLF Phoenix Bulldog Division (Georgia) as a co-angler. I have a sponsor for two events (my hotel) and I'll go out of pocket for the other three. My hotel is sponsoring me and my boater for the Oconee and Sinclair events since they are in our neighborhood. For the Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair events I have a boater lined up (someone here on BR) and be assigned a boater for the other three events on Lake Lanier (2) and West Point Lake. HOWEVER, if you're a boater and are in search of a co-angler and will have me along we can pair up. Boater entry fees are higher, but as an added incentive I'll split the total of the boater + co-angler fee. I'm doing this for fun and for PR for my hotel. I don't expect to sniff the top of the leaderboard and I don't care. Don't get me wrong, I am competitive. But I have a full time job and have no illusions of making any money or finding glory doing this. A couple of local publications are already lined up to do stories about the "Fishing GM." And as some of you know, I do a Fishing With The GM program at my hotel where I teach kids (and adults) to fish. Now we can tout that as Fishing with an MLF Angler or something like that. And yes, because this is also a PR thing I did go all out and buy a fishing jersey with the hotel logo, required MLS logos, and some contingency logos. Why the heck not? I want this to be fun. And again, moving forward it will be good PR for my hotel.

I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. ? Nah - I share info with anyone that asks.

I have a Helix 7 DI SI on my kayak and I love it.

I strongly disagree. They are two of the best players in the game, I also think that Harper is worth a lot more than he's being paid. Harper makes $27M a season, and even though he had injuries this year he has still put up 9.1 WAR over the past two seasons. If you take the standard value basis of $8M per 1.0 WAR, he's given them $72M of production value. And Mike Trout? He's so consistently good that people no longer realize how good he is.

I don't see that happening. Even if and when Judge starts losing power, he's still a very good hitter. If he hits .290 with 20-25 HR's he's still valuable. He's also a plus defender, and he may even be able to see some time at first base later in his career if he can't cover ground in the outfield anymore.

Well. considering my dad was from Canada and his parents were from Russia hockey was kind of a thing in my family. Dad had a brief stint with the Niagara Fall Flyers (Jr. A) and I played through my junior year of college until I blew out a knee. I grew up a Whaler and Bruins fan and I've had the pleasure of meeting a number of greats including Orr, Howe, Messier, Fuhr, and some others. Michel Dion was a former goalie with the Penguins and he went to our church and was a regular playing golf with my father and I. But I haven't followed the sport in forever. I don't think I could even name one player in today's game. That's off because hockey used to be such a big part of my life.

I'm thinking of going to Toho for a few days later this month. Some of the big 4 and 5 star hotels in the area have steep discounts and I'll take that savings and hire a guide. I haven't had a vacation in a few years so I figure I'll go spoil myself.

I have a different opinion. I've been stalked and chased by aggressive alligators. I'll fish near them in a boat or on the bank where I have clear egress. I'm too old and slow to FAFO.

Here in the south, although it gets cold the temperature does not bother me. What shuts me down is the wind and the wind chill factor.

I have a VisiPole that I put in one of the rod holder spots in the crate just behind my seat. It casts a soft light over my cockpit area that isn't too intrusive. But if I change baits or unbutton a fish I turn on my head lamp. What puts off the most light - and causes glare and night focus issues at times - is my 7" Humminbird unit that sits just to my left. I have yet to find a color palette and brightness setting that allows my old, bespectacled eyes to clearly read the display and not cause focus issues in the pitch black darkness.

Gator country = Jon Boat. Seriously. An unruly gator could easily swamp or tip a kayak. I know guys here on BR kayak fish in gator country, but why take a chance? It would be easy to miss a stalking gator while focusing on fishing. Or worse yet, have a hungry gator come at you in a low to the water kayak while you reel in a catch. I've had more than my fair share of scary gator encounters while bank fishing and that's enough to put me off from being trapped in a kayak in open water in gator country.

I tried something like that with my Seastream Angler 120 PD and I hated it. Of course, I had a steep grade, twisty sidewalk to navigate up and down. I bought a C-Tug and I love it. To the OP, whichever cart you get, make sure you experiment with the placement. Get it near the center of gravity and it's much easier to pull. Too far back and you'll feel the weight.

First, get a good PFD. I started out with a kayak specific life vest, but found it a bit cumbersome and not all that comfortable leaning back in my seat or in warm weather. This year I purchased an Onyx A/M-24 Automatic/Manual Inflatable Life Jacket. Second, don't buy anything else until after you've been out there 2 or 3 times. It's real easy to get caught up in buying a lot of stuff right away. While your out there, think about where you might want things set up (rod holders, electronics, battery, tackle, tools, cup holder, cameras, or whatever else you might want in the future). I have a pedal drive kayak with a rudder but I have also fished out of paddle kayaks. I didn't like fishing out of a paddle kayak because even with a light breeze I spent a lot of time orienting it rather than fishing. So after a few times out if you have the same issues you may want to look into an anchor and anchor trolley system In the meantime, have fun and welcome to the kayak club.

When I fish on my kayak at night I generally run dark, but if I hear or see any boats out there I turn on my light on my Yak Attack VisiPole. That doesn't cast much light on the water or my deck. I also run a 7" Humminbird DI SI and frankly I have to tone that down because it messes with my might vision. I also have a headlamp with varying brightness of both red and white LED lights. As far backlashes, I probably tend to drag my thumb on the spool a little more than usual on my standard reels and you kind of get a feel for it after fishing in the dark for a while. That being said, I probably use my Curado DC at night more than my other reels.

You don't want to get me started on this topic ☺️ Is there a color coding method to your rod sleeve choices?

Torqeedo? I looked at those, but in my opinion that's way too much money for something without GPS and spot lock.

Yep - there's a difference between Walmart flannel and Eddie Bauer flannel.

But probably not as much as you think, especially if you're fighting the current. How many Ah on your trolling motor battery and what's your draw? Separate battery for the fish finder? The biggest realization that I had was how long my 100Ah battery would last at different speeds. Sure, I can get 12 hours or more running at 1.5MPH. But I can easily pedal 3 mph so now instead of it taking one hour to get to a specific fishing spot it will take 2 hours if I use the trolling motor. As I opened this topic, if you can afford it, adding a trolling motor SEEMS like a no brainer. But there are a ton of tradeoffs for things like speed, weight, rigging options, travel distance, and more. I'm still not sure I made the right decision.

I was comparing it to the servos on RC planes, that's all. There's a big difference between moving a little piece of styrofoam and a beavertail rudder in the water. Servos come in all sizes, so finding one won't be a big deal. But I thought about this some more and remembered that when my dad passed away one of the things I kept was an RC boat that he had. Now, the boat itself is no use to me for this thought experiment, but the controller could be used. Actually, the receiver attached to the servo could be used as well. The trigger isn't needed, but you get the rudder to move by turning a dial on the side of the controller. You could use that and build a housing for it and velcro it to the hull or a gear track device. Like an RC controller, you could power it the AA batteries. Then you could build a small box at the stern with the receiver and servo and tie that into an existing Lipo battery you're using for electronics or buy one specific for your rudder unit. You'd have to do a little math to determine how much power you're going to draw. My guess is you might want to think about dissipating heat as well. If I get bored this winter I may try something like this.