Kayak Koz

I think that forage, water quality, and fish population are at the top of the list. But small lakes and ponds can produce big bass. My father had a 1/3 acre lagoon in his back yard and I caught a 6 pounder there. In SC we had thousands of small, medium, and large lagoons and there were plenty of 7 pound+ and double digit bass. But there were some lagoons where we only caught dinks. Lots and lots of dinks, like on every cast. I love my kayak, but I really miss bank fishing all of those lagoons.

That's where folding space comes in. But first we'll have to get to Mars, Titan, Europa, or Io and then out of our solar system first. I wonder how many other civilizations have said similar things over the eons? While I believe there is plenty of intelligent life out there, I'm beginning to think that civilizations die off before they develop the ability for interstellar travel.

The James Webb Space Telescope unveiled its first image today. The camera focused on one tiny spec of the universe and revealed THOUSANDS of galaxies, each containing millions or billions of solar systems and each of those with an incalculable number of planets. If that isn't awe inspiring I don't know what is. Imagine the possibilities.

For me that's a deal breaker. If I'm fishing an area thoroughly I'm constantly jogging the pedals and occasionally bumping the rudder to maintain my position WHILE I'm still casting and reeling. And there are times when I'm bringing in a fish where I need to engage reverse. I suppose if I did not have the option I would adapt, but to me it impacts my ability to fish.

Years ago I was playing golf near Three Mile Island and the Blue Angels were practicing for one of their events. One pilot flew low and slow over the course, so low that he dipped a wing and waved at us. I swear, I could have hit a pitching wedge that high. Years later the Thunderbirds stayed at one of my hotels. Their show was canceled due to poor weather, but they gave me a nice signed print that I framed and I still have it today.

The only time I use my paddle is at launch and when I return from my trip. I launch at my hotel, and because it's not easy to step off our docks into my kayak I put the pedal drive on the dock, launch from the land, paddle to the dock, and then set up my pedal drive. I reverse that when coming back. I never use the paddle while out fishing. I use my pedal drive and rudder to reposition.

C-Tug $140. Great investment.

As someone who has been running hotels for a long time, I’ll give my two cents. I’ve worked for both franchise and corporate owned properties with a few different brands. I’ve also been part of the transition team in buying or selling hotels in other brands. By far, the worst brand was Holiday Inn. Their brand standards for hotel cleanliness, service, and operation are slim at best. I took over a Holiday Inn Convention Center once and was surprised how sparse their Quality Assurance manuals were. When HI came to inspect us, the guy could not believe how thorough we were in training, service, and standards. He even tried to steal our manuals. The most thorough brand is Marriott. They are not afraid to dump hotels whose quality is lacking. It’s the complete package. Hamptons and Hiltons are good as well, but not as demanding as Marriott.

I’ve hit 5.4 outracing a thunderstorm. Thought I might die that day. Not from the storm, but my heart exploding.

Bank or boat? It doesn't look like there's much out there except Bear Creek and Lake Chapman. Personally, I'd stay away from Death Lake (Lanier) in the tourist months. If I was in your area, I'd check Google maps for ponds and find public access or nicely ask a land owner if you could fish on their property. I'm just down the road at Lake Oconee. The bass fishing has been better this year, but it's still not great.

Swap out your rod. I don't think my DC is heavy at all, especially compared to my old Lew's rods and reels. My writs and hands got tired easily with those. I have my DC paired with an Expride. I could fish that all day and all night and it would not feel heavy.

Here's my sure fire summer guide to fishing in warm water, summer conditions: If you're not catching bass where you normally catch them, fish somewhere else. And I'm actually not being snarky here. You mention your fishing docks, shade pockets, etc. so I assume you're looking for relatively cooler water. But ask yourself this, "Is that where teh water is most oxygenated?" I'll give you an example, Where I fish, right now I see guys pitching and flipping docks all the time in shallow coves and they draw blank after blank. Why? There's zero vegetation around to oxygenate the water. There are no feeder streams pushing in with oxygenated water. These places still hold tons of baitfish year round and in the heat, but in the summer all but a few straggler bass are elsewhere. Personally, in the summer heat I'm putting the mantra, "find the baitfish, find the bass" second to finding the most oxygenated water that I can find. Where I fish, that's not always easy because we have very little vegetation in the lake.

No offense taken. When I travel, the last thing I want to do is stay in a hotel, so I look for other options first.

The Hilton Head - Bluffton - Hardeeville area has THOUSANDS of stormwater lagoons teeming with bass. That's my old stomping ground and I miss it. Most everything you catch will be 2+ pounds. If you're not catching a lot of 4-6 pounders throughout the year you might want to take up knitting ? A few things - a lot of these are behind gated communities, but if you know people you can get in there. The non-gated communities have tons of lagoons as well. You also have to use your head out there and learn to fish around alligators. Develop a routine when approaching teh water and keep your head on a swivel. If a gator sets up around you and refuses to leave, just move on to the next lagoon. I can put you in touch with a great real estate agent if you visit that area. DM me for info.

Love my Exprides. I have them paired with various Curados.

Senko. T-rig and wacky rig. Bring lots of them.

It's time to change your Bass Resource handle to Bear Grylls.

If you're fairly serious about fishing you're going to want to invest in a good kayak and everything you need that goes along with it. I don't mean that you need to spend $3k on a kayak, but hear me out. If you really want to spend time actually fishing out of your kayak you're probably going to want to add an anchor and trolley system, and maybe a rudder. You're also going to need a good paddle and a PFD. A few rod holders and a crate would help out as well. And don't forget your kayak cart. If you go cheap on any of this stuff you'll probably get frustrated, especially if your kayak isn't stable, doesn't track well, or gets blown around in the wind. So now you're probably $800-$900 into it and you don't even feel like using it because it's frustrating our there. I agree with the posts above about buying used. But before that I think you should rent some different kayaks first. Most state parks have kayak rentals, and many have fishing kayaks. Their kayaks are usually on the inexpensive side, so that should give you an idea what to expect if you buy one of those or something similar. Your local paddle shops may have rentals as well. My opinion is that if you are an avid angler, you should test as many kayaks as you can and don't make an impulse buy just to get out on the water now. I spent months researching kayaks before pulling the trigger, and even then there was some risk. I also looked at kayaks in ALL price ranges, knowing that if I might have to delay my purchase and put away a few more dollars. Whether you're spending $800 or $3k you don't want to end up with something that sits unused in your garage.

We had more than enough spaces in our lot and had half a dozen boat/trailer spots available as well. These are the signs at the entrance to the lot where she parked. That's three warnings that she drove past. They are impossible to miss. The yellow sign on the tree in the background is one of the many No Trespassing signs posted throughout that lot. I blotted out the name of the business and the tow company. Where I blotted out the name of the business it states parking is for their customers only.

Interesting. I have not had any issues with glare with my Humminbird, but I often had them with my Lowrance.

We actually have a parking map and parking rules posted at the front desk. Even though we have 11 boat trailer specific parking spots (long enough for a truck and trailer) we get some people that think it's OK to park across 6 or 8 car parking spots. Parking rules are also on guest reg card. Common sense dictates that I should not have to post parking rules for someone else's business.

Yes. And take responsibility for it. If it’s true - and I will find out - if he told the guest that I said to tow the car that’s ridiculous. Why would I care if someone parked on his property? How would I even know when I wasn’t even on property?

As many of you know, I run a hotel for a living. Next door to us was a restaurant that went out of business at the end of last year and has remained shuttered since then. This restaurant shares our driveway, but has its own parking lot. The owner of that property posted No Trespassing signs throughout his property. I met him one day when he was posting the signs and he asked me to keep an eye on his property. I politely declined. He stopped by my hotel yesterday to complain that there was trash on his property and implied it was my fault. I politely told him that if I am out back of our hotel and see our guests going on his property that I point out the No Trespassing signs, but it is not my responsibility to watch his property. So this morning a guest comes to the front desk and starts yelling at me because she parked in the restaurant parking lot last night and her car got towed. I explained to her that we do not own that property and have nothing to do with it, and there are No Trespassing signs present. She then proceeded to tell me that when her car was towed last night that she called the property owner and the police to complain. According to her, that property owner told her that I told him to tow her car. Wait - what? Somehow I have the influence to tell another property owner what to do with his property and have him tow cars? How does that even make sense? Why would I concern myself with the parking lot of an out of business restaurant? In fact, when guests ask if they can park there we simply tell them that it is not our property, and that's what we told this woman. (I put a call in to that owner to find out if he did say that but he did not answer. I will call him tomorrow. If he did, he's an idiot avoiding his responsibility in getting her car towed. ) She then proceeded to tell me that MY HOTEL should put up warning signs not to park in the parking lot of another business. First off, we have no idea what the policy is of that and owner and I had never heard of cars being towed from there. Second, why would someone else's property be my responsibility? We have zero affiliation with that property. Here's an idea - take responsibility for your own actions and ignoring the No Trespassing signs. If that owner doesn't want people in his parking lot, then block it off. But we're not going to police his parking lot. I think he's ticked because a month ago he found people camping on that property and recently the buyer he lined up for that property backed out and he's stuck with an empty building and no one wanting to buy it or lease it from him. Tomorrow I'm off to the County Assessor's to see if, in fact, he has a proper county easement to use our entrance to connect to his parking lot. He probably does, but if he doesn't I will gladly block off his parking lot for him.

For my transducer arm set up, the wire is at the transducer arm so I guess that would be in back. Keep in mind, the nose of the transducer usually points behind the boat, but on a kayak it points forward (at least the way it mounts on my kayak transducer arm). I suppose some people mount it the same way on the trolling motor of their bass boat. That’s why the software gives you the option of flipping the side scan image.

I haven't had any fraying issues since that first incident and I replaced both cables. But the slop in the neutral position does annoy me because it makes it that much harder to find the neutral rudder position of the rudder. It's kind of like my car. In my car there is almost no play or dead zone in the steering wheel. If you move the steering wheel just a little bit, the car follows that track. The steering is sensitive to tiny inputs. When I drive someone else's car, it seems strange that I can move the wheel an inch or two and the car tracks straight. By he same token, I let my 16 year old son drive my car and even after telling him about the sensitive steering input it still freaked him out. But I still love my kayak. My biggest issue is that I need to trade in my car and buy an SUV so I don't have to keep it stowed at my hotel. I always get sucked into work for a while even on my day off when I take it out to go fishing.