Kayak Koz

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.

As some of you may have seen in another post, I've been working with AI to write some music. I'm having an absolute blast with this! Below is my latest. We've all seen this guy at the ramp and on the lake. High-Dollar, No Bass (Edit)Listen and make your own on Suno.

I'm actually excited to head out tomorrow. I'll be fishing a new, small lake with a 10 hp limit so I won't have to worry about the pontoon boats, wake boats, and jet skis. In fact, I have a list of small lakes that I plan to attack this spring. Most likely I'm going to pass on fishing the Bassmaster event in Caddo next month and just focus on some fun fishing instead.

Thanks. that’s my favorite so far. I have a few more that I’ll be working on this weekend. I’m still just beginning to explore the software and how I can better use the AI to enhance my prompts and the lyrics that I input. Lots to learn.

Because I'm a creator, I can download the songs and then use iTunes on my PC to upload them to my iPhone music library. I did go to the song page without logging but there was no option to download. But if someone want to create an account on the site, see if you can then download the file yourself. If that doesn't work, I may post the files somewhere else for downloads. BTW, I think "Five Fish Dream" is the better of the two songs that I published thus far. The next step for me is to create and edit some video footage, then with one of my video editors add the music track to the video.

I unpublished that first one and have a refined and hopefully final version here: The Ballad of Kayak KozListen and make your own on Suno.OK - now I'm having more fun with this. I took a phrase from the first song, Five Fish Dream, and created another song about an 8 year old boy that dreams of becoming a Bassmaster Classic Champion. Five Fish DreamListen and make your own on Suno.

Listening to Mike Rowe’s podcast. Here’s a version I like better. But more edits coming tonight. New link - deleted the old version: The Ballad of Kayak KozListen and make your own on Suno.

I was blown away when I heard it. I especially loved the line about "chasing green ghosts." I'm going to see if I can refine it and then lay that track to my own video and photos.

OK - I thought that this was really cool and I hope that you do too. I heard about an app where you can put in some prompts and parameters and AI will write a song for you based upon that information. I was skeptical, but a few minutes later I was blown away. I told the AI to write a song about a struggling kayak bass fishing tournament angler named Kayak Koz and include references to places like Caddo, Guntersville, and Fork. This is what it came up with: New link: The Ballad of Kayak KozListen and make your own on Suno.

At my other hotels I paid $1200 - $1500 for complete landscaping services including mowing much more grass, pruning bushes, weeding beds, irrigation schedules, etc. This was $925 just to cut the grass and no other services.

My response was sarcasm.

What's finesse fishing? 😁😁

Up until last year I lived on a lake so it was easy to launch from by backyard. Where I live now I have over a dozen lakes within 90 minutes. My GF has a second home on Keowee, about 3.5 hours away, so I head there some weekends. With my GA Bass Nation Kayak schedule I travel up to 4 hours away. For the Bassmaster Kayak Series I've traveled up to 13 hours away. I'm supposed to go to Caddo next month, but I think I'm going to sit that one out and maybe the rest of the schedule. I'm not in tournament mode this year.

Has anyone fished High Falls Lake in Monroe County GA? It's a small, 650-acre lake that supposedly has a lot of structure and doesn't get too deep. That sounds perfect for my kayak and it's only a 45 minute drive from my house. I'm going to launch at the Buck Creek ramp then work my way north and hit all of the inflows and fish any points and visible structure on the way up. I should be able to cover most of the lake if needed. Lately I'm getting tired of fishing the big lakes and it's only going to get worse out there as the weather warms up and the boat traffic increases. I need to get my mojo back and find my fishing groove again. I've been stinking it up out there lately. So now I'm looking at smaller lakes within an hour or so from home. With hitting small lakes and fishing the idle speed only PFA's one of my goals is to fish techniques that I rarely employ or have not tried before. I've been doing too much running and gunning. I also want to start better learning the perspective mode in Livescope when fishing shallower waters. Another thing I want to get in the habit of is utilizing sidescan more and marking structure even if I don't fish there that day. I have all of these wonderful toys and they have been underutilized.

Speaking of lawns, my new hotel complex was taking bids for lawn service this past week. Not full landscaping or even weed control, just cutting the little lawn we have including parking lot islands and the perimeter of a traffic circle out front of the hotel. The best bid was $925 a WEEK! I went out and spent $820 on a Toro mower, Toro string trimmer, safety glasses, a gas can, and told my maintenance team to take turns mowing the grass.

My girlfriend has a second home lake house on Lake Keowee and once a month or so we meet up there for the weekend and I bring my kayak along. This weekend I brought my kayak up that way but planned to had an hour south to fish Hartwell and get ready for a tournament in a few weeks. My kayak never left her garage. I just didn't feel like fishing this weekend. Normally when I head up there I get up early, fish for 5 or 6 hours while she does her things, and then we spend the rest of the day doing something. But I just didn't feel like fishing this weekend. Weird, I know. I did some bank fishing for an hour or so, but Keowee is down seven feet right now and I barely even saw bait fish in that area. Anyone else ever get in a fishing funk?

You should have bought a kayak. (This is an inside joke for those that don't know).

I’m listening to myself grumble and occasionally curse.

I've been in a slump lately and it's making me reconsider my life choices🙂 On Saturday I checked the weather conditions for Tobesofkee and saw the water temps were 54, so I picked the south end of the lake with some ledges, deeper water, a dam, and some creek channels. I get there, put in the water, head to my spots and the temps are 58-60 degrees. I'm at the wrong end of the lake and should be in the northern flats where the spawn occurs. No other boats or kayaks in my area. So I either make an hour run by kayak or burn an hour getting back to the ramp, loading up, and driving to another ramp. I stayed put and fished the area. I got one minimal bite in the 3 hours I was out there. Spent 30 minutes tossing different baits at a big girl I found on Livescope and couldn't get her to bite. Next week I'm heading to Hartwell to pre-fish for a tournament. But if I'm still slumping I may bag fishing for a while. It just hasn't been fun lately and I've lost then Zen feeling when I'm out on my kayak.

There’s lots of great information on this thread. I’m a kayak guy for many reasons, but jon boats and bass boats are great as well. One thing to think about is your fishing style, especially if you prefer to stand and fish. My kayak is stable and I do stand and fish. But if I’m fishing main lake with lots of boat traffic and wakes I’m going to stay seated. If I get surprised by a wave or wake there’s not much room to reposition my feet and balance. I also like to skip baits, and that’s much easier when standing. To better skip when seated, I bought a shorter rod. The biggest drawbacks of the kayak are speed and range. There are times when I have to motor 90 minutes from the nearest ramp to get to my spots. You can overcome that with a jon boat.

Another reason why I’m thankful for spot lock and a heading sensor. But even with those tools, fishing in strong winds is difficult in a kayak.

Long nose pliers, braid scissors, sharp knife, and Rapala fish grippers are stored in the built in cutout spaces in my AP. As for the net, I use the ForEverlast Inc. Generation 2 Floating Landing Net. I have a YakAttack crate which hold a scale speed bags full of plastics, and occasionally an additional tackle tray. Next to my seat is an area that holds four tackle trays. I'm going to suggest one more item that most people forget about. Get yourself a whistle an attach it to your PFD.

It certainly seems like the weather is wonky down here this year. We'll have 3 or 4 days with daytime temperatures in the 60's and 70's and the water temperature creeps up to 55-56 degrees, then we get temperatures in the 20's again for 3 or 4 days and the water temperature drops to 50 degrees or lower once again. And the wind is still ridiculous with gusts 18-28 mph most days interspersed with low wind days or 38 mph wind days. I can't wait for spring.