Kayak Koz

Speed craw is great on a chatterbait. Try a black and Blue chatterbait with the blue speed craw. Great with a lift and drop technique.

Cooley has lousy fishing period. Cunningham and Robinson aren't much better. Some people say Lyman is OK. Your best bets in that region ore going to be Keowee, Wateree, Murray, and Hartwell.

I post a fishing report on my hotel website and I would like to add some photos and video. Every now and I also want to take a photo of a catch for myself. But I keep my phone in a water resistant phone pouch and I keep that in a dry bag out on my kayak. It’s too much of a pain to pull it out and take pictures while trying to handle a fish and return it quickly to the water. So my plan is to mount one camera to a side rail near the bow and either another one on the stern or I will wear it on my head. I just want to find a way to have to avoid climbing over my pedal unit and crawling to the bow to turn that camera off and on. Also, I don’t want to have to crawl up their to swap out storage cards or later have to fast forward through lots of video during editing.

Can you turn the camera on and off with the remote or just tell it to take a picture or stop or start video? All of the action camera remotes I have seen do not power on/off the unit. I want to be able to power on and off with the remote or via my phone.

I'm thinking about adding a few GoPro type action cameras to my kayak, but I'd like to find one that can be turned on and off with a remote or with my phone. I often pedal long distances (30-45 minutes) to get to different fishing locations and I don't want to waste the camera batter doing that. I also don't want to have to try and climb or step over my pedal unit to turn the bow camera off and on. Any ideas?

Ah - you lucky people with storage inside the hull. That is the one area where my ride falls short.

I opted for a LiPo battery instead of AGM to save weight. Since I'm only running my Lowrance off it I have the 7A 12V and I can run it for multiple outings and for weeks without charging. And since I run my CellBlok on the rail I definitely did not want anything heavy that might impact the balance of CoG. That being said, I am thinking of getting some velcro and putting the CellBloc under or behind my seat so I can lower the height of my Lowrance.

I don't think there is a best size. I use trailers of various sizes, shapes, and action on chatterbaits. The fish will let you know which one is best at that moment.

Nice! I enjoy woodworking as well. I've posted a few of my projects on here, including my first work with a scroll saw. I don't do a lot anymore since I bought my kayak. Also, when I moved to GA last year my new house doesn't have a garage. All my gear is on my screened in porch, but there isn't a lot of room out there.

Lift and drop in cold weather for me. In warmer weather I'll do a straight retrieve, drag it on teh bottom, or a retrieve with an occasional rip.

It is heavy. The kayak is 94 pounds, the pedal drive another 22, and then all of my gear, crate, electronics, and dry bag. It may be hard to tell in photo below, but this is the big, twisty hill I navigate up and down at my hotel. You can see the hotel kayak rack on the left for reference. After a long day of fishing, it's a royal pain to haul it up that hill, especially in the Georgia heat.

I wear glasses and have my eyes checked regularly. I can see the screen fine in sun or shade, but it's hard to pick out the detail. And here I am talking about side scan. I have no issues seeing sonar or down scan. And no, no polarized glasses. Just my regular eyeglasses.

You are no longer allowed to use baits with treble hooks. ?

?????? Everybody says that. Good luck! As for 10' vs 12', I think that depends upon the bodies of water that you fish. If you have a lot of wind, waves, and boat wakes you'll probably appreciate the increased stability of the 12 footer. Both can accommodate storage crates. But if you also want to carry a cooler you may want the 12.

You first need to decide how much you want to spend in total (including accessories) and if pedal or paddle more suites the bodies of water you will be fishing and your style. In my opinion, the primary benefit of paddle kayaks is that they are typically light and easy to transport. But for me, the huge downside is out on the water you have to spend a lot of time repositioning the kayak to fish, especially if there's any wind out there. I did a ton of research last year before I made my purchase. Once I settled on a pedal drive I researched those. Since I had only rented and not owned a kayak before, I didn't want to spent $4k-$5k on a kayak and accessories and find out I didn't like it. I ended up buying a Seastream Angler 120 PD (Seastream is a FeelFree company) and I love it. With the money I saved on the initial purchase I bought a Lowrance Fishfinder (with side scan), C-Tug, etc. and I had money left over to buy new rods and reels. I did a write up here last year on my Seastream and plan a one year update post soon. I will say this - I do not regret my purchase in any way.

If I had a paddle kayak I would think that a good anchor trolley system would be crucial. One of the primary reasons I bought a pedal drive instead of paddle was the ability to jog and pivot my kayak while fishing instead of constantly having to stop fishing to position the boat. As for the net, I bought one (see link below) and it works just fine, but I stopped using it after a few outings, It was just another thing taking up space on my kayak, and space is at a premium. https://www.amazon.com/ForEverlast-Inc-Generation-Floating-Non-Snag/dp/B005OJQSQ2?th=1

Marinate the cut of meat (I usually use London Broil) in Texas Pete's Sriracha Sauce. I wouldn't use any other sriracha, just Texas Pete's. It has a nice sweet heat to it. For a dry rub, try Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning. Aw, man. Now you guys have me going - I just told Alexa to add London Broil to mu shopping list.

Shimano Expride 7' MH. It's not even close.

The lake I primarily fish is very narrow and there's a good amount of boat traffic and some days out on my kayak I feel like I'm in a wash tub. Waves and wakes blow past me, then bounce of the sea walls. It gets ridiculous when you have a fresh boat wake on one side then the rebound from another off the sea wall on the other side. I'm very thankful that I have a stable kayak.

I feel your pain. Almost every day off I had for over a month had ridiculous winds that kept me off my kayak. My kayak can handle it with gusts 12-15, but when the sustained winds are 12+ and the gusts are 20+ I don't even bother. Thankfully, the past few weekends have been low to moderate winds. Now about that blazing hot sun the other day...

I'm still mad at Ike.?

I started with mine in that same place, up close to my seat on the right side, then moved it to the left side because I'm usually casting to the left and I can easily see the screen while fishing. However, that means it's a tighter space between the unit and the pedal drive when I'm reeling in a fish, so for this weekend I'm going to go back to the right side. But since the arm is mounted to my CellBloc I have to take it apart first. But - I'm also thinking about getting some velcro and mounting the CellBloc to that either behind or under my seat. This will allow me to mount the transducer arm and the unit lower on the rail. So many choices...

I have the Lowrance Hook2 5 with the tripleshot transducer on my kayak but I'm finding the screen size is too small for my liking, especially trying to pick apart detail on my sidescan. I'm thinking of getting a 9" Hook Reveal for my aging eyes, but that may be too big, especially because I would have to mount it on the rail. My pedal drive is in front of me, and it makes no sense to mount it beyond the pedal drive because it would defeat the purpose of having a larger screen and it would be a pain to have to reach the buttons. With the larger screen I'd probably have to take my YakAttack CellBloc off of the rail as well. So, what size fishfinder do you have on your kayak and where is it mounted? Another thing I'm trying to find is just the fishfinder unit without the transducer since the transducer that came with my Hook2 works with the Hook Reveal, but the Lowrance site shows them only sold as a package.

I fished some new areas last weekend and made a point of running my sidescan, namely to confirm the places I fished before were barren wastelands devoid of structure and that my sidescan was actually working properly. The good news is that I could in fact see structure in these areas. The bad news is that it's still hard to make out potential fish on that 5" screen. It might be time for an upgrade.

Deja vu. I was out kayak fishing on Oconee today and caught a 20+ pound flathead on an underspin with a small paddletail. Not only was I surprised it hit that bait, but it also surprised me because I was fishing in 2 feet of water along some riprap that normally hold bass. When it took the bait I thought, "Good - a decent bass." But then I started reeling in and it barely moved. At that point I knew it wasn't a largemouth, and it didn't fight like a striper - it just sat there daring me to reel it in. But it did pull me towards shore. Thankfully, it didn't take me 40 minutes like it took you to reel in your monster. Heck, mine was a baby compared to yours. Once I got it up to the kayak I saw what it was and quickly grabbed it with my fish gripper and started to pick it up. That's when I realized it was probably too big to bring aboard with my pedal unit, fish finder, and some gear on my deck. I was in luck because I hooked it in the lip and it didn't inhale the bait and it was an easy release. But I did catch a decent 4 pound LMB and some small ones today, so all in all it was a good day. Yours was a monster - but I can't imagine those record 100+ pounders.