Kayak Koz

Spinning gear or baitcaster? Reel gear ratio? Rod power? I use a 7’ MHF baitcaster with a 7:3:1 ratio most of the time. I can get by with a 6:2:1 but it’s not as efficient. I thumb the spool and start reeling just before it hits the water. It takes a little practice to get the timing and rhythm down. But if I were you I would work on that with short to medium casts first. You need perfect timing and the rod tip high if you are making long bomb casts.

Here in GA the temperature has been in only the mid 80's so far this year. Back in SC we spent our summers in the mid to upper 90's with the heat index at 100-110 for weeks on end, so I find this GA weather rather pleasant. It was brutal to fish in that weather, but at least we could come home to AC.

No need for drift socks here. I angle the nose towards the bank and then set the rudder to stay at that angle while I drift. If I need to I can also jog the pedals and pretty much stay in place if needed. It takes some practice and the occasional manual correction, but I have to say that having a pedal kayak is everything I thought it would be and more. even on a big lake. I imagine it would be even better on smaller bodies of water or those that allow trolling motors only.

I'm in the same club trying to figure everything out. Sometimes we get spoiled in our instant gratification society and forget many things require a learning curve. My transducer in on a YakAttack arm that hangs over the side of the kayak and my first time out I noticed the transducer had spun sideways. When I got home I noticed there was a C-clamp on the arm that needed to be tightened. There was no mention of this in the instructions, but looking back it should have been obvious. I felt pretty dumb there for a minute.

No, but linen supply is back ordered 2-3 months waiting for the ships to come in and then the containers to finally be unloaded. I had to take my car in to be serviced today and all three shops that I received quotes from are backed up due to labor shortages.

My guess is that you’re going to the Bass Pro store or website and picking up a scale. Nice fish.

It’s amazing that COVID is still impacting supply chains and especially labor. At my hotel we are setting monthly records for revenue, but I may have to shut down rooms because we don’t have enough room attendants to clean them. Absolutely ridiculous.

So will next year's transducer be called the 7-10 Splitshot?

I'm still taking the time to fish the area when I find baitfish, but what I have found throughout the section of Lake Oconee that I fish is there is an abundance of baitfish just about everywhere. For example, there are tons of small bluegill and shad around the docks of my hotel. I mean, there are a ridiculous amount of baitfish. This is why it makes for great fun for the kids on our Fishing with the GM days. But there are rarely any bass around our docks. Normally the mantra is find the baitfish, find the bass. But that hasn't been the case in my neck of the woods. That's why I'm relying on electronics to help me find patterns of where fish are located. The typical areas where I would expect to find LMB have not been paying off. What I am finding is that there is not a lot of structure in my section of the lake other than docks and a little bit of flooded timber and some lay downs. I only targeted a few docks today with no luck. But I hit a lot of laydowns and flooded timber and caught nothing. Side scan also showed nothing in those areas but I fished them anyway. While heading back to base today I had the down scan running and notice some fish holding midway up a few drop offs. I was too hot and tired to fish, but I'll start targeting those next time out.

Kayak: Seastream Angler 120 Pedal Drive Electronics: Lowrance Hook2 5 Tripleshot (Sonar, down scan, and side scan) Today was the first time I got to spend more than a few minutes out on the water with my new electronics. I headed out around 7:30 a.m. and made a 2.5 mile run to a location I had not fished before. I managed a steady clip of 3.3 mph in the calm waters. Along the way I experimented with the sonar, down scan, and side scan but didn't stop even when I located fish as I was intent on trying out this new area before weekend boat traffic picked up on the lake. After all that pedaling I got there only to find baitfish and no predators among the flooded timber and the flats. Disappointing. There was another large inlet area devoid of homes that I wanted to try, but once the water depth dropped to 1.5 feet I backed out. It was hot and I wasn't in the mood to lift the pedal drive and paddle in there. There's a creek on that far side, and I'd bet the water deepens a bit there so one day I'll have to give it a try. So after striking out there I pedaled to within half a mile of my hotel, got tired from the distance and cruising all of the boat and jet ski wakes and decided to fish a bit and rest. So of course I caught a couple of small stripers and a 1 pound largemeouth close to my launch point. I should have just fished there in the first place. But today was mainly a day for learning, and the biggest think I learned is that I need to put the Lowrance on the other side. Being right handed I thought that being able to reach it easily would be important. As it turns out, I was wrong. Having it on the right side interfered with setting the hook and fighting fish back to the kayak. Lesson learned. I also learned I need to tighten the transducer arm as it kept twisting back and forth and was not parallel to the hull. I should probably drop it down a few inches as well. I was targeting shoreline today, but next week I'm going to cruise some deeper waters and dropoffs, mark fish, turn around and see what happens. I saw a lot of sonar arches in the deeper water today, but there was also a lot of boat traffic passing in those areas. I need to hit those areas earlier in the day before the recreation boaters hit the water. I'm still a rookie with the electronics, so I did spend some time today just cruising by docks, flooded timber, and laydowns with the sidescan on to get familiar with what they look like on the screen so it makes it easier to interpret hidden structure. The odd thing about this part of the lake is that there is no vegetation. Anyway, it was a good introduction to the electronics and I still have a lot to learn. Below are a few pictures of the setup I ran today.

Come Saturday morning there will be 42 kayaks out there and once inexperienced guy in a bass boat ?

One of the great things about the Bass Resource community is that we all have our own experiences and perspectives and that when enough people chime in you're bound to find an answer that suits your needs and situation. I'm glad I could help this time.

Since I have never used a $500 or $1,000 reel I couldn't tell you if I like them or not. My favorite reel in my arsenal is my Lew's KVD baitcaster and it's only $139 if you can find them in stick. So I guess I'd get one of those fancy, $1,000 reels if it was free, put it on eBay, then buy some more of the KVD reels and maybe add a Curado or Tatula to see what they are all about. Serious question - aside from price, why is a $500 or $1,000 reel so much better than a $150 reel?

I think you can fit a milk crate back there. Sure, you could use a zippered bag or backpack, but very quickly you're going to get tired of reaching back, pulling it out from under the bungees, swapping baits, then reaching back and putting it under the bungees again. If a milk crate doesn't fit try a cheap storage bin like the one in the link below. Ditch the top so you can just reach back and grab one of your plano boxes out of it. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hefty-18-Qt-Clear-Storage-Bin-with-Blue-HI-RISE-Lid/245902327 I'm lucky that not only does a milk crate fit easily in the back of my yak, but I can also slide 2-3 boxes under my seat.

Bass are reactionary predators. For years I jokes that you could take a block of unpainted balsa wood, put some treble hooks on it, and catch bass. Then last year I saw a video of a guy who did just that. If the bait makes the right vibration or has the right movement at the right time in the right location a bass is going to strike.

OK, this might get a little technical, so bear with me ?. Here's my identification method: 1. Bloop (you'll see a tiny ring with progressively larger, medium spaced outer rings) - usually a member of the panfish family like bluegill and bream. 2. Micro bloop (you'll see a tiny ring and just a few tightly spaced outer rings) - baitfish like shiners or shad. 3. Large swirl, no splash - generally carp or catfish 4. Tail slapping splash and swirl - predator fish such as bass. 5. Small version Loch Ness monster body arching above the surface - carp 6. Tiny bubbles making it look like the water is boiling in that spot - small baitfish ball, and usually a sign that a predator fish is near

Is that like a ship in a bottle?

Welcome to the Kayak Club!

I have never, ever caught anything on that WP. I've caught them on the 130's in bone and bluegill in the loon color. Not even a single strike. That being said, the WP was killer for one year for me, but I think I've caught only one fish on it in the past two years. Buzzbaits are far and away the most productive for me, especially catching bass in the 5-6 pound range. But sometimes it runs in cycles and the buzzbait cools off for a while and POP-R's take over. For me, baits like frogs and Teckel Sprinker frogs are location specific as I find they work better in and around vegetation and not in open water. But buzzbaits land them everywhere.

Believe it or not, if you put up safety railing it opens you up to more liability if the railing fails or someone falls in. Plus, most of our slips are occupied by boats every weekend. I block that one off on those Fishing with the GM days because that's where all of the bluegills tend to gather. If you look in the picture, parents are also with the kids while they fish. The posted rule is that all kids must be accompanied by an adult on the docks. But I do appreciate your concern. Thanks. The next fishing day is over the July 4th weekend if anyone is interested. Unfortunately, you'd have to be a local or stay with a competitor since we're already sold out!

I finally had time to set everything up and got out on the water for about 30 minutes before some heavy rains moved in. It was really windy and choppy out there, but my goal was just to fire up the unit and start playing around with it. Unfortunately, I left me cheat sheet back in the office. I stayed close to my launch point and was in waters only 4-12 feet deep. But as I'm pedaling and playing around, I realized that while the downscan, sonar, and side scan are great for looking at structure, humps, and dropoffs that it's only moderately effective for finding fish. Why? Because by the time I see what's on the screen I'm past the fish. Sure, I can mark them and circle back on my kayak, but that's ineffective, especially if the fish are on the move. Standing on a boat you *could* toss behind the boat, but sitting in a kayak I'm not going to flip a cast over my shoulder behind me. It seems it would be a more effective to find fish by mounting a sidescan transducer at 90 degrees on the front of your kayak to see what is in front of you as you move through the water. Anyway, I'm still a rookie at this and need to spend some time out there in calmer waters. I need to make some adjustments with the transducer arm as it bent around a bit when I was hitting 4 mph when cruising. I hope I can get a day off this week to play around with it. I'm also looking forward to exploring deeper waters.

My kayak came with some rod tip protectors mounted forward of the tracks. But those seem useless because when you lay the rods down the seat is in the way of keeping the rods inside the hull. I suppose I could add some rod clips but I'd still be worried they would slip off and end up dragging in the water. I suppose the best solution would be to try and screw in some clips just behind the seat and snap the butt end of the rods in there.

Seastream Angler 120 PD pedal drive. I just added the Lowrance Hook2 5 Tripleshot this week. I need a fresh picture with all of the gear.

I don't climb into my kayak without wearing my PFD. Mine also came with a whistle tethered to the inside of a zippered pocket. I'm glad you're OK and learned a valuable lesson. I bought the Onyx MoveVent Dynamic Life Vest. $60 well spent.

I picked up one of these in the 7'MF and right now have it paired with my Lews' KVD 6:2:1 reel. I used it for a few minutes casting off my hotel docks and it was comfortable. Casts were a bit shorter than my other rods using that same reel. I prefer a MHF rod and my accuracy is a bit sloppy when pitching under docks with this medium rod right now, but I'll dial it in next time. Today I managed to head out on my kayak for about 40 minutes before the rains closed in and I was using that time to play around with my new Lowrance Tripleshot and not really fish. Plus, it was really windy and choppy out there and my only goal was to begin learning how to use a fishfinder. But I did take a few cats and this is where the rod made a great impression. That shorter butt handle is perfect. There's no more interference with my PFD, Is it sensitive? What's it like to catch something with it? I have no idea. I was tossing a 3/8 oz spinnerbait and not one bite. But it's a St. Croix and I'm sure it;s great. But the big takeaway is how comfortable it was to fish with it in a seated position on my kayak. The only drawback - sort of - is I'm not a big fan of the color purple.