Kayak Koz

I'm not a big fan of store bought ice cream. I prefer those local ice cream shops that make their own and I'll try just about anything. Have you ever let a scoop of Breyer's "frozen dessert" melt in the sink? By morning all that's left is a lump of some gelatinous substance. Gross. But if I buy store bought ice cream I like Mayfield Blueberry Cream Pie or Moose Tracks or Turtle Tracks.

I think that you're thinking about it the wrong way. You now have two lake houses with zero mortgage.

Tonight was our summer kick off at the hotel with S'Mores night down at the fire pit by the lake. I was doing a meet and greet with guests and one of them showed my pictures of a 3+ foot gar he caught off our docks about 30 minutes before I got there. He caught it on a t-rigged worm. I had no idea we had gar in Lake Oconee, let alone in the shallows by my hotel. I may have to try and target gar one day. Tomorrow night is our second night of our summer kick off, with our first Fish with the GM (that's me!) Night. I simply love that I've found a way to make fishing part of my job 2 or 3 times a month! But tomorrow morning it's off on the kayak to hunt for bass - I really don't want to try and land a big gar on the kayak.

Probably 6 or 7 am. But I have gone bank fishing at 10 pm and stayed out there until after two in the morning.

Sadly, I was bitten by the bait monkey this week. Now that I'm kayak fishing on a big lake and not bank fishing small lagoons I'm finding the need to expand my arsenal a little bit. I started off with some Strike King Red Eye lipless crank baits. I got the natural bream in both 3/4 oz and 1/2 and bluegill in 1/2 oz. I love fishing chatterbaits and usually stick with the original and elite chatterbaits, but this time I said, "What the heck?" and splurged on a Jackhammer in green pumpkin shad. I also bought Cabela's Fisherman Series Go-To Swim 5" Minnow in the Alewife color for a trailer. The temperature was still in the mid 90's after work today and I just didn't feel like heading out on my kayak in that heat (pulling it back up the long hill to the hotel is killer) so I fished off our docks for half an hour after work. I did land a small 1 pounder on that new Jackhammer combo. It's going to be HOT this week so I expect a lot of bass will finally start moving under the docks. I finally took a look at the lake maps and although my end of teh lake is fairly shallow, but I found some dropoffs and some deeper water on the maps, including some near docks and some points. Time to get at it if I can withstand the heat. Oh - I also bought a Hawg Trough just in case I can find some kayak fishing tournaments around here.

My son has terrible tree pollen allergies each spring. His doctor has him take both Claritin and Flonase.

Keep trying ? I'm just not a pick up truck guy. I have nothing against them, and there are some great, upscale, trucks out there. But I've always been a sedan or sport car guy. It's going to take me a lot to even buy an SUV. Baby steps.

In my original research I looked at the Riot kayaks, but after reading and watching a number of reviews I was not impressed and dropped them from my list. I looked at the FeelFree Lure kayaks as well, but $1,400 for the kayak and another $900 for the pedal drive was out of my price range. I looked at a lot more pedal drive kayaks including Brooklyn, 3 Waters, Perception, Old Town, and Hoodoo. But in the end I bought the Seastream Angler 120 PD, and as it turns out it is a FeelFree brand. While it retails for %1,500+ on the Seastream website, you can find it on other websites for $1,399. I have zero regrets with this purchase. I'm on it 4 or 5 hours at a time and it's a comfortable. stable ride. I'm on a big lake with lots of chop from wind and wakes from weekend warrior boaters and jet skiers and I have not felt uncomfortable out there yet. There are a few things that I wish were different. The first is that I wish the seat was higher like on a Pescador Pilot. The second is that I wish the seat positioning was micro-adjustable instead of slotted. But I can live with those things. Oh - it also does not sit well on my ABN Universal Kayak carrier. First off, with the tapered shape of the stern it doesn't strap well around the hull so I have to strap it through the scupper holes. That makes it a bit wobbly, so for the time being I shove rolled towels under there to stabilize it. I need to buy a pool noodle and cut it down and try that instead. It fishes well, especially being able to jog the pedals with the instant reverse system and trim the rudder while I'm fishing. It makes it fairly easy to fish in the wind without having to anchor. I don't have electronics on it right now, but when I add them I think I'm going to use an arm system since I can't put the transducer in the hull - there's no storage cavity. But I have zero regrets with this purchase. I keep it at my hotel and wheel it down to our docks to launch. Now I just need to trade in my car and buy an SUV so I can haul it around to other launch points.

Have you tried an inflatable kayak/canoe before? If not, you may want to test one out first. If you're on a pond, especially one sheltered from the wind, then it will probably be OK. But if you're in bigger, open water I think your going to get very frustrated being blown around. Inflatable ride on the water, while boats and kayaks ride in the water. That's a big difference.

I timed how long it took me to get from my launch point to my destination, then later plotted it on Google Earth. The wind was pretty much at my back that day and that helped. I've read multiple articles that pedal kayaks can do 8-10 knots. Another article says the average speed on a Hobie mirage is 4.5 knots, but I guess that depends upon how determined you are. I had to cross a decent amount of open water perpendicular to a primary travel area for motorboats. I was very determined to cross that open water area as quick as possible. There's way too many knuckleheads and weekend warriors on jet skis and pontoon boats in that part of the lake.

I would start with a wacky rigged Senko, then maybe a Ned Rig. On days when there is a little chop on the water I would throw a buzzbait around grass lines and trees. But definitely throw a wacky rigged Senko.

I love my Seastream Angler PD and have zero regrets on purchasing it. I can cover a lot of water with minimal effort. In fact, pedaling hard is counter productive because you really don't go that much faster and you tire quicker. It's a 2 mile jaunt to one of my fishing spots and I can make that in about 15 minutes in choppy water and riding the wakes of motorized craft. That's a clip of 8 mph with pedaling easy. It's handled the choppy waters well and is incredibly stable. I have not stood in it to fish because it's always windy and choppy out on the big lake, but I have stood up in it when removing the pedal drive and placing it on the dock. I also prefer to sit and fish, and the seat is comfortable. I just wish it was a few inches higher.

I have 6'6" and 7' rods on my kayak and have no issue with the length of either one. But as others have mentioned, the butt end of the rod is the issue. I don't want to go to one of those pistol grip rods, but I need to find some with shorter butt ends. I was thinking of picking up a St. Croix Mojo Yak casting rod.

The Whopper Plopper is what I like to deem an all or nothing bait. You might find a lake or a pond where it slays them and you get a strike on almost every cast. Then you might fish another lake or pond and draw blanks all day. I've fished lagoons where it was pure magic, then fished the lagoon across the street and caught nothing on the WP but caught plenty on other baits. If I don't get a strike within 5-10 minutes on a WP I put it away.

So, did you giver yourself permission? ? Grab a couple of rods. Through artificial baits on one and on the other bobber fish with nightcrawlers.

Maybe yellow perch, rock bass, and some largemouth bass in the mix.

I still throw everything in windy conditions. I just have to change the angle of my cast and accept the fact that some baits will not travel as far, so I make adjustments to where I cast from.

I made up this little ditty a few years ago ago in another thread: I like big bass and I cannot lie You other anglers can't deny That when you get the bite and land an itty bitty dink All you can do is sit back and think I've spent all day sitting on my @$$ And all I want is a great big bass Baby got bass Lyrics by Sir Fish-a-Lot

I fished using rented paddle kayaks for a while and I spent more time paddling trying to adjust my position than I did casting and fishing. I hated it. When I was looking to buy a kayak I could not see purchasing a paddle fishing kayak without having an anchor trolley system. Even then, it still means less time casting. So I didn't buy a paddle kayak. I bought a pedal kayak. And I didn't spend a fortune. I bought a Seastream Angler 120 PD for $1,399 and I don't regret one penny of that purchase. Between the pedals and the rudder I can jog the craft in place or I can just set the rudder and drift along the area I want to fish. I can cover miles of water to get to a location in very little time, even in choppy waters and windy conditions. No worries about stability whatsoever.

I see what you did there...

I have a few rods in my office and today at the end of the day I went out there for 20 minutes to fish. Caught a dink bass and made one of our young guests happy when I let him release it.

Some of the most ferocious fighters are those 1 - 1.5 pound bass. Maybe they're too young and inexperienced to know any better, while the bigger and older ones are thinking, "Dang - fooled again!. I sure hope they put me back in the water quick." ?

I've come full circle in my career. Early on I was in the hotel industry in accounting as a controller and CFO then became a General Manager. I left the property level and started my own hotel revenue management consulting company and in an effort to market my business I learned search engine optimization and built a website for my company (this is when we built sites from scratch). Well, my now ex wife worked in a real estate office and one of the agents asked if I could build her a website and get her to the top of the search engine rankings. This was when I was in Hilton Head, SC and real estate was huge money and there was a ton of competition and her site dominated the rankings and she made lots of coin. Soon I had real estate agents from around the country contacting me and I dumped the hotel consulting business. It got to the point where I could pick and choose my clients and demand my price. That was great for about 8 years until the real estate market crashed. But in the meantime I had partnered with a real estate media company part time because they paid me a lot and paid all of my benefits. So when the real estate market crashed I still drew a salary and didn't have to hustle as much of my own business. Working with them I decided we needed an app and needed to shift the company to digital publishing. They balked, went broke, and had to sell the company. In the meantime my app business was taking off. In the meantime, a buddy of mine had me invest in his stormwater business and I got involved in that for a while. My apps were destination & travel apps and that segment started to die when phone voice assistants took over. So I got back into hotels again, COVID hit, lost my job, but then got back into hotels as a General Manager again. This is out back of my hotel. Can anyone guess why I took the job at this hotel?

I forgot the sunscreen when I was out on my kayak the other day and burned the tops of my feet. Hurt like heck wearing dress shoes to work the next day. But when I'm out there I wear a gaiter and bring a floppy hat and a ballcap (in case it's too windy). All of my fishing clothes provide sun protection as well. Speaking of fishing clothing, I found a way to stock up on a few free shirts. Because I have "Fishing with the GM" outings at my hotel coming up the hotel owner agreed I should have fishing shirts with the hotel logo on them.

Another reason why I love the pedal instead of the paddle. I couldn't cover nearly that amount of water with a paddle in those conditions. I have to say I'm really enjoying this kayak. I was initially worried that I would regret this purchase. The only problem now is that there have been rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon and I can't get out there after work. But the weekend weather looks great.