Kayak Koz

I've been thinking about getting a pedal kayak for a while now and just when I was ready to pull the trigger there was the Great Kayak Shortage of 2021. But tonight the one I was looking at - the Seastream Angler 120 PD was available at the price of $1,399 + $120 shipping from a third party website as opposed to the $1,539 + $200+ shipping from the Seastream website. With fingers trembling I entered my credit card information and hit the Confirm Order. The good news is that it will be delivered in 5-7 days. The bad news, I guess, is that without a vehicle to transport it I will keep it chained up out back of my hotel for a while (without the seat and pedal drive) or store it inside the hotel. But there's more good news and that's after living in my hotel for almost 3 months I found a house to rent and it's cheap - it will save me $1k a month over what I was first going to rent. So now I have money to purchase a new vehicle. Yay me! Now before I go hog wild and start adding electronics and accessories, I'm looking for an inexpensive kayak cart, say under $90. Any suggestions? I was looking at a CTug, but for now I'd like to save a few extra bucks and upgrade my PFD with the added savings on a cart. I'm hoping I don't regret buying the Seastream. But I'm tired of bank fishing in the little cove where my hotel is located and want to explore more of Lake Oconee.

You're missing out. Big time.

Do any of you have or have you tried the Seastream Angler 120 PD kayak? I'm looking for an entry level pedal kayak with instant reverse (to be able to jog in position while fishing) and this one actually looks pretty decent. The main drawbacks for me are that it doesn't have a dry storage compartment and it doesn't come with an anchor trolley. Other than that, it looks like a decent entry level pedal kayak platform.

Sharp hooks, better hooksets, and keep tension on the line. Even then, you're going to lose some. Slack in the line is your enemy, even if it's only for a second. If you keep tension on the line it's likely the bass will resist and try to pull away. But when the line slacks the bass will bolt and can head in any direction.

I know a place ?

You will quickly regret purchasing an electric pressure washer. Sure, at first you may have a few light duty tasks and think. "Wow - this is great!" But then you will find yourself frustrated when you really need things done and wonder why you didn't spend the extra $100-$200 on a decent gas powered model. I bought a Pulsar from Home Depot for use around my hotel and it works great for our needs including sidewalks, parking lot areas, boat docks, and the building and windows. If you don't mind it taking most of the day to do your driveway or a few days to do your house you might be OK with an electric. But if you're easily frustrated and want to get things done quickly, buy a gas pressure washer.

I do. Move to the South.

Go down to the banks on both sides and on least one side you will probably see a rope tethered to the fountain aerator and the shore. You may be snagging n that. If the rope is only on one side, cast short of it and on the other side. If you don't see a rope then it is being anchored underneath the aerator platform. You could either snagging on that rope or the weighted blocks. Then again, you're in Florida. You could be snagging on one of those "Florida Man" dead bodies down there!

I would say that in waters that I fish consistently I am usually accurate with the species and weight of whatever hits my bait. But in new waters or waters that I don't fish consistently I usually don't have a clue.

You can get a pedal kayak for under $1,200: https://www.hoodoosports.com/collections/kayaks/products/hoodoo-tempest-120p-pedal-drive-kayak Brooklyn Kayak also has one for just under $1,300 - and has free shipping.

Learn the bow technique for getting yourself un-snagged.

I've spent most of my fishing years as a bank angler while living in gator infested waters so night fishing was something I never did. But now that I'm out of that area I've tried some night fishing out back of my hotel on Lake Oconee. It has been a busy week at work and between Thursday morning and this afternoon I had spent 24 out of 32 hours working. So tonight I went to bed at 7:30 but woke up at 11 pm and thought, "Hey, why don't I go fishing?" My Bass Pro order had come in the other day and in that I had picked up a 3/4 ounce War Eagle Night Bait spinnerbait and gave it a try. Nothing. So I went back to one of my trusty chatterbaits, put on a Rage Tail chunk, and not long after landed a nice little 2.5 pound LMB. And believe it or not, that's the first fish that I can remember catching at night. Yay for me! I was using a lift and drop method, and not long after that while reeling down after the lift and drop I felt the line tense, set the hook, felt the line stretch, and started to reel in. The line barely moved. I love when that happens. I was using my new KVD reel on a Dobyns Fury 703C and the biggest fish I have caught on that so far was just under 3 pounds. This felt different than that. It was definitely bigger. How much bigger was hard to tell. When you fish a combo long enough you usually have an idea of how big the fish is on the other end of the line. But not only was I fishing this new combo, but I was also using Yuzuri Hybrid line instead of my trusty 40 pound braid. It was a pretty good battle and I could not horse the fish in. I was on one dock and the bass broke for the dock next to me and just before it looked like it was going to dive under the dog it breached the surface a bit, turned, and spit the hook. Dang. I didn't get a look at it in teh dark, but it moved a lot of water. I doubt this was a DD or even a PB, but it was probably 5 or 6 pounds. I casted back on followed up a few cats later with a spinnerbait, but it was gone. Oh well. I did catch a little one pounder later on, but then called it a night about 1:30 a.m. It was disappointing not to land that one, but at least now I know there are some decent fish out there. I'm also going back to braid on that baitcaster. I just don't like the feel of that hybrid line, and it's probably not ideal for a chatterbait. Since I traditionally fish baitcasters with braid, I'm pretty sure my hookset was light for that type of line. I'm not used to the give in the line with the hybrid compared to the braid. Definitely my fault that caused the fish to get away. I am definitely going to try night fishing more often. It's so different compared to the daytime as every sound is amplified, even the baitfish breaking the surface and the sound of bigger fish feeding near the surface. It was a lot of fun.

I've caught alligators both big and small.

Most bass will fight the pull and try to break the other way, but you can keep the rod tip down and try and keep cranking, but if that bass dives and starts closing the gap towards you before the inevitable leap and shake you had better hope you had a solid hookset. With a bigger, powerful bass it can be hard to keep up with the cranking when they close ground. All of the other advice given here is great, but a solid hookset is your best bet to stave off a breaching bass.

I think he also endorsed a fishing game for the PS4 that I've played. It was OK, but nothing great. The problem with these fishing video games is that once you figure out the spawn points (where they code fish to show up) it becomes boring. You just keep bringing your boat to that same spot over and over and land lunkers all day. The spawn points need to be variable based upon seasonality, weather, etc. and even then more randomization needs to be calculated. And huge fish need to be rare, just as in real life. There's no way you fish a tournament and end up with a 65+ pound bag.

Haven't you heard? Everything's bigger in Texas.

Did anyone else have their PC clock jump ahead an hour last night or this morning? My PC did an auto sync of the time in the middle of the night and jumped ahead one hour. I did a manual re-sync this morning (not a manual reset) and it came up with the correct time again. On social media I've seen one other person comment about the same thing happening to them last night. I'm wondering if the phenomena is more widespread. I doubt it's a Windows software issue because it would be more widespread. PC's get time from NIST Internet Time Service and I wonder if they had a brief hiccup that impacted PC's synchronizing at that specific moment. Anyway, it was weird. I also thought I was late for work this morning.

That's actually a bit of a problem for me. I have no way to transport a kayak, especially a larger, heavier pedal kayak. I need it delivered to my hotel and then I'll just store it and launch from here.

At my hotel we are facing a terry shortage - we can't find towels, washcloths, and hand towels. This is industry wide and even the big chains are scrambling.

Holy cow it's impossible to get hold of a fishing kayak without a 6-8 week lead time. Has there been a run on kayaks due to Covid or does this happen every spring? My preference is to purchase a reasonably priced pedal drive and I was looking at Brooklyn Kayaks PK12 and I can't find any in stock. So then I thought I'd buy a paddle kayak that I can upgrade to a pedal drive and looked at the Vibe Shearwater and the Lure 11.5 and I can't find those in stock. Well, some places have them in stock but they won't ship them. Who would have thought it would be so hard to spend money?

So, after a few weeks of temperatures in the 70's, a few days in the low 80's, and nighttime temperatures in the mid 50's were suddenly plunged into high temps in the low 50's and nighttime temperatures in the 20's for the next three nights, The bass were just starting to make into the coves and shallows and now they're running to the deep water again. That's not ideal when you're fishing from the bank and waiting for warmer water to break out the kayak. Then I saw at MLB opening day today that it was snowing hard in Detroit and Miguel Cabrera slid into second base thinking he had a double when in fact he hit a HR but couldn't see the ball land through all of the snow. Of course, I'm griping out the cold weather now when probably in the next 6 weeks I'll be complaining it's too hot out ?

"Potvin sucks!" Holy cow - a blast from the past memory.

It's also important to remember that what people see in videos is also not true to life. You see some angler out there hauling in bass after bass but what you don't realize is the video is edited and he may have been out there for hours or even days putting together that footage. To the OP, I'll pass on a story that put things in perspective for me some years ago. I used to be a decent golfer, and one year I was playing in a local tournament that I had won the year before. But I was just brutal out there on the course. I could not hit a decent shot to save my life. My dad was caddying for me that day and he could see my frustration level building. As he hand me a club he holds on to it and says, "Jack Nicklaus can't run your hotel, either." That simple statement put it all in perspective for me. I relaxed. I didn't play any better that day and I'm pretty sure I finished dead last. But I found peace in realizing I wasn't a golf pro and I had other skills. I also remembered that moment over the years and I became a better golfer for knowing that and I never, ever, got frustrated on the golf course again. So know your strengths as they are today and don't sweat it when things don't turn our perfect or even the way you expect them to turn out. Relax, build skills, and most of all learn to enjoy the activity itself instead of dwelling on the outcome.

We're in a cove with plenty of docks to fish from and toss under. My hotel is near the end of a shallow cove and there's a small feeder stream pumping in fresh water. We also have rip rap, submerged rocks, and a wooden sea wall. What we don't have is vegetation, but other than that it should be a great area to fish once the weather is warmer and stabilizes.

I just haven't been able to catch a break here so far this year as the weather has been wonky. For the past 4 or 5 days we've finally had some warmer nighttime temperatures and some bass started moving into the cove behind my hotel. Yesterday I caught my biggest one yet on Oconee (which wasn't big) that weighed 2.6 pounds and she was carrying eggs. So I was hoping that was a sign that the fishing would improve, and then I saw the weather forecast for the rest of the week. Nighttime temperature back down into the 30's for three days. That probably means the bass are going to head to deeper water yet again. The shad spawn usually starts in the first week of April and that's when the old timers say the bass fishing gets really good. I wonder if the weather is going to impact that much. Granted, I'm only fishing a tiny part of the lake and have yet to get out on a kayak yet, but I was hoping for catching more than one or two dinks in my after work outings. I know that back in SC we'd be in a pre-spawn feeding frenzy right now. I've fished a few times after dark and have yet to even get a bite. I hear fish breaking the surface out in the dark but I think they are catfish or carp. I guess I'll have to be patient all around, but I hope the fishing picks up or I may have to go looking for some farm ponds.