Kayak Koz

I'm not a big fan of crank fishing from the bank because I think ideally you cast a crank towards the shore and as you reel it in it goes from shallow to deeper depth, paralleling the contour of the bottom as their design was intended (for shallower running cranks). That's not to say I don't throw them from the bank, but they aren't primary baits for me.

I've got that Rapala gripper as well and it's actually one of the best fishing investments I've ever made. I'm not kidding. And if I need to wight something I just hook it on my scale.

Half the anglers on this forum secretly hate her ? Great job!

I'm going for an outside of the box pick here - the thousands of South Carolina Lowcountry lagoons. Here's why: Typically when we talk about bass fishing it's about big lakes and anglers on boats. But there's a huge number of bank bound anglers with that same passion for bass fishing. That can be hard to do on big lakes with the banks lined with waterfront homes and the high fishing pressure in the public access areas. But in the SC Lowcountry there are thousands of lagoons big and small and every one of them has the opportunity to have trophy bass living in those waters. It's a different type of ecosystem that has its own set of "rules" for locating bass. It's a fishing paradise for the bank bound angler.

I'm on a streak of 7 in a row no shows for room attendant job interviews. Heck, a month ago I had an interview for housekeeping supervisor who was late to the interview, I called her and she said she was in her car and on her way. She was a no show. Then TODAY she had the nerve to apply for a front office position at my hotel! Good luck with your search. Maybe those in our position need to form a support group. I've had one day off since the last week in January and that was an 8 hour round trip to pick up my son. I've worked 82 hours already this week and I still have one day to go. I could handle this better when I was in my 30's! The worst part is that my hotel is steps from the lake and I haven't fished all week! I may try that. Scary, because the schools here are lousy. I have my son still enrolled in his SC school and doing virtual school.

I usually go to county or city food pantries and not only volunteer my time but also use it to work with that pantry to get people back to work. However, we have only private, church based pantries here that do not want to include back to work programs. I've also done the seasonal worker and intern routes as you mentioned, but that was with large resort properties. We're a small boutique (well, when the renovations are done) property. What's killing us now is the government assistance programs. Even though we pay a lot more than that, a lot of people that normally take these entry level jobs choose to stay home and do nothing. However, I really appreciate your input.

Scary. That housekeeping supervisor I fired? Before I fired her I ran a background check and found out she did federal time for attempted murder. I got a restraining order and a no trespass after I fired her. Most of the hourly staff at my property makes more than those working at the Ritz Carlton down the road and more than any other hotel in the area. It seems that the previous GM's were pushovers and would strong arm the GM for more money. I will go all out to keep good employees, but a lot of these folks are just warm bodies.

You're absolutely correct to be frustrated about things like that. I will say this - I do the best to take care of my team. If I have a valuable associate I will fight for them to get every dime I can get them even if the owner disagrees. But I've also had great owners that tell me they don;t care what I pay the team, as long as I bring in the bottom line numbers. I do my best to treat everyone with the same respect and discipline. I've had to terminate some people that I knew were beneficial to the company but they broke rules that could not be ignored. We all have our biases, but I try to keep those minimized and I am not afraid to ask for second or third opinions when I know I have a negative bias for one reason or another. But again, we all make mistakes. I just try to minimize them. I agree 100%. Of been on both sides of that. You're correct on that. However, one of the unique aspects of the hospitality industry is the room for growth and advancement from line level to management without the benefit of a formal education. My goal is to always mentor those that want to advance and help place them when they have the skills and attitude to be promoted, even if it means I lose them at my property. Frankly, I was **shocked** at the pay scale here because hourly associates were earning so much for a property that is not in an urban location. I mean, ridiculously high hourly wages for all departments. But here's the kicker - the previous "maintenance" guy (I use that term loosely) would tell the GM and owner he could not do the work or repairs on the clock and it was a *special* job that required contract labor - from him! He made $33k one year doing that. I had never heard of that before. That guy is now a part time, weekend houseman.

I'm proud that I've mentored a number of people throughout the years in this industry and this hotel actually overpays to begin with for the hotel industry. We're in such a rural area it's hard to find anyone, especially when federal relief money is still available. Today I had 6 confirmed interviews for room attendant positions. ZERO showed up and no one called to reschedule. I would also say that at least 90% of the applicants move from job to job every few months. I normally toss those in the trash right away, but with so few applicants I sometimes need to take a chance. Then again, most of those were no shows for the interview today. But those are based on incompetent management and ownership. I have employees grousing because they now have to be accountable and I've implement simple things like key controls and inventories. That makes it harder for stuff to walk out the door. I was telling my mentor about all this stuff that went on at this hotel before I got there and he swore I was joking. I wasn't. I'm the guy hosting those TV shows. The owner is a great guy, but he's a bit old school and lives four hours away. I think the previous GM's hoodwinked him into thinking the hotel was at its peak. They were wrong. Way wrong. Just doing the basics here would lead to huge gains in profit. I honestly thing with a modest renovation to the property that I could double the revenues and profits they had in their best year. Let's hope I don't bumble it!

Time to vent. I've run hotels for over 20 years and and although I have opened a few new hotels, most of my career I have been brought in to turn around a hotel and then move on to the next one in need of my services. In all of that time, only once had I ever taken over a property and had to fire someone. This hotel that I took over at the end of January is probably my toughest challenge. I kid you not that they do almost everything wrong. There has been zero training and previous GM's let the inmates run the asylum. There are zero controls and zero accountability among the staff. Employees pushed back at the previous GM's at every turn and there were no repercussions for things like no call, no shows or walking off the job. Even if people were dismissed or quit they were usually welcomed back. The first day I was there I noticed the lobby and lobby windows were dirty so I went and cleaned them. The upper windows probably had not been cleaned in 6 months. I then called in the housekeeping supervisor to show her the standards that were expected and her comment was, "What do you think we are, a Marriott?" When I went over the deep cleaning standards including cleaning bathroom floor tile grout she told me that she was not a slave and she wouldn't do it. FIRED! I had another associate that called off 5 times in the first four weeks I was there and then insulted our Maintenance Chief. When I asked her to clear up and misunderstanding she had with him or apologize if she did insult him she walked off the job. FIRED! The first day I got to the hotel I asked the sales manager for pace reports and asked her to put together a list of companies in nearby cities that met specific criteria so that we could target them for sales. I also told her I had a group I had closed a deal on for later in the year. She never gave me the reports and she got mad that I - the GM - was bringing in business to the hotel and told the owner she was going to quit. She didn't. But every time I asked her about a group or an account she would get defensive and nasty. I've been so busy with other stuff I have not been doing weekly sales strategy meetings and I finally had one today. She turned away from me and faced her computer the entire time. When I told her we would be taking on a new tactic with groups and not discounting them during peak season she got really ticked off. She could not understand why we would not discount peak period rooms when we already know we will sell out without them. In the short time I have been here I have offered her much needed training and explained all of my rate and selling strategies to her and she just complains. I told her today that for any group that wants to book that for the time being she needs to run all proposed rates by me so I can ensure they meet my strategies. After all, I'm new at the property, have not worked with her before, and the hotel is under performing. I'm pretty good at what I do and I've done all this before. Heck, I implemented new rates and selling strategies in February so March is the first full month for those strategies to take effect. Not only are we ahead of 2020 revenue pace, we're ahead of pre-Covid 2018 and 2018 pace despite selling 2/3 less group and corporate rooms. In other words, my strategies have worked. Her response it to email the owner and say she's going to turn in her two weeks notice. He copies me on her email. So I run an ad for her position today, she looks for jobs tonight and sees the ad, then gets ticked off at me. She comes to the hotel and throws her keys at me and walks out. See ya. The owner was here yesterday and a housekeeper came to my office and said she refused to clean a room because the my new maintenance chief should have cleaned it up. This room had been out of order for a year now and he got it up and running in 3 days. There were some paint chips on the floor and an ice bucket with rinse water. The owner went to the room, looked at her, and said, "What's the big deal?" I had to remind her that it was her job to clean rooms no matter what. The other day I hired a housekeeper in the morning and she wanted to start that day. I had her go home and change. It should have been a 40 minute round trip. She comes back in two hours and my crew gets her paperwork done and sets her off to work cleaning the restaurant. Then they tell me I need to go check on her. She's tweaking. Holy cow, she could not sit still or look me in the eye. Thankfully she's just about finished and I tell her she needs to head with me and take a drug test before her next shift. She never shows up again. I hired another housekeeper who showed up for 2 days and never came back. But she ended up hooking up with my Maintenance Chief. She grifted him and got him to pay her bills. She stole his credit card. They were at a hotel (not mine), fought, and left. She went back to the hotel and asked for a key to get back in. They let her in even though she was not registered. She stole the TV, all the linens, and trashed the room. The hotel billed him for $6k. He disputed it with his CC company and got that money back. This weekend we have a bass tournament in town and the guys with boats can't understand why our parking lot can't accommodate 40 boats (use the marina - you were warned it was first come, first served) and they can't park in the grass, park perpendicular through the parking spots, and they can't run extension cords through our parking lots and over sidewalks where guests can trip on them. We're a small, 81 room hotel and have only 7 spots with hookups and 8 boat slips. This is going to be a great hotel, but boy oh boy is there work to do. I just have never come across anything like this before. I'm flabbergasted. All that and I have not had a full day off since I started on January 28th. Thanks for letting me vent!

If you like catching lots of 4-6 pound bass and can live with your average sized catch being 2 - 2.5 pounds then bank fishing in the SC Lowcountry is the best. There are thousands of lagoons in the Hilton Head - Bluffton area as they are part of the stormwater system. The drawback, as you mentioned, is the higher tax rates for non-residents - somebody has to fund the school system! You also have to watch out for alligators, but you learn to deal with them. Further up towards Charleston there are also a number of small lakes and the few that I fished there always produced decent number of 2 pounders. The SC Upstate offers a lot of larger lakes, but there's a lot of fishing pressure on those lakes. I hit most of the state parks in the SC Upstate and I found the fishing to be lousy. Granted, I fished from a kayak or the bank. If I had a boat and could cover more ground I may have felt different. I just moved to Oconee in late January and the fishing has been tough. I talked to a local fishing guide today and he concurred. But he said that great fishing starts in April. Time will tell. The hard part about this area is finding a place to live - I'm still looking. But being a rural area there are also dirt cheap USDA mortgages available. I'm also struggling with how rural this place is. I don't like having to drive an hour to get to a major store. Let me know if you head out to Oconee gain anytime soon.

Yes, I am at Oconee now. I fished most of the state parks within 90 minutes of the Greenville SC Upstate and to me the fishing was awful. SC Lowcountry bank fishing is absolutely the best for both big bass and numbers. That being said, I was in a kayak or on the bank and that limited my range. If I was in a boat it might have been a different story.

If someone would like to send me a free SLX XT I will gladly write up a comparison ???

I don't buy anything because someone's name is on it. I buy things that I consider to be quality in my price range. However, I will not buy a product endorsed by someone that I don't respect.

I found some extra patience today and managed to thread it at the correct angle. Despite the normal sized holes you can see that part of the inner workings block most of the holes. I managed to fish for about 30 minutes tonight but again without a strike. But at least the braid is no longer slipping and the drag can take effect. I really want to see how this setup is actually catching a bass and not just casting and cranking! But I will say again, the pairing of this reel with the Dobyn's Fury is fantastic - lightweight and low profile and not a strain on the wrist, arm, or muscles. Perfect!

I'll give it another shot. It's probably easier with mono or flouro, but I could net get the braid to feed through.

Try throwing their Mach II or American Hero ?

My favorite baitcaster reel in my arsenal, my Lew's Mach II SLP just hasn't been cutting it for me lately. It's really sloppy putting line back on the spool despite cleaning and lubricating and I've been fed up with it. Also, when the matching Mach II rod broke Lew's was kind enough to replace it with a TP1X all purpose rod and while it's a nice rod, to me it seems better suited for topwater fishing and lacks the sensitivity I prefer. So it was either that or the Bait Monkey got me and I drove the hour to Academy Sports in Athens today to pick up the new KVD baitcaster with the 6:2:1 gear ratio and the matching KVD rod. My current baitcasters are all in the 7:x:x ratio and I wanted to slow things down a bit for some baits and presentations. The store was a zoo today and Academy puts their rows together so tightly I felt claustrophobic when I picked up some new line and some baits. Then I had to wait 20 minutes to get the reel because there were three or four people in front of me purchasing guns. I finally get the reel but there the matching KVD rod was now sold out. So instead I picked up a 7 foot Dobyns Fury 703C MH/F. I figured I couldn't go wrong with that choice even though it was $20 more than I wanted to spend. So I get back and spool the line with 30 pound Power Pro because they were out of my preferred 40 pound test. Although the reel cost the same as my Mach II, the quality appears to be much better. It's all aluminum instead of mostly plastic, and the dark red finish is a nice change from all black or all white. But the thing I noticed right away was how free and smooth the spool turned without feeling any bumps, stops, or grinding. Normally when I spool up braid I pass the line through the holes in the spool and tie it off, but the line would not feed through the holes. And this is where I made a mistake that came to bite me later. I tied the braid off around the spool instead of adding any backing and then tying off. Can anyone guess what happened later? The line spooled on better than the Mach II, but like the Mach II it gets "snaggy" when it gets to the sides of the spool. Out at the lake I put on a 3/8 oz spinnerbait and set the brakes to 8 so as to be cautious when dialing it in. That spool was so free and smooth I imaged that if I set it at my normal 3 or 4 I'd end up with a huge bird's nest on my first cast. I set the tension and the drag and started fishing away. I'll say right away that I like this reel. It's very smooth and quiet and casts well. While it does not have the Winn Grips that I liked on my Mach II, they are a traditional shape with a tiny bit of texture and give. In other words, they aren't shiny, hard plastic that tends to slip out of your hands. I toosed a spinnerbait, some chatterbaits with trailers, a crankbait, a weightless Senko, and a beetle spin and it handled them all well. But I didn't even sniff a bite. As for the new rod, half the anglers on BR probably have or used to have the Dobyns 703C. It's a great rod and extremely lightweight. Unlike my TP1X, the comfort level was exceptional paired with the KVD reel and probably more comfortable than my old favorite Mach II. The feedback I received back through the rod was exceptional. Unlike the TP1X I could easily differentiate rocks, hard bottom, sticks, logs, and debris. I fished for almost 2 hours but in that time I never felt like that combo was getting heavier as the afternoon progressed. So I switched it up completely with an AdMob Jr A-rig, but loaded it with only three, 2" Storm Wild Eyed Shad. Almost immediately I got a strike, set the hook, and the line blew threw the drag, slacked, and the small bass surfaced and shook free. So now I'm a bit ticked because I know I set my drag and this little bass blew right through it. I checked the drag and the line pulled easily. So I cranked the drag all the way down and it still pulled through. Even ripping a bait caused line slippage. I'm wondering how this can happen on a reel with 20 pounds of drag. Did you figure out my mistake? I maxed the drag, thumbed the line and cranked and sure enough it was the braid slipping on the spool. I've never encountered that, but when I got back in I read all about it. So I need to pull the braid off, add some mono or hybrid backing, and then finish off with the braid. I can't compare the KVD baitcaster to a $200 or a $400 reel because I've never thrown one of those. I'm frugal. But compared to the same priced, $139 Mach II reel it blows it away. Every bit of it looks like superior quality and feels like superior quality. If you're like me and throw $100-$150 reels you'll be blown away. If you throw $400 you'll probably say, "Meh", but remember the price point. We've all been there where we spend some money, try it out, but then feel disappointed because what we bought falls short of our expectations. Not in this case. I have zero "buyer's remorse." I made a good choice. Lew's and KVD have a winner here. It's no wonder they are so hard to find. I'll post more on this reel in the next few weeks as I put it through it's paces.

I'm in Georgia now and it wasn't until the last 3 or 4 days that the night time air temperatures were greater than the water temperature. And just this past weekend we had a bass tournament with 250 boats out on the lake and all the anglers that stayed at my hotel said it was rough going. Back where I used to live in SC we'd be two weeks into good fishing by now. So you just might be right about not seeing decent fishing until April. It's been decades since I live up north so I don't recall when things used to pick up there. But here's the rub - if you don't fish regularly and wait until mid or the end of April you might miss the great pre-spawn fishing entirely and then be in the middle of the 2-3 post spawn slow don in bass fishing.

In my opinion, winter fishing is always a crap shoot. You can be in the ideal spot with the ideal bait, but with the metabolism of the bass slowed they will conserve energy until they are really hungry. Timing is more important than ever in the winter. One day you might catch a handful of fish and for the next week you draw blanks. My personal philosophy is I'm just happy to be outside in the winter and anything I catch is a bonus. Other than that, I just be patient and wait for the warmer water temperatures.

You probably won;t start seeing a good bite until the night time air temperatures are above the water temperature and the water really starts to warm. After about a week of that happening is when I see the action pick up. Until then, the metabolism of the bass is usually still slow. They feed infrequently during the week so you need to be at the right place at the right time to get a bite. They are still in energy conservation mode until then.

Are you David Carradine? ??? Let’s see who gets that joke.

It’s a secret. I do not want to violate any forum policies by naming it in the public space. Adults are welcome as well but they need to bring their own gear. And they are not allowed to correct me when I am wrong ?

Although I am the General Manager of my hotel, I've always been a hands on throughout the property. And with this hotel that I took over 5 weeks ago I really, really need to do that. The property has a ton of potential, but it;s been mismanaged for years. We have plans for renovations, but have had to put them off due to COVID and the downturn in travel and tourism. But the hotel owner is letting me make some minor upgrades around the property and part of that is upgrading the area near our docks at the lake. There was an old, rusted metal fire pit out back (it's in the background of the photo) and today and today I replaced that by building a stone fire pit. It was such a beautiful day that doing that was better than sitting at my desk working on forecasting and marketing. I added some Adirondack chairs as well. Next is cleaning up the area and improving the landscaping back there. We'll be using the fire pit for Hot Dog Roast Nights and S'Mores nights during the summer months. I also convinced the hotel owner that we need to have a weekly Fish With The GM Night for kids. Imagine that - I found a way to fish at work!

This is from 5 years ago when my son was 10 years old and we visited Kennedy Space Center. Pre- Covid we would head to Florida every summer to go see the Tampa Rays and the Tampa Tarpons (Yankees) play as well as visit a few other places in the area. That's Matt in front of the actual space shuttle Atlantis. It's weird to see him as a youngster with a buzz cut. At 15 now he's 6'2" with a mop of hair like he's one of the Beatles.