Kayak Koz

I'm. Thinking. William. Shatner. Should have been. The narrator,

My old eyes prefer the hi viz yellow braid although I have some setups with blue camo braid and standard dark green braid.

I've seen great reviews on both his now rods and reels. I was actually thinking of picking up on of each tomorrow.

I think it depends upon your height and whether you fish standing in a boat, sitting in a kayak, or standing on the bank. For example, I'm only 5' 7" and if I'm on shore or at the end of the dock pitching under docks I prefer a 6' 6" rod. In fact, and short, precise target casting I prefer that rod. But for most of my other fishing I prefer a 7' rod. But if I was limited to just one I'd pick the 6' 6". That's a recent change because I used to prefer the 7 footer.

I have. Maybe I'm tired or it's late in the day and I just want to end on a good note.

Perhaps I should have used some emoji's to indicate my post was tongue in cheek ? The only superstistions I had were when I played college hockey. First one on and last one off the ice for games, and never, ever, let my goalie sticks cross in the locker room or on the bench. And the lucky underwear thing. And the lucky t-shirt thing. I was pretty ripe under all that gear!

OK - so how superstitious are you? I bring this up because tonight I landed a bass on my first cast and then for the rest of the 45 minutes I was out there I didn't even sniff a strike.

Bash the snout as hard as you can. That's the most sensitive part of the alligator. I'm sure some will say to go for the eyes, but alligators can pull their eyes back into their skull if their eyes are threatened.

There are some beautiful new and restored farmhouse out here. But the on next plot over there could be a broken down home.

Yes. The Duolocks are a bit bulkier. I've fished with both and prefer the smaller, streamlined Touch Lok.

I actually fished with a Yumbrella quite a bit this winter and didn't get a single strike. It was disappointing because I had read so much about winter A-rig fishing and was looking to my first catch on that rig. Maybe I'll give it another try tomorrow.

I love the VMC Touch Lok snaps. Low profile and no negative impact on bait action. Occasionally when a spinnerbait pancakes it slips down the wire. You can feel that when you start reeling in. I just let the bait settle to the bottom, lift and start reeling and it rights itself.

I use VMC Touch Lok Snaps and snap them directly to the split ring. They are low profile compared to normal snaps. I don't see them having any negative impact on the action of any baits that I throw.

As some of you know, I recently moved to GA to take over as GM at a hotel on Lake Oconee. I mean, it's right on the lake. But that doesn't mean I've fished as much as I would like. The hotel needs a big overhaul and that takes up most of my time. Then we had a cold snap and the bass fishing went quiet here in the shallows. But the weather has been warmer the past 4 or 5 days with daytime temperatures in the 70's. I've talked to some guests who fished off of our docks, but they are fishing for catfish. One guy was throwing a cast net for gizzard shad and managed to net a 3.6 pound black crappie. But no one was catching much, even the kayakers who covered more of the lake. Anyway, I decided to fish for an hour after work tonight. I wasn't expecting much as the biggest LMB I have caught out there was a pound and a half or so, but most everything has been one pound or less. Of course, with the deeply stained water I was throwing chatterbaits. Fishing in Oconee is a lot different than fishing the lagoons in SC. There's a lot more structure here with a lot of rocks, sticks, old Christmas trees, and who knows what else people dump in the lake. We also have locks lining our sea wall (lake wall?) along the bank. So there's a lot of new feel that I have to get used to being transmitted through my line and rod. I'm having fun with that. I found the bass in the rocky shallows and under our docks today. But the good news is I did manage a 2.5 pounder. While that's about the average size that I caught when fishing in SC, it seems to be a decent size for this lake. Even if there are no trophy fish here, I can live with that. I landed two other two pounders, so it was a good evening. It also gives me hope for when I decide to head out on a kayak. So far the job is fun - with a lot of challenging obstacles - and the fishing is good. Now if I could find a decent place to live I'd really like this place.

It wasn't like Mayberry for me today. I was in a neighboring town going to drive by and look at a house that I saw for rent. Three guys were blocking the road and I got the death stare from them. I stopped, and then they started moving in on my car. Needless to say, I hung a quick turn and high tailed it out of there.

That one was not stalking me for my fish ?

I'm a hobbyist woodworker and not a pro, but my Porter Cable table saw has been a workhorse for me. I did change out the blade it came with and purchased some better fine cut blades. The one issue I have is that in order to use a dado set I would have to purchase a separate part that was hard to source. I use my router instead, but there are times when I wish I could use the table saw for that task.

I've had more than a few close encounters with alligators and a handful of confrontations. Thankfully, I now live in an area where I don't have to worry about that. A few years ago I posted some information and videos on how to handle fishing in gator country. Feel free to review it.

On a big lake no less. After work I sometimes go out back to our docks and fish. Actually, there are two. Mine is the one that is NOT The Ritz Carlton.

There are some nice homes around here on rural roads and around the lake. We also have Reynolds here (formerly Reynolds Plantation) that has lots of nice homes - but those are out of my price range for a while. I looked at a rental house the other day that I wouldn't even let my dog live in and the crazy lady wanted $1,400 a month! And speaking of my dog, that's another issue. A few that I found that I liked don't allow pets. I have a feeling if I rent I'll spend more than I want for less than I want. However, because this is such a rural area there are special USDA mortgages that are dirt cheap. While my income level more than qualifies, my credit took a hit when I lost my job to COVID. I'm going to see if I can find a lender that can work some magic. There's a community down the road where they are building new homes.

You're in luck. They are doing a reboot of Frasier. https://deadline.com/2021/02/dr-frasier-crane-kelsey-grammer-reboot-paramount-plus-1234699954/

Ad some of you know I recently from SC to GA, I'm definitely not a city guy, but holy cow this is a rural area. If I need to go to a place like Bass Pro, Sam's Club, Best Buy, a sporting goods store, or just about anything other than Walmart it's a two hour round trip. On the flip side, most convenience stores carry some lures, soft plastics, live bait, and other tackle. They don't carry much, but it's something. While I can shop online, I prefer shopping for things like shoes, clothing, rods, reels, and baits in person. And finding a house to rent is just about impossible. What little comes available is pretty bad. There are a few apartments here but those aren't great and not ideal for me because I really need a garage for all of my woodworking gear. I like my hotel but I really don't want to be living here. Anyway, I've never lived in an area this rural and it's quite an adjustment.

After living in SC for 15 years I just moved to Georgia. I think moving to a warmer state would be relocating to Hell.

I have YouTube TV and except for the price increase from $49 to $65 last year it's pretty good, but it does have it's drawbacks. The guide is just terrible because you can only look forward 5 or 6 hours to set shows to record. That's not great because I like to set show ahead of time to record. I can search for them on YouTube TV, but if it's a new show it might not be found. Also, let's say I want to record a single show from a series and not the entire series - I can't do that. It's all or nothing. YOu also can't set it to record first run shows only. For example, I like to record Gold Rush and Deadliest Catch. But along with the first run shows I get ALL of the old shows from seasons past on all of they networks where they air. Because MLB Network is a must have in our house there aren't many other streaming options that I can choose. I have tried Hulu and I hated it. The interface was lacking and it frequently dropped out. I also have Prime Video with Amazon and it's fantastic. Not only do they have a great library of past shows and movies, but they also have a ton of great original programming. Because I have a smart home powered by Alexa I also changed to using the Fire Stick for streaming instead of my PS4 or XBox One. And although many of the same streaming apps are on the game consoles, I never used them. But on the Fire Stick I use other streaming apps like IMDB and some of the others mentioned here. While there are limitations with streaming, there is still no way I would ever go back to DirecTV or cable.

I agree with you, but unfortunately there is a large swath of society today that feels differently and adore celebrities and these pseudo celebrity influencers.