Koz

This weekend I was entered to fish the Georgia Bass Nation Kayak event on Lake Allatoona but as fate would have it, I didn’t get to fish. I made the 2.5 hour drive there and was surprised by what I saw. First off, the lake was muddy. Not stained, but so muddy there was only an inch or so of visibility in the different areas I fished. Water temperature was also only 51 - 55 in the spots I hit, even skinny water. But the most remarkable thing was that the lake was down 6.25 FEET from full pool. Some docks were completely out of the water. This is also a lake that features floating docks, and many of the docks were at a steep angle being on a slope and mostly out of the water. It’s not often that you see the roof of a covered dock while sitting in your kayak! So, why didn’t I fish the tournament today? My old hotel called and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. The sale of the property still hasn’t closed, but with me gone they brought in a temporary GM. But they want me to train him for 2 or 3 days and they offered me two months of my old salary to do it. I figured that was worth forfeiting the $70 entry fee and not fishing.

I have both a pedal drive with instant reverse (Seastream Angler) and a motor drive (Autopilot 120) and I can make a case for both of them and none of them. 1. With the pedal drive I felt more connected to the lake and to nature. Holding position by jogging the pedals and bumping the rudder became intuitive in no time. I could cover a lot of water at 2.5 - 2.9 mph. But in the southern heat it was brutal out there in the warm months. I was either completely spent and on the verge of heat exhaustion or I simply chose not to fish as much. Weight limitations forced me to make choices. I trailered this kayak. 2. The Autopilot with spot lock was an immediate game changer. But it was a beast to load and unload until I was smart enough to add a winch to my trailer. Now I am quickly in and out of the water. Absolute game changer. My pedal drive was stable, but this is levels above that. This is important not only for standing, but also with big boats and rough weather on bigger lakes. Spot lock can be both friend and foe. You have to plan your attack angles with wind and currents. Shifting winds can drive you nuts. With my moisture wicking pants and shirts, hot weather is no issue because the motor gets me where I want to go. But with the motor up front, weeds can be problematic even with a weedless prop. Lakes like Guntersville and Toho took a lot of patience with their heavy weeds. On the flip side, I can carry a ton of gear, batteries, and electronics. The only real issue is speed. With a tournament setup I max out at about 3.3 mph. My competitors with the rear mount motors go 5 - 8 mph meaning they can cover a lot more water. Another downside with that front mount motor is that it’s not suitable for river fishing. That’s why I still have my pedal drive. I’m not about to get rid of my Autopilot, but if I had to do it all over again I would buy a 12-14 foot pedal drive kayak that was also purpose built to add a fast, rear mount motor. I would sacrifice the spot lock for the extra speed and use the pedal drive and/or an anchor system or Power Poles to hold position. And before you think about adding a motor to a kayak, make sure you understand how it mounts, if it will cut down on your cargo area, how you will run the wiring, how much or how many batteries you need, where you can place those batteries, and how they will impact stability, center of gravity, and tracking.

I fish out of a kayak, but I would fish differently if I had a boat. If I had a boat, I would spend a considerable amount of time running the lake using side scan and marking structure. The speed of the boat makes that possible. In a kayak, I don’t do much of that because I’m moving so slow I would just rather fish. I do have Livescope and I use it extensively. But there are also times when I shut it off and take the transducer out of the water. Whether I use it or not depends upon the depth I’m fishing or if I’m fishing heavy vegetation or even what kind of mood I’m in. I run two graphs and I just about always keep my SmartStrike maps running.

My superpower? I can tell you where the fish are NOT located. If you see me on the water, your best bet is to fish somewhere else 🤣

Thanks for the great info. It seems to fit my needs as pivoting the handle on my FS can be a pain and I want something that can stow on the rail. I need to check out that mode shift bracket as well.

Are you still satisfied with the Sniper Marine mount? I’m thinking of replacing my Fishing Specialties mount,

The first thing that I suggest is finding a kayak shop that offers demo days and try a handful of options. Second, don’t cheap out and plan ahead. Sure, you can fish out of a paddle kayak. But unless you’re anchoring you are going to spend 50% of your time on the water just positioning the watercraft. If you do buy a paddle kayak, make sure that it later be fitted with a pedal drive or an electric motor. If you don’t plan ahead, you’re flushing money.

Not wearing a life jacket and not clipping your kill switch. We just had two people die on Lake Oconee that neglected these safeguards.

New hotels have issues as well, but this property has many advantages including two strong Marriott brands. I start March 10th, so I’ll have a few weeks to relax and fish.

I’m going to hold you to that. The only big tournaments I may fish later this year are Bassmaster at Dale Hollow (June?) and the Native Big Bass Power Hour event in FL in the winter. But I do hope to fish 4 or 5 GA Bass Nation kayak events this year.

Part of not moving right now is that the fishing is about to get really good on the lake I live on. And I don’t mean jump in my kayak and make a run. I mean skip a bait under my dog or drag one along the seawall while letting my dog out. Second, I really want to scout the area and find the right house and neighborhood. I’m going to find a place within 40 minutes of the hotel, so there are a lot of places to look at. Oh - and did I mention that my new hotels will also have a Beer Garden?

I saw that. I like Ocmulgee and caught a 21.75” LMB there last year. On the map I also saw Lake Joy and Houston Lake both have boat ramps. It’s not as great as having a lake in my backyard like I have now, but at least there are nearby options.

Many of you know that for the past four years I have run a hotel on Lake Oconee. I was brought to this property to turn it from a dump to a boutique property. But between Covid and the primary owner getting cold feet, that never materialized. My job is to maximize the profits for the owners, and a few months ago I told them that enough is enough with the stalling. They had only three options. The first was to spend the $2.5M needed to turn it into a boutique hotel. The second was to make it a budget hotel. That meant firing me because I earn to much to run that type of property. I also would never run a budget property. The third was to sell the hotel, which also put me out of a job. They chose door number three, and the hotel is supposed to turn over to the new owners on Thursday. But frankly, for many reasons I think that deal falls through. If it does fall through, the hotel will still be for sale and the owners still won't renovate. With that, I had already begun looking for a new job. Today, I signed a deal for a new job. I will be running two Marriott hotels that are still under construction. The hotels will open in September or October, but I will be on site in two weeks. You can't imagine how much there is to do to get ready to open a new hotel, even if it is still under construction. These hotels will be in Perry, GA on the Ag Center grounds. Since the hotels don't open until the fall, my plan is to still live on Lake Sinclair for another 2-4 months and then move to the Perry area. I hate that the job on Oconee was never completed, but I'm thrilled to be back with Marriott and opening two new hotels.

GA Power cut that tree apart for me for free yesterday and a few hours later the power was back Thankfully, the power wasn’t out for days. I would have had to make a 5 mile kayak run to a convenience store for food!

Well? this stinks. We had a heavy storm very early this morning and I lost power. I went outside after the sun came up and found a steel cable that supports the power lines down in my yard. My driveway is a long, tree covered canopy that goes from the road, through the woods, then opens up to my house on the lake. I made my way from the house and to the road and I saw it in the distance - a big tree was blocking my driveway. As I got closer, I saw the rest of the tree had taken down the power lines. I’ve been without power for 9 hours now and my driveway is still blocked. My little electric chainsaw can’t cut through that tree. The tree companies won’t touch the part of the tree in my driveway until GA Power fixes the power lines. That may take days or up to a week. On one side of my house is the lake, and through a bit of woods on the other side are train tracks. If needed, it looks like I can parallel the train tracks in my truck to get to the road. but it’s a steep incline and the left side of my Bronco would be up high on gravel and the other side low in the dirt. There should be enough room to get away if a train comes off schedule. But that’s a last resort. The good news is that I have a power inverter and can charge phones and lamps from my truck. I can even plug in my air fryer to make a meal.