Koz

Dugout Bait and Tackle has a great crossbar for only $79. Just note that it doesn’t use a track system for the graphs. You have to drill holes. 100 Ah Weize batteries are only about $220 each. I have used one for my motor and one for my Garmin FFS, Humminbird mapping, lights, heading sensor, and cameras. However, on my recent trip to FL, in order to save weight I ran a 36Ah Weize battery for my electronics only and it lasted a full day of tournament fishing.

There is absolutely no way I would or could car top that beast. First off, I’m 60 years old and not that strong anymore. Second, I have a ton of gear including FFS that adds weight. But even trailering wasn’t enough. Once I added the winch it became a breeze to load and unload.

Great story and good for you getting yourself in better shape. I did chuckle when you said “60 pound kayak” and I’m thinking that I have about 60 pounds of just batteries on my rig.

TLDR: I’m not good enough to go to a new lake on my own and break it down in a day. @FryDog62 is correct in that these teams of kayak anglers have a huge advantage. They can cover lots of water in practice and share information. In this case, we had 14 lakes to choose from in a kayak that moves just over 3 mph. These lakes are all essentially very shallow with no humps, ledges, drop offs, stumps, etc. There are a lot of lily pads and maidencane (Kissimmee grass). The area had been cold for the two weeks prior to the tournament and with that the overly sensitive Florida bass shut down. But there was a warming trend leading up to the tournament and I suspected the bite would be on by tournament day. I was right. During the week of practice I fished Toho twice, Cypress, the southern end of Kissimmee, Hatchineha, and Rosalie. But come tournament day I gambled and launched at the north end of Kissimmee. I had done a lot of research and marked three waypoints, but the closest was a 90 minute run from the ramp. When I got there I found absolutely nothing. I hit the second waypoint and struck out again. I started out to the third waypoint, a major creek that was another 90 minute run. Twenty minutes in I changed my mind and headed for two minor creeks about 15 minutes away. The entire area was full of dense Kissimmee grass, which is like thick, heavy straw that is both matted and grows upward in the water. By now it’s almost noon - 4.5 hours into the tournament and I haven’t had a bite. The leader already has five fish on the board. I shut off my electronics and I tie on a Berkley Pit Boss and start pitching into the dense weeds and land my first fish right away. I got bit the rest of the day but couldn’t hook up. I lost two between 5 and 7 pounds. I had a ton of bites where I set the hook and the bait came flying back at me. It wasn’t until Day 2 that I figured out it was male bass moving the bait off a bed. For Day 2 I headed back to the same spot. I knew there were big fish there. This time, @FryDog62 joined my adventure. Within the first 30 minutes I got a big strike in the heavy Kissimmee grass and I saw her turn. She was 9-10 pounds and she was pulling my 400 pounds of loaded kayak through that heavy grass for a good ten seconds-and then I lost the hookup. I then moved to a different area and punched dense hydrilla and managed one keeper. I went back and fished the Kissimmee grass, had the males toy with my bait, and caught a few too small to submit. I saw the bass move further off shore in the outer bands of Kissimmee grass and they were active along the edges but I couldn’t get bit. One good thing came out of the tournament - I got comfortable with standing and fishing in my kayak. Actually, two good things - I met @Frydog62 and he’s a great guy. He’s also right - you need a team to be competitive. It will also slash expenses. So, maybe sometime we can get 4-5 members here to join up and do some damage in a future event.

Day 1 was a heartbreaker. Heading into last night I wasn’t even sure where I would fish. Most people were struggling to find fish in practice, but a few people said one lake was producing but it was all small bass. My thought was that with the warming trend all week, the bite was about to turn on. So I made a late night call to fish a lake known to hold big bass. I had fished this lake the day before, but this time I headed to the other end of the lake. I looked at my maps, read some history on the lake, and set some waypoints. The problem was the first waypoint was over an hour away. But what made it more difficult was there was a big area where I had no GPS for my navigation unit and no cellular service. With the high reeds and other landmarks in the water it was hard to determine exactly where I was at times. So, after the long haul to the first waypoint and a run to the second I still didn’t have a single bite. It was another long run to my third waypoint and it was already after 11 am. So instead, I cut across the lake towards shore in a 30 minute run. Lines out was at 3:30 and I was running out of time. I shut off my sonar and FFS completely and fished my new, unscripted plan. Within minutes I caught a 16.75” fatty, but it was now noon. The good news was that for the next two hours I was on the bass. The bad news is I caught three undersized ones and I lost SEVEN good fish including two that were 5-7 pounds. The problem was I couldn’t get a good hook set. I was using my Kistler heavy rod and I just couldn’t hook up. I switched to my Expride MHF, but by that time the bite was gone. I should have easily had a limit today. So tomorrow I’m leaving the Kistler in the truck and fishing something else. BTW, @FryDog62 is at this event. He fished the other end of that lake today, but tomorrow we will team up. I’ll let him tell his story.

So, today was an interesting day. I fished a smaller lake and launched from a small, neighborhood ramp. Unbeknownst to me, the soil at the end of the ramp had washed away meaning that the end of the ramp was a ledge. The water was murky and I didn’t see it when I checked out the ramp. So my trailer wheels dropped of that ledge. Instead of launching my kayak first and then pulling up my trailer, I pulled forward. With that, my Malone Ecolight took some damage, knocking it out of square. I parked it, then went fishing. When I returned it was time to fix it with some box wrenches and a big rock. Luckily for me, two retirees from across the street, Roger and Ron, came over to help. Roger brought a few more tools, we loosened some bolts, squared it up, and made it drivable today. In between I had some minor electrical and bluetooth problems that I squared away. After leaving that lake I was headed to another, but there was neither cell phone service nor GPS to use maps and navigation. Half the time on the lake I couldn’t use spot lock because GPS was unavailable. Anyway, I had to drive off a ways to connect to maps and GPS. It was an eventful day. I’m not giving a fishing report because I don’t want to break rules and share information.

I was at Toho yesterday and heard a guy mention that the cold weather the last two weeks has really shut down the fishing. With the weather warming, hopefully that trend changes. Because this is a multi lake tournament, I don’t want to tip off any lurkers by giving away any info regarding my pre-fishing other than saying that most of Toho is choked out with hydrilla. It was really bad. I suppose it would be OK if you paddle, but even with my weedless prop it was impossible to go far without having to clear weeds from the prop.

I had planned to arrive in the area at 8 am this morning (Sunday) and head right to one of the ramps at Toho. Unfortunately, work got in the way on Saturday and I didn’t finish my pack out until 11 pm. We had a system failure with the phones at the hotel on Friday night and I had to go in just before midnight and left at 4 am. With all that, I left after 7 am on Sunday and by the time I checked into my rental home it was 3pm. I was too tired to fish. I’m not happy with losing a day of practice, but it is what it is. I’m going to fish somewhere on the Kissimmee chain on Monday. I’m going to leave out specifics on the lakes I fish somewhere I don’t violate any rules on sharing knowledge.

I’m off to Kissimmee in the morning for the Bassmaster Kayak Series event next weekend. We’re fishing the Kissimmee Chain and have 12 or 13 lakes to choose from. I’ve never fished there before so I’m bringing the kitchen sink. I haven’t even put my luggage in the truck yet. It should be an interesting week. The weather will be consistent for M-F practice, then a front moves in for the tournament weekend. I’m staying at Toho, so I’ll practice there first. I’m not sure where I’m heading after that.

Most of my reels are Curados, but last year I added an SV to my arsenal. I have great disdain for that reel and it may end up on a shelf this year.

I use the ForEverlast Generation 2 net which has a short handle and store it in the left, built in rod holder behind my seat. I like the YakAttack net the OP has, but the trade off is what he’s facing - storage and quick deployment. Of course, I’m trading off not having a long reach with my net. I see some anglers keep their net at their feet on the deck. Everything is a trade off on a kayak. This - but I keep me net on the left side.

Yesterday, we received almost three inches of snow here in Georgia. It then changed to rain, made it a slushy mess, then partially froze. There were accidents everywhere. I decided to hole up at my hotel for the night instead of brave the roads. But by 6 am the roads were in good shape and I headed home. I live about 26 miles from work and received zero snow at my house.

Scope and minnow Scope and minnow Scope and minnow Chatterbait Scope and minnow

Not in person? 😞

The tournament is February 1st and 2nd. Are any of you entering the event? I’m thinking about it. It will probably be a last minute decision,

OK - now it’s calling for snow flurries here in GA on Friday.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. I didn’t go to FL because of the hurricanes and instead went to Fork in Texas. But as I suspected, there’s a Bassmaster kayak event in Florida this year. I’m not sure if I’m going to enter, but the venue is the Kissimmee Chain: Kissimmee Cypress Hatchineha Rosalie Tiger Marion Marian Arbuckle Jackson Toho East Toho Gentry Weohyakapka Toho is a bucket list lake, but I don’t know if it’s the smart play as it will probably have a ton of traffic on that first February weekend. If I go, I might hit the smaller lakes so I can cover different structure and depths easily. There’s only a 50/50 chance I am heading there as I may be changing jobs soon.

That’s good to hear. There’s a 50/50 chance I will be fishing the Bassmaster kayak event on the Kissimmee chain the first weekend in February. I’m clueless on which lake or lakes to fish, but my first instinct is to choose one of the smaller ones so I can cover most of the lake.

In about a week, an arctic blast is going to engulf most of the country. Even here in GA the temperatures are going to be in the teens with wind chills in the single digits. Frankly, I’m already tired of the winter cold. As it turns out, my first GA Bass Nation kayak tournament is scheduled for the 11th when the weather is going to be frigid. Worse yet, it’s on Lake Lanier which is a notoriously dangerous lake. I’m going to pass on this event. The cold only compounds the danger. Lanier is a spotted bass lake where you normally fish brush piles in open water. I can’t imagine doing that in frigid, windy weather. I’m too old for that.

He was asking about non BFS baitcaster reels.

You can, but in my experience you don’t get the same action on the bait and most baitcaster gear ratios are too fast. I’m typically a baitcaster first guy with most techniques, but this technique changed my mind.

You first 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I haven’t had the pleasure of catching one yet. I have a few years left in me, so there’s always hope.

I bought pair of KastKing Ice River Neoprene gloves. I’ve used them a few times and they do keep my hands warm and dry. But there are some trade offs, especially with spinning gear. It took some practice to get used to casting with them on and I have to grip the rod differently with my right hand. FWIW, KastKing makes great clothing for fishing. I have 3 or 4 of their moisture wicking hoodies and they are great.

First off, the model I have is the 7’ 4” medium fast. First off, despite the size, the rod is light. This is important as I can shake a minnow all day and not get tired out. Second, this rod is really, really sensitive. I have a picnic table on my dock and today I had this rod and a 7’ 2” Expride MHF leaning up against the table. When I walked onto the dock my footsteps alone had the rod tip of the Cashion bouncing while the Expride was still. This comes into play when I’m shaking a minnow. Just a slight shaking movement of the wrist transfers all the way down to the bait. I don’t need big movements to impart action. That’s great for attracting strikes and again, it doesn’t wear me out. The hook sets are also solid even with the smaller jig heads. I have my Cashion paired with a Daiwa Procyon 2500 AL. I like this reel because it’s lightweight and has a slow 5:3 gear ratio which allows me to keep the bait in the strike zone longer when reeling in the bait past suspended fish. I love to power fish with bait casters, but this Cashion has me loving spinning gear again.

My point is not whether this is a new technique or an old technique. My point is that I understand why it is so popular. Typically, hen I fish the first baits I am going to throw are going to be a chatterbait, buzzbait, spinnerbait, or a Senko. But my opinion of that has no changed due to the wide success I have had with this technique.