Koz

In cold, stained, water try a rip/lift and drop. But really let it drop. Give it a count of at least 5 seconds. Or you can crank really fast for a few seconds and then pause for at least a 5 count. This works for me with winter lipless cranks, although I prefer these methods with a chatterbait in the winter.

It’s amazing that it’s been more than two weeks and there is still less than 1” of visibility. GA Power raised the water level adding more stained water to the pool. The weather has been iffy lately with on and off rain and threats of thunderstorms, so I haven’t been motivated to get out there on my kayak. I’m not alone in that line of thought. Boat traffic on the lake has been nil and the launch parking lots have been empty.

I just saw this joke: A young guy from North Dakota moved to Florida and went to a big "Everything under one roof" department store looking for a job. The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?" The kid says "Yeah. I was a vacuum salesman back in North Dakota." Well, the boss was unsure, but he liked the kid and figured he'd give him a shot, so he gave him the job. "You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did." His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down to the sales floor. "How many customers bought something from you today?" The kid frowns and looks at the floor and mutters, "One". The boss says "Just one?!!? Our sales people average sales to 20 to 30 customers a day. That will have to change, and soon, if you'd like to continue your employment here. We have very strict standards for our sales force here in Florida. One sale a day might have been acceptable in North Dakota, but you're not on the farm anymore, son." The kid took his beating, but continued to look at his shoes, so the boss felt kinda bad for chewing him out on his first day. He asked (semi-sarcastically), "So, how much was your one sale for?" The kid looks up at his boss and says "$201,237.65." The boss, astonished, says $201,237.65?!? What the heck did you sell?" The kid says, "Well, first, I sold him some new fish hooks. Then I sold him a new fishing rod to go with his new hooks. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 F350 powerstroke." The boss said "A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and a TRUCK!?" The kid said "No, the guy came in here to buy tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing.........'"

But you have to remember, he lives in Maine and there's only a two week period during the year when it isn't freezing out there 😀 I'm kidding. Years ago I ran a hotel in Portland and I loved it up there. I never fished, but I would bike from Portland up to Freeport in that wide bike lane, grab an ice cream at Ben & Jerry's, refill my water bottle, and then ride back.

I've got a 40 minute commute each way to and from work so lately I have been filling that time listening to podcasts. I tried listening to Iaconelli, but his Andy Rooney-like cadence drives me nuts after just a few minutes. I will have to check out BTL sometime. I do like listening to Mike Rowe, Coach Beede, and Talkin' Yanks. There's a local podcast I also started listening to because they asked me to be on it.

It's going on two weeks with this thick sediment. I swear I can feel a difference in the in resistance when I reel in a bait. I saw a local fishing report the other day that said IF the bass were biting they were in very shallow water. But now we're in for 4 straight days of rain and heavy thunderstorms for two of them. But that first weekend in February is supposed to have nice weather and with sunny days upcoming and daytime temps in the 60's and even low 70's I'm hoping we get a nice spike in water temperature to get the water back to the mid 50's. Maybe the timing of the bad weather will work out for me. This week I have my nav lights, button lights, and a Yak Power switching system arriving so I'll take the time to get everything wired and installed.

Oops - forgot the picture of this mess.

I agree with @CountryboyinDC that you will probably have issues with the foam, especially trying to slide a heavy kayak across those blocks. My old Seastream Angler pedal drive was just under 100 lbs without the pedal drive and although a bit unwieldy I didn't have any problems getting it on and off the trailer. Before it arrived, I wasn't too concerned with the added 50 pounds of the Autopilot. I was dead wrong. Between the extra weight and the wider and rounder bow it was a lot more difficult to trailer. I also need to connect my trailer to my Bronco before attempting to load it or unload it. I live on a lake so I launch from my backyard most of the time but I prefer to keep my kayak trailered instead of sitting in the yard when it's not in use.

Congrats on the purchase. I'm now sold on Old Town after buying my Autopilot 120. I have a Malone Ecolight trailer with the bunks and I have to tell you that it took me a while to get the trailer et up correctly so I could load my heft kayak by myself. I even tried a roller and a T-Wing but it was still a pain. So I went back to the bunks and changed from a C-Tug cart to a Wilderness Systems heavy duty cart. With the cart attached I can get the nose on the bunks, then I get behind the kayak, lift and push to get most of it on the bunks, release the cart, then push it the rest of the way on. I thought about trying to strap it down without bunks but I was worried it would end up sliding even a bit and put too much shearing force on the straps. So my suggestion for you is to get some PVC pipe that fits the width of your pontoon hull and bolt those to the trailer. RightOn trailers has a PVC bunk kit for $19.99 that might work for your trailer. You still have to buy the PVC and their kit provides the hardware. At the very least the link below should give you some ideas. https://rightontrailer.com/product/kayak-trailer-bunks-dyi-pvc-tube-kit/

Normally the waters around my house are fairly clear and underwater visibility is about a couple of feet. But a few weeks ago we had a storm and the lake turned to "chocolate milk" with an unbelievable amount of sediment. I'm not kidding when I say that visibility is about one inch. I don't mind fishing in stained water, but this amount of sediment is ridiculous. I imagine most of the fish have migrated to areas with clearer water. It's also been cold with temps in the teens at night and in the 30's and 40's during the day so I haven't been out on my kayak. Water temps are in the upper 40's which is very cold for this area. When I take the dog outside I'll take a few casts off the dock with an A-rig or a spinnerbait with a thumping Colorado blade but I haven't caught anything. But I don't feel left out with not catching anything. There was a local tournament here over the weekend and the winner came in with only 3 fish for 8 pounds. That's brutal. The good news is we're in for a few weeks of temperatures in the 60's, but the bad news is we're expecting rain which may keep me off the lake. And not just rain, but also heavy thunderstorms this week. And when it clears up on Sunday? 13mph winds with gusts to 23 mph. I can't catch a break. This stinks because I have a Bass Nation kayak tournament here on my home lake in mid February. I'm really itching to get out there and fish.

Was that a TW purchase? I've ordered rods from TW and their tubes are ridiculously strong. I had to cut one down one time with a hand saw to ship a baseball bat and I was surprised at how tough it was.

7' 2" MH Expride, Curado DC or MGL, and Berkley Fusion underspin with a Keitech Fat Swing Impact.

Stubborn. I like to fish a handful of baits (even though I have a ton of baits) and fish shallow water along the banks. When those don't work I get the "Paralysis of Analysis" and throw everything, none of it with confidence or a real plan. With my purchases this winter, I will TRY to change that this year. First off, I purchased detailed maps for my electronics. Second, instead of my old pedal kayak I now have an Autopilot 120 that should change everything. First off, I can cover more water and I won't be dead tired when I get there, especially in the summer heat. Second, spot lock will give me the ability to fish more and pick apart areas without having to constantly re-orient my kayak. I also plan to take limited tackle on some trips and force myself to use certain baits and techniques that are not at the top of my list. While this sounds great in theory, there's still a 50/50 chance that I'll still be stubborn.

Before you pull the trigger, take a look at Lowe boats. They have a good entry level boat that is more customizable than a Tracker.

Good luck out there this year. My suggestion is that if you're fishing bigger lakes, along with reading the maps go to every fishing report website you can and scour information over the past few years and find reports where the fish are biting. I fished the MLF Phoenix Series last year as a co-angler, and while I plan to do 2-3 events in that this year I'm also planning on jumping off the deep end and fishing one or two Bassmaster Kayak events (Lake Murray and maybe Guntersville) this season in my new Old Town Autopilot. I'll be studying maps and fishing reports, but with the limited range of the kayak I'm also going to rely on my electronics and Humminbird Smartstrike and a day of pre-fishing. Yes, it's definitely nuts to jump into a big tournament for my first event, but I'm pushing 60 and this is more of a bucket list item than anything. Plus, as a co-angler last year in MLF I had a hard time being second banana and not being in control of where we fished and the tempo.

I know it doesn't compare to the sub zero temperatures that a lot of you are facing, but we've got temperatures dipping into the teens and wind chills in the single digits. The good news, for us, is that by the last weekend in the month we're going to see temperatures in the 70's.

I went to college in Erie, PA and at one time lived in Maine. Plus, my family is BC and Ontario, I know cold. That's why I'm now here in the south 😀 And when I go fishing later this week my lures won't bounce 🤣🤣🤣

No snow here in the south, but it has been cold-cold-cold! Night time and morning temperatures have been in the 20's and we'll be down into the teens later this week. We had a lot of wind and rain last week and Lake Sinclair went from being clear to dark chocolate milk. Water visibility is now less than an inch or two. To make matters worse I've also been sick for the better part of a week now.

I think that you mean Weize and not WeiSe. Anyway, I have a 100Ah that I use with my Old Town Autopilot 120 and it has been great. For tournament fishing I may even keep a second one on board so I can cover more water at speed. The specs say it weighs only 29 pounds.

I have a couple of those reels and I think that right now I have 30lb braid on one and 40lb braid on the other. That being said, I prefer braid on all of my baitcasters and will use a flouro, mono, or hybrid line leader if conditions and technique call for it.

Too bad you don't live closer to me. I'm selling mine as a package with a DI/SI fish finder, battery C-Tug, and more. I still like the Seastream, but I recently bought an Old Town Autopilot 120.

Not that one, but I may head down to the one at Okeechobee in April. I want to do one or two Florida events this year. I'll be doing some Bulldog division stuff in GA and some SC tournaments.

Are any of you BR members planning to enter the BASS Kayak tournament at Lake Murray in February? I'm thinking of entering. It will be my first kayak tournament, but now that I have my Autopilot 120 I'm thinking it might be fun to enter.

I had a couple of firsts the other day. Late last year I had the good fortune to move into a lake house on Sinclair. I have a big, isolated, deep water dock that looks like a great place to hold bass in the spring and summer, but I haven't seen any bass or baitfish hanging around the docks. When I take my dog out in the morning to do his business I'll bring a rod, skip something under the dock, and cast around but had not pulled a bass out from under the dock. I have caught some casting off the end to deeper water. Anyway, the other day I tossed an A-rig along the side of the dock and a nice 2+ pounder came out and crushed it. So it was my first bass of 2024, first bass I lured out from under my dock, and my first bass on an A-rig. I simply can't wait for the water to warm up and the days to get longer. I'm going to be out there on my dock or on my kayak every single day after work.

For my Old Town Autopilot kayak I bought a Weize 12v 100Ah LifePO4 for $319 and it kills me now that same battery is only $259. Get yourself a decent charger. I have a NOCO Genius10 and it works fine for my needs.