"Hike Your Own Hike"

In Episode 3 of The Cast, one of the topics toward the end of the webcast was the "Hike Your Own Hike" mantra that many long-distance hikers and backpackers use.

Before I shifted my focus to kayak fishing in my spare time,  I enjoyed quite a bit of backpacking and hiking.  Especially in backpacking, I found different hikers have different opinions on everything from internal vs. external frame packs,  hiking in boots vs. trail-runners, ultra lightweight vs. ultimate preparation, tent vs. hammock, and countless other arguing points.  Thus was born the mantra, "HYOH." A 20 year-old college kid's hiking trip is most likely going to look and feel different from a 40 year-old father of two with bad knees and sleep apnea's hiking trip. Not that I'd know anything about that. Aside from "LNT" (leave no trace), HYOH is probably the most ubiquitous saying in the hiking world.

Source: thetrek.co

As I was pondering 2020's New Years resolutions, it hit me that HYOH is not just a hiking mantra.  It applies to just about everything when you think about it.  Aside from hiking, I briefly applied the philosophy to both parenting and fishing during my last episode.  And I have one more thing I'll add at the end that it applies to...

The Oversaturation Era

Can there be too much of a good thing?

Has the sport of bass fishing reached a point where avid anglers have so much exposure to the sport, and so much information, we hardly know any longer which direction to look? Do competitive anglers have so many options for tournaments it becomes overwhelming as well? I think we have reached a point where as anglers, we have to filter out certain things to keep from having fishing overload.

Source: sales-i.com

2017 Year In Review: Tournament Recap And Lessons Learned

It's that time of year again, and boy, did it get here fast?  Time to write what has been one of the most popular pieces of every year...it seems like just a blink of an eye ago, I was writing the 2016 version.

I was thrilled to see that post top 800 views - now I'm regularly seeing 1000+ for every post, and I have to say it's pretty exciting to see my audience grow.  I enjoy writing, and love the feedback.

This is ANGLR's 3rd annual look back at the past year's tournament season. It's a reflection on the good, the bad, the ugly, and how to improve on them for the next season.  I fished 15 live tournaments, as well as a handful of online challenges. The focus of this article is the live events, but occasionally I'll throw in some side notes regarding notable online tournaments in italics.

The overall feel of the 2017 season was somewhat of a crescendo.  Early season successes were few and far between - a stark contrast to consistent early success in 2016.  But as summer and fall came, results got better. And the season was capped off by high finishes in the Georgia State Championship, and the KBF Trail stop at Pickwick/Wilson Lakes.  But before I can get to the good stuff, let's take it all the way back to February.

The Georgia Bass Slam: A Lesson in Biology and Geography

This year, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources came up with a new challenge for its anglers - catch at least five of the state's ten indigenous black bass species (Genus "Micropterus").

The Georgia Bass Slam

Georgia's Ten Black Bass Species. Photo from GA DNR website.

To many people not familiar with bass fishing, they may only know of the widespread largemouth, spotted and smallmouth species when it comes to black bass.  But there are many more than that - at least 14 known species!

Georgia is lucky to host the largest percentage of black bass species with 10 of the 14. In fact, all but one species (the Guadalupe bass, native to Texas) can be caught by traveling Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.  Georgia's geography of mountains, piedmont, and coastal plain allow for a very diverse system of waterways, and good habitat for hundreds of freshwater species.

At least four of these black bass species could be caught in the lakes and rivers I knew I'd be fishing in tournaments this year, so I set a goal for myself to complete a 5-fish slam in 2017.

The Rest of the Story

Paul Harvey taught us that there’s always more to the story than meets the eye. 

Yesterday was a great day fun-fishing on the Savannah River, as many of y’all have seen from my fish posts on Instagram and Facebook. But there’s part I’ve left out - the rest of the story. I actually lost a smallmouth on a hookset with 30 lb braid in open water, and it probably would’ve went over 6 pounds, almost unheard of for a Georgia smallie; easily a Citation fish. 

The catch is, the line didn’t break at the knot, but somewhere in the middle. The fish jumped nearly 2’ out of the water 3 times trying to spit my lure (rhymes with Mopper Flopper). Eventually she succeeded and I got the lure back for a while, just to REALLY lose it later when the same exact thing happened again on a 2-3 lb spotted bass. 

At first, I thought I needed to re-spool new braid, but upon further investigation I found the real culprit. This photo is magnified a lot, but you can see a small chip in one of my guide inserts. I tied my line to a stationary object 3 times and set the hook hard until the line broke. Each time, the break was between the 3rd and 4th guide from the reel. Turns out the 4th guide had the exposed sharp edge. 

A tiny, microscopic detail not only cost me a $17 lure, but more importantly, a trophy smallmouth. 

The rod is the Lews TP1 Speed Stick 7’ MH-Fast. I feel like it’s a good rod. I honestly don’t think it’s a defect, just an effect of heavy use and abuse that comes with regular kayak angling, and a costly oversight on my part. 

A few months ago, I got a buzzbait snagged in a tree with this rod, and the same thing happened with the line breaking in the middle rather than at the usual weak spot, the knot. I should have investigated then. Ignoring it cost me. 

I guess the lesson learned is to not forget about periodic service & inspection on your rods. Everyone services their reels and changes out fishing line, but that’s not all of the equation. This problem was so small, I could barely see it in bright light, and had to confirm with a scratch awl that it really was a chip. It really was a miniscule detail, but an important one.

I can’t imagine this happening in a tournament. Inspect your gear, folks. 

UPDATE 11/7/17 -  I called Lew’s today, and they are sending me a new line guide free of charge, no questions asked. This is the kind of customer service that will influence what products I choose to use in the future. 

Tight lines, y’all...

To Net Or Not To Net?

One of the discussions I often see on the Kayak Bass Fishing Facebook page is regarding the use of landing nets.  Some anglers swear by them 100% of the time, some anglers think they're a waste of space, and others are somewhere in between.  Elite Series anglers are not allowed to use nets in competition, and some of us enjoy that extra challenge of trying to emulate their fish landing methods from time to time.  However, I bet if you asked a few of those guys, they'd like to have the opportunity to use one.

My Net Setup - Simplistic and Functional

While I consider my net standard equipment on every trip, I don't always use it.  It rests in a Ram tube to the rear-left of my seat, easily within arms reach.  I have a leash on it so I don't lose it, but one end of the leash is a magnetic net attachment used by fly fishermen, so I can grab it quickly and move freely with it once it's out of the tube.

There are two parts to the net equation - what net to use, and when to use it.

The Guntersville Incident of 2017

I write a big, comprehensive post on this blog at the end of the year about my tournaments and the lessons learned during each one. However, after my day at the 2017 KBF Trail event at Lake Guntersville, I decided this tournament deserved its own special post.  Because it was, well...special. And not in the good way.

The Reel Krazy event at Terrapin Creek on August 25-26 had been the last tournament I fished before I bought my Jeep.  I traded in my Toyota Tacoma pickup on September 2, so of course I had to box up all the junk in the truck and get it out before I took it to the dealership to make the trade. That was a busy Labor Day Weekend.  Then my wife and I had our anniversary on September 6, followed by what was supposed to be a family vacation to Florida on the 7th. That got squashed by Hurricane Irma, and we ended up going down there the 16th-21st instead, and had a great time.  But we got back, and I had only one day to prep and load for Guntersville.  It was Friday the 22nd, after a busy day of playing catch-up at work, and I was going to load up and camp that night near my launch point on the north end of the lake near the Nickajack Dam.  It had been nearly a month since I had been on the kayak, but I was ready, and confident in my spot. It was over an hour away from the check-in at Guntersville State Park, but I had caught a really nice 5 lb class fish from that area before, and I was pretty sure I'd have it to myself.  Most people rightfully associate Guntersville Lake with the state of Alabama, but it actually extends all the way up into Tennessee, and that's where I'd be fishing.  The lake is over 65 miles long from southwest (Guntersville, AL) to northeast (South Pittsburg, TN) ends.

Guntersville is a LONG lake!