How I Keep My Phone Dry and Afloat

Last summer during a Tennessee Valley Kayak Anglers tournament on Chickamauga Lake, I caught a nice smallmouth to fill my limit in the tournament.  The fish would have secured 3rd place and a cash payout.  Instead, I fumbled my phone over the side of the kayak and had to start over.  Here's a little tip that will prevent that from ever happening again!


 

On Visibility and Contrast

Last week, I went fishing on Lake Burton with Jim Ware and Greg Wood, both of Rome.  At one point in the early afternoon, Jim and Greg fished about halfway back into a creek, then headed back out toward point off a large island.  I had caught my first fish of the day while making my way into the creek, and wanted to explore the creek further back, so I continued to pick it apart dock-by-dock.  Not exactly a winter pattern, but it was the only thing that had worked so far.  When I came out of the creek about 45 minutes later, I began to look for the others.

Off in the distance, I faintly spotted two sets of yellow paddle blades churning.  Jim was wearing a bright orange PFD, and Greg's was bright blue.  But the only signs of the two kayakers I could see were the four blades.  Using my Navionics app, I figured them to be about 530 yards away.  That doesn't seem like all that much distance, but it was a windy day with a lot of chop on the water, and it was tough to discern what was taking place on the surface.

Me, Jim, Greg, and our yellow paddles on Lake Burton

The boat traffic on Lake Burton was about what one would expect for a Thursday afternoon in mid-December.  There were a handful of other fishermen running around, but rarely would we feel that all-familiar rock of a boat wake across our bows.  It was quite peaceful and the fishing was slow.

Soon enough, though, spring will be here.  The winter solstice has passed, and the days are already getting longer.  We'll get a couple of late February warm fronts, and the bass will snap out of the winter doldrums and strap on the feedbag for mating season.  And the mass exodus of fishermen will descend on lakes across the South looking for big prespawn bass.

From this point, all through the summer and well past Labor Day, kayakers will have their head on a swivel.  After the spawn, the pleasure boaters and PWC's come out to play as well.  The lakes will be full of people.  Usually, this is when I head to the rivers, but I still like to get in some practice on the lake every now and then.  Visibility becomes more important than ever during the summer.  Most serious kayak fishermen are familiar with products like the VisiCarbon Pro, and other 360º lighting products.  Some anglers have LED strips mounted on their hull.  Both of these are great for visibility in low light situations.  

But the observation I made on Lake Burton the other day, is that if you want to be seen in broad daylight, the name of the game is CONTRAST. 

There's a reason why most states' DNRs require deer hunters using rifles to wear blaze orange for safety.  If you see something moving in that color, there's no reason to shoot. Other than on a particularly brilliant maple tree in the fall, blaze orange is one of the most unnatural colors you'll find outside.  In the photo above, Jim's orange PFD contrasts well against the water, but may not always contrast well against Georgia red clay or fall foliage.  Greg's blue PFD does not contrast well on the water, but would be quite visible against a dark tree-lined bluff. And his dark clothing provides a stark silhouette in the morning light. However, those yellow paddles we have contrast well against everything, and they are moving a lot.  There's no need to go out on the water in your coat of many colors, but several different colors ranging from light to dark on your rig, paddle, and body should provide enough of a contrast to keep you visible throughout the day.

Stay safe out there, and tight lines, y'all.

NiteIze - Discover Your Solution

For years, NiteIze has been making it easier to illuminate, attach and secure things.  Kayak anglers are rigging and gadget junkies, so I was thrilled to be invited to the Nite Ize Field Staff in March of 2016.  I was asked to send a testimonial to be published to the NiteIze website, and below is the link to the page.  I have used their products for a long time.

Nite Ize User Testimonials

Here are a few photos of products I use in action. The first photo is perhaps the most important, and I think is something that helps me out in tournament situations dealing with unpredictable fish on measuring boards.  I don't have to worry about fumbling around with my identifier this way.  Additional photos after the jump.

Gear Ties being used to hold tournament ID badge, S-Biner securing dry box.

KBF Magazine Article - Fall 2016 Issue

A couple of months ago I was able to pen an article about kayak fishing in rivers for Chris Payne's publication, Kayak Bass Fishing Magazine. It's a quarterly online magazine that is free to the public. It was a fun article to write, because I love river fishing.  I am posting the original transcript of my article below, but please click the following link to see the other valuable information in the issue.

Kayak Bass Fishing Magazine - Fall 2016

Transcript after the jump - I hope this proves valuable when you hit the river. Enjoy!

What sound does a peacock make, anyway?

I've got a lot of catching up to do on trip and tournament reports, but for some reason I just can't let this go, and I want to get this out while it's still fresh.  I was scrolling through Facebook a couple of days ago, and found a repost from Chris Payne (Kayak Fishing Blog).

The repost was a link to an opinion article posted on a website called Wide Open Spaces.  It's a well built site with lots of contributor content from various outdoorsmen and women.

As reluctant as I am to post a link, it would probably be beneficial to read it before you read my response. So, here it is.  It's a piece of work.

Amateur Anglers in Jerseys are Peacocks

OK, then.  If that's how you feel, here's a selfie for you.

It should be noted that the author Brent Cannon does make some valid points, especially about the state of the "Pro Staff" game.  I have seen it first hand, especially with younger anglers.  They accept a pro staff position with a company for which they've never used that equipment.  It's really not fair to the company nor the angler when you think about it.  The company gets nearly free advertising, but it comes from anglers who know very little about the product they are repping.  And, yes, the angler gets to say he or she is on pro staff, but what is the benefit?  To me, being on a pro staff should be mutually beneficial.  And I believe the author is coming from the same school of thought in that regard.  That is a common school of thought among many in the kayak fishing community.  Chris Payne has warned us of such pitfalls in the Kayak Fishing Blog, and it has been preached on various other outlets within our community.  Kayak fishing is a rapidly growing niche within the fishing industry, and many companies see that.  We as anglers (kayak or bass boat) need to be smart in the decisions we make as to whom and where we associate ourselves. Good points made, but that is a soapbox for another day.

Here is the excerpt that has me scratching my head and ruffling my feathers, so to speak -

"Better yet, do they even know you are sporting their logo while acting like an absolute douche to everyone you meet?

I get it. You probably didn’t win enough trophies as a kid, your mom always told you that you could be anything you wanted, and the best way for people to THINK you’re an awesome angler isn’t to show them on the water, it’s to slap 1,326 logos on a jersey you had to pay $125 for.

Oh, too harsh? Really?

You can’t manage to qualify for a regional tournament, can’t beat the local guys on a regular basis on “your water” and have more excuses than a Dalmatian has spots. You do however know everything about everything in the fishing industry and will tell anyone who will listen.

While you run your mouth at the bait shop, the oldtimer in the blue jeans and original trucker hat from Mann’s Bait Company in 1979 is grinning behind his cup of coffee. You know why? He’s going to take your money again this weekend.

I remember a day when patches were earned, jerseys were for the elite anglers, and humility still ruled the day. Maybe I’m an old fart too, longing for a better community of fishermen. Maybe I wish these 20 and 30 something anglers would chill out spending so much money on jerseys and boat wraps when they can’t win a tournament.

Earn something! Win something!

Amateur anglers in pros clothing sends all the wrong messages. It’s pride. It’s vanity. It’s wanting to be seen as special. What the rest of us see is an insecure peacock who needs to preen and prance.

You want to be seen as above average or special. Newsflash Einstein! Clothes don’t catch fish. Boat wraps don’t mean crap if you are the one paying to have it done.

What you really need to do is spend time working on your craft. Learn new skills, learn the waters you’ll be fishing and stop parading around as if the anglers not in jerseys should bow to your greatness."

Let's get some things straight, Brent.  I know sarcasm and hyperbole when I see it.  But I'm also pretty good at sniffing out a good old fashioned hater.  They're getting easier and easier to spot because there are way too many around these days, meddling in everyone else's business rather than tending to their own.  I'm sorry you're worried about what I'm wearing when I'm paying my hard earned money to enter a tournament.  I didn't know my wardrobe was a microaggression.  You reminisce about the old days but hate like a millennial.

Yes sir, I'm wearing a jersey to my tournaments this year.  Please, tell me again how that makes me "act like an absolute douche to everyone I meet."  I have to know this so I can go apologize to all my fishing buddies. 

Yes sir, I got enough trophies as a kid - actually, some were even awarded for more than just  participation.  

Yes sir, my mother encouraged my hobbies and passions, and because of my Papaw I became a pretty doggone good fisherman.  I listen to those old timers in the Wranglers and Mann's hats - they can teach more than just fishing.  Those same influences like my parents and grandparents, and baseball coaches, teachers, etc also taught me things like integrity, good sportsmanship, and financial responsibility.   Fishing is certainly not my day job, but you bet your ass I'll be working some 12 hour days so I can save up some extra time for "working on my craft." I don't mind doing it. I do that so I can show up confident for a tournament. I fish all types of water.  I research constantly.  I read.  I watch the Elite Series Pros. I'm a sponge.  I admittedly neglect quality time I could be spending with my wife by studying lake maps and archiving 15 years worth of fishing reports. That's the only thing I regret.

While I show up on tournament day with a goal to win, I also try to be an ambassador for the sport and build friendly relationships with my fellow anglers - that's one of the draws of kayak fishing.  I've never been one to keep information to myself - I enjoy others' successes and try to both help them and learn from them, and generally they treat me the same. That whole golden rule thing actually works when applied properly.  

Furthermore, it's my business if I want to spend the money for a jersey to rep the companies I have worked to build actual relationships with.  I have a handful of pro staff/field team deals, and they are mutually beneficial.  I don't make the discounts, etc public knowledge because I don't think it's professional, but I'll say I'm quite comfortable with them.  The fact that they have not sent me a custom made jersey does not offend me.  The fact that I've spent money on those products in the past, so that now I'm comfortable representing them does not upset me. It makes me a more valuable asset for their brand, and gives me credibility. Those logos are on my jersey, along with a family business who supports me, and the products of personal friends that I actually use.  The KBF logo is on my jersey because that organization gives me the chance to fish from a kayak for $30k+ each year (as long as I qualify).  And I don't think I'm a sellout.  That's my opinion.  You are entitled to yours. My bills are paid and I have some money saved for a rainy day.  I'm fortunate enough that I could afford my peacock outfit, so I think I'm going to look the part whether you think I'm prancing around like an insecure douche or not.  

Indeed, clothes don't catch fish.  But my NaPo Custom Rod and Chattahoochee Jigs do.

River Bassin' Trail 2016 Kickoff Event - Crawfordville, FL

After my "rookie" 2015 season, the 2016 kayak fishing tournament season couldn't get here fast enough.  For me, there is just something about competitive fishing.  This was the first tournament of the 2016 season, and while it was still cold back home in north Georgia, an early March getaway to the Florida panhandle was just the ticket to get rid of the winter blues and get me back into the swing of things on the tournament scene.  I had been practicing a lot for the KBF National Championship which was coming up toward the end of March, but I hadn't really fished against anyone nor against the clock in a bass-only tournament since the previous October.

As a bonus, what was initially planned to be a quick weekend trip with a little bit of fishing and camping turned into a week long immersion into Old Florida.  Far away to the west were the bustling spring break towns of Panama City Beach and Destin.  This was little towns like Panacea, Sopchoppy, and Alligator Point.  Back in 2011 I had spent some time in this area for work, and had come to appreciate the area for what it was, and I was glad to be back, and show my wife and sister-in-law around some of the places that up until that point, I could only illustrate in stories of my travelin' days.

Friday, March 4th was getaway day, and Sass and I left that morning so we could take our time getting down to our rental house on Alligator Point.  I had planned out a route through Bainbridge and West Tallahassee, so I could stop at some river access points and scout out the water.  I was not going to prefish - I did not take any extra days off beforehand, and made a pretty late decision to fish the tournament at all.  I had done plenty of internet and map research, however,  and had it narrowed down to just a few spots on the Flint, Sopchoppy and Ochlockonee Rivers.  The River Bassin' Tournament Trail allows anglers to fish any moving water and natural sloughs, oxbows, etc within a 50 mile radius of the host location.  So naturally, the panhandle and Big Bend offered numerous options.  The in-bounds section of the Flint was in the backwaters of Lake Seminole and there are plenty of big largemouth there, but that location was on the extreme outskirts of the 50 mile radius, and I chose to spend more time actually fishing than driving back to weigh-in.

After some more scouting and checking into the house, I had made the decision to fish a section of the Ochlockonee in an area called Woodlake.  We made our way to the captains' meeting at The Wilderness Way just outside Crawfordville. By the way - take a look at this house...straight out of the 1950's and stood the test of time against the hurricanes.  It had a smooth stone floor, stucco walls and tin roof.  Nothing about it was new, yet it was perfect.  And right on the beach.

The Digs

Back at the Wilderness Way, I met up with my teammate Allen "Cornbread" Starling.  This was my first River Bassin' tournament I had teamed up with someone to fish.  We met at the Chattanooga River Bassin' event last year and became friends - one of many I've made through kayak fishing.  The River Bassin' format awards cash and prizes for both team and individual divisions.  So, even if one teammate has a rough day, the other still has a chance to win in the individual division if they have a good day.  Fishing together is encouraged, but our team was put together at the last minute and we did not do a lot of pre planning together, so the best we could do was wish each other luck and check the leaderboard during tournament day, and reconvene at the weigh-in.  Cornbread had decided to camp and fish on the Wacissa River, east of Crawfordville, and I was staying southwest of Crawfordville.  So the Ochlockonee made sense for me to fish.  Sass and I went to Mad Anthony's for dinner on the water, and after that it was time for last minute prep, and to get some sleep.

Last minute prep did not go well.  While testing my electronics, I realized somehow my inline fuse to my Lowrance was blown.  The river I was fishing had deep water. I was going to be relegated to either covering water and probing structure with a Carolina Rig or fishing visible cover.  I would choose the latter.

As always, sleep came at a premium on tourney eve, but I managed a few hours and was up very early and on the water just in time for first light and lines in.  It was a beautiful morning, somewhat cool but quite comfortable.  I was in unfamiliar surroundings with the tannic water, cypress knees, and sandy banks.  I started with a buzzbait near some pads and in the shallows, and did not draw a strike.  After 20-30 minutes I switched to a chatterbait and drew a nice strike but ended up losing the fish after only getting a glimpse of it.  It was maybe 14-15 inches and would have been a nice start and a confidence booster.  That was the last strike I got on the chatterbait, however, and I switched to a white trick worm, a bait that I read was good for tannic water on some of the Florida fishing forums.

Sometime around mid-morning I tossed the worm into a shallow flat near a creek bend and my rod loaded up.  After the hookset, I knew I had something significant on the other end.  It took a good 20 seconds before I realized this was not the target species.  I had hooked into the mighty prehistoric looking bowfin.  I managed to keep it hooked despite its violent thrashing fits, and get it on the Boga Grip.  I wasn't letting this toothy critter stay around too long, because it still had plenty of hitch in its giddy-up as I was getting the hook out of its mouth.  I kept it around long enough to get an upside-down photo of it on my Hawg Trough - 23 inches of solid muscle.  It was a new species and the hardest fighting freshwater fish I have caught.

My first bowfin

That was the only fish I got on the white trick worm.  I switched to a Wack 'Em worm in junebug later in the afternoon, once the sun got overhead, and was able to boat two small largemouth bass, but never was able to land a third for my limit.  It was a humbling day in the swamps of Wakulla County. A few counties over in the crystal clear, spring fed waters of the Wacissa, Cornbread had managed to boat one bass himself.  So neither of us were skunked, but we were not going to be near the top either.

Individually, I ended up 23rd out of 43 anglers.  Team ANGLR finished 11th out of 13 teams.  I continue to be impressed with the job Drew Gregory (and now his wife Cristina) do putting together and hosting these tournaments.  They get good host locations and sponsors, and Drew, Noah and team put the information together well, and are quick to answer any questions and handle any issues that arise.

I have joined the Southeastern Online River Bassin' tournament as well, and it will count toward the three required events to be fished to qualify for the National Championship on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania this fall - the land of the trophy smallmouth. The tournament runs the length of the season all the way up to 9/25/16, the weekend before the National Championship on 10/1/16. 

The great thing about the tournament being finished, was that it turned out to be only the beginning of an awesome vacation.  Sass and I spent the day resting and went to the beach at Alligator Point on Sunday.  We had Deuce with us, too.  She doesn't like the water much, but enjoyed exploring the sights and smells of the beach and the dunes.

Later that evening, my sister in law joined us and we had a great dinner at Hamaknockers BBQ.  This was the first of two trips we'd end up making there. Comfort food for a comfort trip.

The next day was spent on Alligator Point exploring and relaxing, and I got to take the Amigo out on Alligator Harbor for a while. I threw a swimbait around some docks for a while but no takers.  I saw tons of stingrays but very few fish.  Later that evening I went out to Levy Bay and threw the swimbait some more into some mullet schools, but again the redfish were not taking.

Alligator Harbor

Levy Bay "skunkset"

The next morning, I went to the brackish waters of Ochlockonee Bay State Park to try and chase the spot tails again.  Apparently the water was more fresh than salty.  I caught a largemouth on the first cast with a chatterbait, and saw a few alligators but that was all.

Looking back on this trip, I am so glad I decided to take off the extra few days and spend some quality time with my wife and sister-in-law.  This is a trip I will remember fondly, and I'm glad I got to spend some more time in a part of the state of Florida I came to love and appreciate several years ago.  I didn't catch very many fish, but that's okay.  It turned out to be much more than just a fishing trip.  After dinner at the Coastal, we capped off the trip with a bonfire on the beach.  Hard to beat that ending.  Cheers to Old Florida.

New Personal Best Largemouth - 2/20/16

It is now May 4, 2016. (Insert Star Wars one-liner here).  With work, tax season, winter tackle prep, trying to get on the water, and life in general, the ANGLR Blog has been put on the backburner for a while.  Now it's time to do some catching up.  I have made a list of posts, and I'm eleven posts behind.  So here's a "headline" preview of what's coming up:

1. Today's post - New Personal Best Largemouth - 2/20/16
2. River Bassin' 2016 Kickoff Event - Crawfordville, FL
3. KBF National Championship
4. Nite Ize Field Staff Announcement/Testimonial
5. Etowah River 3/30/16
6. Reel Krazy Season Opener - Brushy Branch - 4/2/16
7. Carters Re-Reg 4/3/16
8. Etowah River 4/13/16 - Doomsday for Big Spots
9. Redfish with Scales N' Tails Kayak Charters, Choctawhatchee Bay, FL
10. First Smallmouth and First Shoal Bass Within Four Days!
11. Reel Krazy - Rocky Mountain PFA

So there's a lot of good content coming hopefully sooner than later.  Fishing season is in full swing and I don't want to get too far behind like this again, so let's get started...

As mentioned in an earlier post around New Year's, one of my resolutions was to add a smallmouth bass to the list of black bass species I have caught.  I was staying with my folks in Tennessee, so I decided to go back where I went for the Chattanooga River Bassin' tournament the previous summer. I caught largemouths and spots in the tournament, but several nearby anglers caught nice smallies.  My plan was to launch at the North Chickamauga Greenway Park, paddle down below the locks and around the barge tie-offs, railroad bridge, and jetty below Chickamauga Dam, and try to get that elusive bronzeback.

It was misty with rain threatening much of the morning, but the temperature was mild for the season in the lower 50's.  The morning started off well as I made my way down the creek, occasionally casting into some of the numerous brush piles and rock outcroppings.  The place just looked fishy that day.  The water color was perfect, hardly anyone else was out, and I couldn't ask for a better situation.

North Chick Greenway Launch

It didn't take long to hook into a couple of small largemouth as I ran my chatterbait parallel to a blowdown for the first one, and swam a grub by a dock for the second.

When I got out close to the dam, I was in for a big surprise.  It had been a while since I had a bite up in the creek, and I was almost to the spot where I was going to target smallmouth.  I casted a soft plastic to a piece of structure, worked it back a few feet and felt something very heavy. Like a log, but it moved.  For the next 45 seconds (it's on GoPro but the footage is a little embarrassing), I was going head-to-head with an absolute hog that weighed in at 6.23 pounds and measured 21" in length and 16.5 in girth.  It was my first fish over 20 inches and my first over 5 pounds, by far.  It took several minutes for me to calm down enough to get photos and measurements, but I managed.

I made my way out to the lock area and downstream structure, and marked lots of suspended fish but was unable to catch any.  At that point, it didn't matter.  I was getting tired and my phone was dead, so I couldn't let anyone know I was okay.  I paddled back up the creek, and caught a nice 3 lb spot along the way measuring 17.25".  So my best 3 for the day were 14.5", 21", and 17.25" for a total of 52.75" - not bad for February!

17.25" spotted bass

Winter Creekin' With Reel Krazy, Part II

When you're "Reel Krazy," you jump at every chance to go fishing when a warm day comes in January.  Or a cold day, for that matter.  The Saturday of January 30th, 2016 happened to be one of those Chamber of Commerce Saturdays that fishermen dream about when the dead of winter rolls around.  Lows in the upper 30's, highs in the upper 50's - just plain pleasant compared to the sometimes miserable weather we come to dread this time of year.

Jason Hopper, Shane Young, Todd West, Zack Turner and I met at one of our favorite waterways - a beautiful, relatively under-pressured stream in northeast Alabama.  I had been to this particular creek twice before.  The first time I caught 24 fish, and the second time I caught 11 fishing a different  section downstream.  We were back on the upper section where I had smoked 'em the previous summer, and I was quite excited to be back.

When I fished this section last summer, the gauge was in the 80-90 CFS range - very low and very scrapy.  On this day, it was a different creek.  Most of the rocks I had to carefully maneuver around in August were submerged, and the shoals were quite swift.  The gauge was around 530 CFS that morning.  Still, the place looked inviting and fishy as ever.

The place lived up to my expectations within five minutes of me being on the water.  After a couple of short strikes on the first few casts, I downsized from a worm to a grub and landed a nice largemouth just upstream of the put-in.  It was 18.75 inches, and had a lamprey attached to its stomach.  I did not weigh the fish, but it was probably not much over 3 pounds because of the parasite. She was long but looked a little bit skinny under the pelvic fins on the Hawg Trough.

Photo by Jason Hopper

Off to a good start

Three casts later I landed another small largemouth, and I got to thinking it was going to be another day like the one I had last summer.

After that, however, things slowed down for quite a while.  A few of us would pick up a fish or two along the way, but none of us were slaying them.  I had brought my GoPro along for its second voyage.  I thought I had the nice largemouth from the first few minutes of the trip on camera, but it turned out I had done something wrong, and did not get any of the footage from that catch.

Later, I would get a decent spotted bass on camera that would turn out to be my first fish caught live on the GoPro.  At this time, I did not have an over-the-shoulder mount setup, so I either had to do the "hero" shot from the bow of the boat, or do a low-angle POV from the Mad Frog Gear dashboard.  The latter was what I used while catching the fish, but I was able to turn it around for a pose and capture a nice still-frame.

One of these days, I hope to be embedding some quality videos within my posts, but right now, trimming and putting together dozens of clips seems like a daunting task. The GoPro software doesn't seem very user-friendly, and my old Mac doesn't have the memory to play 1080p video very smoothly.  However, I did trim down a nice little underwater video of me releasing a largemouth I caught later in the day.

That largemouth was caught in a stretch of slack water that we hit just after lunchtime.  There was a nice set of shoals that provided a bit of a class II rush at 500 CFS, followed by sandbar on river left where we took a break and ate a snack.  I decided to wade fish a bit before we hit the slack stretch, but didn't catch anything.

This particular stretch of slack water we hit after lunch proved to be the best fishing of the day.  All five of us started catching fish, including some really healthy fish.  I even caught my personal best spotted bass - a 18.75" fat girl weighing in around 4.5 pounds.

Zack with a nice one

Shane with a monster largemouth

My personal best spotted bass - Photo by Jason Hopper

At the end of the day, I had pulled in seven bass, with my best three totaling 51.75".  It was not a tournament, of course, but it was a personal best 3-fish total length.  It was a far cry numbers-wise, from catching 24 fish, but the quality of what I did catch more than made up for the decrease in quantity.  Even if the day had turned out to be a complete skunk, it was still nice to take advantage of a nice January day and get out on the water with some good friends.

CBY "Frostbite Biathlon" #1 - January 16, 2016

Since I have bought my kayak, I have been pretty much laser-focused on becoming a better bass angler.  But I was raised on crappie fishing.

An opportunity to do both competitvely presented itself to me a few weeks ago on Chickamauga Lake.  The Chattanooga Bass Yakkers held a casual, for-fun type tournament on January 16th, and the  scoring format was the total length of the best three crappie, plus the length of one bass.  It was a ten dollar buy-in with a pack of plastics or a lure going into the big bass pot.

The last multi-species tournament I entered, I had a really tough time managing my time and focusing on catching different species, and it was a tough bite.  I still haven't figured out exactly how to plan for these types of tournaments, but here's how I tried.

During prep & planning, I asked myself a simple question.  What lures do I have that will effectively catch both crappie and bass?  I came up with a short list:

• inline spinners
• drop shot
• jigs
• beetle spin
• float-n-fly

So it was going to be a light tackle sort of day - not something I'm very used to on a lake like Chickamauga.  I ended up rigging four rods:

• A shakey head setup, because it's my confidence bait for bass.
• A dropper rig with a non-traditional bait - more on that later.
• An ultralight rigged with a panfish magnet under a bobber.
• An ultralight rigged with a regular crappie jig.

The Diablo Amigo rigged and ready at Savannah Bay launch

The morning of the tournament was chilly, but nowhere near unbearable, and the high temperature was going to be in the mid-50's. A dozen of us showed up, and launched around 8 AM from Savannah Bay.  I didn't have to go far to catch my first crappie. I caught it on a panfish magnet by the bridge piling about 20 yards from the launch about a 20 minutes into the day.  Unfortunately, it was too small to reach the increment markings on the Hawg Trough.  I stayed by the pilings a while longer but didn't get another bite from the crappie.  I did miss a hookset on the shakey head, and reeled up just a fish scale about the size of a nickel.  There were reports of some big freshwater drum being caught in the area that day, so I figured that's probably what I missed.  Not the species I was after, but probably would have been a fun fight from the yak.

I had fished a Reel Krazy tournament from the Savannah Bay launch late in the summer of 2015, and caught a limit that included one really nice largemouth in an area near the junction of Savannah and Wolftever creeks a little over a mile from the launch.  I fished a few good looking spots as I started making my way back to that area, and picked up my only keeper size bass of the day off a bluff wall, a 12.5 inch largemouth.

With a bass under my belt, I now had to focus on catching more crappie, but occasionally throwing the shakey head in high-percentage areas to try and cull my bass.

Not long after catching the bass, I pulled another tiny crappie and a bream from a large blowdown.  I fished the blowdown for almost an hour before I headed the area to the creek junction I had planned to spend the rest of the tournament fishing.

The rest of the day was a skunk, except for a small bass taken on a crappie magnet near another brush pile.  I threw the panfish magnet in a couple of different colors, a Bobby Garland minnow on a jighead, and a chartreuse 1/16 oz jig, and got one bite.  I even used a streamer fly on the dropper rig. I had one bite on it as well but no fish. That was a complete shot in the dark - I wanted to try using a fly on a conventional rig.  While I wasn't successful using it, it's something I want to try again sometime because I believe it could work, either on a dropper or drop shot rig.

The crappie needed to grow.

I went back to the 1:00 weigh-in to turn in the photo of my bass, and that 12.5" total was good enough for 7th place out of 12.  We got off the water just in time, because the wind picked up that afternoon and it got very cold.  We all expected better results with the pre-frontal conditions but the crappie bite was slow to almost non-existent. Most of us caught small ones but keepers were hard to come by. The winner of the tournament turned in 32.75" on two crappie and a bass. No one had a full four-fish limit.

Frostbite Biathlon #1* wasn't a complete failure because I caught five fish, and caught the target species.  But it could've been better with some frying pan sized crappie instead of baby ones.

*Frostbite Biathlon #2 was held on 1/30/16 out of Ware Branch, but I did not participate in that one.

Winter Creekin' with Reel Krazy, Part I

Mild weather and a period without much rain made it possible for me and some of the Reel Krazy fellas to hit the creek on January 9th.  It was my first time on this particular creek, and it was quite a nice paddle, not too far from the house, with some good scenery and a few hungry fish.  I met up at the park by the takeout with  Jason Hopper, Jim Clark, Jim Ware, Shane Young and newcomer Zack McElveen that morning, and we took off to the put-in.  Thanks also to Clint Henderson for helping out with the shuttle even though he wasn't able to fish with us. The water was a perfect hue of blue-green and we were all ready to take advantage of the conditions and enjoy the day.

Meeting Up

It didn't take long to get a few bites, but I was missing fish early in the trip.  Eventually, I was able to catch three fish - 2 spotted bass and a largemouth.  The better of the two spots and the largemouth both measured in the 14-15" range.  The last spot really made me happy because it was like getting a birdie on the 18th hole.  I had gone a while without a fish, then finally hooked up on a finesse worm  in a deep hole about 20 yards from the takeout.

Thanks to Jim Ware for the grip-n-grin photos.  Also, check out his blog at Rivergoat Kayak Adventures - you'll enjoy his accounts of his many travels in the plastic boat.  I had met Jim at a couple of events, but this was my first time to share the water with him, get to hear some good stories and talk fishing.

Largemouth in the Channel Bend

Spotted Bass near the Takeout

Stand-up Paddling Among the Rock Formations

Rock Formations at the Takeout

The Reel Krazy Fleet

Ringing in 2016

New Year's is a time in which hope springs eternal - new goals are set, resolutions are made. Aside from my personal, spiritual, and family goals, I set a couple of fishing resolutions as well.  One was to learn some new techniques, and the big one was to catch my first smallmouth and shoal bass.

Those smallmouth and shoalie trips will come later in the year, but I did get to go fishing on January 3rd for the first time in 2016.  I loaded up for an afternoon on Lake Acworth.  I had gotten a GoPro for Christmas, and I was hoping to break it in with some epic footage of a struggle with big bass. Or a small bass. Or a medium sized bass.

I had removed the stock 1/4"-20 screw, and replaced it with a Ram Tough Ball in the well-nut under the back of the carry handle on the bow of my Diablo Amigo, and I had a Ram mount adapter for the camera set up to get that "hero" shot of the hookset and the landing.

Not too long after launching, I found out that I needed to conserve battery life as much as possible.  Forty-five minutes into the trip, the battery was dead.  I had a 64GB card and thought I would get several hours of footage, but did not realize the battery life was only 55 minutes. (I had spent about 10 minutes learning to sync the GoPro with my phone via WiFi, so that cut into my filming time as well).  I did not get a bite in the first hour, so no epic fish fight today - just some paddling and casting.

The southeast fell victim to some major flooding over the Christmas holiday, and while the water levels had receded a lot, there was still a lot of color in the water.  Dark colored jigs and plastics were going to be the order for the day.  Learning how to fish jerkbaits and swimbaits could wait until the water cleared up.  It was my first trip of the year, and I did not want to start 2016 with a skunk.

About two and a half hours went by before I made my way around a point and started casting a 3/8 oz  shaky jighead with a magnum junebug worm.  I was just dragging it on the bottom out from the point, rather than hopping it, and the movement suddenly stopped.  I felt dead weight and gave the rod a good sweep.  The fight had begun with the first fish of 2016, and it was a good one - a 17.5" spotted bass.  It was my only fish of the day, but I went home that night feeling good about the prospects of the new year.  Last winter, I struggled mightily to catch fish, but so far this winter, I have been able to grind it out and keep catching a few on most of my trips.

Thanksgiving 2015 at Carters Lake

Every year, I find I have a long list of things for which I can be thankful.  This year was no different.  I thank God for blessing me with the ability to have the things I need, and even some stuff I want as well.  This Thanksgiving morning, I was able to spend a few hours on Carters Lake before the marathon of eating and watching football commenced.  I was on the road to Doll Mountain ramp near sunrise, and was greeted with a beautiful sight as I drove over the ridge before the steep descent down to the lake.

It was an early launch and the temperature was in the 40's, but it was forecasted to warm up nicely by midday.  The fall had been relatively mild, and I figured I could find a few stragglers left in shallow water.  As I suspected, I was marking some schools in 40-50 feet of water as I crossed the first couple of creek channels.  But, there was a lot of bait still running shallow, so I was confident I could catch my first Carters Lake fish throwing my old reliable trick worms.  Word has it, there are only two colors you need to throw on Carters - green pumpkin and green pumpkin.

A little backstory on Carters...  This was my third time on the lake, and I had been skunked twice the previous winter - once on a day trip to fish for fun, and once in my first kayak bass tournament on a day when the ramp was iced over.  And fishing "shallow" in Carters is a relative term if there ever was one.  It's a deep, clear impoundment - one of the deepest in the eastern United States.  It's not uncommon to be sitting in a boat 20 yards from the bank, and be in 50+ feet deep water.  The depths top 300' near the dam itself.

Within the first hour, I was able to break my drought, and landed a 15" largemouth on a (gasp) green pumpkin worm.  An hour or so later, I landed a 12.5" spot on the opposite side of the same creek mouth.  I paddled all the way back in the creek and didn't get another bite, throwing the worm as well as a chatterbait and a jig.  By this time, my time on the lake was getting short. But there was one main lake point I wanted to paddle up and try before I had to leave.

I made it around the point where the main river channel swings close to the rocky bank, positioned my Amigo over about 17 feet of water and casted into the current and parallel to the bank.  As soon as my shakey head hit the bottom, BANG.  Before I could even engage the reel, I had a bite.  I thumbed the spool immediately and set the hook, as my paddle was in my right hand.  I rested my paddle and finally engaged the reel and could tell the fish was still on, but swimming toward me.  It actually spit the lure once on the way back, but the heartbreak was short-lived as I felt the dead weight a second time.  This time, I drove the hook home and played the fish another 10 seconds or so before I netted my personal best spot.  It was a chunk, just over 18 inches and just over 4 lbs on the Boga Grip.  After a couple of selfies and a Hawg Trough pic, I released the fish to let her grow some more.

As soon as I released that fish, it was time to paddle back to the ramp and head to Jasper for Thanksgiving with family.  I won't soon forget that one.  Best 3 (and only 3) fish totaled 45.5".  These were also the first three fish caught on the shakey heads I had powder-painted myself.