Native Ultimate 12...

Well after a year in my Jackson Coosa I decided it was time for a change... I looked at several different manufacturers and weighed my choices between a sit on top and a sit in. I looked really hard at the Cuda 12, the Slayer 12, the Kilroy, and the Ultimate 12... The day before I order I hear about the new Old Town Predator..... Well I had decided to try a sit in so as interested as I was I had made my mind up. I went with the Native Ultimate 12. I had been a loyal customer of ACK. They had the angler series for $1099 and free shipping... Done deal. I went ahead and ordered a bow skirt and some other goodies. I placed the order on the 9th and on the 14th I anxiously awaited Estes.... Ah that big yellow truck finally came around the corner and I was like a kid on Christmas morning! Here is the unveiling ...

I installed the anchor trolley, depth finder and transducer arm that day... The following day I fished!

33 fish in 6 hours on the water. My first impression .... It was definitely different than my Coosa. The boat is super stable. It paddles with ease and tracks well. As far as speed... Well I was fishing to much to try and test that out. I haven't had it in water with current an didn't stand because I was within spitting distance of gators all day. The boat glides after each paddle stroke. There does seem to be a tendency for the boat to turn as you stop paddling. My theory is that the pontoon style hull is super sensitive to weight transfer. It isn't a deal breaker but it did take a little getting use to. I am still tweaking the boat when it comes to tackle storage and rod holders. The boat comes with two flush Scotty rod holders installed where the normal flush tubes would be. They are kind of awkward and I may end up replacing them with the tube style. 

Tourney season ... One week out

     

      Well here I sit one week out from my first tourney out of the Jackson Coosa and I find my confidence in the gutter. We all have those days that we just don't catch fish. No one likes to talk about it but it happens to the best of them. The reason this picture is of the rock and not me smiling and holding a fish up is because I never saw one! Not on my line at least. I decided to go up and prefish this past Saturday. Good weather following a less than ideal week weather wise. Temps were in the low 50's when I arrived at the ramp before daylight. I had been told that the water temps were in the low 50's so I was thinking prespawn pattern. I had my confidence baits tied on, SK 3XD in a custom nasty shad color, Big Bite Baits 6" Kriet Tail in Talapia, a custom double willow spinnerbait in a shad color, and a weightless creature bait.
      I had never seen the lake before other than on Google Maps. I had some ideas where I wanted to fish but I had to contend with a ton of boats. There was a SJBA tourney there that day and they had a good turnout. I waited till they all launched before I unloaded. Once in the water I paddled to the first spot, nothing. Paddled to the next spot, nothing. This was the only pattern I was able to figure out all day long! My track on Navionics said I totaled out on the day having paddled 8.35 miles! (Big props to the Carlisle Expedition!) I got back to the ramp and was loading up when a jon boater came up to do the same. He had fish! Only a couple but there they were on ice and about to head to the frying pan! I took a quick inventory of his rods .... spinning rod, spinning rod, spinning rod ... hmmmm .... I had mine too. The difference was I never threw it! I thought about the way I had fished all day on the way home. I wanted the fish to eat what I wanted them to eat. Stubborn! I knew better, I knew what to fish before I went, I even ordered it all from Tackle Warhouse ... it was right there in my YakAttack BlackPak the whole time!
      I came home dejected, confused, and curious. Curious as to how those SJBA folks had done. I soon found out by way of Facebook and then the SJBA website.... It took 17.74 pounds to win that tourney with the big fish of the tourney being in the 6 lb range... I had done it all wrong. Luckily it was prefishing and not on tourney day. So as I sit here with less than a week before the SKA hits Stone Mountain, I have a game plan.... Let ya know how it goes!

Carlisle Expedition Product Review

Carlisle Expedition Kayak Paddle

 

       I have been in the market for another paddle now for a couple months. I asked for advice and most of the guys said Bending Branches, more specifically the angler series. I looked at the specs and I looked at the prices.... $200-$300 bucks... Why? Because they have built in measuring device on the shaft? Because there is a notch in the blade to help retrieve snagged lures? Because it is 3 ounces skinnier? Now don't get me wrong, I am by no means putting down the Bending Branches brand and I would be dishonest if I didn't indulge that I have never even put one in the water. This is not to belittle one brand or to boast another, it is simply to say this.... I found an economical paddle that performs well, weighs very little, and suits my needs for less than $120... Here are the specs.

 

Blade Material:	fiberglass
Shaft Material:	fiberglass
Lengths (cm):	220, 230, 240
Weight:	33 oz. (220 cm length)
Blade Colors:	yellow
Shaft Color:	yellow

 

Carlisle msrp is 159.00 and the paddle can be found at this price at a ton of retailers. Me being the person that I am, I always look for a better deal. I was lucky enough to find the paddle for 109.00 on Amazon.com. With shipping I had the paddle in three days for a grand total of $114.30. Although the specs list the paddle as being yellow it is actually translucent. The color comes from the resin used in the manufacturing process. The paddle is not finished, meaning it is not painted or coated to alter the color with the exception of the black section at the drip rings. The shaft is not perfectly round but rather oblonge to make the grip more ergonomic. My first day on the water I paddled for more than two miles in the wind and when I got back on land I felt like I hadn't paddled at all. Overall I was more than impressed. I don't think that this paddle can compete with the higher end paddles with carbon fiber shafts in the weight category, but I have yet to find an all glass paddle that outshines the Carlisle Expedition. They also offer a paddle that is listed as an angler series expedition with the same msrp.

The angler edition had a painted shaft and blade as seen above and does come in an ounce heavier because of it. Both models have a push button take down and the blades can be feathered at 60 degrees both ways or inline.

 

 

     The bottom line for me is this... I am not on any pro teams or pro staffs. If I have it, I have either bought it or built it. My reviews are not biased by an image that I am trying to put forth for one company or another. I am not saying that Carlisle has built "the" paddle, I am simply saying that they have "a" paddle with a price point that a lot of people can handle and with performance to match. Check em out if you are in the market for one.

 

*note to self* ... see if Carlisle needs a pro staffer!!! Hahaha.... Tight lines everyone!

 

Anchor Trolley Install

As most of us probably do I have slowed down a bit with the fishing but I simply can not stop thinking about it. I recently purchased a shallow water anchor and had been using the scupper hole as my hold when anchored. It worked ok but I opted for the 8 footer so you can imagine in 5 feet of water I had a good 2 feet sticking through the boat! So a trolley was a neccasary addition. I had been looking a good bit and there are some really nice systems out there. Then I got to thinking..... It is really just some pulleys, a ring, and some cord.... Heck I had 2/3rds of that in my garage! The rest was readily available at my local hardware store. I figured with my outings being mostly fresh water nickel plated hardware would be perfect. I picked up two pulleys and a 1 1/2 in ring and started playing with the setup. The coosa has several pad eyes on either side for the dog lease drag chain system so I was hopeful that I could do another no holes install. After setting it up I quickly found that an extra pad eye was going to be a must to get the trolley to line up properly. I had a pad eye and again started playing with placement. Once I was satisfied I marked my holes and drilled them using a 3/16 bit. Applied a little goop and tightened it down with stainless screws and lock nuts. I used 1/8 bungee to tie the pulleys to the pad eyes to give the trolley a little give. Ran my 550 cord and secured my ring to both ends. Trimmed off all my excess and melted the cuts to prevent any fraying. In the end I now have a fully functioning anchor trolley for less than 10 bucks...

Lowrance Elite 4x install

     I have seen a ton of pictures of how people have went about installing their fish finders and a lot of them involve drilling holes in the yak at some point. One great thing that Jackson has done is added inserts so you can utilize ram mounts that simply screw in. Lowrance is the first company to really start to market their product for use on kayaks and have even developed a scupper hole transducer mounting system. Although there are ways to utilize the mount with some modification on the Coosa (due to the oblonge scupper holes) it again requires you to either drill a hole in your yak or have loose wires running through the cockpit area. Having all this knowledge I decided to shoot the transducer through the hull and utilize the inserts for a no holes installation.

The mount was originally for a hand held GPS. I modified it by tapping the bottom with a 1/4" tap and inserted a sainless steel bolt and cut off the head once it was installed. I then made a plate that would fit either a Humminbird or Lowrance base.

I made a transducer pad out of some foam and used marine goop to secure it to the kayak. In the Coosa I opted to remove the large foam insert and install it just behind it and centered on the yaks hull. Once it had sat for a while with a small weight on it I filled the void with goop being careful not to allow bubbles and popping any that did form.

The transducer was then put into the pool of goop and pressed down and leveled leaving approximately 1/8" of goop between it and the yak. I used painters tape to hold it into place and checked it periodically over the next few hours. Several times I had to tweek it a bit to keep it level and centered.



I decided to utilize the day hatch as my access point for the wiring. I used a rat tail file and removed a portion of the lip to allow the hatch to remain water tight.

I tested the fit several times and removed enough material where wire chaffing would not be an issue and the wires did not interfere with the lid.

I inserted the bag portion of the day hatch and made a small slit just big enough for the wires to pass through. Now I wouldn't have to fish the wires up everytime I used the fish finder and still had the storage on the days I did.







The finished product was clean when in use and was completely stowable when not in use with minimal alteration to the yak.

I utilized the large foam insert for both keeping the 20 foot of tansducer wire neat, and to hold my battery in place. Simple zip ties were inserted through the foam block for the wire hold. I utilized a length of 1/4" bungee and secured it through the block as a battery hold.

I have had the yak out a couple times and I am still learning the unit but overall I have been really happy with the install. No problems with transducer interference and after being in the water for a few minues the hull seems to register within a degree or two of the water temp.



Flat Water Bassin'

 

 

 

With the holidays upon us and the temps slowly dipping further south I decided I was gonna fish as much as I could over the Thanksgiving holiday. It all started on the 21st at Houston Lake. Houston Lake has always been a favorite quick trip for me. It isn't the most dependable of fishing holes and I have had my share of days where I only catch one or two, and a time or two where I have been skunked. The lake has its fair share of vegitation. It has pads and all kind of aquatic grasses. I expected a lot of it to be dying off and was hoping that the bass would be chasing bait and fattening up for the winter. I was only on the water for about 2 minutes when I saw the tell tell ripples followed by the splash. I was no more than a hundred feet from where I had put in and it was fish on! There was a school chasing small bait fish and when they broke the surface I cast past them and burnt my spinner bait back through.... 6 cast and 6 fish ... then it went dead. All the fish were in the 2lb. range and when they hit that spinner bait they hammered it! I did slow down long enough to take a picture after the bite died off.....

 



 

I paddled around the north edge and then across the lake and back to the ramp. I managed to catch a Chain Pickerel about 20" long but she slithered out of my grip before I could snap a picture. I loaded up and pondered my next destination.

 

Day 2: Flat Creek PFA

 

I live in Centerville and my parents live down south in a litte town called Unadilla. Since I had to head south for Thanksgiving anyway it only seemed right that I leave a litte early and hit up Flat Creek PFA. The water has remained low for a couple years now after lightning took out the well pump that helped keep the levels up. It isn't known for big fish and most of the time there are more bank fisherman than boats. I expected to stay on the water for maybe a few hours at most and had hoped to pick up a few fish. After about 15 minutes on the water I decided to paddle back to a cove near the dam and fish some timber. I picked up a few dinks on a square bill. I fished around the timber and let the wind help me along. As I rounded the point there was a guy bank fishing and we chatted for a minute before I paddled off. I went straight across to another area with a good bit of submerged timber. I began casting and letting the wind push me gently towards the bigger timber. I hooked into something that felt like a good one only to have my line go slack on me a few seconds later. I fired the square bill back into the same area and as soon as I felt it deflect off some wood ... boom fish on! She started ripping a little line and turned my coosa 180 degrees as she run across the bow. Luckily it pulled me right into two pieces of timber and I was able to play her a bit to get some of the fight out of her. My first glimpse came when she turned and ran straight at me and under the yak and I could feel my heart rate double... she was a nice one and I wanted to get a picture with her something serious! A few more runs and I finally managed to lip her.... I got her unhooked and let out a big yell... I weighed her and snapped a few pictures and put her back for another day... she went 4 lbs. 9 oz. I figured it wasn't gonna get any better than that so after only and hour and a half on the water I loaded up with a huge smile on my face.... time for some turkey!

 

 



 

Day 3: Honey Hole

 

On day 3 I decided to leave the Jackson Coosa in the garage and head out with my old man in his Jon boat. This little place is special. One of those places you don't tell anyone about and try your best to keep to yourself. Well we hit the water around 10. Wind was a little higher than I like but I was in the bag seat all I had to do was fish! We had a decent day for this place. We ended the day with about 20 fish by 1:30..... usually that number is doubled easily. All in all it was a great day on the water with my Dad .... heck it would have been a great day if I hadn't caught a single fish but the fact that we did was icing on the cake. I took a few pics of the best of the day and even made the old man an honarary member of the Yak Devils ....

 

So there it is ... 3 days of fishing and 3 days of catching. I had planned on taking a trip to the river today but instead I opted for a warm couch and football game or two. I am already regretting that decision! Tight Lines ....



      I am creating this blog to share with friends and fellow fisherman. Blogging is new to me but fishing has long been a passion of mine. I started out fishing with my Dad and brother in small farm ponds. As I got older other activities took center stage but now that I am older I have fell in love all over again with the water. I recently got into kayak fishing and slowly but surely I am learning. With fall embracing the fine state of Georgia and the water temps falling I am trying to get on the water as much as possible. I founded Yak Devils for Kayak Wars 2013! I can't wait and I am stoked to fish new waters for new species. I also plan on attending some of the GKF and SKA events as well as KBF online tourneys in the coming year. I will be keeping track of my adventures on the water here. Tight lines ....