FISHING CLASS

This is a reminder that I will be having a fishing class Friday evening 6 pm to 8 pm at Canoe Kentucky. My plan is to talk about how I rig and target Elkhorn Smallies. Answer questions and we will talk a short time about Kayaks. Fishing Elkhorn is much different than fishing most creeks and lakes. Hope to see you there. I may give up a FEW of my secrets.

Taylorsville Lake Report

To be honest I hadn’t plan on doing a report on Taylorsville Lake. I went to the lake to try out my bass boat to see if the repairs had corrected the problem. Let me explain. In 2010 I purchased a new Bass Boat. It was a present to myself for my retirement. My last 2 boats had a Yamaha outboard on them and I had never had a problem with them . I wanted a Yamaha for my new boat guess what. For some reason they stopped making  a short shaft 200 hp outboard. I was talked into purchasing a 200 hp Evenrude Etec. For the first couple of years it performed great. While at Lake St Clair in 2013 it started missing bad. I was able to get a Evenrude mechanic to come in early at a dealer in Canada to look at it. It had a bad fuel injector. They didn’t have a replacement , but was able to get it working. When I got back home it developed a intermittent miss. I took it to dealers and they couldn’t find it. This problem persisted for 2 years. I had to pay every thing out of my pocket. I finally left it with a dealer for 5 months over the winter of 2015 and they finally found another bad fuel injector. This spring while at Lake St Clair guess what it started missing. Another bad fuel injector. The engine has less than 300 hours and it just went out of warranty. So far I have spent over $1000.00 on a new engine. So what I am tell you is DON’T EVER BUY A EVENRUDE. Back to fishing I ran the boat most of the time at the lake. I finally started fishing my normal creeks. What I found was the bass where back in the creeks scattered and on wood. I was using a shad color crankbait. They were in about 5 feet of water. I was very surprised that the lake was very clear. With all the rain I would have thought it would have been dingy. I boated 21 bass they were all in the 12 to 13 inch range and only loss 2 more. I did boat several Drum and Hybreds also. I hope to get back down there later in the week weather permitting. Till the next post hope to see you on the water.

South Elkhorn Creek

I when out yesterday with Sabrina and Aaron. This was their first time fishing South Elkhorn. The weather was hot and sunny, temperature was about 90. The water had a little color to it and the flow was about 90 cfs. With that flow it made it nice. I didn’t meet many rocks if you know what I mean. This was my maiden fishing trip in my new Jackson Kilroy kayak. I must say it was nice. The seat is very comfortable and the yak was surprisingly very stable. I love the rod holders. They keep my extra rods out of the way. I don’t have to worry about hitting or hanging them up, as I do with my Ultimate, The only negative is that it weights much more than the Ultimate. Now about the fishing.  The fish were hitting pretty good. The bad thing was , most were dinks. We were using shallow crankbaits and mini Flukes. I caught more Smallies on the crankbait, but Sabrina and Aaron caught more fish. They were catching Green Sunfish, Crappie, Shellcrackers, and of course Redeyes. My biggest fish was only about 13 inches. I finished the trip with 62 Smallmouths and with the Smallies that they caught we boated about a hundred total. I saw a number of bigger fish, but I guess the little guys were just more aggressive. Even with the small fish it was fun. The fish are biting so give them a try. Till the next post hope to see you on the water. I forgot to say that I have a short video of the trip on YouTube.

Kayak Report

I am going to do something different this post. I am going to compare some kayaks and my thoughts. Plus some fun reading at my expense. I now have a Native Watercraft Ultimate 12. This is my second one. I like the twin pontoons. They make the kayak very stable. I guess the biggest complain I have with it is if there is a rock or log sticking up near the surface I will get stuck on it. I believe this is do to the pontoons. For what ever the reason I will dead center  it and get stuck. Some times that is not a bad thing if I want to fish an area at length. The biggest problem is then you have to use your paddles to push you off of the obstruction. I really like the anchor system. It allows me to position the kayak facing up the current, across current and down current just by the position of the anchor on the track.

For some reason I am looking at a new kayak. It is probably due to my 2 young neighbors that hunt and fish with me now. They are looking at purchasing a couple of kayaks. Last week end we test rode 2 new Jackson Kayaks. The Kilroy and the Coosa. One is a sit in and the other a sit on top. First I am not a fan of the sit on top. This is due to me getting old. I don’t have the balance I use to have and to be honest I was never very graceful. The sit in are much more stable in my opinion. The negative is they are much harder to get in and out of. After our short test paddle Aaron couldn’t make his mind up if he liked the Kilroy or the Coosa best. Yesterday after turkey hunting in the morning we decided to give the 2 kayak a much better test ride. Elkhorn was up and running at a little less than 700 cfs. This was going to be the highest level I have paddled the creek. It was also the fastest I have covered the Knight Bridge to Canoe Ky. I was very impressed with the Kilroy, one of the main reason is that when I hit a rock it didn’t get hung up. Aaron was riding the Coosa and Sabrina was in a Tripper which is just like the Kilroy, but not set up for fishing. After we passed the Claw. Aaron decided he wanted to switch with me and try the Kilroy. To be honest I wanted to try the Coosa in swift water to see what all the young guys loved about it. There wasn’t really any rough water. It was just very swift till we got to the last rapids beside the road just up from Canoe Ky. I decided to go down the roughest part. The Coosa did fine till I hit the bottom and there was a heavy current being kicked out toward the center of the creek. When I hit that the kayak turned side ways and started hitting the rollers side ways. I lost my balance and guess who took a swim. I want to thank Aaron for coming to my rescue he was there by the time I came up. The only thing I wish he would work on is don’t run over the victim and sink him a second time. I was able to hold on to the Coosa and Aarons Kilroy till I got in shallow enough water so I could walk out. Aaron was able to recue my cap first than me. He has the right priorities. Sabrina recued the paddles. They were able to push it into shallow water and I turned it over and paddled the rest of the way to Canoe Ky. This is the second time I have taken a surprise swim in Elkhorn. The thing yesterday that surprised me  was the water didn’t taste as bad as the first time. I must be getting use to the taste. Second, 68 degree water is much warmer than 62 degree which it was the first time. I am hoping that it will only take 3 or 4 days before I can stand up to use the bathroom, instead of a week like last time. Third when the temperature is in the 60’s and you get wet it is amazing how fast you get cold. The good thing was I had a change of cloths in the truck. I almost felt sorry for all the wet floors I left in Canoe Ky till Cad took a picture of me soaking wet.

My finally thoughts. If you are young or have very good balance the sit on tops are very good to fish from. I am not a big fan of the scuppers. I would have to plug most of them because I drop so many things that it would cost me a fortune to replace. I guess I will just have to keep fishing from my sit ins and look like a real old man getting out of them.