Winter for most parts of South America is the rainy season with water levels rising significantly causing lagoons and rivers to merge together into one large flood plain for much of the Amazon Basin. Rain is daily and comes down very hard and is nothing like anything experienced in the US or Canada. In fact, the rains are very similar to the monsoons in India. The higher water levels increase the Peacock Bass’s habitat, which makes locating the fish much more difficult and can often be fruitless, other than catching a cold. If you are going to venture out during winter, casting is preferred over trolling and lures are... Read On

 Winter and Spring This time of year is when one of waters greatest features comes into play. Water is most dense at 4°C, but freezes at 0°C. The freezing water is less dense and rises above the dense 4°C water. This property allows the water column to freeze from the top down and keeps the lake from freezing solid. During this time the warmest water is at the bottom and the less dense water that isn’t frozen yet is in-between it and the ice. The fish can still move into the depths, and will likely be associated near deep structure. The deeper water will provide more stability and large groups of... Read On

Summer and Fall    It’s a common excuse during the fall “The fish aren’t biting because the lake is undergoing turnover”. I’ve even used it myself a few times. To help give you an idea of what techniques you should be using I will explain Lake Turnover in a simple manner and how it affects fish. I will start in the summer and work my way through the seasons until the next summer. I’m going to split it into two posts because there is a lot of information to cover. In the US, during the summer months most lakes will be stratified into two distinct layers of water.  The top... Read On

Kayak Transport I left the East Coast Canoe and Kayak festival and ran into a guy in the parking lot with a kayak he had just gotten a “steal” on at one of the show specials. He was standing next to his Toyota Celica scratching his head thinking out loud, “How the hell do I get this damn thing home?” There are numerous options available for transporting your kayak. Manufacturers like Yakima, Thule, and Malone offer an extensive selection of products and accessories. Most fishing kayaks can be easily transported on a roof rack specifically designed for your type of vehicle. It is important to consider this option because... Read On

I decided to add the STS – Silent Traction System to the kayak after going out for the first time because I was hitting the kayak with my paddle and just moving around in the kayak seemed to be too loud. I picked up both the kit and the two large square sections of the STS to rig on my kayak. I decided that the kit would go inside of the cockpit area and I could customize the square pieces for the rest of the kayak. I did notice that after I installed the rudder that sometimes it would slam on the kayak when I would lift it back... Read On

When we began rigging YakAttack products on the 2012 HOOK1 Edition WS Ride 135, there was a discussion of whether the GearTrac behind the cockpit should be 8″ or 12″ sections. Luther had 8″ sections available, so that’s what I used, but I kept it close to the cockpit so that I would have room to swap them out for 12″ sections later. Here, I’ll document how easy it was to make the switch. Here is the package, as received from YakAttack. You’ll notice that a drill bit is supplied with the kit. This bit is slightly undersized, since the mounting screws cut their own threads in the hull.... Read On

When most people hear float n’ fly they think smallmouth and it makes sense. The float n’ fly was developed by Charlie and Eddie Nuckols in Eastern Tennessee. This technique was aimed at targeting suspended smallmouth and spotted bass when the water temps started creeping into the low 40′s. It works because bait fish struggle to stay alive at these temperatures. What a lot of folks don’t know is this technique also works well for big largemouth. The traditional setup consists of a 1/16 oz fly (jig), weighted bobber, fish dope (scent) and a three way swivel. It’s fairly simple. Tie your line to the three way swivel and... Read On

It’s time to rig out my new Ride 135 from Wilderness Kayaks. One of the first items on the list is to install an anchor trolley. I ended up taking two different sets and combining the two to come up with the best trolley I could come up with. First, I laid everything out so I could see what all came with the kits and what I needed to get. The only other items that I needed to get to complete the installation was a few well nuts and stainless screws. One of the first things I had to do was to decided where I wanted to install the... Read On

As snow grips much or the north, we think forward to the spring and catching bass once again. For some in the far north, this can be as late as May. However, we need not wait nearly as long. Ice fishing is a great alternative to dreaming about fishing. I know many of you think of ice fishing as a useless waste of time as it is very cold and having to pull a bass of your hook with frozen fingers is as much fun as getting your fingers caught in a door. However, ice fishing is not the cold solitary sport as it used to be. Ice huts... Read On

Winter is still a good time to catch bass. However, you won’t be successful unless you employ different fishing techniques than you use in the rest of the year. When the air temperature is in the upper thirties to mid forties, smallmouth bass head into deeper water and become lethargic. A good place to find them is just off bluff walls and on gravel and rock banks where mud or clay meets the rocks. These are the areas that attract crawfish. Crayfish are smallmouth bass’s favourite food. Try your luck with jig and craw, grubs, small spinnerbaits and crankbaits, small straight worms that are Texas rigged. Tube jigs or... Read On