Yesterday, I was out on the James River here in the western suburbs of Richmond, VA. My sister (avid kayaker) and I paddled up river about a mile or so, and floated back, gently paddling along with the current. I grabbed my wife Margaret's fishing rod (early 90's Shakespeare TSP60 medium action rod & Garcia 230 spinning reel), since she rarely uses it. Look close next to the black rod holder, and that's one of my custom-made, 4" long Rapala clone, in a Ghost Shad coloring. It worked too, as I caught a nice (but small) smallmouth bass with it! I tossed it back, as I wouldn't eat anything out of the James River -- ick... Too much mercury, too much kepone or whatever decades old chemicals are still in the river. Oh, and, in case anyone questions or complains... My PFD is behind me in the bungee compartment... The James River is only like 4-5 feet deep. South of Richmond is where it really widens out, got dredged out centuries ago, and is 30 feet deep for barges and whatnot.

Kayaks are a blast Butch. I have a couple and we enjoy them but I don't fish out of mine. We get a bunch of wind here and ours have rudders controlled by pedals to make it easier.

Thanks, CI...

Fishing from a kayak is amazing because you can troll, you can silently drift, or you could anchor in a quiet cove. The bonus is the upper body workout you get without knowing it!

I enjoy going out in big waves. You can surf on a kayak but it usually ends up rolling it.

I can't take heavy waves in my fishing kayak (Cayman 124 --- 10' 4" and weighs 52 lbs empty). I'll get swamped right up over the gunnel. The good thing is that my fishing kayak is flat bottomed with two ridges/concave keels underneath. You can (carefully) even stand up in it and fish, if you wanted too!

Speaking of fishing... I made this knockoff copy/clone of the famous Mepps Aglia #3 yesterday, with my own idea (a 1/4" wide strip of prism tape vertically down the brass French spinner blade). The common parts/pieces of Mepps, along with a #6 treble hook and a red tubing insert. Believe it or not, on my second cast yesterday, I caught a small, maybe 6" - 7" baby smallmouth bass! I couldn't believe it.... I created an inline spinner lure, based on an idea in my head, and the darn thing works!

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Spinners can catch everything that swims. Good looking lure Butch. My favorite fresh water fish to catch Pomoxis nigromaculatus also known as Black Crappie. Had some 2 nights ago for supper and in addition to being God's answer to the challenge of making a warm water fish as beautiful as a trout....is pretty damn good eating.

Looks like a good time butch!