First off, Mike, aka theZman, was expecting to get to work on his car in my garage, but due to an un-expected new hobby that popped up in my life, I've been too busy doing it, and neglected my wife, a few other buddies, work, the house, the cars...etc. I never knew that fishing off a darn kayak would be so thrilling, time intensive, expensive, tiring, and stressful when the season would come to an abrupt stop when the weather chilled down. I got "hooked" late in the season anyways, and I didn't expect to get to go out as often as I had.... but with the extended summer-like weather conditions... I had to get out on the water as much as possible. The temps are just now dipping into the 40's....and I bought enough gear to be able to fish deep into the 10's.

I originally set after landing a huge striper, so I could get a picture of me with a huge fish on my kayak...but the striper's just were not as abundant as they should have been...and the extended warm season of fishing...has opened up to the succulent Tautog. (BlackFish) I'm now after a huge Tog... I had it 3 times this week, but my 20 lb line broke all three times, so I got a spool of 80 lb leader to match my 30 lb braid on my new Shimano 6000D Bait-runner reel. I've already gone thru buckets of crabs to get this darn fish.... it's got to be tastier because all it eats is crab. I caught two of it's little brothers, one ended up as sashimi, (and it was one of the best fish I have ate raw) and the other one will end up as a tin-foil bake tonight.

When the weather gets too cold for me to have fun outside, then I'll sort the garage out, and you can have "free reign" to work on your car.





To the other Z kids. I'm sorry, but my Z project or the CRX project will be going back up on the shopping network very soon. I'd like to get a real fishing boat, a truck to pull it, and maybe another kayak. I actually can't decide...since this is all new to me. My parents had a pontoon boat, we all loved it...slow, easy to handle...camp out and BBQ with a lot of beer. Brother in law was a huge pro-bass guy...his bass boat took up a 3 car garage...and was over $40,000...but was a blast to get to a spot on game day. A guy at work takes us out on his simple open bow...we're comfortable. Another guy at work had a cuddy cabin...bass fishing... and yet I've been on a walk-about...get wet...but fish everywhere.

If there was a boat that had the room of a pontoon, got to a place like a performance bass boat, fished comfortably like the a walk-about, but stayed dry like a bow-rider, and was affordable....and can carry my kayak for when I want to do some "private" fishing.., +galley, shower, kitchen, toilet...etc....

I'd give up my CRX or Z..or both...

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Also Known As Clayton Pace