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Category Archives: Writings

Articles and Reviews by Henry

Fish Psych 101: Reflections on a Hot Streak (part II)

05 Friday May 2023

Posted by Henry Veggian in Essays, Kayak Fishing Posts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

confidence in fishing, kayak fishing, Largemouth Bass, psychology of fishing, sports psychology, tournament fishing, tournament kayak fishing

Overview

During the darkest hour of the recent pandemic, I started reading articles about sports psychology. It began with an article on the BBC news website about a phenomenon known as “Quiet Eye” that can be identified in certain elite athletes (I’ll have more to say about that in another post). It continued from there through sports journalism, scientific studies and science writing in various media. In short, I started to wonder how current research and concepts might apply to tournament fishing.

For example, I started asking questions about what’s happening in my body when I am fishing. How is physical exhaustion related to mental fatigue? What are my eyeballs doing in relation to what my hands are doing? Can I identify patterns of movement and thought – decisions I make – from my body language and movements in the countless hours of video I record? What is my brain doing? I began noticing things, and I started writing them up.

This second installment in my “Fish Psych 101” series is actually a sequel to the first article I wrote on the topic, which I posted last season.  In that article, I began asking questions about how types of brain activity might correlate with results in tournament fishing.

Here, I dive into the recent tournaments since that streak in late 2022, waters I fished, and my general mindset. I may be starting to elaborate a theory about “confidence” that goes against the grain of what I hear in most conversations about tournament fishing. What I know for certain is that something dramatic has changed in how I approach the water, mentally speaking.

As before, I am elaborating basic concepts and attempting to summon questions more than I am deciphering answers. At times, I feel like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Goethe’s poem, and I can’t quite figure out how to control the spell. Nonetheless, I make the cast.

Continue reading →

Learning the Water: Kayak Tournament Fishing in Falls Lake

20 Monday Mar 2023

Posted by Henry Veggian in Essays, Kayak Fishing Posts, Writings

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bass Fishing, CCKF, Falls Lake, jackson cruise 10.5, kayak fishing, kayak river bass fishing, kayak river fishing, kayak tournaments.

I. The Question

Fishing is an acquired skill. Like just about anything else worth doing, it requires practice. Some people are quick to learn the art of casting and tying knots, others require time to learn the basics. Some simply give up. I was tempted on several occasions, before I even began fishing from a kayak, let alone tournament fishing. It’s much easier to just watch people catch fish on television.

In order to fish competitively, you also have to learn about gear, techniques for specific types of fishing and also how to fish certain waters. Add in kayaks, with their specialization and physical effort, and you can understand why some folks buy a bass boat. Kayak fishing is not easy.

I know. As I said, I learned it all the hard way. I competed in kayak tournaments for nine years without a 1st place finish. Over the past three seasons, I have had four of them on three different lakes (Jordan, Shearon Harris and Falls). Each one of those lakes is a different animal, and I have been fishing them all for the past fifteen years (and in the case of Jordan, even longer).

Continue reading →

Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2022

22 Wednesday Feb 2023

Posted by Henry Veggian in Jackson Kayak Blog

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Tags

BITE FD product review, jackson kayak, JAckson Scupper plugs, kayak fishing, Kayak Fishing Posts, Mark IV drive

As a regular contributor to the Jackson Kayak Fishing Channel, I publish fishing reports, product reviews and kayak fishing advice. This is a compilation of my posts from 2022.

1. Scupper Plugs: Do I need Them?” is my fourth post to the Jackson site. In it I focus on an often overlooked kayak accessory – the scupper plug – and explain its importance and uses.

Click here to read my article.

    2. I fish rivers, and in this article, I explained how the new Mark IV Flex Drive affects river fishing from the Bite FD.

    Click here to read my post.

    Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2021

    21 Tuesday Feb 2023

    Posted by Henry Veggian in Jackson Kayak Blog

    ≈ Leave a comment

    Tags

    jackson cruise 10.5, jackson cruise legacy boat, Jackson Cruise Review, Jackson Kayak Blog, kayak fishing, Kayak Fishing Posts

    As a regular contributor to the Jackson Kayak Fishing Channel, I publish fishing reports, product reviews and kayak fishing advice. This is a compilation of my posts from 2021.

    1. This was my second post to the site, in 2021. Entitled “Late Winter Tournament bass Fishing in the Bite FD,” I wrote it after my improbable victory in a CKA Tournament on a very cold February day. This post gave me the idea to compose my Carolina Trail diary, which covered my entire 2021 tournament season with CKA.

    Click here to read the original post.

    2. This was my third blog post to the Jackson site. In it, I reviewed the Jackson Cruise 10.5, which is my favorite light paddling/fishing kayak from the old Jackson Fleet. No long produced, the Cruise is now considered a “Legacy Boat.”

    Click here to read the review.

    Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2020

    20 Monday Feb 2023

    Posted by Henry Veggian in Jackson Kayak Blog, Writings

    ≈ Leave a comment

    Tags

    Jackson Kayak Blog, Jackson Kayak Fishing Team, kayak fishing, Kayak Fishing Posts

    1. As a regular contributor to the Jackson Kayak Fishing Channel, I publish fishing reports, product reviews and kayak fishing advice.

    This was my first post to the site, in 2020.

    Click here for my complete review.

    Note: since 2022, the newer Jackson Bite FD has a completely new drive system, a new seat configuration and more.

    The Extraordinary Complexity of a Fishing Life: A Review of Janet Messineo’s Casting into the Light (2019)

    10 Sunday Jul 2022

    Posted by Henry Veggian in Book Reviews, Writings

    ≈ Leave a comment

    Tags

    Book review, Casting into the Light, Fishing Books, janet Messineo, John Cole, Martha's Vineyard, Striped Bass, Striped bass Fishing, Striper

    by Hank Veggian

    What holds a book “together?” Many readers will look for a theme or a message, a “take-away” that makes a “point” over many pages. I call them the miners, because they look to extract something useful from a book. Other readers read for the story, and take pleasure in moving with the tides. I call them the swimmers, because they go with the flow. A third type of reader: the editor. These readers take pleasure from a book’s style, and admire how the words are assembled, above all.

    There are always exceptions to the types, and other types. Can they all co-exist? How many personalities can inhabit a reader? What about a single life? And can they all be captured in a book? Janet Messineo’s Casting into the Light had me wondering about these questions. Did the book answer them? Maybe, and indirectly, but not because it sought to. And that’s why I enjoyed reading it. It’s a raw book in some ways, without major goals or some splendid architecture to showcase. It’s nonetheless a collection of stories that add up in some way to a portrait of a life, and an interesting one at that.

    Continue reading →

    Late Winter Bass Fishing

    07 Sunday Mar 2021

    Posted by Henry Veggian in Bio, Essays

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    Tags

    Bass Fishing, CKA, fish biology, Jackson Bite FD, Jackson Kayak Fishing Team, Jackson Kayaks, Jig Fishing, Largemouth Bass, North carolina, Shearon Harris Lake

    In this blog post for the Jackson Kayak website, I describe how paying attention to clues in the natural world (a deep water fish kill, buds growing on trees) led me to the winning bass bite at a tournament on a cold February day.

    Late Winter Tournament Bass Fishing in the Bite FD

    Jackson Bite FD: Product Review

    01 Monday Mar 2021

    Posted by Henry Veggian in Bio, Jackson Kayak Blog, product reviews

    ≈ Leave a comment

    Tags

    best price fishing kayak, Fishing kayak review, Jackson Bite, jackson BITE FD review, Jackson Bite review, Jackson Kayak Blog, Jackson Kayak Fishing Team, Jackson Kayaks, Kayak review

    My review of the Jackson Bite FD focuses on the kayak’s inviting and easily modified “Open” design. I also note other excellent features that should be considered (price point, material quality) for what is the best all around fishing kayak on the market.

    Link to full review: https://jacksonadventures.com/2020/05/the-jackson-bite-angler-and-bite-fd-accessibility-comfort-and-stability/

    Full Disclosure: I am a member of the Jackson Kayak Fishing team, and this review appears on their website. I wrote this article after several months of using the rig, and while revisiting it I am pleased with how well the review stands up. I have fished from many kayaks and have used other models at demos, and I always write unbiased, honest reviews. Scroll to the comments section of the site, below the article, and you will see an additional point I made about the fixed skeg, for example.

    Back-Tracking, Double-Guessing & Sloth: Notes from a CKA Event on the Cape Fear River

    27 Monday Jul 2020

    Posted by Henry Veggian in Essays, Kayak Fishing Posts

    ≈ Leave a comment

    Tags

    Bass Fishing, Bowfin Country, Cape Fear River, Carolina Kayak Anglers, CKA, Jackson Kayak Fishing Team, kayak fishing, Kayak Fishing Posts

    Saturday, July 25th, 2020.

    The forecast says baste your hide and prepare to be cooked.

    When I arrived at the launch site there was a truck parked there, but it wasn’t Drew Blair’s truck. A man emerged from the woods dragging a kayak from the direction of the river, his headlight beam a cloud of insects.

    “This isn’t the start I was expecting.”

    My second thought was “Where the hell is Drew?” A short conversation later, and I said goodbye to Mitch, the woodsman, who gave up on the launch site. “That’s a rough launch” he said. I offered to help Mitch because I knew, deep in my heart, that Drew was asleep and I wasn’t going to make it alone. He always sleeps in on tournament day. Sure enough, a phone call confirmed it. Thankfully, he lives nearby. Mitch declined.

    I waited in the dark for a bit. There wasn’t any morning breeze. I wondered if there was any air. I hoped to hide from the bugs in the darkness, but they found me. I was standing still but I was sweating. The sun would rise in 30 minutes. Drew, half asleep, rolled up and tried to use his Jedi mind powers to make the Hobie slide off his truck.

    I’ve launched from difficult locations. This one ranked near the top of the list. The weeds were waist high, ruts in the abandoned road were knee deep and the drop from the bank to the water was actually two separate drops that added up to a Cubist painting. After launching, I realized that one of my rods left one of my lures somewhere in a tree branch behind us.

    This isn’t an essay about how good I am at my favorite sport. It’s about a hot river and a cold bite. It’s about the risks I take, the decisions I make and the company I keep. It’s about admitting nature doesn’t care about your fishing plan – or any plan for that matter.

    Continue reading →

    Product Review: The Redline TailSpin

    05 Thursday Mar 2020

    Posted by Henry Veggian in Bio, product reviews, Writings

    ≈ Leave a comment

    Tags

    Fishing, kayak fishing, kbf, RedLine Lures, Sports, Tailspin Lures

    My review of this clever reinvention of a classic lure design is now up on the KBF Blog.

    Disclaimer: I am not on the RedLine Pro Staff. This is an article I wrote because of my interest in new interpretations of older lure designs.

    Click here for more: https://www.kayakbassfishing.com/blog-reinventing-the-tailspin/

    Thanks for reading!

    H

     

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    • Fish Psych 101: Reflections on a Hot Streak (part II)
    • Learning the Water: Kayak Tournament Fishing in Falls Lake
    • Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2022
    • Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2021
    • Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2020
    • Fish Psych 101: Reflections on a Hot Streak (I)
    • The Extraordinary Complexity of a Fishing Life: A Review of Janet Messineo’s Casting into the Light (2019)
    • Kayak Fishing: Wading, Portaging and Fishing in Fast Water
    • Form and Void: A Review of the Wilderness Systems Kayak Krate
    • Kayak Fishing in Carolina Country Magazine

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