bobbyK

I would say my rudder and toe pilot pedals would be the single best addition to my kayak. It has really improved my boat positioning and and drifting abilities and made all the difference in my distance paddling as well. The rudder I added was the SmartTrack rudder kit from ACK.

I am a Werner fan. If you have a flat paddling stroke - more out to the sides rather than more upright and vertical - you can get the Werner Skagit and have some money left over. Carbon shaft with reinforced blades will last forever and is still light enough not to wear you out on a long distance day. Plenty of good choices for $150 though. Have fun shopping!! and fishing!! Bob K

My summer hat of choice is the Outdoor Research Sombriolet Sun hat. It is a typical wide brimmed tilley like hat that is super light weight, not as expensive, washable, and cool while wearing it. I highly recommend this hat. Bob K

I have used the Bitsy Bugs a lot and have had good luck with them. My favorite trailers for them are the 3" Crazy Leg Chigger Craw or a Tiny Zoom Brush Hog. Makes for a nice little presentation for a finicky bass. Bob K

I bought one from Amazon for about $30. Works great and makes for a great way to store my yak. BobK

I love the smaller weight Bitsy Bugs for pond fishing and small water kayak fishing around my place. I prefer the greens and the browns in the 1/16 and 1/8 sizes cause they fall slow and seldom get caught up in the trash (sunken limbs, leaves, and wood) on the bottom near the shoreline. I have been using the smaller 3" crazy leg chigger craws and the tiny brush hogs as trailers. With all those appendages, you get plenty of action and they become irresistable to the local largies. They are so light though that it is less like jig fishing and more like fishing a skirted texas rigged plastic since they tend to rise off the bottom with every move. My thinking is that alot of the water I am fishing has a pretty mucky and muddy bottom so I want to lift the bait up and out and have it fall and re-land rather than drag it thru the bottom slime where it tends to get lost. YMMV Bob K

We are having scorching weather here in NC but early morning, the buzzbait is firing the local pond bass up. And if their aim is bad or my patience causes me to swing early, a Fat Ika on a cast back is getting the job done about half the time. Bob K

I agree with with Capt. Bob (a higher ranked Bob than me!). I have a bunch of lengths that I use for different situations. Front or back of someone's boat, I prefer 7' rods. For shore work, I use mostly 6' rods due to the overhanging trees and such limiting my casts and sets. For my kayak - my preferred fishing outing - I prefer mostly 6' rods just cause they are easier to handle sitting so close to the water. I do take 7' rods on the kayak but those are used almost exclusively for casting moving baits like cranks, spinnerbaits, and chatter and swim jigs. For slow baits, plastics, jigs, C-rig, etc, I like precision casting with shorter rods. Bobby K

When I think of bank fishing, my experience includes lots of rod breaking trees and brush to avoid when casting and having to put my rod and reel on the ground once in a while to bait, retie, unhook a fish, etc. This has led my thinking for a bank rod to be short, inexpensive, and flexible enough to cast, and my reel to be quality without being to expensive. My 3 favorite shore rigs are a 6' Medium/Fast St Croix Triumph with a Shimano 2500 Sahara. That rig has 20# braid. Next is a 6' Medium/Fast TechSpec rod I got with Dick's gift certificates and it is coupled also with a Shimano 2500 Sahara with 6# Copoly line. Finally, I have an older Berkley Series 1 6 1/2' Medium Fast with a Revo S and 12# Copoly. I usually only grab one rod and set off, but occasionally I will take a second. Bob K

Kayak guys use a black textured foam with self adhesive on the back to sound deaden surfaces on the boat that get knocked with tools, rods, anchors, paddles, the like. Google "silent traction system" and you will find information on it. For kayaks it is sold in kits ands smallish sheets but perhaps you can find larger pieces for a more traditional boat. Good luck, Bob K

For a 5" Senko, I tend toward a 4/0 Gammy EWG or the same size from BPS. Lately I have been bank fishing a lot with 4" senko and for them I prefer a 2/0 EWG from BPS. Caught and released a 2 1/2 and 3 on a screaming hot morning here in NC. Felt great!!!!!!!!!! Bob K

I have two theories on the "tap tap snag". One is an actual fish, like a gill or something else small that drags my bait back into a snag while fishing weightless plastic, usually a stick bait. Tap, drag, drop, hookset, snag, rats in that order. The other is more subtle and is a result of fishing quality gear. Sometimes while fishing a plastic stick bait on a sensitive rod and line, you feel everything. Feel the bait crawl over a stick and release. The bait drops back down again and when you feel it hit bottom, it feels like a subtle strike. Set the hook, and snag. Happens to me all the time when shore fishing. Bob K

If you have a way to try one, try it you may like it. I have 4 Mojos. 7MF and 7MHF in both casting and spinning versions. I think they feel great and they all work for me. They are paired with Shimano Citica and Symetre reels and they are my favorite rods for wieghted and unweighted plastics, jigs, spinner and chatter baits, and flukes. When I cast, the bait goes out and when I set the hook, it digs in. What more could you want. Bob K

I have fished like this a couple times in Minnesota - wading on the shore side of lily pad patches and casting stick worms into the pads to haul out four pounders. Last time I did this - last summer - I caught 13 over a stretch of about 200 yards, great fun. J Francho has the critical advise - you do not need to get that deep. It is not safe and not very efficient. You can not cast well, can not set the hook and unless you balance your spare tackle on your head, you really can not bring much with you. My experience was crotch to waist deep and for the most part the fishing was close quarter combat. You can sneak up pretty easily and with braid the hook set was a short snap on a semi tight line. Good luck and stay safe, Bob K

Been fishing a lot of down sized jigs lately and my go to combination is a bitsy bug or equivalent jig with either or double tail grub (3" PowerBait) or even better, a 3" Crazy Leg Chigger Craw. Lots of action on a really small trailer and Berkley has a good assortment of colors also. Unfortunately, I have been only catching small fish so far but catching is better than not catching no matter what. Bob K

Lunkerville and City Limits are my two favs but I will also occassionally watch Ultimate Match fishing.

I used to fish in Minnesota and lily pads were my life!!! From shore, wading, in a canoe or boat, I drug a lot of fish from pads. The pads in Minnesota tended to be very thick, lots of overlapping leaves, so not much room for dragging a bait through them. Most fishing was over the pads with frogs and unweighted plastics (mostly senkos, but creatures worked too). Most productive was working the holes, inside turns, points, and the shore side edges of the lily pad fields. The bass would set up there to ambush anything that happened by and lots of fish would strike as soon as the bait landed. Time of day, weather, water clarity, nothing seemed to matter much. If the fish were there, they would eat. Equipment and technique helped get them out once they were caught. I used medium heavy/fast casting and spinning rods with braided line all the time. Once you set the hook, your choice was to drag them out quick or play them out and watch out for them wrapping up on those tough pad stems. If they did wrap up, it was critical not to try and horse the fish out. It was better to keep a tight line and wait for the fish to free itself up a bit and then haul it in some more. If you horsed it in while it was wrapped up, you would just bring the fish up against the pad stem and then pry the hook out of its mouth - lost fish and usually the hook hung on the pads which meant a trip into the pads to retrieve it. Now I live in North Carolina - not nearly as many pads here and I have not yet adapted to the structure fishing that it is the norm here. All this talk is giving me ideas to get out tomorrow. Bob K

Own: Shimano Citica Revo S Revo SX Favorite: Shimano Citica Crave: Shimano Curado 51E

I suffer from squeaking and groaning and roughness after a day on the water in the canoe.

Like many who voted for 3600's, they work best for me because I am mostly a shore fisherman and occassionally use a friend's canoe. When I get a real boat, I will likely switch to 3700's. The bait monkey noticed a few vacant 3600 boxes I had around yesterday and possessed me to spend a couple Benjamins at TW yesterday. Come on warm weather!!!! Bob K

I do not know if it is the best but the XTools fits my need. I fish from a canoe so floating is a big plus. It is a gripper so I do not have to poke the fish with the hook. And here is Minnesota we have toothy fish (pike and musky) so having the gripper again gives me an advantage dealing with them. Bob K

Here in the Twin Cities and the land of 10,000 lakes, wallys are king so most of the local shops cater to the meat fishermen. However we are blessed with some great local tackle stores. Noteable are Thorne Brothers - not very close to me but has a spectacular staff, good selection, and a couple of yearly sales that keep them competitive with mail order. Much closer to home is Cabin Fever which has great live bait and is my typical license and information source - they always seem to know where the hot bite is. We have Gander and Cabelas but for the random bag of rubber worms, Dicks usually beats them at price and there is one Dicks in particular that even has a few staff that are quite knowledgeable - sorta like finding the guy in an orange apron that has actually swung a hammer and knows which edge of the saw is dangerous. Bob K

I have had success sort of with the Strike King Pure Poison variety in a couple different colors. Up here in MN, this bait is Northern Pike candy. They cannot and will not leave it alone. Kind of fun since once a Northern makes up his mind that he wants something, he is not shy about it. If they had voices they would probably roar while jumping!! And with all those teeth, they have managed to swim off with more than a few as well. My goal is still to catch a bass with one. Bob K

I usually carry the most variety of colors with senkos. I like playing the catch a fish and change color game. I am usually shore bound but have still managed to catch fish on 8 different colors during a single outing on more than one occasion. Keeps me on the lookout for my next favorite color (Watermelon w/ red flake right now). Bob K

I have both reels and they both perform very well. As far as reels go - these two are about as close as you can get between two manufacturers in terms of performance. The strength of the Revo S is casting heavier baits and the drag is smooth and oh so strong. The strength of the Shimano Citica is the weight and its ability to cast lighter baits. In my opinion, the Revo seems a bit smoother and the weight makes it seem a bit more substantial. I recently had the opportunity to get another reel and I chose to acquire another Citica (and now I have an even number of Revos and Shimanos). If you can not decide on rational grounds, flip a coin because these are two really good reels that will do the job for a long time. Bob K