J Francho

The bigger the splash, the smaller the fish. Big girls just slurp the bait.

I fish pretty deep, so I use 3/8 to 3/4 oz. Bite Me heads.

I used very similar gear for years. Back then, it was a lot if money for a young man to spend, but looking back, I don't regret it. I'm sure I'll feel the same when I look back 20 years from now.

We get some kind of shad up here that gets about a foot or more long. Might be American Shad? They come in the tribs off Lake Ontario at ice out. There's also a die off a little later in spring. Some of the carcasses are huge. Northern pike go on a feed fest, just coming out of the tribs for their post spawn. Bottom line, those Shad are big part of the food chain. I think this points to succes of big baits up north, not the usual thinking that success with big baits is linked to stocker trout.

There's more there, but my ability isn't quite there. It's taken me two years of seat time to get here.

Jhoffman, I run around 6750 at WOT. Mine is not a stock motor, though.

If must choose only one, then I choose a different hobby. If your angling for which is better, there is no better, only what works in that specific instance. If you want know what people prefer to use, that's dictated by experience and how/where they fish. Even if there is a clear leader in the poll, it validates nothing, and there is no clear winner. To the guys that picked one, I say start fishing the opposite more. You'll catch more fish in the long using both, and knowing which is the better tool for that situation.

Yes you are. This is a friendly bass forum. Any discussion of other species should occur in the Other Species forums. Sounds a little stuffy, and ticky-tacky, but there's multitudes of new guys that take these posts literally. A 10 lb. anything is no match for the typical drag in a 2500 reel. I'll quickly mention that I've caught many "byproduct" species and never felt unmatched. I'll reiterate, for the sake of the OP, there's no perceptible difference based on country of origin, Japan or Malaysia. Throw China and Korea in the mix, and I may have more to say.

Call me crazy, but I think mine helps me come off plane better. The stern sinks first, but don't get that bow to the sky thing I see other boats do. Maybe it's just the hull design?

I probably throw jigs under docks more than Texas Rigs, simply because they're easier to skip. While we're talking docks and deep water…the best docks usually intersect deep water or a well defined weed line.

I honestly can't see a boat like the Hobie Pro Angler existing without Mirage drive. To me, the drive system opens up new possibilities in hull design, and cockpit configuration. It's not all about speed. It's about efficiency and making the fishing experience better.

I agree, that's where the conversation turned - big prop = more slip, not more speed, which was the point I must not have made so well.

I have an aluminum foil on my Pro Max. It's only for the hole shot. It's not in the water when I'm on plane.

Shad. What species? Hard to tell.

An 11 pitch prop, though? Lol. I'd think he should get up to mid 20s with a steeper prop. 18 is unacceptable. I've seen toons with 25 hp motors get those numbers.

I've used other colors, Bama Craw is the one I grab most often. Combined with JJ's Magic, there's no color I can't come up with.

Spinner bait, arkey jig, traditional T-rigged craw, and some kind of finesses worm that could be rigged countless ways.

5-12 on a drop shot plastic. My PB thunder was short lived, since "No" Good wnybassman caught one bigger in short order, from the front. What a great day on Erie.

I keep it simple in regards to drag, and every other aspect, for that matter. I set my gear up anticipating a lunker. Then all I have to worry about is a where the scale and camera are.

Under no circumstances would I allow myself to be limited to one or the other for any reason other than one was a better tool for that moment.

These arguments are silly. Don't like it, don't use one. My boat is leaps and bounds faster than anyone else's in my club. Do they restrict me? No. I've been with kayak fishing since the start of the boom. Some guys I know have been with it much longer, like decades longer. As more people use them, and builders get input, the fishing kayak will evolve. I see them as personal fishing crafts. I don't make any distinction of whether it's SINK, SOT, hybrid, pack canoe, or what ever, unless I'm trying to describe it to a layperson. If you rig it to fish, be that a bungee fire one rod and a small pack of lures on a lanyard, or full blown fishing battleship with electronics and a dozen rods, then to me it's a fishing kayak. Hobie makes a quality boat, quality that goes way beyond the Mirage Drive. They've sweated all the details, and that comes at a premium. Wilderness Systems, Ocean Kayak, Feel Free, Malibu, Jackson, and many others are building just as elaborately and thought out rigs that don't use Mirage Drive type of propulsion, for you purists. Looking to the future, mark my words. In our lifetime we will see the whole landscape of personal fishing craft change, both in terms of hull design and sheer speed, as the price and efficiency of lithium powered propulsion comes down. "Green" boats are coming.

I change them after I burn off the fogging oil from the winterizing. They are pretty nasty after all that. I clean the old ones, shrink wrap them, and keep them in the boat in case I fry one on the water.

The quality between Malaysian and Japanese mafe Shinano is pretty much imperceptible.

Here's the link to a full explanation of how to determine the right prop, and what's going on with your current setup. http://www.go-fast.com/Prop_Slip_Calculator.htm Prop selectors are marketing tools, and they assume zero slip. Therefore, it's not very useful to dialing in to the right prop. Also, while a 29P prop may sound like it will be fast, using bad math, it would be terrible. My boat would probably never plane. Also there's the issue of additional weight from people and gear, that isn't considered. Measuring prop slip does factor that into the equation, along with the resistance specific to the hull design. Add in three or four blade prop to that. My 1280 lb. Bullet will go 78 with a 26 Trophy. I tried a 28 cupped Trophy Plus. It was a bear to get on plane, but was quickly approaching 80 with plenty of RPMs before redlining my 2.5 Pro Max. If I used a prop selector to judge potential speed, I'd be disappointed, since without slip, that prop should have gotten me well into the 90s. I'll keep my sub 3 second hole shot, and planing at 16 mph with my current setup. I think when I checked, slip was around 14%. It's all a trade off. Go to steep, too much slip, bad hole shot. Too shallow, never get on plane. For the OP, I think he needs a much steeper pitch, but without capturing numbers and plugging them into a calculator it's hard to say what to recommend. So much is trial and error. You might teach out to other similar toon owners to see what they're running.

Real world props don't have a lab finish and lack the typical "Oneida prop mods."