Darren.

Welcome aboard! Berkley Vanish in 8lb test and a Carolina rig sounds a bit under powered to me. I'd definitely go heavier. And you say your drag is set, set how? Tightened down, or does the bass take line?

Welcome aboard!

I'm all for the boomerangs, but I tend to use my hemocuts ^^above^^ more. A multi-tool, of cutting line, getting a hook out, and piercing a coated line eye. Great tool.

Yup, 10# braid will handle just fine. My PB came in with a couple extra pounds of salad (she was 7 1/2) on 10# braid with a 10# leader. No problems, mate. Stronger stuff than most think.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard, Jonathan!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

LOL, Thank you, Scott!! I will be extremely careful. My brother lives in Chicago, so if we visit, I'll be sure to seek cover quickly. And I won't tell them I prefer NY style pizza over theirs!!!

Welcome aboard, @Woodman1! I don't have the Loomis, but I do have Premier rods, and I like my spinning Premier, so I can recommend it. Wish I could help with an actual comparison, though. My Premier is a 6'0 MLF model (now 5'9" ). Only thing I've found with St. Croix is that they are a *tad* tip-heavy with my Stradic 1000 size reels. Your Quantum should balance great.

100% agree -- at this point. If he keeps it up, he's got the votes in the bag.

Well, perhaps I'm in the minority, but i usually only have ketchup on my hot dog. I'm a hot dog minimalist, I suppose. No peppers, relish, onions, or any other stuff graces my food. Perhaps chili and cheese, but not regular. And @J Francho, I think the terms hot dog and franks have been intermingled over the year that to most people, they're one and the same, but to purists, not so much. I'll admit, Rochester, NY has its share of awesome hots/franks. Tried many of the brands. Fan of Zweigles. Still waiting for a Wegmans in our area. Stupid politics ixnayed them out of a perfect spot here. Unsure if they'll keep trying or not.

If I'm not mistaken, i believe red actually looks grey the deeper in the water column it goes as red is filtered from visible spectrum. I'm all for making a combo look good If I didn't need to see the line better (hence yellow), red would sure look good on my CI4+.

Awesome smallies AND that she wants to fish with ya!

Used velcro, as well. Got to be a pain at times. For rods w/o an open hook keeper I put on a Fuji hook keeper.

I'm rooting for GS, but I wouldn't count out LeBron and the team...made that mistake after the first two games last year. However, KD is a massive difference from last year. Not sure Cavs will be able to answer him. We'll see! Go DUBS!!

No other way to slime a boat than digging out a professional overrun! LOL. Congrats on the boat, lone fish and awesome family time

A M in either Fast or XFast will be nice. Never owned a Loomis so can't comment there. Depending on your casting rig, you can do wacky quite well. May not be best in all situations but it will work. I like M/XF, personally. I do braid + leader for line management, but plenty here go straight fluoro and can chime in with better thoughts. St. Croix would be my recommendation of other than Loomis. Avid and up.

Welcome aboard!

Definitely a fatty! Congrats!

I'd agree that Pelican yaks are definitely in the best bang for budget category. That new Pescador and Pilot (pedal drive) series looks really nice, and affordable. I use a Native Ultimate, a kayak/canoe hybrid. Wilderness Systems makes the Commander. Both excellent yaks and two of the top 10 brands. Ocean Kayak, Feel Free, Jackson, NuCanoe, and others all make solid offerings. Best advice: get seat time in a store, and better yet, try out demo programs if there are some near you. When I ended up with my Ultimate, I spent sit-in time at the local Appomattox River Company in the Commander, and a few other models. I ended up preferring the Ultimate over the Commander primarily because I liked the convex pontoons (going in to the water) over Commanders concave pontoons (coming up to my feet). That was just me. I could have gone either way. Point being, sitting time gave me a sense of what I liked more. For $1000 you can find some nice closeout models, or even lightly used demo models.

Is there a question in your comment? Are you looking for thoughts on white and red braid? I've never used white PP, but I've used white Fireline. The color is fine if you're looking for aesthetics. However, as for red PP, I had it bleed all over my reels years ago, so I've not looked back. I use yellow on all of them now...

I'm supposed to get my order by Wednesday. Not sure I'll be able to test them then, but will at least get an idea of the quality, and if they're as narrow as said.

Well, yeah, I suppose, John, but it's just something I've been trying and it works pretty darn well. I disagree with "fussy solution" though. Why? because I don't tie long leaders in general, so I don't leave long tag ends. So the way I drop shot, this is actually a good solution. A problem that did exist is line twist. This does eliminate that. Already mentioned other swivel hook solutions, but this is just an option, not the be-all of dropshotting techniques.... As for the weight being tied on, so what. I mean really, it doesn't matter if it is tied on or not. Clip makes it easier to lose in event of a snag. What was done prior to that invention? You get snagged in rocks with a TX rig, you probably lose the whole rig, right? This is what I'm going to try. Not out a whole lot of $ if they don't work out. Edit: $6.99 with Prime. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HBDTCW0/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1