Darren.

I agree with the guys above. For me, I like to fish a yak for a while before I start futzing with design. I.e., I might like a rod holder here, but find that it is better "there", and so on, but only after a while of fishing out of it. I have no experience building my own yak; however, so if I were to do so, I would like to have an elevated seat, a pontoon hull, tracks for attaching all sorts of gear, a motor mount on the back (square end), possibly molded in handles...off the top of my head. Oh, and I'd build a wide wheel into the rear for easy transport.

Welcome aboard, Jonathan!

Likewise. Have a happy!

Through researching bass fishing techniques and other related things. Google was the primary introducer

A hearty congrats!

You can do everything with spinning gear if you want to. There's an FLW pro who uses nothing but spinning. If you want to learn a bait caster, then by all means do so. But don't do it because TV tells you to. It is not a necessity to the sport. Both are tools, both work, I've got both, but I've begun to move back to spinning more. But hey, again, go for it. I'm not trying to tell you not to! It's all personal preference

Great story. I've only caught a pigeon in flight before never caught a bird on the drop shot.

Yes, but it has gone down over the years. We had close to 30 snakes at one time, many of which my sons and I collected locally, but now we're down to about 5, and life is a little easier seeing how I'm usually the one taking care of them. LOL, yup. Getting ready to place an order online shortly. Need some rat pinkies and fuzzies. My eldest experimented raising rats for us, but that is something you need plenty of clean airflow for, LOL. My wife only let me bring them in the house when it was going to be freezing or below. Needless to say, buying is easier, by far.

I used to snell all my hooks without weed guards. But I bought a bunch of Daiichi hooks at Walmart the other year (O'shaughnessy bend) for TX rigging and I snelled them. Then I lost a few fish...and hooks. The hook eye on almost every single hook from those packs was sharp where it met the shank. So I tied one on and gave it a good pull and *snap* right at that sharp spot. Needless to say, I couldn't snell these any longer.... But I have no problems with Gamakatsu hooks, FWIW. Got away from snelling since I mostly throw weed guard wacky hooks these days.

LOL. The King Snake is king as he eats other snakes, including venomous snakes. It's ok to be "scared" or... startled by snakes. Even though I'm a snake guy, I still get startled by them, especially when I'm kayak fishing in sticks and there's one a few inches from my head.

That actually looks like a King snake! Another awesome snake!

Welcome aboard!

You're welcome I've got a large female black rat snake in my collection now. Have had her for about 13 years. Caught dozens upon dozens of them, too. Possibly my favorite snake species.

Black Rat Snake. Completely harmless, but extremely helpful...as seen in pic They'll keep critters that do damage like rats, mice, flying squirrels and so on out of the house.

No picture

Welcome aboard, Alex!

Tried Strike King for bullet weights, but I prefer using lead Bull Shot for TX rigging. As for drop shotting, I do see a difference using tungsten in terms of sensitivity. Just got my order from Siebert, the quality is top notch, don't have to pinch the line holder in order to keep it attached as I've had to do with "cheap" tungsten brands. So another cheerio for Siebert.

Our SA was never very good, and for a while, was the only game in town until DSG showed up. We frequently shop at DSG and have scored some incredible deals over the years. No Academy here, either. But I've heard great things.

Getting an enjoyable time on the water is all it takes! I started kayaking with a $300 yak from a big box store. This is fine!! And I second @Tracker22. I'm an advocate of wearing a PFD 100% of the time you are on the water. Your life is worth preserving, so do yourself and your future a favor, wear one!

I would have called it a "good" line, though, at least in my experience. It is what it is, LOL...I also like P-Line Floroclear, which many here hate.

Interesting...only gets a "Fair". http://www.tackletour.com/reviewyozurihybrid.html

You can also consider outfitting the NuCanoe or most any other yak with a BassYaks trolling motor kit, or DIY it like I did. http://bassyaks.com/products/kits-available/nucanoe-bassyak-kits/ Your feet control your direction and you have a motor controller on your right or left for speed. The drawback to the Hobie is no reverse unless you take out the fins and install them the opposite direction. For Native pedal drives, you get reverse, but you don't get the massive fishing platform that is the Hobie PA. Both have advantages and disadvantage.

I have also had great experiences with the Hampton, VA BPS customer service. I have exchanged rods, returned rods without issue. The fishing manager that I became friends with is gone, and I'm much less trusting of those there now. However, one of my exchanges happened under the "new" staff and went fine. But every store is different simply because of the humans working there, IMO. So yeah, bad experience for some? Absolutely. My .02 on the rods: I own several Carbonlites and highly recommend them. I never liked the old Mojo rods, but the new blanks are much lighter than previous. That said, if weight is an issue, I think the CL are more tip light than the Mojos, even the new ones. I also have St. Croix, but a Premiere (tip heavy) and a Legend Tournament (awesome). Did have an Avid but felt it was tip-heavy, too.

Awesome, Jeff!

Welcome aboard, Louie!