Bluebasser86

Agree 100%. You'll never hear someone wishing they had a smaller motor on their boat unless it's to meet a motor restriction for a lake.

I leave the arms alone. Baby brush hogs and full sized hogs are big time confidence baits for me.

I think smallmouth suit his high energy style better so maybe he just prefers to fish for them. I met him at the Big Bass Tour on Table Rock and I told him I was "counting rocks", with my football jig in 40' of water. I swear I saw a shiver go up his spine and he laughed and said he could never do that.

I've got one of the small ones that's an 1/8oz I think that I fish on a spinning rod that the smallmouth just can't get enough of some days.

It's probably the #1 color for Ned rig plastics around here. I rarely throw it on a Ned for that reason. It's one of my favorite football jig colors and pretty high up the list for finesse jigs also.

Had some skim ice on the pond in front of work when I left this morning, most of it was gone when I came in tonight. Not ready for it but at the same time we haven't had a good freeze over on the lakes for several years and I think it does them some good to let them settle and clear up a little bit so they're clear in the spring like they're supposed to be instead of stained from the howling winter winds constantly stirring them.

I caught a world record brown bullhead when I was a teenager fishing for flathead. Had no idea what it was, thought it was a channel cat/flathead hybrid or something because of the rounded tail and round head plus the mottled coloration. Caught it on a live sunfish. It was over 8 pounds. I didn't even take a picture of it because that's a tiny flathead and I was honestly mad that it had eaten one of the best baits I'd put out on a night when bait was tough to get. A couple years later I got a book all about catfish and saw a picture of a brown bullhead and knew right then that I'd turned a world record loose.

Tatula SV is a no brainer. You can get them for under $150 all day without much searching. I was all Shimano until I fished my first SV reel, now the only Shimanos I have left are 2 swimbait reels.

That still leaves well over 100lbs more gear you could put in it. You're not going to be putting every bait and rod, 3 batteries, a gas tank, a trolling motor, gas motor, and multiple depthfinders on a kayak like a boat. You'll have your crate with baits, seat, depthfinder and small battery to run it, whatever rods you're bringing, plus some misc gear.

January-March for me. Only one of my top 5 biggest bass in the state have come outside of that time frame.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Hoping to get into them this year myself. I enjoy tournaments but the 5 fish weigh in style tournaments have really lost their appeal with me. Haven't fished a tournament circuit since I was in my teens, so I'm really looking forward to it.

I almost missed the flounder in your picture ?

I really liked the looks of the Dragonfly myself but ended up with a cheaper Lowrance for now. Depth and water temps are the main things I need to know with mine anyways and it does that.

A friend of mine guides for a living and uses them for his clients and does well, but he still uses Shimano reels for his personal reels so take that fwiw.

I use 15lb for my standard jig fishing and step up to 20lb if I'm in the thick stuff.

Mostly gear for outfitting my kayak.

They aren't easier to break, but they are not properly suited for what you're wanting to do either, and that can result in breaking the rod but it wouldn't be the fault of the rod.

I learned to fish a jig by taking 1 rod out in my 2 man, the few jigs that I owned and some jig trailers. I did it over and over again for pretty much an entire year. I started with a Denny Brauer Pro Model Flipping jig and Lunkerlure Triple Rattleback back when they were some of the premo jigs out there. I caught fish, missed a lot of bites when I realized too late that they were bites, lost a lot of jigs, but I learned a lot. My equipment was terrible, an old black Shimano baitcaster I don't remember the name of loaded with 17lb Trilene XT and a Shimano Bullwhip rod that was a 5.5 or 6 foot pistol grip rod and about as big as pool cue above the reel and tapered quickly to the tip. I made it work and now I'd rather fish a jig than any other bait in my box.

Welcome Fishlegs! I've got 2 young boys that are also fans of How to Train Your Dragon. I hear about dozens of them but Toothless is the only one I can ever remember.

yes and they do not give warnings.

Yes you can and you do not have to take the prop off, just don't start the motor.

If you upsize with the short shank hooks, it's pretty close to a wash. You could weigh them if you're worried about it, but there's a reason guys that make a living fishing do it. If you're doing it with smaller, finesse baits like a Shad Rap or 1.0 it might effect the action though.