flyfisher

Sad to see. Low head dams are one of the most dangerous things on any river as those currents are ridiculous. I grew up with my dad telling me that life jackets are great but they don't replace common sense and respect for the river and certain places the just make it easier to recover the bodies.

I did a DNA thing and since I was adopted I didn't really know anything and I honestly don't even care but I did find out I have neanderthal DNA greater than 36% of the people.

I am not sure exactly but when i was checking the bixpy was around 30lb thrust and from the reviews it was very weak in use. The NK180 is 1.8hp equivalent so that makes it i guess 80+lb thrust but not totally sure. I do know that with my fully loaded up ATAK140 upstream in heavier current and with my ATAK 120 it does the same thing. When I would hit rivers with my dad and his AP136 he would not be able to motor up where I was and on lakes I would be about half throttle when he is at full throttle to keep the same speed. They have a more powerful version that was just released that competes with the larger of the torqeedo motors and bumps up to 36V.

neither....NK180s. Bixpy seemed to be way underpowered and torqeedo is way overpriced and lacked flexibility for my needs. I wanted to be able to put whatever battery I wanted on mine. I have double the size of the standard torqeedo battery and at least a grand less in the total cost and that is for the smaller battery. I have mine set up with a res concepts wing and a stick steer so after motoring upstream I can stand and fly fish floating downstream and use the motor as a rudder to keep direction where it needs to be. I was one of the first run of the motors and now two years in on primarily rocky river use I couldn't be happier.

My motor acts as a rudder for those same situations as I use it when I am floating downstream. I have mine on a stick steer as well so i can adjust as I am standing. Spot lock trolling motors are way too slow for my tastes and lack the power for moving upriver which is my primary fishing. For a lake boat where you don't have to worry about speed they can be good, my dad likes his except when we are on the river together and he can't get to the spots I do wither because of grass or heavier current.

You answered your own question. If you are fishing where there aren't fish then you aren't being very smart. I will say the only time of year where smallies are super concentrated is winter though. Once prespawn happens smallies move and then for a while they are in all stages of prespawn, spawn and post spawn so they can be all over the place really. I don't mind floating spot to spot though as I have found that some of those non fishy spots if they have isolated cover can hold one or two larger fish. Since I motorized my kayak though I usually motor up, hit top spots and then float back and hit them again.

I was told this by a guy who is a very good fisherman one time. He said we have to remember that fish have brains the size of a peanut. Their goal in life is to stay alive, eat and mate. When they see something they think might be food they don't have hands to check it out so they eat it. Of course they may spit it out faster than you can react but that is the equivalent of us picking something up to look at it in a way. I have had great days fishing frog fly patterns for smallies and of course for largemouth too but I am not sure if they think it is a frog or if they think it is something to eat but to me, who cares as long as they eat it.

No fly is a perfect imitation and this is no different. It may imitate it enough to fool something with a brain the sized of a peanut though. I do get your point though as realism doesn't matter except when it does....

I caution heavily against getting the most expensive kayak you can afford sentiment shared here. There are a ton of kayaks out there that are far from the most expensive and will more than do the job. There are great kayaks under $1500 after getting a paddle that are great and also offer flexibility of adding pedals or motors later on. For pond hopping, which it sounds like you will primarily be doing, a good paddling kayak will make a huge difference. A lot of the super stable boats are designed with a motor or pedals in mind so the suck to paddle. If someone says the first thing you need is a rudder I'd question two things, why is the boat designed to need a rudder and if it is a paddler issue. A well designed fishing kayak should provide stability and tracking without use of a rudder. As far as gear goes, you can use whatever you use now with no modifications. You may have to pare down what you take if you take a lot but even then it is plenty manageable. When I am fly fishing I take up to 4 fly rods and conventional I will take up to 6. It is more about what you want it to be, Best thing to do is see if any shops have a demo days or rental. Many shops have rentals and then if you buy the rental cost is put in to the boat. This is truly the only way to know if a boat works for you and leads me to the next piece. Once you get a kayak don't rig it based on what you have seen on youtube. Fish your kayak with your style then rig it accordingly. Many people solve problems they don't have and overcomplicate things to death. Track mounts make things much easier to mount and move things. I have been kayak fishing 20 years and I just got a new warranty boat last year, a 2' shorter version of a boat i had for years, and I still went out 5 times before mounting anything. I currently run an ATAK120 (had the 140) and it is a fantastic paddling boat and I added a motor (NK180s) to my equipment stash 2 years ago and it is great tool for self supported river shuttles and on larger lakes.

I see this as a parallel to baseball and the strike zone. Many are against the computer controlled strike zone which will make every strike or ball the same and consistent across all games and levels. Others, argue that there is a human element to the game that should not be removed. I think the AI fly tying is cool as **** and I would be all for it. Will a hand made fly be better quality? I have been on a lot of fly tying pages and I can tell you just because it is human doesn't make it better, myself included. I also know that a fly similar to that first one would cost a fortune if hand tied but I will say that if you could get me an AI in a reasonable price I'd buy one and fish it to see if it is any better. I am all for innovation and remember working in a fly shop when the gummy minnow came out and all the purists were up in arms about it not being a fly etc...I used the material and caught some good fish and tunes changed. I can't imagine what those people think about articulated flies that are so prevalent. Guess I am not a purist but I know if I have a choice I am throwing a fly over a "lure" and sometimes even a lure that I use as a fly.....

They are only super high wages becasue they were kept down for so long and people finally realized, huh I do have some control as to how much I get paid and I won't settle for less. No big company is going to go under if they have to increase wages. It is an adjustment to what the market dictates.

This is what happens when you hold down inflation artifically for close to 2 decades and it has to come back to normal at some point. As far as who is spending the money on those boats, it is the people who have that money to spend and that is where they put that type of value. If someone wants to drop 100k on a boat more power to them and I am glad they can do it.

Then sell the kayak. The old town AP series of boats are nice and super stable and easy to fish from. They are super heavy and even with a motor are slower than a sloth and the motor isn't super strong if you fish current often and if you have to paddle them they are a bear. If speed isn't any concern and neither is the weight then they are a good kayak. Me personally i'd go with a lighter weight kayak and throw a rear mounted motor like a NK180/300 or torqeedo on a good paddling boat and you will be lighter weight and faster. Another good option is a twin troller. Kind of like the pond prowler posted above but with two protected trolling motors.

I usually underestimate the weight and validate by weighing them every once in a while. Judging by the weight of fish people say they caught and post, I'd say most people are completely horrible.

that is a little different but I have done similar things with beets and stuff growing under tomatoes etc..I have heard of people basically just taking their seed and scattering it all over and not really caring what falls where and seeing what happens.

Good write up. being a fly fisherman and tyer I have worked with marabou a lot and you nailed it. I will also add that stacked versus palmered achieve different things. Stacking is pretty straight forward and one thing that helps when palmering is to wrap and then after each wrap stroke the fibers back with wet fingers. Holds them in place and makes it easier to deal with. Great material though.

I have a pair of Snowpeak titanium with screw in teak pieces for backpacking. They are absolutely fantastic. We all got a set at the shop I worked at when they first came out probably 20+ years ago and mine are still going strong. I think the new ones are made with bamboo though.

I believe it. I caught a pretty large chain pickerel once that had something hard in its stomach. You could see it extend out to the side so i was checking it out and I felt the foot move.

Those are pretty easy to grow and given your short growing season you might want to get seedlings as they will shorten the time to yield. Zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes, beets, greens, bell peppers and hot peppers are also pretty easy to grow. For tomatoes if you get seedlings you will want to plant them all the way up to the first set of leaves as all that stem will turn into roots and also prune them by pinching off the suckers aka the little growths that like to grow in the bends as it just robs nutrients from the plant. Check out burpee and they have a grow map basied on region as well that will help. Your garden is about double the size of my long bed in the pics so you have polenty of room depending on you have it set up. I am able to reach all the garden without going inside and you can too given the size.

I have only seen them on jet motors to help with raising the transom up more quickly and balance the floatation, never saw them on a glass boat before.

Got my raised beds ready to plant and mapped it all out. I follow square foot gardening principles which allows for maximum yield in a smaller footprint. Pretty simple but you basically look at plant spacing and not row spacing. This will be the first year I have done the whole trellis deal so we will see how it goes.

what is with all these pansy glasses for beer? i mean a pint glass works just fine and you don't have to hold your pinky out either

blurring a background does nothing if you still have the metadata embedded in the picture.

I'll disagree. Cheap blades don't hold an edge long no matter how well you sharpen them. Thats not to say you need top end everything though. My kitchen knives are middle of the road Henckels and they hold an edge far better than cheaper knives. Most important thing on any knife for me is the handle and shape for the intended use. A knife is no good if you cant hold it in your hand comfortably.

Just one if conventional and one if using my fly rod. I can make it work with whatever I want to do.