martintheduck

My favorite setup at the moment is a REVO STX 6:4 on a 7'2" Cumara m/h worm x-fast tape. SUPER light and SUPER sensitive. Best $450 I've spent on a setup, easily. I also run a Crucial rod, same specs as the cumara, and I love it too. It's a bit heavier than the Cumara. I'm a huge fan of what shimano has been doing with their rods, exposing more of the blank under the reel. It makes it a more comfortable palming, and it gives me more fingers on the rod, which IMO is always good. Crucial rod was well worth the $150.

Crucial med/hvy worm/jig rod, x-fast taper. Quantum code 7:4 (i believe) reel. jump between 50lb braid spider braid and 20 lb vanish fluro. Works fine. Probably need to use a beefier rod than I am to help with setting hooks in slop.

X2 I really love exposed hooks because I have more confidence in a hookset with them. I prefer to call the setup you described, a weedless jig, rather than a punching setup. I'll only use a punching setup for heavy topwater scum, and for me to call it a punch setup, I need to be using at LEAST a 1oz weight. Maybe we've discovered a new market here? A flipping jig with an offset hook so you can rig trailers weedless!?

Good read.

In answering your earlier questions, I imagine you were asking (in the latter half) do I t-rig with the hook inside the plastic, and yes I do. I did look into the jigs you suggested and have em bookmarked. Just waiting to see if anyone else comes through with something else to add to my order Yep - This is exactly what I've done. I'm just looking for some pre-made type setup.

That's pretty much my setup at the moment. I run a 7' 2" Cumara med/hvy extra fast with a REVO STX 6:4:1. Using 14lb seaguar fluro. I get really sick of flipping in and pulling up a bunch of crap on the hook.

As someone going through EXACTLY what you're going through.... I've been looking on craigslist for the past 3 months, strictly to give me an idea of what's available in my area and the prices. I've decided on Aluminum b/c it'll be my first boat and glass seems too much of a risk for "exploring". I've gone between financing new and used, and have decided on used. It makes sense to pay, say $7,000 for a used boat, fish it for 3-4 years, then sell it for $4,000 minimum. It doesn't make sense to pay $20,000 for a new boat, fish it for 3-4 years, and sell it for $12,000 (my numbers might be skewed, but you get the point). SO - I've decided on used aluminum. Now, we started getting into what kind of motor I'm looking for. I've decided I'm okay with a 50 topping me out at 30mph, but I'm also okay with a 90 pushing me to 40+. Motor size isn't a big concern for me, just so long as the sucker has been well maintained. NEXT - Big red flag - I do not trust buying "used" things because it might be someone else's problem! So what to do? Well, I've gotten serious about buying, so I've begun asking fishing buddies if they know anyone looking to sell. Guess what?!?!? I've come across TWO boats that fit what I am looking for! They have both been maintained incredibly well. Also, both of the sellers have the mind frame of "I'm not really TRYING to sell my boat, but if someone want's to buy it, I'd sell." This leads me to feel comfortable with their upkeep, performance, and condition overall. One is a 2002 Express 17-footer w/ a 90hp, and the other is a 2007 Tracker 175 txw w/ a 50.... $7k and $6,500 respectively. Moral of the story - I've given it some time, really contemplated what I need -vs- what I just "want, and narrowed down my choices to a few different types of boat. I took the advice of people on here, and began asking my local fisherman (in person) if they know anything up for sale, and have been pleasantly surprised. As for fishing tournaments - only advantage to having more HP is getting to spots quicker. I had the mind set of "I want to fly across the water," but have abandoned that in favor of, "let me buy a used lower HP boat, gauge how serious I'm going to get with it, learn a bit about boat ownership, and if need be, in 4 years I can sell the boat and buy something that better fits my needs."

Buy some small pieces of wood (there is a specific name for the smaller cuts of wood) like some 1x1's, build a frame to fit over the opening, and fit chicken wire over the frame. Will keep cats out and air flowing.

Haven't fished any of those. My buddy has some pelican boat, and frankly, I hate that d**n thing. We took it out for hunting once and it moves slow, tracks like crap, and doesn't have much space (I don't know what model it is). As I've said in other threads, sitting all day sucks pretty bad (in my opinion). One of my favorite things to do is "beach" (in a sense) the yak, and pick apart the surrounding area. It's hard to pick it apart from the sitting position. Also, it's a sonabitch to set hooks sitting in it. As for your question about rod holder mounting: Holders can be mounted to any yak. Based on what I've seen selection wise @ academy -vs- dicks -vs- BPS, I'd buy a yak from dick's or BPS.

So I'm a huge fan of jigs, and fishing some of this heavy hydrilla and duckweed, I find myself flipping jigs into some heavy cover. I'm using a flipping jig. Problem is, the weed guards don't do much in the way of keeping hydrilla from snagging me. Also, I like to drag a football head up the slope of the waterbottom and the hydrilla still gets caught. Anybody make some kind of offset-hook jig so I can texas rig a trailer on to keep weeds off my hook? I've ventured into making my own jigs, and they work, I just want to find a premade setup. Thanks.

Dual sided small plano boxes. Keep offsets in one, keel weights and twist locks in another, other hooks in another.

I use a milk crate (secured to deck of yak) with a PVC-type rod holder attached to milk crate, and a rubber bungee strap to secure rods into the holder. I'll tell ya man, it's not not really an issue of FLIPPING the kayak completely over.... it's more about falling out.

And to answer your question - how hard would it be to mount a motor? Not hard at all. Take a 2x4, cut it so maybe a foot comes off the side of the yak, use some L shaped aluminum mounting plates from lowes, and attach the 2x4 to yak via the L plates. Then screw mount a "transom mount trolling motor" onto that 2x4.

You will only be limited based on which yak you buy. A lot of kayaks have a transom now-a-days, so a hand controlled trolling motor with tiller extension can get the job done. Also, my brain is telling me you can mount a foot-control model if you beef up the hull with a few aluminum strips on the underside of the screws. Check out this video of the NuCanoe, with a front mounted troller and an OB motor.

I really don't understand what's going on here.... why would you travel with an $4,000+ motor DOWN and putting all the strain of bouncing around on the freeway on the transom?!?!?!? 100%... up, w/ motor support. This shouldn't even be a question!

Just stopping in to give my 2 cents on fishing yak's.... I own a NuCanoe Frontier which, like this model, is pretty frigging stable. I had a similar mindset to yours - I am not going to do much standing and fishing. Well, I basically STRICTLY stand and fish nowadays. My style of fishing has become something the likes of - drop anchor, fan around the WHOLE yak to cover all possible areas, pick-up anchor and move to next spot. It's tough to cover all water from a seated position. Furthermore, I've missed a lo of hook-sets by being in the seated position. It's a steep learning curve for hook-sets on hidden-texas-rig setups, frogs, shallow cranks, and plugs. So why was any of what I just said relevant? Honestly, it might not be at all relevant to you! What is relevant though is this: Sitting in a yak for extended periods of time can cause one to become a bit stir-crazy (or at least causes ME to become a bit stir crazy). The ability to stand and fish is CRUCIAL to me. NOW - You did talk about adding pontoons and on my yak, pontoons would just slow me down. These new "stable" yak's have a tendency to move pretty slow, so anything extra in the water is a big negative. This yak does look like a pretty d**n good vessel IMO. It looks like a good bet. I'm merely chiming in to say, you WILL WANT TO STAND AND FISH, YOU WON'T WANT TO ADD ANYTHING TO SLOW YOU DOWN, so if this kayak is stable enough to stand and fish WITHOUT pontoons, I'd say pull the trigger on it.

I had the same problem, but fixed it..... you double the line through.... then do the overhand knot.... THEN, mess around with the loop (before bringing it back over the hook) and you can pull the excess tag line. Then, once you putt the loop over the hook, just pull the single spool line piece instaead of both line and tag end. That might have been a terrible description, but it's the best I can give.

I'm really interested: What was your first boat? Did you ever upgrade? After how long? Did you buy new or used? How long did you own it? What was your experience with it? What were the pro's and con's of that boat?

Do you mean for the front deck? (fill in the little "gap" next to console). My buddy added one to his tracker... basic idea is to build a cube from 2x4's, add a cpl diagonal 2x4 bracings, and put plywood on top with some hinges. If you want it to be somewhat permanent, then you'll want to attach it to the deck somehow.... if aluminum hull, use self tapping metal screws... if glass, then i don't know a safe method. Add some carpet on top and done. It really shouldn't be a difficult task

Rapala 6 cranks.... shad and bluegill. Excited to use em

The heavy braid is touchy for me. I use 14lb flouro to keep my frogs right on top the water. So far, I haven't had a problem getting super snagged. (the stanley ribbits non-hollow don't float entirely too well, but the bass just eat em up. any heavy lb line tends to weight them down and go under the water just a few inches and really messes up the presentation). Well, are you using top water frogs? Top waters, no weight. If you're trying to fish them under water, which I never do, just a 1/8th bullet is good, are a keel weighted swimbait hook. I strictly use frogs to topwater.

I fish EXACTLY the conditions you're talking about. I use Stanley Floating Ribbits (non-hollowbody style) with a 4/0 wide gap twist-lock hook. If you end up with a hollowbody frog, be sure to get a double hook. I prefer the 4/0 size on frogs because the barb sits more toward the middle of the body instead of the end, thus giving me better performance in the heavy cover.

I bought the same chartreuse spinner just 2 days ago...guess what?!?!?! The big blade broke off on the second cast. Just a heads up, mine was a piece of junk! Not at all what I expected from SK

Disagree. I catch topwater on bluebird days, using dark colors (like black) consistently.

Throw top waters now. I SWEAR by floating Stanley Ribbits in black or white. Work em slow - pop em like a plug. The bass are hammering em right now for me (in North Louisiana).