Choporoz

My wife is a photographer and I know more than I ever wanted to. I can, on occasion, take less than crappy phone photo of some else holding a fish. But the 99% of the photos on my phone have a fish in them and are taken seated in a kayak with a phone on a 15" tether while bobbing on the water, and somewhat at the mercy of the sun direction. I'm not planning on entering any photo contests anytime soon.

I stood in my Compass for about ten or fifteen minutes back in 2020. But, I'm old. My balance wasn't really all that great 15 years ago. Now? Not worth the risk and anxiety...lol

You can cover a lot of ground. If I am in a shallow pad field, I still have drive mobility. If I have to go into a laydown to get a fish, I don't have to pull the drive. I can drift over rocky point without worrying about busting a prop or drive.

The Hobie Mirage drive allows you to 'feather' the fins within about an inch of the hull. You can pedal with short strokes and move forward with only a couple inches of water below hull bottom. This also minimizes fouling in weeds and pads. As to ergonomics, I can only speak to the Compass. The seat is ok at best. There are far better seats out there.

Bird spike strips work great on horizontals. I imagine they'd work well across the top of verticals

The max is 13 pounds heavier, has a drawer and is more 'electronics-ready'.

Got my wife a Native Slayer Propel 10 a few weeks ago. I will be surprised if it isn't the lightest, most stable, shortest pedal kayak. I have nothing but good things to say about it

I got unto a bay full of gar last week and just peddled on past. I don't enjoy hooking up with them in a kayak. The fight is fun, but getting them off is more trouble than it is worth....for me.

Nice @LrgmouthShad! I always get concerned when I see otters.

Challenging morning. Got a few dinks on a buzzbait early and then struggled for a couple hours. Nothing on wood, points, or outside weed lines. Ended up chasing bait, which I generally find to be a fools errand. But that was the only thing working. Most were under two pounds, but I did manage a 6.7 on a deep crank.

Maybe it was too small? Last weekend I got no bites on 6" worm, but changed to 8 and 9 and cleaned up.

Had the lake pretty much to myself this early morning. First waterskier not until about 10:15. Jetskis appeared a little after 11. I quit at noon and it's been nuts out there since. The party across the lake from us is so loud that I have to raise my voice to talk to my wife five feet away. She rather likes the live music and the sounds of people having fun. I'm just glad it's only a couple few times a year.

I use my Dobyns DX444 for spinnerbaits and feel the same way. I really wanted it to be a jig rod, but it is stubborn and insists it's a spinnerbait rod.

Morning started slow. Went over an hour without a bite fishing outside weedlines and steep drops. Got into a big cove with lots of fish suspended at 10-15. Tossed a deep crank and it was lights out for a half hour or so. At one point, I caught 5 on 6 casts. Probably around 10 or 12, all around 2#. Moved up lake and worked a rocky point. Got a couple decent on a Magnum Rage Bug on a swing jig. Then this one hit and didn't move. Thought I set the hook on the rocks. Once she took off it was a good fight. New PB at 7.5.

I have flex fuel Durango. Found the mpg made it a wash. Only other difference was that I read I needed to change plugs every 50K when using E85. Not a huge hardship, but I don't do that myself and the labor cost on plugs for this car isn't cheap.....not sure if they had to go through the dash like on an older car of mine, bit it is also some sort of design nightmare according to my mechanic.

I know there's not much new to be said, but I rather enjoy the line topics. It never ceases to amaze me how much of a variety of opinions there are. And we are only talking about four or five different basic materials. The fact that in 2022 we can't come close to agreement on something like 'stretch' just amuses the heck out of me....never mind sensitivity. Color is another, for similar reasons. I hope we never get definitive answers on how a bass sees and interprets colors. It is too much fun arguing about what we cannot know or begin to prove. But, seriously, I do really enjoy hearing stories from you guys who were doing this successfully decades ago, often right alongside some real legends. Hearing the evolution (and maybe sometimes devolution) of the sport from you old timers fascinates me.

That's a decent area, if I'm understanding correctly....I think there's a home near there with a seaplane hangar? General advice.....go out early or late. Most fish are going to be deep and fishing main points in a canoe with ski and wake boats passing yards away won't be fun. There's plenty of good points around there. I'd throw big worms, cranks and jigs, targeting fish around 15-18 feet. Seems to me There's a couple brush piles in coves nearby, but I don't recall exactly looking at satellite image. Early morning, you can fish same points, but up a bit shallower. You can also catch some on walls, both rock and man-made. Good luck. Let us know how it goes Oh...and don't pass a dock without skipping a senko or jig up under it....especially if the end is in 12+ FOW.

I use 40# braid on MHF rod. Tried fluoro for chatterbaits. Hated it. Tried moderate rods. Hated them. Tried a glass cranking rod - really hated it. Now, I admit that the rod I use doesn't have quite as stiff a tip as my jig and Trig rods. But if I didn't have this rod, I would use a different MHF before I would use something labeled moderate.

+1 Your boat may be positioned perfectly. Turn around and cast 180 degrees from where you were casting before. Find weed lines and work those. Main and secondary points down to 20' may well be better than visible cover this time of year.

I use both, casting and spinning. Mostly depends on weight and/or accuracy required. Lighter and longer with spinning. Heavier and target casting, I use baitcaster. I'm sure there's plenty of overlap. But just in last several weeks, I have thrown swimbaits on MLXF and MLF spinning rods, as well as LMHF to HXF baitcasing rods. But, I haven't really been looking for a dedicated or perfect rod, either. If I were, I'd probably want to settle on a pretty narrow range of sizes/weights....probably SI Fat 3.8-4.3 on a long MF spinning...maybe something from Daiwa or Dobyns will suit you in that price range. My problem here is that other people's recommendations on spinning rods for specific techniques ended up meaning little to me. Ultimately, each spinning rod I buy seems better suited to something other than what I thought I was buying it for. What don't you like about the rod you are using now?

+1 I, like many here, have caught some of my biggest fish between 10 and 2, often in summer. However, I do generally struggle for numbers in summer during those hours. The bite windows can vary wildly. There's usually a window with active fish within the 6 to 10 AM time frame in most of the places I fish...not necessarily one mid day every day. But there are a couple of factors that affect me more than the fish. Mid day is usually more windy than dawn and dusk. Fishing deep in the wind is hard for me. Another is that I am not going to be as sharp at 1pm when it the heat index is 102. I miss bites in high heat and or high winds that I wouldn't miss at 8AM.

No. Probably not. But I overstated the difference....public schools and all that. I'm ok with calling 1/32 oz difference in total weight as subtle....subjective as it may be

Only if you don't count the weight of the hook and bait. My public school math suggests there was only about a 16th of an ounce difference. Of course, there's so many other variables at work here...but the data does suggest that lighter was probably better. Well done, OP. It can be hard to work really light lures from the back

That's a concern of mine. I got quotes months ago for work at my house. Unfortunately, the guy I chose (but hadn't signed with yet) has had to delay a number of times. Pretty sure I'm looking at 40% or 50% more than I thought back in February.

I bought a Rogue Stand Up Strap for this reason.