FryDog62

I hear you on the age thing... although I'm seeing more and more 60-70 year old guys (and women - see Dena Davis YouTube, Old Lady Angler, etc.) venture into kayak fishing. Two primary reasons: 1) The new trailers are so easy to launch and load kayaks (much easier than your standard 18 foot bass boat). Easy to push around the trailer in the garage too. 2) The comfort and creature features in the newer kayaks (everything at arms reach, Tempress boat seats, etc.) They aren't your father's Oldsmobile any more... With my leg neuropathy caused by cholesterol medicine, I refer to it as my "water wheelchair." Not trying to talk anyone into it - it can be a rabbit hole in many ways, but it isn't just a young guys hobby any more..

I can't disagree with your hierarchy above - do I miss my bass boat? At times absolutely. But if I still had my boat, would I give up my kayak? Absolutely not. It's a blast. What I didn't give up with my kayak was much of the above you mentioned - I still have 8 rods ready to go, Livescope, 360 Imaging, a trolling motor that scoots me 6 mph, Spot-lock, etc. I got spoiled with those things on my boat - didn't want to give them up now.

#1 reason I went from a bass boat to a kayak is lack of boat storage. I have the largest possible watercraft now that fits in the new smaller garage when we moved. I maxed out all the possible options on my newest kayak ($20k) and some have commented how expensive it is. For a kayak, true - but it is still a fraction of what I spent on my bass boat (hull, motor, electronics, gas, insurance, etc. - $60k+). I also now have a vessel that is compatible in both fresh and salt water... beats having 2 watercraft with further expense and storage issues. I'm able to fish both Bassmaster/kayak - and 10,000 islands near Marco.

I prefer it over light spinning for sure. BFS allows me to use a main line of fluorocarbon without the line twist of spinning. I get a better uniform sink rate from straight fluoro than braid/leader. And... I can cast farther easier with straight fluoro on BFS than braid to leader. The denser, heavier fluorocarbon helps throw those 1/16 oz lures a good 20% farther than lightweight braid.

Advantages •A kayak/motor combination at only 88 pounds is very light. Compare that to an Autopilot 120 with motor at 152 pounds. Younger/stronger guys can just toss it in the back of a truck. •$3000 for both a kayak and motor is cheap - again in comparison to an Autopilot 120 at $4500. •Very fast at 7 mph with the 36 volt battery. Compare that to an AP120 at 3.7 mph. •Drafts only a few inches of water, no prop to drag in the shallows. Disadvantages •No spot-lock unless you add a second motor in the bow. •It reportedly has a weedless impeller, but it will be interesting to get real world reports from people on this aspect. •It’s a new product with unknown bugs/warranty/customer service support. ———————————————————- Overall, a pretty interesting rig - I’m trying to talk a friend into buying one, to throw on top of my current yak/trailer so I can fish with a partner more often. It’s relatively light, inexpensive, fast and easy to transport..

Uniform sink rate is imperative when finesse fishing. A braid to leader "hockey stick" shape because of lines with 2 different sink rates can spell disaster in not detecting bites on the way down, or having to reel up too fast to catch up with the fish. One main line of all fluorocarbon cures this... Gets you to the strike zone in a straight line and keeps you there..

Welcome Kenny, I have 2 kayaks between Florida, South Carolina and Minnesota… Doing all I can to avoid blizzards, hurricanes, gators, and state income tax 👍

I still could still run circles around most guys my age - until I started taking cholesterol medicine. Ruins the legs, joints, etc. and I still ended up with a stent. Don’t do it unless you have to and then still maybe then don’t do it - -

I still use a C-rig mid-summer through Fall in high percentage areas (points, rock rubble, etc). It can absolutely out-fish anything else at times. In terms of retrieve, I try to remember that I’m using my longest rod and pulling it a further distance than I think I am. I try to drag the weight about 18-30 inches at a time before pausing. Slower in cold water, faster in warm. Sometimes I will pull it 4 feet at a time but fairly slowly to grind the bottom and call fish in to see what’s going on. I prefer floating plastics though and if you drag too much without a pause, the plastic is less likely to float up into their face. Sometimes the bottom is silty and/or the weight stirs up bottom composition, so the pause and floating plastics above the debris into the fish’s vision is critical. Remember, it’s darker down there - even to the fish… Best floating plastics for me are Big Bite Baits - Flying Squirrel, or BPS Floating Lizard.

I’ve had lithium batteries in storage before for up to 9 months and they were almost 100%. But then, they were full charge when I put them in storage. I think if they are low when put away, they can drain faster.

Top lure again and for the last decade is not just a fluke… but • A specific fluke - 5 inch Caffeine Shad. And not on any hook… •But an Owner 4/0 Twistlock LIGHT hook. Mostly a 3/32 oz, unless you are dock skipping - then the weightless variety. A typical EWG hook just doesn’t work this plastic well. Catches everything - east, north, west, south… rivers, lakes, reservoirs… Let it swim on its own, more than working or twitching it. The air bubble tail is the difference maker.

FWIW, I’d save up a few extra bones and get the Curado BFS over the Gravity reel. I had both and found the Ark to be a little squirrelly and hard to fine tune for various lighter lures. I have Aldebaran BFS and Daiwa Air TW reels - and the drop off to the Curado BFS is minimal, but a bigger step down to the ARK.

I hear ya… I don’t BFS fish all the time, but really enjoy it on certain bodies of water. The other thing is that I burned out on crankbait fishing with standard equipment about 10 years ago. Results diminished, confidence slid, and I just didn’t enjoy it any more. Basically stopped. Then I ended up with a BFS rod with a good parabolic bend to it, ideal for small BFS cranks. I found the fish hadn’t been as conditioned to smaller silent crankbaits and started having an absolute blast again. Caught some smaller fish for sure, but a couple of 5 lb largemouth and even a 20 lb Tarpon. Label me “hooked!”

Some of my favorite BFS lures are small crankbaits like: Shallow 2-4 feet deep Macbeth 39 (1/8 oz) Mid depth 5-7 feet Damiki Disco 38 (3/20 oz) OSP Tiny Blitz MR (1/4 oz) Deeper 10-12 feet OSP Tiny Blitz DR (1/4 oz)

I switched from a bass boat to a kayak recently. I had two 7’4” rods and now seldom use them. In fact I’m replacing the 7’4” Heavy with one that is 6’9” I think there is somewhat of an issue casting a longer rod from a kayak - but for me the bigger challenge is fighting an aggressive fish boat side with a long rod… I’ve found shorter helps the landing ratio.

I think if there’s your standard Springfield or Atwood style seat base it would likely work..

The seat sealed the deal for me... true story ~ I fished the Bassmaster-Kayak tournament on Dale Hollow last April - 3 days of pre-fishing then 2 days of the tournament. That's a long time sitting, and I didn't have a seat cushion of any kind. The last day, one of the other competitors asked me how I was doing? I said, "Fishing is good, but I think my crack is 5 inches longer than a week ago!" That's when I heard about the new XTR and Tempress seat. I had those seats on my Yar-Craft 10 years ago and they were the bomb!

Let’s shoot for 11/21. I vote Hartwell this time if that’s ok. I was out yesterday and picked up 8 Spots off of points with jerkbaits. Fun!

I truly think with tubes there’s a lot of plastic in the hook gap and you need to lay the wood to them when they bite… baitcasting all the way for me..

The kayak should be all rigged by then, but still waiting on the trailer. FTK is quite backed up. I just hope it gets here before I relocate, or I have to come back and make a second trip.

Will see how the break-in goes, I definitely have some things to learn. But the top speed for me on the Autopilot was 3.6 mph, and reportedly the high on the XTR with the Power Pole motor is 6.3 mph. Doesn't sound like much to the average bass boat guy, but in the kayak world that should really increase the range on any given day/tournament.

A couple years ago, I painfully sold my Lund Pro-V Bass 1875 because we were moving out of Minnesota and had 2-3 moves coming over the next 2 years. We had limited garage space and I wasn't too excited about either storing the boat off-site, or transporting it thousands of miles several times cross country. I contemplated buying another bass boat eventually, and using an Autopilot kayak temporarily down South until we settled. I don't know if I have another bass boat entirely out of my system, but have made some decisions about the present. I still lack storage, but we are moving from South Carolina to Florida this month and establishing state residency there again. We will also be renting in Minnesota where my 2 sons live for at least 3 months next summer. Maybe a month in South Carolina in the Fall where my daughter is getting married soon. So, what to do about fishing? Well, I've decided to semi-retire my 4 year old Old Town Autopilot 120 and will trailer it to Minnesota to fish out of it there next Summer. Second, I just bought a new Bonafide XTR 130 - for Florida, South Carolina and a few Bassmaster Kayak events in 2026. It will be on a high quality FTK trailer built for longer distance trips. It is the absolute largest boat/trailer of any kind I can fit in our new garage. The outfit doing my rigging on the Bonafide is Muddy Bay Outfitters in South Carolina. They just posted the 4 minute video below of the equipment and rigging process on their web site. I'm looking forward to the new ride... https://www.facebook.com/reel/1509157443745720/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Funny, I thought I hit spot-lock until I heard a “thud.” I bumped a marker buoy that was 30 yards behind where I first hooked the fish..!

Medium Light, topwater popper.. boom!

I couldn’t agree more!