the reel ess

Put a glass bead between your bullet weight and T rigged plastic and pitch to all the visible cover/structure. Tungsten weight is louder against the bead than lead. Use curly tail worms or craws with big flaps, not the smaller beaver style. Use black/blue color.

Looks like a fluke. That's how I'd rig it.

I was going to suggest the speed worm as well, especially as a topwater.

I would add that the reason I went from a 13' very stable kayak with electric motor was weight, maintenance and logistics. The 13 footer weighed 20-30# more. I had to take the motor off, put it on, recharge the battery, the kayak was heavy and long. And I'm too clumsy to stand on almost any kayak anyway. I was clumsy before. After chemo I have neuropathy on my feet and lower legs. With the totally manual kayak I can throw it in the truck in a matter of minutes and hit the road. Simplicity has its advantages. Still, I'd enjoy a pedal model for larger lakes.

Unless you're fishing gin clear water, do you really need a leader? I caught this 6-0 Saturday on a shaky head with 20# straight braid. I haven't used a leader in years. I catch fish on 20# straight braid on spinning and 30# on my BC combos, except for the frog rod that has 50. And I've caught fish on T-rigs and jigs on that combo with straight 50#. I used to use a leader. But I had a couple break off. I concluded it was just another possible failure at some point. Braid lasts a very long time. I used a double uni when I used one. I didn't like how it felt in the guides.

I like to say I'm not good, just persistent.

A pedal kayak is really the way to go if you aren't going electric. You still need a paddle if you get in weeds or very shallow water. You have to pull the pedal gear up/out when you get really shallow. Remember the kayaks with flippers don't go backwards that I'm aware of. I could see the need for pedaling backwards when you hook a fish. You'll still need a hand to adjust steering. There are some battery/manual pedal kayaks. In my state you have to register any electric vessel to use it on public waters. Of course, if you really go out in the wild it might be impossible to recharge. Beyond that, I'd definitely recommend a good seat. It makes all the difference in 3 hours of discomfort and 6 hours of slightly less discomfort. LOL. If you get a kayak stable enough to stand on you can stretch your legs without getting out/off. Along those lines, I'd definitely recommend a sit on top model. I've been using a paddle since I got rid of my old FeelFree 13' with electric motor. I don't think it makes much of a difference in how many I catch. But then I don't paddle for miles. I also don't fish big waters where it might get windy. Even so, aa 10 mph wind is about the max I'll try in my kayak. I do have a pond in a wooded area I can go to when the wind is really howling.

I have a 6' light casting rod that my dad had when he died. I've used it a time or two for a Pop R or small spinnerbaits where I know there are stunted bass. It makes small bass seem big. But there are some bruisers where I usually fish and lots of grassy cover. I can just imagine some possible PB bass taking that lure straight to the grass and breaking my heart. You know every big bass you lose was probably a PB. I do have one pond devoid of much cover where I could use it and I probably will someday.

I went to a pond that had some male bass on the bed-no females in sight. One by one, I went down the bank teasing them into biting a trick worm. The last bass would pick the lure up by the tail and move it away every time no matter what I did. So I cut it down to about 1" and wacky rigged it on the EWG hook to catch that one. Everybody wants the new bait right out of the bag. But the truth is, the smaller the bait gets, the more bites it will entice, generally speaking.

This is my favorite walking bait and color. IDK if it really matters when the fish want a topwater. I've caught bass on shad, frog and baby bass patterns. I have other productive topwaters in silver, gold, bone and bluegill.

My very competitive friend went with me one day to a place that has good average size bass. He caught about a 4 pounder, his PB at the time, and sat down in the back seat, drinking beer and texting his buddies and talkingsmack to me. I kept casting and eventually caught one bigger. I told him to take a pic of mine and send all his buddies. I said "You can't outfish me if you don't have a hook in the water."

Topwaters are by far my fav. If I could catch 5 on top or 10 on bottom, I'm going for the topwater bite. My favorite hardbait is the Super Spook Jr. I love to see the bass attack it. They're vicious. The small ones miss it a couple times, then get it. The big ones simply crush it. Next up would be the frog when the pattern is on. This is a pattern that's steady on smaller bodies of water. When the lake gets bigger, bass have other, often better options. But when they're under the mat in numbers and size, it's too much fun! Third is the T-rigged plastic, pitched to cover like weeds, lilies and laydowns. I catch more of my bigger bass doing this. Even in smaller ponds with stunted bass, the bigger ones on average prefer slow moving baits. They're not into chasing bait. If you can present a bait in their face, they'll usually take it. This means dropping a bait into heavy cover. It's a thrill when you have to drag a big gal out of a laydown.

I've been through chemo, surgery, more chemo and immunotherapy infusions and I'm not the same. I don't feel like suffering in midday heat anymore. I'm fishing by 6:15-6:30 and done by noon. I used to then go home, drink a beer, eat lunch and take a nap. Now I skip the beer. If I do happen to fish the afternoon I'm focusing on shade. Weeds, lilies, laydowns and overhangs. I'll pitch to it all. I won't hesitate to throw a topwater to the shadows. It's always surprising how some big bass will simply stay shallow. I'm a shallow water fisherman. If you must fish midday, points are steady producers. Docks on or near deep water will almost always hold bass. Deeper, shady or both. Understand that the first day of hot temps hasn't turned the water to bath temps yet. That takes a couple days.

Some things I had to learn. Positioning yourself for the perfect cast. Make that cast because you won't be sitting there long. Anchoring: I don't use one. I just haven't taken the time to try. But I'll use whatever is at my disposal. If there is vegetation I'll paddle right into it to hold my position. If there's flooded timber that will do. Just try not to get "high centered" on a stump. That's scary and you can dump yourself in on top of things you can't see. Be ready to bail out if necessary to save your equipment. I've only done it once with my first kayak, which was less than stable. Using the paddle with one hand against your belly as a lever so you don't have to put the rod down. Assuming you have a "fully manual" kayak. I usually do this just to back myself away from the target I'm trying to fish. Recognizing cover or structure just comes with practice. I don't fish where there are lots of other boats. And the ones I see are pretty much electric. Watch YT videos and do as they do. One constant is fishing docks. You'll find fish from big water to creeks stopping along the way at docks. In between use a search bait, like a Whopper Plopper, Trap, spinnerbait or bladed jig. Fish have to get from one spot to another somehow and there are objects between like stumps, brushpiles, laydowns, etc. I don't fish big water with boats running. That's the whole reason I got the kayak. If I did, I'd isolate a big creek arm and work it all from the opening to big water all the way to the back. You can't fish the whole big lake. Look for places boats won't or can't go. This is where kayaks get their advantage. Remember, the smaller the water, the more likely you will drag your bait across fish. You can fish the whole pond (several times around) or 20 acre lake. They'll also be way less pressured. The more you fish repeated areas, the better you'll get at expecting fish to be on targets.

From 2 years before I was born until a couple of years after my dad died, about 49 years, my family had a modest house on Lake Wateree. We didn't take many extended vacations. We spent every warm holiday there. One week of the 4th when I was maybe 13, a strong storm blew over and cooled the sweltering evening. My friend and I went down to the dock with our cane poles and worms to see if anything was biting. To our surprise, we caught bream, bass, crappie and catfish for hours. My dad and my friend's dad told us to start keeping them and we had a fish fry later in that week. It felt so awesome to catch the fish that later fed two families. It probably wasn't all that glorious. But that's the way I remember it.

I fish from a kayak or seated in a jon boat. You're angle is not as good as from a boat because the elevation of the tip is lower. I keep my rod high until the fish bites. Then I reel down fast and go ahead and cross its eyes. You gotta use braid in heavy cover. You can cast a frog a country mile. Mono can stretch 10%. Say you have 50' of mono line out, you really don't put pressure on the hooks until you've moved the tip 5'. Even then the tip is bending. That gives the fish a good chance to get off. A Hvy/fast action rods is very useful in the thick vegetation. I use a XH/XF frog-specific rod. Try a toad or a Johnson Silver Minnow spoon. If the fish blasts a hole in the mat and totally misses, those will sink and give the fish a second chance. I've used frogs, toads, Silver Minnow, Strike King Moss Boss, weightless and weighted Senkos and lizards with some success. Use some kind of superline or flipping hook with the soft plastics.

tie about 10 feet to something that won't move and the other end to a scale. Let us know at what weight it breaks.

Hope you use the money for another boat or something else you love.

T'is better to be lucky that good.

I agree with you in spirit. But the dirty secret about tournies is that many of those fish do not survive, especially in the hot summer. That's one thing I find hypocritical about the tourney anglers who tell you not to eat bass because they want to weigh them in. They're disproportionately, unintentionally killing larger bass.

On my pitching stick and frog rod I winch them in. I do play the biggest ones a little on the pitching stick once they are clear of cover. On anything with trebles or light wire hooks I play them out. If you don't you'll rip the hooks out or straighten them. I have straightened a standard EWG hook out on a possible PB. On the other hand I have landed a big bass that had one point of a treble on a Chug Bug in its nostril. The proximity to cover plays a part in the decision as well.

As a kid I always heard that if the water was high, fish the "new habitat". Go back in the protected creeks and coves and fish a big spinnerbait, jig and shallow crank around that stuff. Rattles are good a well as darker colors. When all else fails, I'll go to a smallish pond down in a hollow that belongs to my friends. I can fish there from a kayak when the wind is howling elsewhere.

Use a bigger frog. Bend those hooks out a bit so that you can see some daylight between the body and the hooks. Use a soft frog. I favor the standard size Booyah Pad Crasher and Popping Pad Crasher. My buddy has a Snag Proof Scum Frog that I believe is the softest frog on the market. My setup is a 7-3 XH/XF rod with a Lew's Tournament MB reel with 7:1 ratio, I believe. I would buy a faster reel if I had to replace it. I use 50# PowerPro braid. A lot of bass will miss a frog. If you hook them and don't turn them towards you, they will dig into the weeds and leverage the hooks out unless they are hooked deep. So set that hook hard and drag them to you or drag the kayak to them as quickly as possible. Set your drag very tight. Don't try to play these fish out. Time is not on your side. People in boats have a better rod angle to get the bass up and on top of the weeds. In a kayak, your rod is lower and you have less upward leverage. I keep the rod tip high until I see a bite. I reel down and try to determine if the fish has the frog. If it does I swing away. This seems to be about the amount of time it takes either for a fish to take the bait or for me to know if it missed. I don't want to snatch it away if it missed. I can twitch it a couple times and maybe get it to bite again. There are alternatives to a frog. A toad is better at getting open water bites and you can drop the rod and see if the fish is moving with it before you set the hook. If you drag it on the mat and they bite, it will sink and they can get a second shot at it without breaking the surface again. Many bass won't go to the surface twice. A Johnson Silver Minnow with a grub or chunk trailer will walk across the mat and sink when a fish misses on it. It will also get some bites when you swim it off the mat and get a few stray bites just swimming it in the submerged vegetation. You must sharpen the hook on these. They come dulled by the shiny plating. Check your hooks for sharpness and sharpen if necessary. I keep a net handy, but it's mostly for big bass hooked with trebles. I have made it to 55 years old without ever getting a hook past the barb in my flesh. I want to keep the streak alive.

I tried it before and didn't get any action. But that's a tiny sample size.

This site, YouTube and specializing in bass and a certain type body of water have truly accelerated my skills. About time, considering I'm almost 56. I've caught more bass on the Yum Dinger over the past 5 years than other baits combined, and bigger bass as well.