the reel ess

Generally, if you can navigate it, it's public water up to a certain high water level. That's the law in SC. So you can get out, take a leak, stretch or even camp. That doesn't mean the landowner will be alright with you doing all that. A lot of landowners don't know the law. One in SC shot an killed an unarmed paddler who was camping on a sandbar in front of his property. The landowner is in prison now. I would have just moved along before I got into an argument or fight with the guy, right or wrong. Weigh the dangers. But I'd go for it too. I have been down a river that's really just a creek at its average level. There were places we had to get out and walk or drag our kayaks. You might also have to get over or around some logjams. Take pics and post them here.

In warm water I'll take a box with most of my favorite topwaters. I'll throw in whatever hardbaits I think I might want. In cooler water I'll do the same, but with cranks. And I'll take a bag of whatever soft plastics I might need to replace. ie: I always take some jig trailers. If I'm using worms or any other soft plastic, I take a bag of them. That's about it. I take 6 or 7 rods with me most of the time so I have a good variety of what I think bass will bite already tied on. I don't lose many lures because I fish a mostly shallow lake and I'm in the kayak. So if I'm snagged I can just go retrieve the lure. I recently dropped a rod in for the first time in my 51 years on this planet. Luckily, the water was about 2' deep and I was able to snag it with another hook. I didn't really drop it though. I had it in my crate rod holder and took another rod out. This one snagged the other and in it went.

My wife fished with me once when were dating. She caught all the crappie while I baited her hook. She never went again. I did buy my daughter a kayak but she outgrew that activity. She said I stay too long and fish too hard. So I sold her small kayak and bought myself a new one. I still have my old one if anyone wants to come along. But most of my friends are just too lazy for that.

It tells me that monster probably eats bass. LOL. The OP would laugh if I told how long I fished before I caught a bass over 5 lb.

So many variables. But there are many, many ponds that have just a few or no big bass. I have a friend who has a pond that I caught a 6.5 at about 18 years ago. I haven't caught a bass there over 2 lb. since. And I have fished it many times in those 18 years. A 4 lb. pond bass is a big fish. The smaller the pond, the more you need to harvest bass. 20 lb. per acre per year is a rule of thumb. That will allow some fish to grow larger.

The only thing I've done that you don't have is a crate. I got a free milk crate and zip tied in 6 PVC rod holders that I bought at Walmart. It's held in place by bungees in the rear well. That gives me storage for 8 rods, including the 2 flush-mount ones. I actually had to put those in too, but you have them. I like the KISS principle. I have no extra rigging or electronics. I had all that and a motor on my last one and it was just too much.

Perhaps they farm it out and don't have control over that.

Looks like I should have gone hunting this fall. LOL. I can't complain. This is my best year EVER for size. I could have stopped fishing in April and it would have been. But the last few trips bites have been very difficult. The ones I got were smaller fish. I zeroed last trip. To answer the OP, I use big bass baits all the time because I want to catch bigger bass. Spinnerbait, jig, T-rig for flipping, lipless crank. But there are times in colder water where I could get away with two rods. The jig and the lipless crank.

The place I fish is so close to town you can hear the train there. I see deer and turkeys aplenty, rabbits, snakes, ospreys, eagles , hawks and owls. What I haven't seen in quite a few trips is a big bass though. They seem to have moved out.

I have tried to do bass in the air fryer twice. While it did taste good, it didn't look great. It's not really fatty enough.

They have all those colors, but they mostly sell 3 or 4.

A bunch of money to pay a guide. LOL If I'm on my own, I'm taking a Spook, a punch rig with several different weights and a lot of Senkos. The Senko would be the backup if the others aren't working.

Do you play them aggressively or take it very easy? I see pros playing fish caught on trebles very easy. But the WP 110 is a heavy bait and that does allow them to gain some leverage and spit it. They also rarely get it so far in their mouths that they can't spit it.

It can be a delicate balance. Yes, most state regulations are based on maintaining a lot of smaller fish for people to catch, but also to take. The less we harvest, the smaller the average will be. This is most noticeable in a smaller ecosystem like a pond. But, as I said before, there are many other variables that can affect a fishery's average.

I think he's right though. I've heard it explained this way. A trophy bass is a freak of nature. The odds are overwhelmingly against any single bass getting huge. They have to beat the odds regarding predation, nutrition and genetics to get there, not to mention environment. When you take a big one one out it might not be replaced for a long time if at all. Smaller fish stand very small chance of getting to trophy size. They're the ones who have not yet beaten the odds. Once a fish reaches say 5 lbs. it stands a much better chance of reaching 8 or more than does a 2 pounder. Just because you take a trophy out of a fishery doesn't mean another will take its place. There are many variables that come into play though. The biggest key to growing lots of big bass is most likely unlimited forage. Also, smaller fish taste better IMO.

My dad got one that was attached to a striper and the fish flopped all over the boat. He finally clubbed it with his shoe. The hook went in and out his finger. We had to cut the hook.

I've been very fortunate to this point in my fishing career to never have a hook buried in me past the barb. I'm 51. Knock wood.

Well, the EWG hook would have to be bent out just to equal the gap in the straight shank hooks that came on it. I use the WP with the drag set pretty loose because it's a MH rod and I use braid on it. I also turned the front hook so it has two points down instead of one down and the other two laying against the lure.

Well, I went ahead and did it. I'll report back. And I did keep the other hooks. Thanks.

Normally, I would say these are some fine quality hooks. But Amazon screwed up and sent me 10 boxes of 9 #2 Gamakatsu EWG trebles. Would you think these are better for hookups and keeping bass hooked up?

One with two BIG willow blades. I also like hammered blades, but you don't find them on most spinnerbaits these days. I could change them out, but don't really want to add to the cost.

Oh, I should have mentioned I'm partial to the 7.5:1 ratio for most things and a 8:1 for jigs because you do a lot of pitching and winding right back. My philosophy is that you can always reel a fast reel slower, but you can't always reel a slow reel fast enough. And why make more cranks in a day that necessary?

I'm partial to Lew's reels. I have 4 and some of them are really getting long in the tooth with no issues.

Perception Kayaks are made in Greenville, SC. I have a Pro 10. I like it. The best feature is the seat. I only wish I had gotten the 12 for better tracking. You'll need to install some rod holders because the molded-in ones are useless. I installed a couple flush mount ones. I also still have an original Pescador 12 that's been in my back yard for about 10 years. Still in pretty good shape.

This thing is all over YouTube. Looks to me like if you intend to catch 5 fish you'd better rig 5 of these. Or you could just put a nightcrawler on a hook.