68camaro

I have the Hobie Pro Angler 12, the Escalade of Kayaks, except maybe for the Pro Angler 14:)

I have a Hobie Pro Angler 12 with the Mirage Drive. It is unbelievably stable to stand and fish, you can put a lot of accessories on it. Mine has Hobie Crate, Lowrance Elite Ti7, several rod holders attached to side H bars, River Stik manual anchor pole plus just put on Water Snake TM with 35ah battery. Yak has big storage area up front, and small area in front of seat, there is a lot of room. What's nice about Hobie is they have a Lowarance spot with cover already under kayak so transformer easy to install. If you want total transducer there are third part covers to protect that work perfect. The seat is seriously comfortable for all day fishing and Mirage drive works so great I decided to use it with my TM on side motor mount. Down side is cost Pro Anglers ain't cheap:( The Mirage drive IMO is best peddle drive out there, the only negative is you need to pull cord to get into reverse and vice-versa. However, Native has peddle drive that has a easier more natural reverse, but in all other areas Mirage Drive is better IMHO (yes, I used both). There are a lot of youtube videos and reviews on pros/cons of each. A lot of people replace the Hobie Mirage drive with a Water Snake Trolling Motor but in the shallow and weedy area I fish I find both have major advantages so I use both.

My wife doesn't bass fish but does fly fish, we go to Colorado every year and on most days she catches more or bigger trout than son and I. Guides all comment that she has very fluid, gently cast that presents the fly so naturally.....I don't know if true but I am always happy when wife or son out fish me. As matter of fact the first thing I tell all our guides is "don't worry about me, just focus on them".

I bank fish a lot two neighborhood ponds, they hold big fish (4-5lb - yes big is a relative term:)) but very pressured. It is very hit or miss but I fish for less than two hours so not huge surprise. month or two ago I started using paddletail swimbaits which I never did before and have had a lot of success. I think this is because senko's and other popular baits are thrown by everyone, so the paddletail gives different look. In one end of pond I never caught a fish in, I dragged a paddletail slow on spinner and caught a 2.55lb'r.

This summer finally pulled the trigger and got off the bank by buying a kayak. The first day, the first hour was fishing in mid-day hot humid southern weather and went to whip a crank out and lo and behold rod went with it, Ex6 with Curado I had cleaned and tuned over winter. Spent time dragging treble hook to find it but never did. Now when I cast I hold rod real tight.

As long as you don't have pets looks like good idea, easy to see what you have and what you want to take. I find I only need few variances for each of my lures/plastics and even terminal tackle so it helps things from getting too out of hand.

Anyone try these or heard first hand accounts of how good they are for fishing shallows? Thanks

For blades up to 3/4oz 7'3" medium heavy fast rod but blank is closer to MH of most others.

I tried to hire a guide for Thursday in Everglades and he said water still too high and boats aren't allowed yet. He mentioned deer are in flats areas and stressed already. We are going to lake north of Miami instead.

I have a Pro Angler 12 that I love, and have been thinking of adding a smaller yak for certain situations. I recently decided on the 10' Pescador. I think its a really nice platform to fish from and at 57 lbs easy to pull around. At $800 new and maybe less if found used I think its a good deal. The Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100 Kayak deserves a look to. Lets us know what you decide.

Years ago I fish out of inflatable on part of Chattahoochie river in GA, it was stored in trunk or fully inflated on top of Taurus:) Loved it. Check out sea eagle inflatables.

I have a 735c I use for frogs. Last week bought some bigger hard bodied swim baits and used the 735c to throw them on, the rod was under powered on a S-168 at 1 5/8oz. I am now in market for swimbait rod to handle 1 to 4 or 5 oz, Dobyns has a DC795 that handles 1 - 5 oz that looks perfect.

Finesse fishing is EXTREMELY difficult for me, I really struggle staying with it more than a few casts even though I know I should.

Actually fishing is my less expensive hobby, other hobby has me throwing .30 - .40 cents brass away with every trigger pull (don't reload). fishing I usually get lure back:) Even so your point about using what we buy for me is correct, I keep lures and even plastics to minimum, I have confidence in certain baits/presentations for most all situations and stick to them in few colors. Ex. with jerkbaits I have 3-4 lures for each level in water column, my plastics all run within same several colors. My son loves fly fishing for trout and bass, I do some, and like you if I find fly's that work for me I always buy extra for him.

Dang he looks happy, and great story. Great to see him catch one over five pounds, I haven't yet:(

This past August hooked wive in finger joint fly fishing, after removing it swelled up like a big pea for 30 minutes then went to normal, she was ticked.....I still think not smart to walk behind someone casting. Years ago hooked daughter when she was 8 in head, she still tells people about this....:)

Afternoon wasn't any better:(, yesterday here in VA I went out from 12 - 6pm, temps mid 60's, water temp 69, beautiful sunny blue sky, rained day before but water clear, started very windy, ended calm. I thought with cooler water and wind fish would be on hunt. I was trying out new trolling motor for kayak so fished lots of water and areas in reservoir never fished before. In the six hours only caught two 1 1/2 lbr's around 4-4:30pm in same area. The day started very windy and I began throwing 5/8 spinner with paddle tail swimbait, then used3-4' crankbait as my water is shallow, then went to jigs near banks, then skipped senkos t-rig style around docks, cover anything. I even trolled quite a bit. Threw topwater in shade under bridge for few casts. The two that hit were caught in calm part of day on crankbait and 1/4 oz spinner, I downsized from 5/8. I think I was throwing the right stuss, but next time out if like this I will also try the larger swimbaits I just picked up, S-168, Trashfish and Huddleston 8" trout. I didn't throw jerkbait as I never really saw fish on fishfinder, but I think with water temps dropping this will pickup soon.

This is where Hobie Mirage had advantage, you can move one pedal all the way forward and the mirage drive fins tucks up against bottom of yak, easy way to skim over rosks, gravel and very shallow areas. This is also very useful when getting into thick weeds or scum and needing to quick paddle out of it, I think with slayer you would have to lift drive out.

I found a cheaper version of the micro-pole, it's called Bernie's River Stik, at $249 its a lot cheaper than micro-pole at over $1,000. Its mechanical not battery operated so less failure pts, lighter, cheaper, manual, works great

thanks

I think I answered my own post, I hooked up battery and Tender and this am its fully charged,I think.

I just bought a new 12v 35ah battery for a trolling motor I bought as well. Can I charge the 12v35ah battery using a 12v Battery Tender Jr? I think I can but the specs they give all look like foreign language to me:) I currently use the Battery Tender Jr. on my camaro to keep battery charged. Thanks

I use 50# Bushido Combat braid on my frog and jig rods with mono backing. I just ordered two 150 yrd spools and its very expensive, next time might try 832 but I have a lot of confidence in the Bushido.

I am having trouble posting pic but I did look at catfish pics on line and it was a Flathead, the tail was not forked. Supercorona, I was running my spinner over and thru hydrilla. Bluebasser, you are right for about 5 minutes, probably less, the fight was on, I never had to go back and forth adjusting drag so much, I don't target catfish in the lake but hopefully I'll run into another.

It had very powerful head shakes, I had 5/8 spinner so hook set was strong in side of mouth. No slime on line. I am having trouble posting pic but will try after work. Thanks