Evan K

My grandfather has had 2 knee replacements. It made a new man of him- for him recovery was very quick and not difficult.

That's a pretty cool idea! I have a fish grip, never thought about using it that way.

The Deeper has worked great for me. I've even towed it behind a kayak with moderately good success. I bought a Fish Hunter at first (cheaper) and never once got it to connect via bluetooth. Sent it straight back.

Unless you have a nice sized fishing-dedicated kayak (as I wish I had) the less you can get away with the more fun you will have. I habitually brought way more gear than my stupid little 10' sit-in non-fishing kayak could handle (and I could handle comfortably) and it just made being out on the water stressful. I usually take 2 rods and a Plano 3600 that I've assembled from my main tackle collection at the truck. I have foam floats on the rods; a must have IMO.

Congrats, hope it works out well for you! Good for you saving up for it and starting small/affordable.

To be completely fair I haven't fished my couple of Livingston lures as much as a lot of my other baits (wrong colors), but I have not seen any increase in success with them. Personally I think the sound chip is 100% gimmick. The lure they were talking about at iCast or somewhere where you could connect it to your smartphone with bluetooth and pick which sound it makes is 1000% gimmick.

Congrats! Nice fish!

I'll do you a favor. http://www.ebay.com/itm/281926510153?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Tatula Type R, $200 MSRP, for $137. 8.1:1, perfect for flipping/pitching/frogging. Already bought one myself and love it. Got mine for $120.

I just took a new Helix 5 SI out of the box, $450 on Amazon. It has side scan. Looks like a really nice unit; haven't gotten it installed or used it yet.

That's a sweet setup for a yak! I'll definitely be running some simulator mode to get used to navigating the thing and am really looking forward to scanning a few local ponds I fish.

I'm actually pretty serious about that- one thing that may have made a difference was that I treated my spool with KVD stuff before spooling it up.

That looks super neat. I'm surprised they fit so well. Good luck! Agreed that it's wisest to get those things settled BEFORE the purchase, lol.

That is an absurdly huge fish and a really creepy strange way to catch it.

I'll be really surprised if you're disappointed with it. It's seriously much more manageable than any mono I've ever used, even.

Thanks for the input, all. It helped me with my research and now I know a good bit more about sonar than when I started. I was pretty sold on side imaging so I bit the bullet, cut a few expenses elsewhere, and took @Wayne P.'s advice and got a Helix 5 SI. Going to be picking up the boat on Saturday and can't wait to mount it and take it out!

Good job sir. That will keep that youngster in fishing lures for a good long while.

I had a very similar experience @Bluebasser86. I was really blown away by Tatsu when I spooled it up for the first time (10 lb., for my cranking/topwater setup). It truly is a line apart from other FC. I'm pretty tempted to start using Tatsu+backing on my setups now too.

I've always heard (and it makes sense to me) that you don't want to remove the benches because they are an important structural part of the boat, holding the sides together. Without them the boat flexes too much and rivets start leaking.

I'd say it depends on the bait a lot. Pretty much my only high end baits are topwaters and jerkbaits. Anything else I'm too afraid I'd lose at this point. I will say that no cheap topwater has performed or caught as many fish as my Megabass Pop Max. I'll pay for LC pointers but most of my other baits are either bought on sale or less expensive (Rapalas, Normans, etc.)

This sounds like good advice. I'm planning to get my first boat soon here. Not interested in doing large tournaments, so I am getting a 1236 jon. It will be just the right size for solo or one other guy. And since I can get one for about $500 I was also able to afford a side imaging sonar for it as well. I think the whole rig, boat, sonar, 55 lb motor, battery, trailer, will wind up costing about $1500, all brand new.

@Baitmaker If/when you do ever set up a store or offer some baits for sale shoot me a PM with the info.

This is a story I want to hear.

Where was this deal?

Jigs. It's to take up the slack. For just steady retrieve I don't think I'd want an 8.1:1, I'd be to prone to over crank it. Some people can though (Aaron Martens).

I just got my Tatula Type R and caught a number of fish with it. I had a hard time believing any reel could equal the Lews Tournament MB in my estimation but I am beyond satisfied with the Tatula. It's amazingly solid, smooth, brakes are super effective and easy to dial in. And you can get them on ebay for $120 new.