RocYak

The knipex mini bolt cutters (8"?) are only slightly bigger than a pair on linesman pliers and very easily cut through the heaviest freshwater hooks. My thought is, if you are fishing alone and hook yourself at a weird angle, best to have something that cuts through without much pressure. They are not cheap though, so if you have some standard cutting pliers that do the trick, stick with that.

For whatever its worth, in the lakes I fish that have both pickerel and bass, I've caught plenty of bass on frogs on top of the heavy stuff, but never had a pickerel come up through for it. They have only ever hit it after it gets to open water. Not sure if that is typical, but you may not be missing out on as many pickerel as you think by not fishing in the pads.

Interesting how much difference there is in preference for setup. I'm of the mind that the less stuff in front of me, the better. And I much prefer things to be in center and low vs off to the side. My 7" center mount doesn't get in the way, but I feel if I had even a small screen off to the side it would be in the way all the time. When I see the "fully rigged" builds, I can't imagine fishing around all that stuff. To each their own though.

If it works for you, no need to change anything. I made a keel guard out of kydex. Cut a strip whatever size you want, form it with a heat gun, stick it down with lexel. Took about 15 minutes and $15 with a bunch leftover should it ever wear out. You can buy sheets on amazon for around $10

Center mounted 7" garmin. Its usually set up split between 2D and downscan, occasionally switched over to the map. Plenty big enough for me. Granted for almost 15 years I was running a black and white 3.8", so this seems like a huge upgrade still.

Can we get a fogy in this pattern?

Everyone will have a different idea of what "good enough" is, but I think a shimano SLX is a solid lower cost reel with a simple and reliable braking system. Set it with 3-4 blocks on, dial in the cast control knob for the lure weight and start casting. This will be over-braked by a bit and limit your distance some, but good to learn on. It wont be idiot proof as something like a DC, but I there is a reason a quality brand like shimano has been using that style of brake for decades. You can sometimes find an SLX combo on sale <$150. For that matter, I would say its a safe bet to buy any reel from shimano or daiwa thats 100-150 and spend the rest on whatever rod you like.

The best know to use is the one you tie the best. So if that's a double uni, no need to change. Any theoretical "X knot is stronger by Y%" is fun trivia, but doesn't really matter if the knot is tied correctly. Both are more than strong enough for even fully buttoned down drag. I've used both and think the alberto goes through the guides a bit better, so I stick with that. In case it helps, putting the tag end of the braid back through the loop from the wrong direction is easy to do and will make a knot that opens up after a while and slips.

For a ned rig (And most other spinning), I use braid and a leader as well. For me, thats 20# sufix 832 and 8' or so of 8# yo-zuri hybrid. But there isn't anything magic about that combo. Pick whatever your favorite brands are, and I think you could go smaller in diameter on both if you preferred. That said, I don't think braid is a must for fishing a ned rig. If you are comfortable with mono/flouro, I don't think you would be missing that much sticking with what you have. As long as you have a rod that can cast a 1/16 or 1/10 oz ned rig, its a pretty forgiving technique in terms of equipment. The hookset is more of a reel-in than a swing, so the extra stretch or loss in sensitivity from mono isn't a deal-breaker. Braid damaging a rod is really a thing of the past (if it was ever a problem), so if your rod was made in the last 15 years or so I don't think its a worry. Thin braid cutting your hand is a very real thing and may take some re-learning if you are used to grabbing your line straight and pulling. Its nothing that will kill you, but I forget every so often and its like a bad papercut that itches a lot.

Last year my father and I booked a a day with George DeFrehn and had a great day (https://www.susquehannasmallmouthguides.com/george-defrehn/). We launched near harrisburg and had a great day. Would highly recommend.

Curado 51e or a TD-Fuego

Which spool did you get for the 51E? I haven't looked in a bit, but when I did there was nothing new, and the used prices were very high. I have a 51E on my light-but-not-BFS setup that I love, but wouldn't mind trying out a proper BFS spool with it.

Others here have a lot more experience here with bottom fishing jigs and t-rigs in cover, but I'll add in my simplified thought on the matter. When you are learning this type of fishing, the hardest thing is determining what is bottom/cover vs what is fish. The more you can pay attention to the subtle differences in feel between various bottom compositions and cover, the better you will be able recognize when something is "off" and that means a fish.

I started using circle hooks when wacky rigging and fishing in strong wind. It was hard to feel a bite and circle hooks reduced the chance of a gut hook if I was slow on the hookset. They worked really well and I still use them for almost all of they wacky rigging. Once you get used to the very slow reel-set, its a great hookup ratio. I have never tried barbless though.

I have a 5'6" bed and carry an SS127 in it. I use a harbor freight bed extender for any trips longer than a couple miles. My older kayak was 12" and more stern heavy. I could carry that without the extender.

Its normal to be concerned about it when you first get a kayak, but nothing to worry about in reality. My last kayak was 14 years old and never babied. I beached it all the time on gravel banks. Dragged it to the water at launches, ran into all manner of rocks etc. When I retired it the bottom looked like hell but was still sound. I plan on abusing my new one the same way, and this one has replaceable skid plates. There are videos showing how scratches and gouges can be repaired fairly easily. If you want a winter project, you could always fix the deeper ones at the end of the season.

I've been using an old milk crate with 3 vertical rod holders attached to the outside for about 15 years now. This last season I added in a divider to split the planos from the "other junk". Works well for me, but I tend to go pretty light on tackle. 2-3 planos and a fistful of bags of soft plastics.

What does everyone think is a realistic expectation for reliability for mid-range baitcaster. For the sake of discussion, lets say it was used 1-2 days a week and had yearly maintenance done. How long in your experience would a reel last before something needed to be repaired? Obviously you can always get really lucky or unlucky, but on average. Along the same lines, is there a model that is known for being very reliable? I have a round abu that hasn't had a single problem and I'm sure will outlast me, but are there any newish low profile reels that are similar?

I have played around with this a bit. While you could print a mold out of metal, the cost would be very high. Ceramic is another cheaper option but the detail isn't that great. Using the 3d printer to make a master, then making your own mold is the way to go, especially for the hobbyist. I've done this and made the mold out of silicone rtv or plaster. It works pretty well and let's me get more detailed and better looking baits than I could sculpting/carving. Depending on the printer, the master can have print lines or a rough texture, but sandpaper or a thin coat of epoxy can fix that. One thing to note. If you want to try it out without buying a printer, there are companies that will print your file and ship it to you. For a normal bass sized lure, you can get it printed for <$10. With shipping and plaster, you can have a finished mold for less than twenty bucks. There are a bunch of free cad programs as well, so overall it's a pretty cheap thing to try.

Yeah, they had some fenwick HMX rods for around 37, so I picked up a 6'6" one. So the fuego and rod went for a total of around 115. Should make a good spinnerbait setup.

Went to the rochester store today and also bought a fuego. It was originally supposed to be 112 (150 - 25%), but when he rang it up at checkout it was 75. I think it was the last left handed one; still at least 1 right handed left. They had a number of other reels on sale as well.

In general, when going after pre-spawn smallmouth in early spring when the water is in the low to mid 40's, do you guys normally down-size from your usual offerings? (e.g. size 8 x-rap vs size 10, or 3.5" tube vs 4"). I always slow down my presentation, but I'm wondering if going smaller would help as well?

I have a few questions about dropshotting, specifically in rivers, but let me preface the questions with this. For as long as I've been fishing (~10 years), I've always fished visible structure, shorelines and shallow waters. When the bass arent shallow and actively feeding, I haven't found any methods for regularly catching them in deeper water. This year I've been putting more effort into becoming a better all-around fisherman, especially in being more versatile when the bite is off. With that said, I've started trying to learn dropshotting. The waters I normally fish are fairly rocky rivers with moderate to strong current, targeting mainly smallmouth. One big problem I had was in keeping the sinker from getting snagged on the bottom rocks, and in telling the difference between the river bottom and a strike. Any tips or things to keep in mind? Or is dropshotting not a good choice for fishing in the current? Any other things to try?