MassYak85

x2 on the seat. They are very comfortable as far as kayak seats go.

My favorites when I go from shore are either a spinnerbait or some type of soft plastic (weightless senko, T-rig etc.).

Usually spinning but I can cast it farther on one of my casting set ups so I use that sometimes.

If I feel I NEED one on the water I usually go with a Uni-Uni and tie a short one. It's a really simple leader knot and works fine most of the time for me. If I am at home preparing to fish at a later date, I tie an FG and tie a long leader that will last many trips.

always a trailer for me

I ask 5/0 because I tried using a 4/0 and it was barely even getting to the slot in the bait for the hook to lay.

Where I am in central Mass I think the spawn is wrapping up. Especially after this week, where there will be daily temps approaching 90 for the next 4 days.

When I was younger I was riding in the passenger seat of my dad's van. We were in the middle lane of the highway and this one guy thought the speed limit did not apply to him so he comes right up behind us, and after a few seconds of tailgating switches to the left lane and probably reached well over 100mph and started wizzing by everyone. Guess who's car we saw on it's side up against a rock cliff a mile up the road? Didn't look like anyone was seriously injured as we drove by the crash thankfully but I'd say that will teach the driver a valuable lesson.

I have an older one, which has a different layout. But I think the new ones are like 550 new. If it's in good shape I'd say go for it for 300.

The savage gear bluegills are really awesome. I haven't caught any on mine yet but I have gotten some good bites (missed em). They have great action and you can get them to turn around with some practice.

A1 certainly does get a lot of pressure, it's actually worse during the winter. My profile picture is actually one of my flags on A1 during the last time me and my dad went out ice fishing this season, looking at the west shoreline. On a busy day there might be over 50 people out ice fishing. The pond looks like swiss cheese after everyone leaves. We saw some people pull a couple big ones out of there through the ice this year though. No idea about the actual size but I'm pretty sure the guys had big golden shiners rigged up and we could hear them screaming 500 feet away. I've talked to guys at the ramp that said they got 8-10 pounders out of there back in the day, not sure how credible as many of them were "I forgot my scale" stories, but I don't doubt it. Also, was it clogged with weeds back in the day or is that a recent thing? I mean, during the heat of the summer you can have 75% of the pond, bottom to surface, absolutely choked with weeds or lily pads. Nice for frogging but terrible for anything with treble hooks.

I've personally never used the triple trouts, although they do have a following amoungst some swimbait anglers. But I can't imagine you couldn't find a cheaper swimbait that is just as effective. If you are set on a hard body the Spro 8" BBZ-1 and the Cl8 7" clacker are both sizeable hard baits that can be had for around half the price of the triple trout.

For a 4.8" paddle tail what size and brand swimbait hook are you using? Would a 5/0 be big enough do you think? *Edit, something like a Kietech Fat Impact

River 2 Sea does not make the triple trout....are you referring to the S-Waver?

Fished A1 in my kayak for a few hours this afternoon. Lots of 2-3+ pounders up shallow, but none were on beds, they were just cruising around. Brought my outriggers so I was able to stand up and do some sight fishing. Enticed one around 2lbs to take a wacky rig. Got another between 1-2 near some pads and a dink near a laydown. All on wacky rigs. The bluegills seemed to be spawning and I noticed one bass that may have been approaching 4lbs camping out amoungst them. She kind of slugishly chased a few around but didn't seem real aggressive. Wouldn't take my worm either. I wanted to fish a little deeper to see if I could get any post spawn females but the wind really kicked up. I broke my make-shift stake-out pole in half (it was an 8 foot paint roller extension), pulling it out of the bottom, and A1 has so many hangups and weeds I didn't bother bringing an anchor, so I didn't really have any way to stay put. I tried to do a little drifting but I was getting blown over 50 feet in just one cast so I gave up on that and decided to call it quits.

I was looking at those types of anchors too. I think I'm going to try a little chain with the ones i have now and if that doesn't work I may end up switching.

I've settled on the Lethal Weapon IV swim jigs. They come through vegetation better than any other I have tried. I usually use a paddle tail swimbait about 4 inches as a trailer, but sometimes use grubs too.

I haven't tried a bunch, but my favorite that I have is the Revenge Viberator.

I don't fish rivers, and if I do I don't anchor. Like you said, too dangerous for my liking. I've anchored one time in a slow moving river and the anchor got stuck and like you said, very hard to free even with that super slow water.

There's a bunch of reasons to use the leader instead of just straight line in some instances. If it's a fluoro leader....cost savings. Maybe you want the sensitivity of braid but need abrasion resistance at the business end. You can argue the rational behind it but some guys like the reduced visibility. Maybe you like the manageability of braid, but like someone else said, need to break off. Thin braids can dig into themselves on the spool and when you get to more manageable diameters you are talking 20+# breaking strength. And as far as going through the work of tying the FG knot. We stress about making sure all our gear is quality and up to the task.....so why not take literally one extra minute and tie the best knot for the job? Call it over complication, I call it attention to detail. If we're going to spend the time to take apart entire reels, clean and oil them, why should we skimp on something as simple as a knot.

UMass Lowell. WPI is great but UMass Lowell has one of the best plastics programs in the country, which is one of the reasons I chose that field.

That video is pretty good. I actually might try that finish he uses instead next time I do one.

I'll try and describe exactly what I do, it's just what I have found to work, I know many do it differently. So for the main knot I do usually 20-25 wraps, and the finish it with ONE overhand knot, it is at this point I tighten up the knot. Now the knot is at full strength BUT, it will very easily unravel like you are describing in your post. Once the knot is tightened I take tag end of the leader and lay it parallel to the braid main line. Then I do 5-6 extra overhand knots over BOTH lines. Then I take away but DON'T cut the fluoro leader and do another 5-6 overhand knots over JUST the braid mainline. It is important to make sure each overhand knot is tight, don't pull so hard it starts to deform the knot but make sure they are all snug. Once you do that, cut the leader tag end as close as you can without nicking the braid wraps. Then cut the braid tag end, and voila! There's your knot. It probably takes me 2 minutes to tie it at this point. You can add a dab of superglue if you want but I have never felt it to be necessary. So in summary, I have 20-25 wraps for the main knot, 5-6 overhand knots over BOTH the leader tag and the braid main line, and 5-6 overhand knots over just the braid main line. So 10-12 vs the 2 you say you do. I believe the reason yours is unraveling is because the knot does tend to unravel a bit. The reason I use so many is that overtime I have found that maybe 2-3 of the overhand knots will unravel. But because I have so many this doesn't affect my knot since the overhand knots are not what gives it strength. Whereas if you use 2 like you say then if both unravel there is nothing to keep the entire knot from unraveling. Is 12 overhand knots overkill? Probably. But it's what gives me confidence the knot will never fail. I would say use at least 4-5. The superglue might allow you to get away with less. There are some finer details I do when tying mine but it would be hard to describe without showing you. It is definitely difficult to tie but I usually tie around an 8-10 foot leader, so it will last a long time. And since the knot is so thin it will go through the guides and the reel itself.

I was on the edge between plastics and mechanical. I have a few friends in electrical right now.

Does anyone know if it will be 15% or 20%?