MassYak85

I think what you need to do is not look at all your tackle and say "this is too much" just because you brought a lot. Instead look at each bait in your tackle box(s) and ask yourself "when would I use this?". If you feel there is a chance that the conditions could dictate you use that bait that day then bringing it makes sense. If you can honestly say that everything your brought has a possible use that day then you didn't bring too much. But be realistic about the conditions. If you are fishing a muddy river then there are probably lures you have that would be better suited to fishing 30+ feet clear lakes and you probably won't be using that day. Just be critical about what you bring, focus more on the "why" of what you are bringing instead of the "amount" of what you are bringing.

Generally I only do it on finesse presentations, I don't know why. Generally I fish senkos or other stick baits stock and like solid colors. For drop shots, shakeyheads, ned rigs I sometimes like to add chartreuse to the end of the tail. If nothing else just to change things up a bit. If I am not getting any bites on the normal worm then changing it a little gives me a little more confidence since I'm giving a "new" bait a chance.

I've had some good days of fishing right before thunderstorms rolled in. Caught one of my biggest in the middle of the summer from my kayak in 20+mph winds with thunderheads way off on the horizon. Be smart though, it's one thing to fish in the rain or when the storm is approaching.....just DO NOT fish IN a thunderstorm. Last summer I got caught on the opposite side of a pond from where the launch was and ended up having to beach my kayak on the shore, put all my rods down and get out while the storm just barely skirted along the opposite shore (this pond isn't even a mile across at it's widest mind you). I got wet but it sure beats getting struck by lightning, lesson learned. If you are fishing sketchy weather just know when to call it quits and make sure you leave yourself enough time to get off the lake if the weather turns bad.

Me and my dad were on Quinsigamound today for about 8 hours. Water temps when we got there were in the low 60's so I thought there might still be some up shallow spawning. No such luck. We spent about an hour shallow with only pickeral to show for it. Even the males were no where to be found. We went to the North section and fished outside of an area they had been spawning in a couple weeks prior, thinking they may have just moved out of the spawning grounds. No luck there either. It wasn't until we moved back to about the first bridge that we finally found them. My dad got a nice 3.3lber on a spinnerbait and a couple of 2's and some more smaller ones. It seemed like the bass were in full on post-spawn behavior after all the warm weather we had this week. Even the males were out deep. Seemed like most of the decent fish were near shore but Quinsig drops quickly into 50 feet so they were hanging out at around 10-15 feet and were coming up to hit stuff. They reacted well to the flashy silver spinnerbaits. I wasn't as lucky today with moving baits so I decided to give the ned rig it's maiden voyage. If my goal was to slay dinks it would have been one of the best days of fishing ever, but 50 dink largemouth/crappies/rock bass later and the biggest fish I caught all day was probably about a pound. Still a fun day though. When we left the water temps were creeping up towards 68 and I saw one spot hit 70. Looks like the spawn is wrapping up/over in many places.

I think this is why many people love top water fishing more than any other type. It's simply so exciting when the bite is on. My personal favorite is when you see the telltale swirl 10 feet away from your lure of a bass taking off to annihilate your bait and you have that 1-2 second wait before they crush it.

They're evolving. It's clearly an underwater Sasquatch den.

Well the great thing about kayaks is you can get them into the thickest and nastiest stuff that you simply can't with a boat. If I could only take 3 set ups I would have one for frogs, one for t-rigs/jigs/punching, and a spinning rod to fish weightless plastics. Sometimes I go out with 5 but most of the time if I'm out in my kayak I'm going to be fishing heavy cover.

My personal best (well, my first time PB, I've caught two of the exact same weight) was caught on a wacky worm. Unfortunately the hook got it right where the gills start and it was bleeding badly when I got it in the boat. I quickly weighed and unhooked it and got it back in the water in about 30 seconds (I opted not to take a picture to give it the best chance). It swam off fine and I hope it survived, there was not real damage to the gills, just bad bleeding.

I was out in my kayak for about 5 hours on a local pond (wildwood in upton) this afternoon. It started out slow but they started biting as the day went on. I got about a dozen bass but the biggest was only around 2 lb's. I had another between 2-3 jump and get off too. Couldn't seem to find the big girls today unfortunately. I didn't have any way to get the water temperature but just going by feel it seemed to be approaching or getting just above 60 with the warm weather we've had. I didn't see any fish on the beds that I found, but all the small males I caught were pushed up shallow. Most of the fish were caught on a swim jig, and a couple on a wacky worm I threw if one missed the swimjig.

Wacky rigged senko

I'm going to try and get out in my kayak tomorrow before the rain comes in, I'll let you guys know how I do. I'm hoping the last two days of nice 70 degree weather got them more active.

(I'm assuming you will be sitting in the back for the sake of this reply) I'd start by deciding what is really important. Do you want to bring 5 rods? If so you will need to consider rod holders for all of them. How much tackle do you want to bring? A few hooks and some soft plastics or 6 plano boxes full of lures? Are you going to want to stand up? This kayak doesn't look wide enough to comfortably do that but you did say it was stable in the OP, so if you wanted to you could consider an outrigger set up. Do you want electronics? Do you want some sort of flag/light system to let people know where you are on larger bodies of water/at night (a smart idea)? All things to consider. But don't go crazy out of the gate and add 10 different mounts before you really get familiar with fishing out of your kayak. I think a good way to start would be to add a rail, anchor trolley, and something to hold your paddle while you are fishing. The anchor trolley will really come in handy fishing in the wind, and I also use mine in shallow ponds as a place to secure my stakeout pole. The rails will allow you to basically mix and match whatever you want and you can add as many or few accessories as you need to start, and if you find you need more room you can add another rail to the other side. Just consider when you are mounting ANYTHING your paddle stroke. Before you drill just sit down with your paddle and ask yourself if what you are about to mount is going to be in the way when paddling. If you are trying to keep things really simple the rails might even be overkill. A 12 inch rail on one side would allow you to add a few accessories and mix and match while figuring things out, but I don't know what you intend to add. And as far as paddle holders there are some simple kits that will hold your paddle on the side of the kayak out of the way (just make sure it won't interfere with an anchor trolley if you want to add one) while you fish. You don't want the wind blowing your paddle around or into the water if you have it just laying in your lap. If it was mine I would want some rails, some sort of way to hold 4 plano boxes in the front seat. A way to hold 4 rods and a net behind my seat (I'd probably make some sort of DIY PVC contraption), an anchor trolley, and a paddle holder. I'm still adding things to mine so I could go on and on but no need to go crazy, just some ideas. I would recommend Googling "Kayak modifications" and just looking at some of the things other people have done. I'm sure some of them will spark some ideas for you. Also, one thing that might not immediately come to mind when considering modifying your kayak is the actual paddle. The best thing I did in the past couple years was buy a decent paddle. It can turn miles of paddling from tiring to actually enjoyable. It's certainly not a requirement and most paddles will do just fine for kayak fishing but on larger bodies of water or rivers where you might be paddling more I would consider it. Oh and I almost forgot, the seat. I haven't sat in that kayak, but I used to own a kayak with a similar molded seat and it was not comfortable. Mounting a seat doesn't look like an easy option here but you can certainly add cushioning which will extend how long you can comfortably stay out on the water. Have fun though, kayak fishing is a blast!

If you don't mind, a picture would still be pretty helpful. If I saw it I could at least tell you all the thing that I would add if it were mine.

Exactly this

Does anyone have any experience with them? They're 7" Golden Pond shiner looks really nice, and is about the same price as a Hudd. Mostly I was just wondering about how the tail action is and how the plastic they use compares to other swim baits.

A 6.9 smallie is an amazing catch man. Congrats.

I use a braid to leader a lot. Usually 20lb braid to 12lb fluoro. I use the FG knot to connect them and with that knot the first point of failure besides a nick in the line is the knot to the lure itself. For tying the leader to the lure I usually prefer either an imporved clinch knot or a uni knot. I find that the Uni is less prone to burning the fluoro than the improved clinch so I stick with that for the most part.

x2 on the savage gear line through trouts and bluegills. They're great and you don't have to break the bank to get a couple.

That's the biggest thing I like about it, I previously used the double Uni and actually liked it for it's ease of tying and for the diameter leaders I was tying it wasn't too bulky IMO, but I had breakage issues on hooksets. With the FG knot, if you tied it correctly, it will not break, the knot to the lure will first. If you get something hung up and need to break off you can have confidence that that is where it will break, which is nice.

x2 It's the most difficult knot I use for fishing but it also is an amazing knot and there really isn't anything better that I have found for tying leaders. The only downside really is the ease of tying it. And like others have said, regardless of the knot you use, the braid should always be the line used to tie the knot. In fact that's the only reason the FG knot even works is because the braid is wrapping around the mono or flouro and not vice versa. If you tried it the other way the braid would slip through the wraps with almost zero resistance.

Mine is 100% DIY. You can pick up some hardware at Lowe's/Home Depot etc. and makes one relatively cheap. If you aren't comfortable making one then some good suggestions have been mentioned already.

I know for Mexico that's a common catch but in the Northern US that's a very nice fish

Is it a sit on or sit in? As for storage many people use milkcrates or something similar to store some plano style tackle boxes. Many of the fishing orientated kayaks have a place to put a crate in them but I am not sure what yours looks like.

There are certainly techniques that are made more difficult from a kayak. If you aren't able to stand up in yours it can limit how you work a lure. If you can stand I really don't see why you wouldn't be able to do pretty much everything you could from a boat. The only difference is you are lower to the water, with your feet being either just above or just under the water's surface depending how high up your kayak rides. So a longer rod might makes pitching more difficult. I am sitting down most of the time in mine, although I do have outriggers if I choose to stand. If I am trying to make an accurate cast to cover I kind of make a "roll" cast.

A picture of the kayak or something similar to what you have would be useful. You could always start out just mounting a couple rails, that way you can always add or remove whatever you want. Although it's hard to get the placement of the rails right before you actually know what you want. I would definitely recommend an anchor trolley if you fish in the wind a lot and or a stakeout pole if you are fishing shallower bodies of water. The best advice I can give is to just go out and fish out of the kayak without doing anything to it, and just think to yourself what you wish you had, and keep note. Then make a couple modifications and go out a few more times with those modifications and keep thinking how you can change the kayak to best fit your style of fishing. Some guys have a bunch of rod holders, some mount electronics, some mount trolling motors etc. etc. Just don't turn your kayak into swiss cheese before you are certain that you want to make a modification. Also keep in mind things like your paddle stroke. You don't want to be bumping into things you have mounted around the kayak while paddling.