MassYak85

I go with a straight shank hook for the Jelly worms. I think I use a 4/0 Gamakatsu round bend and add some shrink wrap as a bait keeper like they have on the roboworm rebarb hooks. I'm usually using a 1/4oz tungsten weight but Ill even rig them as a splitshot rig sometimes.

Actually? Testing, testing...1 2 3... One three, Omen, Origin A, ***, Concept A, Concept Zero Dang did hell freeze over?

I guess I paddled farther than I thought , just measured it out on Google Earth...5 miles round trip. I had my outriggers on too which definitely add considerable drag. All that for a skunk lol. Still nice to be out though. That section of the river is on the edge of the Assabet National Wildlife refuge and is very picturesque. Especially with snow and ice on the banks it and the sun out.

@Mr. Aquarium Nice fish! I launched my kayak for the first time this year on the Assabet. I was out for about four hours, spent about half of that paddling to a spot and back against the wind/current. Tried swimbaits and jerkbaits but no bites. I paddle a bit far for my first time back out and definitely regretted it a bit on the paddle back to the launch.

For example, size 1 Owner ST-36s that I use fairly often. The mediums fit but I have to kind of jam them on, the yellow large size will fall off under it's own weight. Even the size 1/0s don't stay in the yellows that well it seems.

(Obligatory late-winter cabin fever thread warning). Is it just me or does anyone feel like there is a gap in the sizing for the Owner safety caps? I seem to run into this fairly frequently where the hook is slightly too big (wider gap) than the medium (purple) size will allow, but going to the large (yellow) it isn't a heavy enough wire to stay in the little snaps and the cap just falls off with almost no effort. I wish they made an in-between size. Do any other companies make these hook bonnets that you have found to cover this "gap"?

???

Drove by part part of the Assabet river today. It was high and flowing pretty good in the narrow spots. There was a section I've been wanting to try in the kayak that was completely open, so I think I'm going to attempt to get an open water February bass tomorrow!

I get the need for the big leader but why such thin braid for such heavy weights?

Forgive my ignorance since I fish zero saltwater, but is this normal? At least for bass fishing generally you want to get your main line (braid) as close in diameter as you can to your leader (mono). The diameter difference between 30lb braid and 50lb mono is massive and IMO would cause the connection knot to hang up on it's way out of and into the guides. If I ever had a reason to be running 50lb leaders I would be looking at at least 65lb or 80lb braid as the mainline. That said I've switched between a few connection knots the past few years. I started with the Uni to Uni, didn't quite trust it's strength after breaking off at the leader knot on a few hooksets so I learned the FG and didn't have any issues with it, other than that it's a bit of a pain to tie, especially on the water, and the ending half hitches would sometimes unravel. Then I switched to the albright/alberto and loved it, and still use it a lot. But didn't love the knot size for heavier lines for swimbaits so I have been using the blood knot recently (Matt Allen's knot of choice) and have loved it. I use it probably 80% of the time, while throwing in an FG or alberto every once in a while. Especially with smaller lines.

Sounds like you need a beefier rod if you are concerned you cannot set the hook adequately on a jig with a weedgaurd.

This, boat or kayak if I am fishing a popular lake/river (more so on rivers actually) it's pretty frequent that pleasure kayaks will cut in close to shore. It doesn't usually bother me since they probably don't know any better and of everyone on the lake kayaks have the quietest presence so I doubt it runs the fish off too bad.

That time of the year where I either drive east to find open water of west to find hard water. Big decisions lol.

Good to hear, I had a spring order list that would have been kind of annoying to lose.

I was planning to ice fish this weekend but with heavy rain and higher temps forecasted for friday into saturday I might try my luck around some flowing water.

That "bug" seems hard for people to catch IMO. I can take a good amount of friends fishing for the day as they just see it as a chance to be outdoors an hang out, and catching fish is fun. But the desire to go fish in 50° rain for 8 hours is a little harder to make them understand lol ?

I think the important thing is to have them catch fish somewhat consistently starting out if they are young. That can just be bobber fishing for bluegill. My dad would take me bobber fishing all the time as a kid and I enjoyed it. I think the allure of it was just the "you never know what you're gonna catch" factor. That still sticks with me to this day. Catching bluegill was fun but throw in a 3lb bass every once in a while on an ultralight spincast rod and I was hooked. Although around when I started high school fishing started to become more of a passion rather than just a hobby, and I started focusing more on bass and learning as much as I could. I couldn't really tell you why though. Also, like it or not, social media (Instagram, YouTube, etc.) is probably the best way to reach kids. Look at the Googan Squad and how big they got on YouTube. I'm personally not a big fan of their videos but they have introduced fishing to tons of people.

I use acetone (do not use scented acetone used for nail polish) in small glass jars and an ultrasonic cleaner (cheap one off amazon). Just be careful to use it in a well-ventilated area as it is extremely volatile.

There's longer ones out there for sure but as far as shear bulk the Magnum Baits 6.25" Mauler is pretty huge.

Fished Maspenock today from about 11pm to 5pm. The ice was pretty thick, 8+". It was nice black ice too, no white ice. Snow on top was crunchy enough that I didn't need the spikes for my boots. Fishing was slooooooooooow though. Tried fishing a deeper part of the lake along some drop offs but not much luck. Got a pickerel and a pretty sizable perch on tipups but that was it. A couple more trips from either tiny pickerel or more perch but overall not much action.

For what you have now and mentioned, I have and can recommend the Dobyns Fury 795. It can handle what you have all the way up to the S-Waver 200 (it starts to top out at the 4oz mark). I would first take an honest assessment of what you think you will be throwing like a year from now though. If you're pretty certain you are going to stick to throwing big baits you might want to invest in something like a Dobyns 806. I don't have one but I've heard from others that it's extremely versatile and can still throw almost anything the Fury 795 can while giving you room to move up to bigger baits. For the smaller jig hook baits like the GT360 you can always throw them on a jig rod or something. I don't know what your budget is, and for me the 806 was out of my price range when I started using big baits a couple years ago, but if you think swimbaits are going to be something you'll stick with and expand on it may be worth the investment.

I have a spool of Sunline Sniper lying around but I've pretty much switched to all braid + mono (Maxima) leaders, and straight braid when fishing thick vegetation. I do run strait P-Line PF copoly for treble hook swimbaits though. As for more bites...I don't think line visibility itself is super important unless you're fishing clear water (I'm not about to switch to straight neon yellow braid though) but the slack line sensitivity of fluoro is impressive from my short time using it, which can make a difference in hooking and landing the bites you do get for sure.

Stopped by the show with my dad earlier. Lots of great vendors, I picked up a couple spinnerbaits at Rocky Ledge, some craws at Samatis, and a pack of Miyagi Swimmers at Beast Coast's booth. Cool to see Mike Bucca and his booth too, those 11" Bullshads are HUGE! Congrats on the new tank kayak @LadiMopar ?. That is one hefty kayak for sure, but more often than not I wish I had peddle drive when I'm out fishing in my Ascend.

I generally keep it simple with weights, because like @CroakHunter said you can change other things to control sink rates if need be. The one thing I do keep a good assortment of is hook sizes because matching the hook to the bait is pretty important for hook-up as well as getting the most action out of your bait.

At least in MA, you are required by law to wear one in a kayak between September 15 and May 15 because of water temperatures. I always followed that law but couldn't be bothered to wear it most other times. Decided this year to change that, since really the biggest danger most of the times is getting hit by a boat not hypothermia.