MassYak85

Fished Quinsig today with a friend. The bite was consistent and pretty good. Mostly small fish though, biggest might have just topped 2lbs. Probably got nearly 20 keepers before we left early afternoon. No monsters unfortunately but a very fun day for sure.

Got out on Tuesday in my kayak on a small pond in Upton before the line of storms rolled through. I was hoping for some good fishing with the drastic change in weather as was not disappointed! Got my first frog fish of the year, about 2lbs (my frog hookups have been atrocious this year for some reason). The wind kicked up and I had to anchor. Tried fishing off of some downed trees with no luck. Moved to a more rocky area and was rewarded with a few small ones and a 4lber on a chatterbait. I have NEVER seen a fish eat a chatterbait so aggressively, it knocked slack into my line and when I got the fish back it had the keitech trailer partly down into it's gut. With the line of storms getting ominously close (one town over at that point) I decided to head back. Went by a group of stumps on the way back that I had a gut feeling about so I had to make a couple "last casts", tossed a bluegill swimbait in there, a couple turns of the reel, a hard twitch as it passed the last stump to get it to turn around and BAM, the water boiled and she was on! First fish of the year to crack 5lbs! It rained after that and I heard the first clap of thunder in the distance so I left just in time to avoid getting drenched.

Check out Magnum Baits, they've got a 10" stickbait that's pretty absurd lol. I got a pack to try and even fishing it on my jig rod weightless (7/0 Owner Jungle EWG) it feels too heavy.

x2, there are good fish to be had in the Charles

This, if there is an obvious issue with something I will replace it but I don't throw 50 dollars worth of bearings in a reel I paid 100 dollars for and casts fine. That being said I can certainly appreciate nice stuff and if I had more to spend I probably would spend it lol.

If you're going for pure realism the SG Rad is probably a better option but IMO the spro is more versatile. It can be retrieved as a straight wake or walked in place using the hard plastic body to create a knocking noise. The Savage Gear Rad doesn't really offer much beyond either deadsticking it or a straight retrieve.

The reason you shouldn't use fluoro for topwater is that if you have any type of pause in your cadence or retrieve the fluoro will sink and you will lose direct contact with your bait, making any kind of imparted action difficult. A mono leader will not help you here unfortunately. It's generally best to go straight mono or straight braid for topwater IMO.

War Eagles are mostly what I use, although I got a couple Stanley's this spring and have liked them a lot. I usually throw a paddle tail on the back of mine. It gives it a bit bigger profile and I can fish it a bit slower at the same depth than without a trailer. Only time I don't use a trailer now is if I am fishing them FAST and am really just trying to get fish to react to the fast flash of the blades going by.

I like the standard Z-man chatterbaits but I'm not paying 20 bucks for one. I'm rough with them and expect to lose them. Price/lure isn't my issue, I have lures I feel are absolutely worth the high price tag, but it's just what am I really getting over the standard one that would make me even consider it for something I fish particularly rough?

I can appreciate companies like Berkley taking designs and making them more budget friendly but I also agree with OP, from a purely lure-design perspective, I was pretty disappointed as well.

This. I also usually have some sort of big topwater tied on in case they are in the mood.

I've settled on Berkley Powerbait 10" curly tails, Uptons customs straight tails, and Mann's Jelly Worms personally. I like straight shank worm hooks. Usually either 4/0 Roboworm rebarb hooks for thinner/softer worms (Uptons 9") or a 5/0 Gamakatsu straight shank for the bigger ones. For weight I go as light as I can get away with to keep it snag-free and maintain contact (heavier weight in heavy winds or fishing deeper). I'll use anything from a 1/2oz tungsten weight to as little as a single tungsten split shot 8-12" in front of the worm.

My father and I fished Webster today for most of the day. Day seemed like it was going to be really good from how it started. I got a decent 2lb smallie on a whopper plopper, he got a chunky 4lber off a downed tree on a worm, and it was overcast with a slight breeze. But clouds gave way to sun and we had to really grind it out with finesse stuff to manage a few 1-2lbers each the rest of the day. I did hook up with a nice one on an S-Waver (probably a little over 3lbs) but it only had one point on the back treble and came up right at the boat and shook it. My dad actually ended the day catching a Bronze-Pin worthy White Perch of all things on a crankbait. I thought it was a largemouth when he lifted it out of the water. Poor thing looked injured and would.not.stop.shaking, and he didn't really care about the pin so we just let it go without any pictures of length measurements.

I'm with you on wacky rig (or weightless T-rig). Seeing braid "swim" through the water and make a slight wake, knowing a fish 100% has my bait and I will be able to reel down and set the hook (unless it's a dink in which case I will probably just rip it out of their mouth) is one of my favorite moments in fishing.

I had a 20lb fluoro leader which could have played a role, and a 7'2" rod. Besides that it was 40lb braid but if I try it again i'll use my frog rod straight 65lb braid 7'7" rod. It also doesn't help when the line interweaves itself in the lilypads. It was hard to tell if the line was actually taught or not when I swung and a good amount of my hooksets felt like the first half was just getting the line actually taught before trying to bury the hook. All that kind of added up I guess. Oh well, it was a good learning experience at least. As far as the net I like to have it mainly for fishing treble hook lures with shaky fish but I usually play it by ear for each fish. The one decent fish I did land I just lipped because it was wrapped around a bunch of lily pads. It's also nice if I need to fumble with my phone or the scale I can let the fish swim around in the net off the side while I do that. Good luck on Saturday!

Went to A1 for about 6 hours today.... The fishing was great...apparently I just can't set the hook anymore lol. I ended up catching 2 fish. Had I actually landed all the bites I got I would have easily had about a dozen keeper fish with multiple fish nearing 4lbs. I started off with a 7" fluke in bluegill and it got hammered 4 or 5 times in some isolated groups of pads. I was using a 7/0 Owner Jungle hook with it, which pairs up nice but obviously requires a fairly strong hookset. I was using a Heavy Fast rod but being in the kayak I am mostly relying on my arms to do the hookset, where in a boat I can twist my whole body and have a much greater range of motion, I seem to have not adjusted yet. So being frustrated by going 0-X with the big fluke I tied on a smaller 4" one with a 2/0 lightwire hook on my spinning outfit and managed one dink. Lost a few more on that size before getting frustrated and just going to a basic green pumpkin stickbait. First fish on that, SOLID bite, fish gets to the side of my kayak and as I reach with the net it jumps off....of course. I continued with the worms for about an hour and lost some more fish, finally was able to land a 3lber. It was a very humbling day for sure, I guess I need to focus on my basics a bit, but it was good to see the bass active and healthy (the fish I did catch were all pretty plump, and the 3lber had a bluegill choked down it's throat). It's also a miracle I don't have a hook stuck in my face because the amount of times I set the hook and had a bait fly back straight over my head after missing a fish was far too many for my liking.

@Dunks N Dinks What a TOAD! Congrats! Fishing has been slow for me these past couple weeks. I've been grinding just to get a few 1-2lbers every trip in this hot weather. I'm gonna go out this afternoon and tomorrow though and see how I do.

What you need is discipline. I feel you. I fish alone in my kayak 75% of the time and like you said I can't wait to go out again. But some mornings when that 4am or 5am alarm goes off I just don't feel like it, I'm going alone so the only person to disappoint is myself if I don't go. It's a discipline thing honestly. You basically nailed it, I know if I go I will have fun so it's just about disciplining myself to get ready and go, because I don't think I will ever truly find the motivation to wake up at 4am lol. If you can get everything ready the night before so all you have to do is get dressed and walk out the door, I think that helps me at least,

I have a couple leashes (they are paddles leashes with a Velcro strap, easy on and off) but only use them while the rods are not in use in the rod holder, and right now it's only on 2/6 of my rod holders on my kayak. The noddles things always seemed silly to me since I personally am grabbing the butt of the rod to cast 95% of the time....grabbing a pool noodle would feel weird. But to each their own and I can't deny it would keep your rods floating if you tip.

Honestly heavy duty punching and cranking are the two techniques I use the least so I'm not sure I can recommend much specifically. What size cranks are you talking though? I assume you meant heavy deep divers? If you meant squarebills now we're probably talking three rods tbh.

Just my opinion and I don't mean to sound too blunt, but you are asking too much for one rod. Not only will the rod not be up to the task...I cannot even fathom where to start for a line choice for what you describe. Punching with 2oz+ weights is pretty much 65 or 80lb braid or bust. Small swimbaits (treble) and cranks you are talking more like 15lb mono/fluoro. Sure you could use a long leader, but with punching you are going to want a stout rod to drive home that beefy hook and haul the fish out of thick cover. With that same rod fish are going to completely unload and throw your treble hook baits with even the slightest headshake and a leader won't change that...and if they don't manage to shake your lure you are going to be straightening hooks really quick unless you really lighten your drag....in which case you are back to the fish throwing your baits when they shake. If it was me I would get two rods and lower your budget on each if need be, but I don't think you will be happy (or successful honestly) if you try and force those three techniques into one setup. - A longer (7'6+) moderate or moderate-fast rod rated up to 2-3 oz will help launch those deep diving cranks, keep fish pinned when hooked, and will also allow you to throw smaller treble hook swimbaits like a 168 s-waver. - A true flipping stick rated for punching those truly heavy weights (2+ oz) will obviously be good for punching, but you can double it as a swimbait rod for single jig-hook swimbaits like Hudd 68's, 5 or 6" WRS etc. since it has the stout backbone to drive those beefy hooks home.

I think I'm usually doing 7 myself. But it depends on the line size. I would think 5 would be enough but maybe not for lighter braids. Also the thing about the tag end that @ww2farmer said is important.

Fished the lower Charles on the 4th before seeing the fireworks. Took a while to find fish but managed to put together a small pattern to get about 4 largeies in the early afternoon before heading over to the festivities. All fish came on a spinerbait after it deflected off some weed cover. They seemed to be holding inside the weeds on the inside edge, although a small group emerged from one of the rowing docks to chase down my spinnerbait. All the fish were between 1 - 2.5 lbs. I did break off a bigger one though after not having retied in a while (the bigger ones always seem to bite when you make a mistake lol). I tried going back along the areas I fished with the spinnerbait with a worm fished really slow to try and entice some less-aggressive bites but had no luck other than what I'm guessing was a pickerel that chomped about 10" off my 12" Jelly worm. It was one of those days it seemed a true "reaction bite" was the better producer. I was sad to see the fish I caught though. They were all VERY skinny. The only other time I've consistently caught skinny fish of that size was at A1 that one summer we had a bad drought and low water levels.

How many "turns" or "wraps" are you using when you tie the knot? Try adding a few more and see if it makes a difference. I have had albright knots slip if I used too few wraps with smaller diameter braids.

IMO you need two different rods for what you described. An 8" WRS and a Hudd are in a completely different ballpark than a 168 S-waver. I use the 795 Fury for those smaller treble baits and a "brand that must not be named" 8'0" Heavy Fast 4-8oz for stuff like WRS, Hudds, bigger Real Prey's etc. because it is stiff and can ram home those jig hooks or big Owner Beast Hooks. The Fury is a bit more forgiving and I use it mostly for treble hook baits like slammers and s-wavers.