MassYak85

My only concern would be losing fish, especially on the heavier cranks. I fished a whopper plopper 130 on a similar rod (heavy fast) for a year and I gaurantee the rod choice was to blame for some of my lost fish. When fish jumped the rod would completely unload and that's when they would use the weight of the lure to throw the hooks.

Try everything, and bring different style trailers. The nice thing about a jog is that it is so versatile. Put a paddle tail on and swim it, put a beaver on and hop it, drag it. I'll definitely echo the above comments and say try to get a feel for what the jig feels like coming through all types of cover. Then once you familiarize yourself with that it will be more able to say "hey that's not a stick, that's a fish!", and stick em.

Unfortunately the way my kayak is set up it will have to be a soft cooler, on the smaller side so it can go behind my seat (it is a sit-in kayak).

What soft side do you carry in the boat? I have a decent amount of room behind my seat in my kayak.

To put it simply, the rod you are asking for does not exist. To have a rod that fishes both frogs and jerkbaits well is not going to happen unfortunately. Now I have and can definitely second this combo, it is really nice and it is versatile. But again, do I ever use it to fish jerkbaits? No. Do I ever use it to fish frogs? No. Does it fish spinnerbaits really well? Yes and that is what I primarily bought it for along with lighter swimjigs and chatterbaits. It will cast frogs and jerkbaits no problem but I think you will lose fish, especially with frogs as it really doesn't have the right action for frog hooksets. Other than that though definitely go for it.

Part of it is it's just different. I've seen it outfish a buzzbait 15-3, but that doesn't mean the opposite won't be true on other days. It's a tool and offers something different than other topwaters, but it's not a magic bullet. The biggest thing to me is you get to pause it. I like to throw it right on the edge of cover, let it sit, and a lot of times fish will just destroy the thing the instant you start to reel. It also gives off an extremely loud "plop" noise (at least the 130 does) that is very unique compared to buzzbaits. And I can also fish it in whitecaps without it getting swallowed up commpletely, I cannot say the same about many other topwaters. (Again, talking about the 130, I would not say the same about the 90 and have not tried the 110).

Can't argue with ease of use. I guess I just prefer being able to choose my own hook and weight. I fish most of my worms on tungsten weights and straight shank hooks so these aren't very practical for me.

You know what's (almost) as good as catching fish when it's 100 degrees outside? A cold drink. What do you guys take on your boat, canoe, kayak, bank etc. during the summer to take a lunch and some drinks that has worked well throughout the worst summer heat? I primarily fish from a kayak and am only looking for something small, that would carry a few water bottles and have a little extra room for a sandwhich or something. Preferably a soft cooler but I am open to suggestions.

That rat looks awesome! Hand made by you or a custom maker? I want to try and make one myself this summer. Do you know what hair/fur is on it?

I know this comes up once in a while but I wanted to know if anyone out there has a nice streamlined design, either DIY or bought for some outriggers. I currently have some PVC ones I made. They work great, I can't tip if I try, but they are bulky and make paddling more difficult. They also are hell in the wind. So currently I only use them when tipping over could be dangerous (i.e. very cold water). I'd like to have some that are more low profile, a little sleeker, almost like thin pontoons, that would make paddling easier, allow me to stand but they don't need to provide the "unsinkable" stability of my current ones. Here is my current setup:

An anchor trolley is a must IMO. I have modified (heavily) a milk crate to hold all my tackle boxes, a net, up to 5 rods (or 4 rods and a flag/light). I have two rod holders that are built into the kayak. I put a short rail that holds a ram mount for my phone up front. I have detachable outrigger mounts behind my milk crate, and have various eyelets mounted for random things like rod leashes. All this on a 10ft sit-in kayak. It almost looks silly when fully rigged but it leaves little to be desired when I am out on the water for an entire day. At some point I still want to add a fish finder, and add some more streamlined outriggers since the ones I currently have are very bulky. Oh, and make sure you have a comfortable seat, and a nice paddle. A nice seat will keep you out on the water as long as the fish are still biting, and a good lightweight paddle will expand your fishable waters, since distance paddling to spots will be less of a concern and not be as strenuous. Like others have said go out in the kayak before mounting anything. Make careful note of what areas of the kayak are off limit for mounting stuff due to your paddle stroke and comfortable casting range, and of course what's in reach.

Glacier gloves are 45% off sitewide in case anyone wants to get some sun gear for the summer. I ordered some a couple weeks back (wish I waited now lol) and I like them so far. Can't speak to durability but fit and feel is great.

A size 1.5 or 2 will be good for the treble hook baits. I use size 4 and 5 for swimbaits. I think a 3 is a bit much for those. Oh and just some advice, ditch the snap on the frog. Tie direct. You won't have the snap getting fouled on weeds and I don't care what the decoy snaps say for their rated strength...if you use a size 2 on a frog with braid, and set the hook with a stout rod, you are going to bend it out.

Skunked lol. I got there around 9 and had a few spots in mind but they were all towards the dam so I spent a good half hour paddling over there, and the wind was kicking up a bit and I didn't want to risk going farther in case things got any worse. I didn't want to paddle 2 miles back in whitecaps, so decided to anchor on the outside of a cove that drops fast into the channel. Tried a blade bait, a hair jig, and made about 10 casts with a hudd. I really only had like 1-2 hours of actual fishing time, the clouds started moving in and the wind died down so I paddled back to the ramp and packed up before 12 to avoid the rain. It was good to be out there though, the paddle back was really nice it got up close to 50. Any tips for fishing the cold water here? My plan was to target areas with structure that dropped off into the deepest parts of the channel. I really didn't put in enough time today to figure much out. My cold water experience up north is just fish super slow but I have more confidence doing that up in MA where the water can have 10-15ft of visibility and I have confidence that if I leave a hair jig motionless on the bottom with the occasional twitch that at least fish can see it. Cold, deep stained water is not my forte haha.

No, you see, once you spend 60 grand on a souped up bass boat how will you possibly afford lures? You'll only have like 5 bucks left after a purchase like that and you'll have to spend it wisely.

I'll be out tomorrow for the first time this year down here, weather is not supposed to be great but I need to get out and scratch the itch. Got some blade baits and hair jigs tied on and plan on targeting the deeper channel edges. How did the job interview go Mike?

Picked this up last month on sale from Ebay. I wasn't feeling my Cardiff + Okuma Guide Select combo anymore so decided to change things up. I am VERY impressed so far with both the reel and rod. I was able to make 50 yard casts effortlessly. Spooled it up with some P-Line PF Original 20lb and the reel had plenty of line capacity.

Thanks man, that's good to hear, I already have a blade bait tied on for tomorrow and a few spots in mind to check out.

That's awesome man! I'll be out on Western Branch tomorrow just to scratch the itch, if anyone sees a guy in an Ascend kayak feel free to say hi. I have to imagine it's a lot colder than the pond you were fishing though so I won't hold my breath for any topwater action.

They're incomparable IMO. The Hudd shine when fished slow and has a very subtle tail action, the savage gear requires a faster retrieve and has a serpentine S-action better when the fish are more aggressive and willing to chase stuff, they were really designed for pike fishing.

I'd definitely have to go with my pink drop shot rigged deps 250, it's killer year around. Rig it with a 5lb weight and you can smash it straight through ice in the winter, or punch with it in the summer. Go with a 1lb weight for a more finesse approach.

Just like every season...too much Most of my purchases for this season have not been specifically fishing related actually. I stocked up on a bunch of sun gear, some safety gear for my kayak, including a new PFD.

This would be a good one. I feel knot strength is something that is rarely tested properly. The slow pull usually used in videos is not representative of a fast hookset.

The grey one, I am going to have a flag this year so I wasn't too concerned about color. I just ran down to REi and they had it so I decided to get it instead of wait for shipping on the red one.

That's always my personal mental battle. Is the 10 or 20 bucks I might save on an order worth me not being able to use the baits until the sale, which might be in a couple months or more. I rarely have the patience to do that so I think the gift card + sale trick is most useful for buying bulk items that you know you will use, line bulk spools of line, hooks, split rings, other terminal tackle, and your favorite soft plastics.