NYWayfarer

Had me going there until I saw the pic. Looks like an Ugly Stick and a Daiwa reel? Did you really throw it back?

Dingers. I have had great success this year with all sizes of Dingers. Dingers are great in shallow waters with little to no current as the sink rate is slow. This is where they excel. I normally use Senkos for deeper water with current. If I want to use Dingers in that environment then I use a wacky weighted jighead, Texas rig or Carolina rig. The added weight of these techniques prevents the Dinger from floating. **Dingers are on sale at Dick's this week. $2 a pack if you buy 5 or more. $10 gets you a whole lot of Dingers. I still haven't burned through all the ones I purchased the last time DSG had this sale**

I don't think your rod is too light, but it sounds like you made up your mind on getting a medium. When river fishing with tubes and Ned rigs I use a 6'6" ML/F St Croix Premier loaded with 8lb Fluoro. This weekend I hooked into a 3lb, 3oz Channel Catfish and thinking he was a Smallmouth I horsed him to the surface. Rod, reel and line performed flawless. However I heard a fellow fisherman caught a 14lb Cat in the same spot. I might wish I had a MH in those circumstances.

I agree, this is a great technique for kayak fishing without electronics. It worked for me this weekend especially on Sunday. Wind was blowing me all over the place. I forgot my anchor and Vexilar T-pod sonarphone at home. I was drift fishing and bottom bouncing a ned rig. I felt no fish hit but felt resistance once I reeled in the slack line. Try and keep them from jumping. When they feel like they are going to surface, lower your rod tip. It works most of the time.

Had to see what all the fuss was about so I bought a Whopper Plopper 90 in bone color on Friday. I used it this weekend and it works! Had 2 catches, Pickerel, Smallmouth Bass and 5 blow-ups that failed to hook up. This lure sure does get the blood pumping with adrenaline when they hit it. I am sold. Gonna get one in loon color next.

While Kayak fishing this weekend I caught a 3 plus pound Channel Catfish. Quite a surprise as I was fishing a Ned Rig. You can see it in the corner of his mouth in the top pic.

Same here. Gull dove and snapped up my catch as I was reeling it in while surfcasting. My son recently caught a snake that struck his lure as he was bringing it in. I unhooked it myself after determining it was non-poisonous.

Spartacus Plus has the rubber cork handles with the Kastking logo. It also mimic's the paintjob of it's big brother, The Spartacus Maximus. The regular Spartacus has the foam handles. I had the Spartacus and loved it. It's retired now as I took it apart to clean it and dropped it and all the pieces. I put it back together but like Humpty Dumpty it will never be the same. I upgraded to the Assassin and couldn't be happier.

The Ned rig is pretty simple to me. Mushroom style jighead and a TRD, half a Zinkerz or other stick bait for the non-purist. Shakey head on the other hand... While simple in its presentation, the jigheads used: screwlock, football, swinging, non-screwlock, etc. can be confusing. I had to watch videos on rigging these various style heads before I found the one I liked. After watching Justin Rackley's 4 ways to rig a plastic worm vid I realized I liked what he did with the Biospawn Exostick. He took a Strike King football head jig hooked it sideways through the Exostick's first jointed segment. He then rotated the head 180 degrees and then buried the hook. This quickly became my favorite bait and jighead to shakey head fish with.

Sorry, it's a 6'6" rod. I actually had to go to my basement to check the size. I could have sworn it was 6'10"

That rod, while nice, appears overpriced not to mention the added cost to ship. Maybe it costs a lot for the red white and blue paint job. The warranty should take care of it. Don't let this deter you from getting a rod in the future.

Not very often. I bring two rods set up for two different techniques. For example a Wacky rig set up and a drop shot. That's usually all I need. I can switch the wacky rig for topwater or jigs and the dropshot for ned rig if need be.

I am in the same boat, pun intended. I take short trips of 4 hours or less. I also don't have much room for gear. The storage space in the back of my Pelican Tracker is used for an anchor and rope. For my gear I purchased a $1 shower caddy that I place all my tools (pliers, grippers, scale,etc) baits, tackle, sunscreen, etc that I am taking for the day. The caddy fits between my legs in the cockpit and everything is in easy reach when I need it. One trip with a tackle bag was all I needed to see I wanted an open container for easy access to my gear.

Glad you got your phone and two lures back. Nice Bass on the chatterbait! I have been using mine as well lately. Unfortunately they catch as many Chain Pickerel as they do Bass around here.

St. Croix Premier 6',10" ML/F Kastking Sharky II 1500 8lb Fluorocarbon line Yum tube

Losing a fish like that would want to make me fish even more. At least now you know she is there and in a pond she has nowhere to go. Losing a big fish makes me mad and curse up a storm. This weekend I hooked into a Pike with a ned rig of all things. When I got him close to the yak his head came out of the water and it was as big as my foot. I lost him in the struggle to hold the rod with one hand and get my grippers with the other. I am sure anyone sitting on their docks heard me when he came off.

This image is getting a lot of use today. Here is an example of the "balling up" of the TRD. I have noticed it balls up on cast as well when I was trying for 100 yard cast from shore. That is solved by not casting as hard. I use the Z-man Shroomz but I like the VMC finesse half moon jig heads better, that's whats in the picture.

These are some of mine: "O" ring wacky rig tool (Makes baits last so much longer and tool makes it easy to put them on) Neck Gaiter (No matter how much sunscreen I applied I would always get a sunburned neck before I got one of these) Kayak (nuff said)

Great advice. Not easy to do but still great advice.

I was having the same issue this weekend with the Ned Rig. The juvenile river Smallies were inhaling it. Like A-Jay suggested hemostat pliers enabled me to get almost all unhooked. I did have what I believe to be one casualty. He swam off but I don't think he made it, really sad.

Kastking Assassin arrived in the mail last night. Spooled it with 12lb Trilene XL and put it on my *** rod. The weather was iffy for Kayak fishing today so I went to the local pond to break it in. Got 3 Bass and a Chain Pickerel on a Zman Chatterbait Greenback Shad color with a Yum Warning Shot in watermelon candy color as a trailer.

All you need is a Kastking Stealth...sorry couldn't resist. I am violating #4 and #5 of the above advice with my choice. Seriously though check out the fishing articles, tackle review section on this site. There are reviews on rods and reels from many trusted sources of Bass Resource. Some of those rods and reels are budget friendly.

Your in luck, the Shimano Caenan is on sale for $79.99 at Dick's and Cabelas down from $99.99

For river smallies I like the 6' Fenwick Eagle or a 6' 7"