Boomstick

Jeff Dunham is great.

The only thing I haven't added is cup holders (yet). At some point I'm sure I'll give and add some, but in the meantime I carry drinks I can put a cap on.

It's actually my first kayak. I saw one for sale, equipped with a fish finder and all for like $1500 a couple years ago but didn't have the money or a vehicle to tow it at the time so then I got online and looked up some builds and did some research. They can be customized very well as well, but mine's fairly simple. The design of mounting the fish finder on the dry pod makes for one of the best fish finder kayak mounts I've seen. I have the rudder on mine and it completely solves the problem of the back just blowing everywhere, and I can use it to steer myself along shorelines too.

I wanted a bass boat for years - nothing too special, just a 18' aluminum, maybe a Ranger RT188 or a Lund Renegade or something like that. However I ran into a few speedbumps along the way and my bass boat was depleted after paying off medical bills in 2018 and several expensive home repairs. So I saved up some money and this year I bought myself and the kids a kayak and a trailer to haul them all and rigged each of them out pretty well for fishing. At the end of the day I'm very happy with my kayak and I get some exercise in rowing as well which is a plus. I can also take it on smaller, motor-less lakes and where I couldn't take a bass boat on and many of these lakes I find are incredibly quiet and peaceful and still have some good sized bass as well. Something else to consider is you can buy a decent sit on top kayak in the $1000-2000 range, spend another $1000 or so on a fish finder and another $500 on a paddle, blackpak or similar, rod holders, anchor and anchor trolley and still come out under $3000 and maybe add a trolling motor for another $600 or so (I opted not to, I could use the exercise of paddling) or another $1000 for a pedal drive (look at the Lightning Strikes, they are $1800 and seem very nice and well equipped). You can still get a bass boat later on and you'll still have your kayak which you can take out on smaller water bodies and it's easier to buy a kayak without a boat payment. My kayak is a Bonafide SS127 and my 300lb fat ass can stand in it and fish no problem - even in the roughest water I've been in although that does get a little rickety so I prefer to sit on rougher waters. My youngest son has a Old Town Topwater 120 (renamed the Sportsman for 2020) and they run around $1000 for the non pedal drive models and I can also stand fine on that and it comes very well equipped out of the box - all we did is add a YakAttack Blackpak, Anchor Wizard and Anchor Trolley and he can carry 5 rods (3 built in rod holders but you can't paddle with the one in front) and a small ice bag and he usually places his net over his blackpak when carrying a full arsenal of rods.

Grats! Getting off the shore is certainly a game changer.

It's actually my oldest son's rod. He uses a Curado 200K and that thing casts most of the above lures much further than I can cast anything with the combo. I also forgot to mention he has a Sierra 704C, but the 734C should be very similar. Some people find the tips to be moderate fast as well, but I would say it's a very solid fast. My Daiwa Tatula MH/XF has very similar power and action.

On my EchoMap UHD 93sv, I always use at least Chirp and Clearvu together, and sometimes Sidevu as well depending on depth of the fish, the lake I'm fishing and which part of the lake I'm fishing. It's easier to see fish in Chirp, but sometimes those arches can actually not be fish and I can find that out for sure by looking at Clearvu to confirm I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing. I would suggest spending an extra $120 and getting the 5cv because not only do you get another inch of screen space but you also get a 480x800 pixel screen which is a nice upgrade over 272x480 of the 4cv so images should look nice and sharp.

T-Rigs, Jigs (primarily 3/8oz), spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, lighter Carolina rigs...

I own a 6'8" M/XF "Topwater" Mojo Bass rod which is probably a little lighter than the 7'1" medium spinning rod, but I love it for jerkbaits and poppers, the action is just right to detect a bite on a jerk/pop and there is enough bend to keep them pinned. I've bought a few Mojo Bass rods for my youngest son as well, they're all very light and solid rods - great blank!

For the most part the thunderstorms do drive the bass deep, but a day or two is much too long. They will stay deep for a few hours.

For trailers, my go to trailer on just about any time of jig is a NetBait Paca Chunk.The primary exception is flipping into heavy cover, usually on a flipping jig where I will upsize my trailer a little bit. NetBait Paca Craws work but I usually go with Rage Tail Craws simply because I can buy them at my local Walmart so they're real easy to buy replacements. The other trailer I will use is the Strike King Rage Bug, primarily with flipping jigs. Most of my flipping jigs are the Dirty Jigs No Jack Flipping Jigs and I carry one in 1/2oz, 5/8oz, and 3/4oz. Recently I picked up some Strike King Bitsy Flip jigs and they're also real good. I would get some in 3/8oz and maybe 1/2oz too but because they're so small, they drop quickly and fit right in between weeds so 3/8oz will sink at least as fast as a regular sized 1/2oz flipping jig if not faster. They're cheap and smaller in size so you will want a smaller trailer - 2.5" Rage Tails or NetBait Paca Chunks work, and you can also fish them on a MH/F rod where you'd normally want a H/F rod.

I generally wouldn't fish a frog with anything but braid. If fishing it in open water with no weeds around, you might be able to get away with it but hooksets will be a little more difficult, and 12lb is way too light, you will want at least 15lbs and I would say 17lbs or 20lbs. I would suggest stepping up to 40lb braid - 40lb braid is a good all around pairing with a MH rod and is the minimum of what I consider truly acceptable line for frogging. You could go even heavier, but I figure if you're using a MH rod and 40lb is not adequate, then I would look at a heavy rod with 50lb or 65lb braid.

I run 65lb braid on my Tatula CT and my Tatula 150 for frogs and jigs in cover. For jigs in lighter cover, I use my Tatula SV 7.1:1 gear ratio. I will use this for skipping jigs under docks which is one of the SV's strengths - set the brake to 20 and keep the tension knob normal where it just begins to click. I could run heavy braid on it as well, I just like 17lb fluorocarbon for jigs in lighter cover situations. Many people think of the SV as a good reel for fishing light lures because of the extra braking, but I've seen many people who use it specifically for heavier applications as well and that's because it skips so well.

I assume you are running something like this? This is what I'm running, and make sure you put the clips on and off and don't pull by the wire and you should be fine. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082NJHLKZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Well I think it is safe to say we wiill continue to see sharper imaging, higher resolution screens and so forth, but what I am waiting for is a virtual 3-D view that would overlays things like weeds or fish at the bottom over the top of the water when you look at them. That might be a little ways away still, but I would say in 10-20 years that should be a thing. If it's not in development in the next 5, I may seriously consider starting my own company.

You can buy most of them from common sites such as Amazon, Cabela's Bass Pro Shops, and even Tackle Warehouse - although I am not gonna lie if you are trying to avoid ebay, I wouldn't touch Amazon either (there might be some sellers on ebay or Amazon I have bought from and if I knew what you were looking for I could provide the names). I bought my Garmin EchoMap UHD 93sv from DelawarePaddlesports.com which is where I bought my Bonafide SS127 from, they are a tax free state as well. If you haven't already done so, if you can make it to a BPS or Cabela's you can toy around with the demo models and see which ones you really like. That's largely how I settled on a Garmin, they were just so easy to use and everything made sense.

I think torque is the wrong term here now that I think of the see-saw method, maybe just power and speed. I think it's safe to say that torque will not actually factor in here, so whatever little bit of extra length we're looking at translates to like 99.7% power.

Did you watch the Slasher Netflix show? Down a similar vein, did you see the Cloverfield movies? The first one specifically comes to mind when REC is mentioned...

I personally like rods around 6'9" or so to walk a bait, but around 7' will do. I can do it on my 7'4" Tatula H/F frog from my kayak, but being low to the water it's a little harder rod but if I am walking a frog I would use my 7'1" H/F rod before my kid lost it on me and the replacement arrived damaged. I might consider using my 7'1" MH/XF rod if the cover isn't too thick just because it's shorter.

I have the 7'4" regular Tatula frog rod, it's a pretty good broomstick style rod for pulling frogs out the thickest of weeds and it also casts pretty good and the Fuji guides are pretty good as well. Most of my rods are regular Tatulas and I have no complaints about them at all. I will note some people say that the Tatula frog rod does not cast a 1/2oz frog too well, but the lightest frog (and also most common frog I throw) is a Live Target 2 1/4" which weights 5/8oz and that casts well.

I run 12lb braid to 6lb leader on a ML/XF rod (St Croix Avid X) for drop shots and neg rigs and so far I haven't hooked any fish and had my line break on me but I haven't hooked anything above 4lbs on that setup yet either but I've caught a few in the 3lb range without issues. I have only had problems with line breaking with getting stuck in rocks, but I avoid throwing it around weeds - I will usually bring a jig or T-Rig with me for those weedier areas because I know if I hook a fish alongside thick weeds and it swims into the weeds, I'm not getting it out. If the drag is set right, you should be able to land a pretty large bass. It's actually a lot of fun reeling them in - a 3 pound smallie on light line and light gear feels like fighting a 5+ pounder - my first through every time I get a decent fish is "OMG it's a giant!" then I see it...

Obviously you may need a deeper diving crankbait, but if I'm transitioning between 6 and 16oz, I will often throw a 3/8oz jig, a T-rig with a 1/8or or 1/4oz weight or the like. IMO a 3/8oz jig sinks at a perfect rate for up to around 12ft of water, but you can compensate by just waiting a little longer to hit the bottom. If fishing a drop shot or a ned rig though, I would up the weight just a little.

I've always thought the little ones think they're bigger than they are and as they get larger, they either no longer thing they're so big or they learn there are bigger things out there or things higher up in the food chain. I mean yes larger fish hit larger baits but at the same time the little ones seem to act larger than they are.

Well I've never tried to pour soda on a bleeding fish as I don't really drink soda in my "old" age. But what about beer or Captain Morgans? Does that increase the fish's chance of biting immediately after you release them?

I am not sure 10:1 is exactly accurate, but I would say overall live bait anglers do catch more fish than anglers on artificial lures. I would say once you become skilled with artificial lures, the gap will close significantly - I'm sure that KVD fares much better on artificial lures to live bait than say I do for example. Lakes that are heavily fished will offer a significant advantage to live bait as well as bass may reject artificial lures they have seen before but will still be much less hesitant to reject live bait. Artificial lures do offer two primary advantages as far as I'm concerned (some others too, but there are two worth focusing on as point in this discussion as far as I see it). First is convenience - you have your tackle bag loaded and all you have to do is get up in the morning and head to the lake, how nice is that? Second is something I have not heard mentioned at all but that is you can easily cover a lot more range and faster with artificial lures - at times the bass are chasing that can be a huge payoff. There's also two major downsides (same disclaimer as before) - artificial lures are costly at the end of the day and I feel like I always need a bigger stick to keep the bait monkey away, and second they have a much steeper learning curve - and that is not to say there is no skill in fishing live bait by any means. As far as where to start, the split shot rig does seem like it would be a good option for a river that you can fish on your current gear. I would say just be sure to give it time and don't give up on it - as you are confident with live bait already, this might be easy to do. If you decide to stick with it, I would suggest picking up a medium heavy baitcasting rod and reel, one that runs slightly on the heavier side like a St. Croix Mojo Bass 7'1" MH/F Jig and Bait rod or a Daiwa Tatula 7'1" MH/XF, Shimano Zodias 7'2" MH/F, Dobyns Fury or Sierra 704C - generally 10-20lb line ratings. Then you can try fishing a jig or some various Texas rigs, maybe a Texas rigged Rage Tail crawfish or the like.