Boomstick

I've got a couple. They come in a rod tube, packed similar to other rods I've received.

I don't use fluorocarbon because I think it stretches less, I use it for sink rate. And it lasts me a few seasons, where once mono sees freezing temperatures or a few years on the shelf, it's done for. I kind of laugh whenever I hear someone say "don't do this with mono - it has too much stretch! Make sure you get yourself some nice fluorocarbon" because I know it's the sponsors talking.

Well I pretty much use 6.3:1 for moving baits and 7.1:1 for everything else, and sometimes burning spinnerbaits. Being able to pickup line faster is often nice when fishing soft plastics, jigs and topwaters specifically.

You might even be able to get a Ballistic LT for less than the Tatula LT. I got my girlfriend one for her birthday last year for something insane, I think it was $135 new off ebay if I remember right

Yup, definitely not quite an Augertail.

I got my first two fish this year doing something similar. I was out in my kayak with 2 rods, one with a spinnerbait, and one with a T-rigged 7" Berkley Powerworm on 1/4oz weight, but lighter would have been better as I did not need a higher rate of fall or casting distance. I generally have better luck with ribbon tail worms over senkos. The lake itself is very small and you can see the bottom in most places, and most of the fish are small but there's a few 4-6lb bass swimming around. They weren't hitting the spinnerbait, but they were chasing it, as were smaller baitfish. This told me where the fish were. I then targeted the spots with my T-Rigged powerworm. I landed two, but missed a good number, one hit as I was moving from standing to sitting, and another surprised me how hard they hit it. I was fishing it by letting it hit the bottom and after a pause, give it a little hop and then drag it horizontally along the bottom, and give it a little hop. That cadence seems to cover a large area and keep any interested fish in the area engaged with your bait long enough or them to hit it.

Some people catch and release, and some people keep their bass. Some people keep far above their legal limits too, and I think we can agree that's not cool. Personally I catch and release all of my bass - the vast majority of them into the water they came from and some into hot oil, but only the smaller ones. And I generally target perch, rainbow trout and channel catfish for eating.

A weightless senko is a pretty good suggestion, or even a weighted one. I prefer a 7" Power worm personally, I have better luck with them in general than the senko. I usually fish them with 1/8oz or 1/4oz weight -- 1/4oz casts much better on a med. heavy power rod, so that's my universal goto weight most of the time. A ned rig can also be a big producer. Sometimes a 1/4oz popper (I like the Megabass Pop-X but the Rebel Pop-R or Rapala X-Raps still work great!) can catch a ton of fish and they're fun to catch.

I carry 8 chatterbaits and a plano spinnerbait box full of spinnerbaits, I think that holds 45. Granted, my chatterbait approach is pretty simple where I keep them 3/8oz and 1/2oz in black, brown, some form of chartreuse and some silver or white colors, where I do the same with spinnerbaits but then you add in different blades.

Littering is a problem. Half of the time there is a trash barrel about 50 feet away. I have found used needles in a few of our fishing spots as well, which is even worse. What has been getting on my nerves is some boaters this year. I'm out on the lake with one of my kids on our kayaks and I see a boat approaching at a rather high speed. I stop paddling so my son can pull up alongside me and give the boat a lot of space to pass by (and keep in mind boats with motors are supposed to yield to motor-less vehicles) so what does the boat driver do? Maintains their general course and actually turns towards us, passing us about 2 feet from our kayaks and not slowing down even a little bit.

Most people say that a bass will not bite again after feeling hook. Well I was fishing with my son and he caught a fish on a crankbait, got it halfway to the boat and it shook the hook. He cast immediately to the same spot, and it bit again. So I think the answer to the question is about 5 seconds, at least in this case.

I fish chatterbaits around grass as they tend to pick up less of it, but in choppy water I'm reaching for my spinnerbait first every time. I catch a lot more fish with spinnerbaits than chatterbaits.

The answer to this question depends on the rod. line and the amount of weight I'm using. 25 yards isn't all that much, but it's enough. I'd say keep getting comfortable with the baitcaster and then you can lessen up on the brake a little bit.

Wow! Reminds me of this Youtube where this one bass ate a bass barely smaller than it.

I have had numerous cell phones go up in a hot pile of melting plastic -- all Samsungs too, no surprise. So yeah I am aware of that.

As an owner, what's your thoughts on the 93sv UHD? Personally, I was leaning towards Garmin before the UHD came out simply because the interface is great, but the UHD seems to be rather nicely upgraded.

Thanks! I think I'll going with a Ram mount.

Yeah the typical draw is 1mA and max is is 1.5mA, darn! I was hoping it would work because that will fit in the dry pod with cabling with ease. The 2019+ version I linked is 1.3mA, but that may be problematic too. Amped makes an 18mA that isn't too large and comes with a charger thant looks pretty good, and the price is right. Before I got my kayak, I was between a 7" and 9", but I have pretty good room in the Bonafide. I'm still not 100% sure which way to go but I'm leaning towards the 9" because I'm not buying another one anytime soon. I did fail to mention that I do plan on getting a second dry pod. I have the limited edition Tiki, so I'll get a standard one to drill through. Occasionally I do go out just to paddle with friends where the electronics can stay at home.

My plan has been to add fish finders to each boat next year, but if I can find financing, I would like to add a fish finder this year and pay it off later in the year - this way the kids and I can take advantage of it. I am looking at a Garmin EchoMap UHD 93sv. Additionally, what do I need to mount it on the dry pod on my Bonafide SS127? I was looking at picking up the following. Is there anything else I'd need? I'm also open to other battery suggestions, but they should fit inside my dry pod. YakAttack Mighty Mount w/ backing plate A fish finder mount. I believe this is the one I'd need https://www.amazon.com/Yakattack-Rectangular-LocknLoad-Mounting-Raymarine/dp/B07G7DT3BX/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 Battery: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S9G5XF6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1 I'm open to other options too. How many hours should I get out of the battery? Should I buy a second and a backup? I believe the mount that Garmin includes for the transducer should give me the 2" - 2.5" I need on the bottom without having to rig up something. Thanks

Well the cheapest option is probably a float tube. If you have the money, a used kayak or canoe can be a great way to fish! I gave up my dreams of a bass boat for the foreseeable future and bought kayaks for the kids and myself this year, and kayaking is awesome! I've even dropped 10lbs since getting my kayaks on the water a couple weeks ago! I got my youngest son a 12' Old Town Topwater (now renamed the Sportmans for 2020). That's a really good affortable kayak if you can afford it and it's very stable. It comes with 2 cup holders, 2 rod holders that are angled for trolling, and a third designed to let you rig up on the boat, but it's hard to paddle using that one. Add a YakAttack Blackpak and you can fit a YakAttack landing net and 4 rods off the bat. I then added an anchor trolley and an anchor wizard and that's a pretty sweet fishing setup. You can add a trolling motor or power pole off the back and a fish finder -- we haven't got that far yet. But it's a near tournament ready setup at a reasonable price point. You can find used Gruman canoes for as low as $450 on Craiglist as well if you can't swing a kayak. It gets you off shore. Then there's stuff like this as well. I have a friend with something similar and he loves it! https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/sun-dolphin-sportsman-2-person-boat https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/pelican-bass-raider-10e-fishing-boat

Funny, I did as well Well, I do normally wear a size 15 shoe (I can fit in a few rare 14s)

If we're counting stupid people stories, my #2 has to be fishing on a pier and there were two people out in boats, a big boat with many inflatable towables and a smaller boat. They were so drunk that the guy in the smaller boat kept ramming his boat into the bigger boat to get the driver's attention. Shortly behind that, I was fishing on another pier a couple years ago. There was a waterboarder who fell off his board, and his buddies went on without him before realizing he fell off. About 20 minutes later they came back, and as he's getting ready for round 2 my oldest son yells "Don't fall off!"

Not fishing, but I used to carpool to work with someone who loves about a half mile away from me. One morning, he was running late so I figured I'd go sit outside to save time, and a buck walks up about 50 ft behind me and we stop and stare at each other and neither of us moved until he finally ran away when my friend drove his truck up the hill.

This is very good advice for sure, but I'm going to play devil's advocate as well. I can testify that I would not like kayak fishing if I had a cheap kayak with a bad seat, which I exceed the weight limit on and sink by stepping into it either -- or even a lesser extreme of having to be worried about flipping it if I try to put my hands in the water.

Well I'm running Sunline SX-1 12lb braid as my mainline on my finesse spinning setup which is fairly abrasion resistant for a thinner braid and I usually use a 6lb leader. I prefer braid on spinning reels -- typically less line twist issues and I rarely get wind knots, but straight fluorocarbon/mono is also a possibility. Seaguar Blue Label is a great leader line, but to be honest most of the time I cut off some 6lb line from a Berkley Trilene Fluorocarbon spool that I buy every spring, buy one get one free. Now if you are fishing weightless larger worms, you may want to step up to 20lb braid with a 8lb or even 10lb leader. 15lb braid and 8lb would be the happy medium between weightless slightly larger worms and finesse.