Boomstick

With that price range, I'd go with a Tatula SV. My youngest son has the same setup with a Tatula CT-R 7.1:1 which is primarily for jigs and soft plastics and it's a great setup!

I was looking at buying a Harbor Freight trailer and modding it, which is a cheap basic way to transport kayaks. However due to the pandemic, every harbor freight store within a 3+ hour drive was sold out. Northern Tool was also sold out of Ironton trailers, and the Ultra Tows were going for around $1000 after shipping and taxes. @flyfisher convinced me to look at a purpose built trailer. I went with the Yakima Rack and Roll trailer with the 78 inch crossbars and I got the upgraded suspension so it can hold 350lbs. I can fit two of my near 3ft wide kayaks on top, and once I get one more J-Rack (I have one already but not enough room) I can fit all three on it. It seems to do extremely well. If you watch the on the road tests in the following review, they appear accurate with my experience as well, it keeps the kayaks quite stable and minimizes the effects of bumps on the kayaks pretty well. It was expensive and my savings account isn't too happy right now, but I'm very glad that I went this route in the long term. It's really easy to load, provides better protection for my kayaks on the road and can handle high speeds. The SportsRigs are also very nice and can hold more kayaks off the bat depending which one you buy and are even a little bit cheaper, but they had a 3+ week wait time and I could get a Yakima in less time. I also like how the Yakima isn't that high, so with help from the kids, we are able to load up our kayaks quite easily. I should also note they do make a two-level trailer as well. If you are looking for a trailer on the cheap for a single kayak, the following isn't too expensive and is largely ready to go without any modifications. https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200612542_200612542

Yeah, I saw you said it was a large one. But I also see you're in flathead and blue territory as well so it's a possibility.

I saw two eagles this year too when shore fishing before I got my trailer registered.

There are many good ones here. Seeing a moose swim by! I am looking forward to seeing more!

I have seen smaller fish swim right out of the water to avoid a bigger fish that has it cornered...

Last Sunday while out kayaking with the kids, I made my way inbetween some fallen trees and saw a snapping turtle below my boat, so I decided to fish the other side of that tree. A little while later, we anchored down in the general area to eat and we witnessed a full on snapping turtle fight. I can honestly saw that I've never witnessed anything like that before and probably would not again and to date that has to be the coolest non fishing related thing I've seen on the water. How about you guys?

I got my son an Old Town Topwater (non PDL) which was renamed the Sportsman for 2020. They run about $1000 and you may be able to find a deal for less especially if it's one with the Topwater name and it's pretty stable and rigged for fishing off the bat. It also tracks better than my Bonafide SS127 if I don't use my rudder. It comes with a paddle holder and has a spot you can lay your paddle across the sides when not using it without locking it in which is very convenient. All we did was add a BlackPak with the default 3 rod holders, an anchor wizard and an anchor trolley and it's pretty well ready to fish and can hold 6 rods, although it's near impossible to paddle while using the front rod holder which is designed to change lures. And the back is free too add a power pole or motor later if you want to. The only things I would personally change is I wish they would include the premium seat as on the Predator, make the hatch a little larger so we can fit paddles in there and getting rods in there is a little easier and to add tracks to back - although it's not hard to add them later. But overall, if you can swing $1000 the Topwater is going to be tough to beat. To be completely honest, I could have saved around $700 plus $120 or so in addon rod holders if I bought a Topwater and I would be largely as happy.

My experience with painting anything is if you like splotches here and there, then I'm the guy you want to paint it. Fortunately, I have some painters who do the majority of home repairs who are reasonable.

Well I did get two on a t-rigged powerworm today. Missed a few others due to user error, and had a few more bites from fish too small to eat it. While I did not get any on my spinnerbait, fish were chasing it and they came to the boat where I could see them, so having the spinnerbait rigged up was very valuable in finding the fish -- which is not a lure I would normally bring on this lake, just something I had rigged up and in the hull of my kayak.

They do have a healthy native pike population for sure.

So I just got my trailer registered and will be going kayaking at last on Saturday! I am thinking of trying The Oxbow in Northampton. My question is what would you fish in these weeds? Granted, this was clearly later in the year. I'm thinking a pitching jig, spinnerbait, chatterbait, T-rig or all of the above - I can carry 5 rods and have enough to fish all of the above. Or maybe a squarebill or buzzbait.

I'm not trying to sound old and overly set in my ways, but I prefer to order baits that I know I like and know what I'm getting. Of course, I do have a Bass Mafia tackle bag full and some extras in 3700 storage trays in a cabinet too -- not as much as many of you guys, but still a good amount of tackle.

I haven't caught one this year yet, but I got a couple short strikes last Sunday, and missed another on a ribbontail worm the week prior. Now that I can take my kayak out, I hope to that will change on Saturday!

I haven't fished any yet, but they look very nice. I've been using jigs from Dirty Jigs which seem fairly similar overall -- and now that I look at http://siebertoutdoors.com, more expensive. They have some nice looking spinnerbaits too.

Well I made it to the RMV and they didn't give me any trouble! I got plates! It feels like it's been forever (as well as the recent cold streak)! Tomorrow is going to be thunderstorms, but Saturday is going to be around 72 degrees. I came home, worked the rest of the day then rigged up my Bonafide SS127, added the anchor trolley. I got my new flippin' rod and with any luck, I'll get my new NRS Chinook PDF (I have some cheap basic model I can use in case I don't) and am ready to go fishing on Saturday (tstorms tomorrow)

I have good news! I overnighted the certificate of origin to dealer who other than the honest mistake of forgetting to send out the title for a few days has been absolutely great. It wasn't supposed to arrive until Monday, but they just emailed me and told me that they got it today and got it signed and notarized and if there is no shipping delays will arrive on Tuesday, so maybe realistically Wednesday or Thursday. It's going to be abnormally cold and miserable until Friday the last time I checked as well. I am going to try to get a RMV appointment on Friday which means I will have to take more time off, and they better not try any more fast ones with me!

The best rod I could think of would be a MH/F for jigs and cranks, but as others said that may work pretty well for jigs depending on the amount of weeds you throw it in or it may be a little too light but it's going to be a bit too stiff for crankbaits.

Right, I would ultimately learn whatever I get but having a nice UI is valuable.

One thing I gather that almost every state has in common from looking up trailer laws is that 3000lbs is a fairly standard split, whether it be for titling the trailer and getting it inspected as it is in the northeast and California, or maybe requiring brake lights -- which makes sense because on the longer and larger trailers, you can't usually see the brake lights of the vehicle and that could be dangerous.

^8.

I am sure some day I will either stay out late to night fish, or get up early to hit the water before the sun hits etc, but that makes perfect sense if you can avoid driving in the dark.

In MA, you only have to get it inspected (and titled too) if it carries above 3000lbs or is completely custom made. I ended up getting the Yakima Rack and Roll trailer, which is expensive but I will admit is a very nice trailer and allows me to store one boat on a J-cradle and 2 others rigged and ready to roll, so in the long run it's much more practical than a utility trailer with a truck rack added.

Yeah they're overly strict up here in MA and you have to have a plate and registration on everything. And I'm fairly sure the RMV is giving me the runaround with this one -- that is if they were all open, I could go into another one and get it registered no problem. This wouldn't be the first (or second or third) time I've been fed incorrect information by a RMV employee because my being there inconvenienced them. But if it is a requirement, how ridiculous is that? You'd think they would put a "Dealer signature" line on the certificate of origin of it's required, plus the fact that it wasn't signed from a dealer who I assume this is not their first rodeo is rather telling.

This year, I purchased kayaks for myself and the kids. The plan was to modify a harbor freight trailer so I could haul them all cheaply, but they are literally unavailable and the cheapest similar option was running around $1000 so I decided to go with the Yakima Rack & Roll, which is a better investment in the long run. I ordered the trailer on April 17 and it arrived on April 24th and I built it the next day. But I had no certificate or origin so I could not register it, so I now have kayaks and a trailer that I cannot use. I contacted the company blah blah blah and finally obtained my certificate of origin just this Monday, and was able to get an appointment with the registry yesterday. Alright, maybe this will actually work out this time. I get to the registry and they ask if I've been out of state. Not thinking they would make a big deal about it, I admit going to the gas station that's about 20 ft across the Vermont border. So they won't let me in, but they tell me if I have someone who can go in for me I have until 4. My mom was available, so she came down but they wouldn't register the trailer because the dealer didn't sign the certificate of origin. Now let me get this straight, there is no signature line on a the certificate of origin, so how can they possibly require a dealer signature? This seems like they just wanted to get rid of me because they were behind schedule, and kind of like harassment. Given how long it took me to get that certificate of origin, if I do manage to get it registered at all, it's likely to me midsummer by then. If the other RMVs were open, I have no doubt I could walk right in there and get it registered no problem, but unfortunately the nearest two that are open are the worst in the state. Several weeks have already gone by and it's just sitting out back unused because of nonsense. At this point I am not sure what to do. To be honest, moving to another state sounds like a good idea. I'll be writing my state senator as well. At this point I'm even contemplating buying an old license plate and taking my chances -- it would certainly be cheaper than taking another day off just to get the usual runaround. I'm not sure what I did to deserve this, but it sure is starting to feel like I just blew a lot of money on something I'll never be able to use.