Boomstick

I love the Tatula SV, especially for light baits, pitching, skipping and target casting. I'm pretty much a Daiwa guy, but that said Shimano and Daiwa are basically the best reel manufacturers out there (and they make pretty nice rods too). I just got my oldest son a SLX MGL 70 and took it out on Saturday and it casts a weightless senko beautifully into wind as well, maybe even better than my Tatula SV I was using.

No real preference. I might prefer decent quality foam simply because cork pits.

I made it out today and yesterday, but still no fish for me. My youngest son caught two today though! I also have a rod on backorder (Daiwa Tatula Elite 7'1" M/F Ehrler dropshot rod). I'm hoping it will arrive sooner rather than later because I would have taken it out today if I had it. It's supposed to ship sometime in April. I got a Tatula LT reel to pair with it, and that thing is so light I thought they shipped me an empty box!

So I made it out again today. I didn't catch anything but missed a few, one was likely a decent bass and the others I think were mostly panfish nipping at my bait and one that I think was a rainbow trout but the guy next to me thought it was a perch. I was casting a weightless 7" powerworm and when the wind was still it cast beautifully but I ended up throwing on a 1/8oz weight to help casting into the wind as it was fairly strong at times. My youngest did catch a 2.5lb larry on his new rod (St Croix Mojo Bass Plastics rod) so that was pretty sweet and later we grabbed dinner and switched locations and he pulled in another small one on a jerkbait.

@txchaser so I made it out for a little bit today. I had to feed my youngest son, so we got some food and went up to a local lake. Didn't catch anything, but I threw it in what will soon be a fairly weedy spot but now the weeds are primary dead and floating. I threw a 1/8oz weight on with a t-rigged senko and still bomb cast it further than I needed to, probably could have gone weightless to be honest. While I didn't catch a fish, I did catch some decent piles of weed and a branch in the water, and it feels like it should definitely have enough power to pull them out of a little bit of cover. Back at it tomorrow.

I have mine filled up with jigs (mostly Dirty Jigs) and chatterbaits (mostly project Z) and they all fit without issue.

I have great luck getting finicky fish to bite a Berkley Power Worm. I usually carry 7" and 8.5" ones. Also try a Zoom baby brush hog. Of course you can also try a Roboworm straight tail or the X-Zone lures deception worm which are smaller in profile as well. Only if it's on a medium light rod.

Fluoroclear is as others said, a copoly which is basically fluorocarbon coated. Now I gave some to my oldest son some years ago and it cast horrible and had awful memory issues, far worse than I have seen with any line (even Vanish). For what it's worth he did land two or three fish that day, but spent more time picking out birds nests than he ever did before or after. I couldn't cast with it either. I went home and ordered some Yo Zuri Hybrid and that worked much better.

I have no experience with the Aird X or Procryon, but the Tatula 7'2" MH/F is a pretty good rod although maybe a little more than you're looking to spend. For a reel, may I suggest the Daiwa BG? The 2500 should do the trick with 30lb braid. It retails around $100 and could compete with some more expensive reels if it was a little bit lighter, but a great drag and one thing I like about it, especially for heavier baits is it has a wider diameter spool than many reels so it will handle thicker line better and lose fewer loops.

I would have bought the Irod but I got the Tatula because there was a chance I could fit it inside my truck without sticking the tip out the window. Still very happy with it - from what I gather they are very similar.

The first thing I usually do is use my map whether it's the Lakevu maps on my fish finder, something I downloaded online or paper maps to find a place to start. From there I will often try to cover the area before I fish and if I see a group of fish, I may just mark it before I fish it unless it's in a spot that I'm already aware is a good spot to fish or I see something else in the spot that makes it good, like laydowns or rock piles etc. and then I would come back to it later. The idea is that there were fish there when I passed by, but they may be moving to another location ad by the time my bait hits the area, they're gone, but if they're still there when I come back to it, that means I can probably catch them. This is especially true with smallies as they move a lot. Also if you are using sideview to find fish/structure, passing over that spot on downview can sometimes tell you more about it. That is not to say there are not times where I will not move down the shore and fish everything that looks good. A lot of it depends on the size of the lake, how long I'm going to be there, how much area I hope to cover and so forth.

With my transducer mounted in the center of my kayak and slightly to the front of where I paddle, I don't even notice any interference from paddle strokes.

I never had a problem with that, I just found I rarely actually need a SV for things like crankbaits and while it still works well enough I could have saved the money or bought an Elite instead for the extra distance. Or maybe spent a little more, went the Shimano route and gone with the Aldebaran MGL 50.

No, they just tend to not cast as far and don't offer benefit for bomb casting. I use a Tatula SV too btw

No, not at all, I just don't have room on the rod rack

Buy the SV for control and the elite for distance. I argue to buy a SV for skipping and light lures and ideally an Elite for everything else or save some money and go with a 100 or CT and you're set. There's no point in using a SV for crankbaits or spinnerbaits unless you're making short targeted casts where an Elite keeps it in the strike zone longer.

Well first I would look at the new Victory series from St. Croix which essentially replaces the Avid X. I hear they're pretty good. But if you can afford an Expride, by all means do it. The Expride is a line above the Avid X/Victory for one, and they fish more inline with rods that are a step above. That said, I have a 6'9" Avid X ML/XF and it's a great rod.

My take is for moving baits I wouldn't add a leader if it's only for lack of visibility and not for shock absorption. If you're throwing a vertical presentation, I would usually add a leader, especially finesse techniques but again on some days it might not even matter.

Exactly this. I mean, from the picture it looks good and I'm guessing it's 10-20# braid.

Generally this is my exact thought process. Sometimes you want that chatterbait to go real slow and it's easier for me on a 6 speed reel, although I've used both at times.

I would agree and have to add if they slashed the price tag by about 33%, they'd be competitive. A lot of that is probably the cost to manufacture in the USA vs overseas.

Me too! I hear it throws real light soft plastics well. I'll get to try it out Saturday.

When they call the high position on the Bonafide SS127 the high position, they really mean the high position. The low position is as high as the high position in many kayaks. I use a 250cm low angle Werner Camano paddle in low position. Works perfectly. 250cm was Werner's recommendation based on the width of my boat plus my height (6'3"). In the high position, I can't even touch the water without reaching left or right with it and that's very awkward, inefficient and not natural. I tried my kids adjustable that goes to 260cm and didn't notice much of a difference. As for the rest of the noted points, I use a YakAttack Zooka II rod holder which if you flip it around, it's designed to hold the Yak Attack folding net. I put it behind me on the right side facing forward, so I can reach back and grab it as I need it.

Lost lure? Not so much. However my youngest son had snagged a rock and I was trying to grab his line to get it out and while I was paddling over to it, he set his rod on his kayak and a strong wind blew it sideways and the rod fell right in the water. Without hesitation he jumped in and grabbed it.