Boomstick

A lot of people here have liked Sufix Advance, but I have had multiple line breakages when casting, using different spools on fresh line that I gave up with it. Probably Siege or Elite. Both are decent lines. Siege is my mono of choice. It's not overly stretchy (it's mono, still has plenty), good abrasion resistance and I never have any problems with break offs or anything with it and it handles well even at the end of the season. It's straight up worth the extra cost over Big Game imo.

To be fair, I haven't had issues with the heat in Massachusetts either, I just mentioned that because mono is environment temperamental. 90 degrees isn't a problem. Perhaps if I left it in the car on that 102 degree day we had in June, I may have experienced the line misbehaving a bit. Freezing does weaken mono line though, that's well documented. Hence why come spring, all my mono reels get new line even if they got it in the fall. I'm lazy and do mine once a year.

Braided line goes back to the 50s or 60s, but sometime in the late 90s or early 2000s it started to become more popular and would quickly become a staple in every line manufacturer's product catalogs. Some years ago visiting my grandparents, my dad had found his childhood rod and reel. And what do you know, it was a round style baitcaster loaded with some braided line. The line had no coating and was pretty thick and limp, but largely intact. I caught several fish on it as a kid.

Mono and fluorocarbon both have stretch. Fluorocarbon generally has one-time stretch, as in once you stretch a part of it, that stretch is removed it remains stretched where mono recoils so it can stretch again, making mono effectively the stretchiest of the three types of line. Stretch can play in your favor, especially with most moving lures, but also against you as well. People may use moderate fast rods with braid where they'd use fast or extra fast with mono/fluoro for the same application. Fluorocarbon is also the least visible of the three types of line, for whatever that matters. Another plus of fluorocarbon is longevity. Similar to braid, I replace fluorocarbon only when a spool runs low on line for the most part. I am on season three on most of my reels right now. Where with mono, a full season is pushing it to the max of its lifespan. Fluorocarbon can withstand freezing and hot temperatures, where mono cannot. I use 10 or 12lb mono for my topwater reel, 50 or 65lb braid for frogging and heavy flipping and fluorocarbon for everything else. The reason being if the line isn't perfectly tight, fluorocarbon maintains some sensitivity where braid has absolutely zero sensitivity with any slack in it. If you're throwing moving lures or flipping and pitching into cover, braid is perfect because your line is almost always tight and it offers the best sensitivity when tight. But fishing structure with soft plastics/jigs, at some regular frequency you are going to have a little slack in your line, and if a fish picks it up and runs at you with braid, you wouldn't even know. Also fluorocarbon doesn't get wrecked by getting dragged over rocks like braid. If you need a brand recommendation of fluorocarbon, the Daiwa J-Fluoro is superb. It might not be as abrasion resistant as Sunline Shooter and might not last as many seasons as Tatsu (I'm on 3 on most of my reels, no issues yet) but it absolutely handles better than both. And you can get it for under $20 a spool on ebay every fall.

This fish came right to my kayak then went down and pulled drag, set at 4+ lbs freely and went straight down. Then I fought it back up and it went down again. Repeat a few more times. From the fight, I was thinking I had maybe got something even larger. Seriously, this smallmouth may be the Mike Tyson of smallmouth. Only a 4 but put up a lot more fight. Put up as much fight as this 38" pike I got a month ago, but that was on a crankbait with less drag.

This past week I stayed at Grand Isle State Park on Lake Champlain with my youngest son. I got 5 days on the water. For the days that I had to go to Burlington or Plattsburgh to hit a store, we did museums as we usually do. Sunday, we launched right at the state park. It's almost all weedy over there and was 7mph winds with 17mph gusts, but the gusts were pretty much constant all day. I managed to land a 15.5" largemouth on a spinnerbait on my second cast, and my kid got one right after. Then the bite died down a bit, but I finally got another one later. On Monday, we launched at the west side of the island. It was calm when we launched, but we had similar winds before we came in. The west side is largely a hard rocky bottom and the 12-20' area is fairly flat. I caught my first bass on a drop shot. My phone wouldn't switch to the camera because my hands were wet and maybe a little fish slime, and the fish hopped off my ketch board. I was so mad I almost throw the phone in the water, but just shut it off. Later on, we moved further north, figuring we can drift our way back and the winds picked up and I landed a 16" smallmouth dragging a football jig, and another on a deep diving crankbait. On Tuesday, we did the Vermont National Guard museum and checked out Burlington when we had to go to the store. On Wednesday, it was a nice and calm day with 3-5mph winds - enough to blow you off your spot quickly, but a godsend compared to what we were dealing with on Sunday and later Monday. We went to the NY side and fished around Valcour Island. I landed the only fish between the both of us, but it was a 18", 4.23lb smallmouth that I got dragging a football jig over a fairly unique structure, essentially a rocky shoal with smaller shoals on top of it. On Thursday, we went to the south side of the sandbar, which is mostly shallow and weedy. We had to paddle out a ways before we could put the pedals down. I caught a 14.5" largemouth on a T-Rig and a large chain pickerel on a spinnerbait. I missed a few too, lost what may have been a decent one on a tube because I didn't set my drag and couldn't set the hook as a result and missed another one on a frog earlier. Overall, this was a decent spot. On Friday, we explored a few islands on the north side of the sandbar. My fish finder battery died when we got to the first one, but I figure we must have pedaled at least 12 miles. The bite on the island was surprisingly dead - several guys in bass boats tried fishing the structure off of the islands and they gave up and left too. But the view here was one of the best I'd ever seen, and worth the trip just for that and the exploration factor alone. I finally landed a nice largemouth dragging a football jig on the shoreline of the main island and a pike bit me off right afterwards. On Saturday, we did the War of 1812 Museum in Plattsburgh and had to go back to the store, and came home Monday. I never got into a hot bite, but short of most of Friday, I didn't do terrible either. I'm off to Crown Point next week for another week on Champlain. The boat launch at the campground is pretty ideal for our situation, nice and wide so we don't have to worry about blocking anyone out and it's also a narrower part of the lake so wind is a little bit easier to deal with. Last year I lost my prop on my second day out, so I'm hoping for no more screwups this year.

I was at this show, actually sat next the guy who recorded it too.

Hello and welcome, from the real western Massachusetts

My kid has owned a Voodoo, and now a Zulu with pedals. At $2200 or so with pedals, that's a pretty good buy. Kind of crappy pedal system - the left pedal screw is not reverse threaded so it can fall off, carrying the provided allen wrench for it with you at all times is required and I recommend using blue loctite to help keep it in place. The hulls are solid. Probably the cheapest pedal drive kayak I can honestly recommend, and probably the best customer service in the business. If you post a question in the Facebook group, the owner of the company may answer. Or if you email them, you may get a response from Kevin himself. Neither are fast paddling/pedaling (probably average), but they're decently stable as long as you don't lean - the V shaped hull means if you lean, it goes. Not a problem for an experienced user. I didn't see too much of a difference in stability, but the Voodoo is supposed to be more stable and the Zulu is supposed to handle chop much better, I'd water the latter is probably much more significant than differences in stability. You can sit on the top of the back of the seat to sight fish. I would probably go for a Zulu or maybe Voodoo if you plan to motorize over the Guru unless you have specific need for the extra storage and weight capacity. The Zulu with nothing on it feels much heavier than my Old Town Bigwater with all my stuff on it, maybe largely because of handle placement. If you plan to get pedals, then you'll definitely want the Zulu. The Guru's fin drive has a ton of complaints about the pedals constantly falling into the plastic, and no known solution at this time. The other thing to note is the Zulu's front hatch (or Guru's front and rear) takes on a lot of water. I left it out in a heavy rain storm and the hull was 80% full of water, no joke. I'd keep a bilge pump in the hull whenever you go out. The Voodoo's hatch didn't leak that bad, but it's also small and you can't get larger items in it. A few accessories that are a must have with these: The Kaku seat bags let you store things on the side of the seat, very useful. The YakAttack Double Header to hold your paddle off the kayak https://www.yakattack.us/doubleheader-with-dual-rotogrip-paddle-holders/ The 3.75" YakGadget LowPro tray fits under the seat for storage. For a flat kayak, this can keep things like your water bottle from falling in the water. You can get tool storage trays cheaper, but in the long run this is worth it. https://yakgadget.com/collections/storage-accesories/products/lowpro-tray?variant=37346174501021 When I tried my kid's Zulu last year, I was probably 335lbs at the time and it stayed above the water line with me and all his gear in it.

The PWR 129 is essentially the next gen of the SS127. It's a bit pricey for a paddle only kayak, but it's very well laid out, just like the SS127.

I was in one of our Dicks Sporting Goods stores when we had the 100%+ tariffs from China briefly. They wanted $110 for a crappy Nike tshirt. It's only going to get worse. Maybe I should go buy that other 7 speed reel I've been wanting sooner rather than later...

I stayed at Cedar Point state park a few years ago, but ended up spending a few days fishing for largemouths in Goose Bay - there's not a lot of bays I can easily fish from a kayak in that area. I stopped to refill my water at Kring point state park a few times though. At least back in 2021, if you got caught in Canadian water they'd take your boat and detain you, so I'd definitely pay attention to the rules and the border. I do recommend going to Singer castle and Boldt castle when you're up there.

I once had lost the insert to a rod tip and couldn't find a replacement. Daiwa sent me one under warranty, but it took 5-6 months. That's my only experience so far.

If it's early in the season and I know I might not make it out for a bit, I'll loosen drag. Otherwise I loosen drag at the end of the year.

It's not a front to back issue as more of a side to side issue that would make it get tippy

It's definitely the motor to have on a kayak, but the price... Have you demo'd a XTR130? The casting deck looks sick and all, but I've been hearing from a lot of people lately that since it's at the front of the boat, it gets incredibly tippy and kind of makes it more of a gimmick than a practical application. And if that's true, that completely changes the kayak for me.

This is why I asked define small. My thought is a Crescent Shoalie. It's a little lighter than other 12' models and extremely well equipped but will still offer the benefits of a nearly 12' kayak while weighing close to most 10'6" models. Old Town Sportsmans are also a good bet.

This is largely incorrect. The weight of the kayak, pedal drive seat and anything else is not counted so you need to subtract that from the weight capacity. This is true from anything from Old Town, Native/Bonafide, Hobie, Kaku, Vibe and Perception among others. The only exceptions I am aware of is some Jackson models and I do not think all Jacksons are even an exception - making it more confusing. A lot of people buy the Native Titan or Titan X and think oh a massive kayak has to be able to handle weight but then wonder why it’s so wet… 500 lbs minus 175lbs leaves 325lbs of usable capacity. If you’re a big guy like me, with a little bit of gear you’re exceeding the capacity.

it actually takes a fair amount of tall grass to clog up my PDL. Only a problem in a few select locations for me

My first question is when you say smaller waters do you mean 500-1000 acres? Or even smaller. Because my recommendations will be very different for the two. If both, please note what category you expect to fit in most of the time, you want to buy what best fits what you do most. Also do you want to motorize it, paddle or pedal? I would be more inclined to get the right kayak for your needs even if it means pay more. But once and cry once.

I have a Yakima rack and roll, not sure what the mac rating is, maybe 60 but I’m supposed to run them at 36psi as per Yakima

I definitely own more rods - more than I usually carry with me. I pair them with reels with the appropriate line (and speed when I have the choice). It works out very well for me

I would definitely be holding out for 20% or 25% off sales I got my BC1 a few years back for $440 off Amazon of all places. I believe that one retailed for $599 at the time so obviously I jumped on it.

If you fishing where the weeds don’t hit the surface, a popper or spook will land more fish than any other topwater in my experience. I tend to go with a popper first. Start with a buzzbait or a prop bait as they can cover water faster. If you don’t get any fish or the bite slows, switch to a popper. In later July and August I will use a 1/2oz popper. The rest of the time (in the northeast), a 1/4oz usually lands more fish, assuming you can cast them acceptably on your setup and with whatever wind you’re dealing with.

I have used Elite brand tungsten weights for a few years. Last year, I lost a few in snags so I bought a bunch from Siebert Outdoors. They were the best price and can buy them in 10 or individually if memory serves and they’re as good as any others I’ve used.