nighthawk25

I have a 6'6" MH Moderate that I use for cranking and jerkbaiting. It isn't that sensitive but I use that combo about 70% of the time.

I have a 1996 Mercury 75 hp that makes a grinding noise when I try to put it in reverse. Seldom does it seem to grab the gear to back up. Is this something I can fix? I was thinking I'll take it to the local marine but they were closed when I called.

We got out this morning about 9:30 and fished til 1:30. It was very tough. I caught 1 dink smallie and 1 dink largemouth and a rock bass. We fished blades, lipless, jerkbait, and jigs. Water temp was 42-43. Is it getting too cold for bass??

I use Bass Pro Shop's XPS or XTS blade. It's the only one I have in gold so that get used almost exclusively. That said, I wanna try the Silver Buddy if the hooks don't grab the line all the time.

I already can't wait for spring! Hopefully we can get out tomorrow without freezing!

No experience shore fishing Lake Michigan but I'd try a bladebait or lipless crankbait ripped off the bottom. This can be done on a spinning or baitcasting outfit with mono or braid with a flouro leader. Tubes are also a great cold weather bait.

Took out my little boat after having it on the water all summer. I caught 1 nice crappie and snagged a dink with a bladebait. Took the boat out and switched lakes. In less than an hour I had around 10 with most of those keeper sized, on a blade and lipless crankbait.

Yes, the lake is a few miles from the MI border. The clarity was the best I've seen it this year. I'm hoping to get out a few more times before ice-up.

Finally got out last night. I had 14 bass and 1 carp in about 3.5 hours. Mostly smallmouth with a few dink largemouth. I had my first ever limit of bass. The biggest was 19" and the others were 14" or a little above. Most were caught on a blade bait and a 1/16th oz black hair jig. Also got a few on a jerkbait. The water temp was 47 which was colder than I figured it would be. Guess I pretty much missed the prime jerkbait bite.

I mix my paint and thinner in a small bath cup. I try to mix it well before pouring into the airbrush but it seems the paint does not mix well with reducer because it will barely come out at 15 psi. If I overreduce it will run all over the place. I'm thinking about trying the Wicked paints for my black detail work.

I airbrush my lures with Createx paints thinned 10%-20% with 4011 fast dry reducer. My airbrush is an Iwata Revolution BR with a .3 mm needle. I'm having problems with the paint drying on the needle tip and then not spraying unless the PSI is over 35. I notice this mainly with Transparent Black because I do a lot of lures with vertical stripes. Is it the paint or am I not thinning it correctly?

I had 1 dink on a spinnerbait in 2-3 hours on Tue night before trying for crappies. That didn't pan out either so I started throwing a jerkbait. I caught a 19" smallie that tried to take my rod and a 6" largemouth just before sundown.

Same in Northern Indiana. Summer was WAY better than this fall has been. I mainly fish one lake that is connected to a river. In summer I could catch a few decent ones on senkos. So far this fall I have caught 1 or 2 keepers on a senko. I have tried pretty much everything the last few weeks. There really didn't seem like a pattern developed so far but I might have one now. Tonight I caught a decent smallie and a dink largemouth on a jerkbait but it was getting dark so I had to leave. Now I know where I'm gonna go next time. The water is a little stained but I'm hoping it'll clear up so that bite lasts.

I'd like an anchor or a River Stick (those look nice!) for panfishing. For bass I'd probably just try to drift parallel to the shore or weedline. That's where I feel the pedal drive would be nice.

Yeah , the rudder control is on the right side for me. Do you use an anchor (or 2), or a fiberglass pole?

wLure.com has cheap blanks. I have done well on a few of their blanks. Shipping takes a couple weeks from china.

Yeah I saw that. I'm guessing that will be more stable but probably heavier as well.

Do you prefer an orange belly with the bone color? I was thinking a bone color with orange belly would show up in the murky water. Do you always slow roll or does a stop and go retrieve work better at times? Yes, I'll try to check Matt Allen out. The ones I ordered are 4.75". We have a cabin on the lake and theres almost no fishing pressure since it doesn't have a public access. Theres some big smallmouth in there but the largemouth are overall pretty small. I think I caught 3 keeper bass in the 3 years I've been fishing there, but the one was 5.5 lb and I heard of a 6 lb caught there too.

I also have a couple lakes that are slightly bigger (100-350 acres) that are clear(7-12' visibility). One gets stocked with trout in spring. The other has very little weeds and its hard to catch anything over 12" there. I did get my PB there though so there has to be some bigger fish. Theyre just pretty scarce. I don't fish these much because it seems there aren't as many fish in here.

I ordered a few swimbait blanks from Avid that I want to paint. What colors work best? Also where, when, and how are the best ways to fish them? The lakes I fish usually have 1-5' visibility and have shad, bluegill, perch, golden shiners for forage.

I checked the Hobie out too but the Propel reverse is a major plus for me. The price difference seals the deal as Im buying a house. I would want to sell my boat first so I can use that money for the yak. I can use the leftover money towards the house.

That's a good idea. Excuse my ignorance, but the prop wouldn't interfere with the transducer reading?

Thanks! This helps me a lot! I hope I can test drive one before I buy. We have a dealer not too far away. I have a few more questions for you yakkers. I want to be able to keep a few panfish once in a while. Do you just take a small cooler instead of a crate? Whats the best option?

I'm looking into getting a pedal drive kayak if I have to sell my boat. I am leaning toward the Slayer Propel 10 since it would be easier to store, light enough to handle by myself, stable enough for standup fishing (I think). I have a few questions on them. Does anybody have one of these? How do you like them? I saw a video on Youtube saying the Slayer 13 does have a lot of water coming up the scupper holes. Could I just plug them? How fast can you travel by comfortable pedaling? I also would like to put on a decent sonar/DI/SI/GPS unit. What do you recommend? I was thinking Helix 7 or something similar. What accessories are a "must have"? I do want 2 rod holders on the gear track so I can troll for crappie and trout.

By far my biggest producer, but also a bigger percentage of my time on the water was dedicated to this technique. A week or two ago I caught a 19" walleye in 2-3 ft in some pads on a 5" senko. That freaked me out.