Can't Catch Bass

If you're going to car top then weight should be a definite concern. I have a Santa Fe that I top with my kayak, a native Slayer propel 10. Mines around 60lbs when all broken down to the bare hull. I could have gone heavier, but I'm not getting any younger and after being out on the water some days for 10+ hrs I'm pretty beat and it can be a little bit of a struggle. There are load assist racks that you can put on your car to help, but my issue is I would have to remove them to park my car in the garage, so those were more trouble than they're worth. You definitely want to look at your own situation and try to plan accordingly. If it's a pain to use your kayak you won't end up using it much.

Hi wiz. I was scrounging around through some of the ones I was looking at, came up with these... Big bear 7'3 xh 15.5" handle 1.5-4oz lure weight Carrot stix wild wild black 7'6 xxh 16" handle 2-5oz lure weight Both have split grips.

They all have their pluses and minuses depending on how you intend to use them both on and off the water. How will you be transporting it? What kind of bodies of water will you be fishing?

I ended up going with the Fenwick ETB79XH. I found one on sale for $110 shipped... I wasn't planning on purchasing quite yet, but I figured I better jump on it. I'll let you all know how it works out. Once again thanks for the help. Jim

I'm looking in the $100-$150 range, but I admit that's expanded to the $150 to $200 range. Give me around 2 weeks and I might be into the $200-$250 range, but I'm not there yet.

My idea was to go with 65# braid and 20#, or maybe 30# mono leader. Just because it's that much more easier to manage, the leader would help absorb shock and wouldn't tear up the bait. Do you have a recommendation for a true fast action rod, with a split handle that can cast a 1.5-2.5oz bait well that has a handle which would not be too intrusive while sitting in a kayak seat (less than 18")?

Yes I did, but that was in my original post lol. How much information has been conveyed between now and then? You don't think my ideas could change? I still don't even have a solid answer to a question I asked around 10 posts ago regarding what freaking action rod I should be looking at lol. Shouldnt that really be addressed before trying to determine what rod I should be looking at? I'm assuming it should be fast action, but I really don't know lol...

It has nothing to do with being set on a particular rod. I've had a good experience with St Croix rods in the past. I'm sure I'm not alone on that. I asked you a question and I appreciate your response. However, I don't feel it's just that you dismiss myself because my personal experience might have contradicted your own. If you were trashing Dobyns you'd be hearing these same questions.

I'm trying to do that. I'm looking at your suggestion of a 795sb s/h as well Tom. Unfortunately, dobyns is closed on Fridays and I was not able to find out if they make a split handle in that sizing. I have a 734c as well as a 735c, I'm happy with both of those. I wouldn't mind adding another dobyns rod.

Just curious, why not the mojo? I have 2 other Mojo's and I love them both. My jig rod (mjc71mhf) is my hands down favorite of all my setups and my worm rod (mjs71mf) isn't far behind.

Have you looked at the Fenwick elite tech 7'9 extra heavy? That one has a shorter handle than the dobyns and looks to be well reviewed. I'm kind of looking at that one myself.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'll ever throw a treble hook on this setup. I hate dealing with them and the weeds. I'll definitely (and likely exclusively) be throwing hudd weedless 68's and gills though. In that case should I be thinking fast action+braid+mono leader?

That's one thing I wasn't accounting for... That handle might play havoc with my seat in my kayak. TW has the mojo at 19.5" which would probably make it stick out a little beyond my elbow. Thanks Wiz

Not to sound confrontational, but do you think your experience with the bass x 7'10 might not relate to the mojo being that they use a different blank and guides? I know you were also critical of the reel seat and grip. I own a couple Mojo's, those are comfortable in my hand, so that's not an issue for me. Right now, at this point, I'm trying to decide between the Genesis II and the Mojo.

I was looking at the Genesis II 7'8 jr swimbait, but the reviews on TW didn't seem too good. A few were complaining of durability issues, so that's why I was straying away from this one.

I have a curado 201i that I'm not using. Would that be worthwhile replacement instead of the Cardiff?

Hello, I've been thinking about adding a swimbait rod/reel to my arsenal. I'm thinking of going with a Cardiff 301 and a mojo bass 7'10HF. I've been researching this a bit and I'm pretty set at the moment with these choices, but I'm still open to advice/suggestions. The Cardiff, I feel, is a layup for me. I'm a Shimano guy. From what I've read the guts are the same as the Calcutta and after holding a 400 vs a 300 in my hand I can tell I'll feel much more comfortable with the 300 size. As for the rod I first researched which baits I wanted to throw. I'm not planning on throwing any baits over 6", so all of them ranged between 1.5-2.5oz, which I think would be perfect for a rod rated 1-4oz. The second piece of criteria it had to meet is it has to have split grips. I need this because I fish from a kayak and I like to leash my rod around the blank so the butt of the rod prevents the leash from slipping off. One thing I'm not 100% sure of is line. Being that I'll be throwing lighter (1.5-2.5oz) baits would you all think I could get away with using 65# braid with a 20# mono leader without much a risk of snapping in the event of a backlash? I'll be throwing soft bodied baits exclusively at the start (namely weedless hudd 68's and hudd gills). Later I may expand this to swavers, 6" gantarel and 6" bbz. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

I swapped all 3 of mine out. For one I bought a metanium handle, the other 2 I swapped out from my 200i's

Thanks BB. That's kind of what I worried about lol. I'm not tourny fishing, I've just had some rough days. I see at least one shad every time I go out floating around that is this size. I have no idea if this is what they're eating.

Even with every adjustment set correctly you can still backlash because of line. How you check this is to press your thumb bar to release your spool, with your other hand slowly and steadily pull line off the spool. If you watch your line at the spool and you see that rather than come of the spool your line wants to wrap around the spool, chances are your line is digging in.

Thanks, I wasn't thinking about driving the hook. I have also been looking at the weedless hudd shads. Those seem like they'd work, but the durability seems like an issue. Does anyone know of a more durable equivalent to this that is also weedless, matches the profile and doesn't go over 1.5oz?

I know this is definitely less than ideal, but I was wondering if it's feasible to throw a 2 & 1/3oz swimbaits on a rod rated for 1.5oz. the rod is a dobyns fr735c and the bait is a Huddleston 68 rof 12. Is this doable or am I flat out asking for trouble? I'd add another rod, but I fish from a kayak and I carry way too much as is.

I haven't measured it, but the prop probably adds another 12" to the bottom of the hull and It does get fouled by weeds. As you mentioned, yes you can just tilt it up and paddle. This is all going to vary from person to person, depending on the waters you fish, but for me probably around 80% of the time when I'm moving around I'm making use of my pedals. If you have a good knowledge of the waters you fish and are on the fence about the mirage or propel type drives you need to ask yourself how often you'll be traversing waters that have under probably 16" of clearance from the lakes bottom or top of the weeds. If you're constantly going to be battling this, then you'll likely be more happy with the mirage. The other thing to consider (as others have mentioned) is this drive is much easier to maintain/correct position with given that there's no levers you have to pull to put it in reverse, you just pedal backwards. For me, the biggest advantage this particular kayak has over any other pedal driven yak on the market is it's weight. At 60lbs it's the easiest one to maneuver on land.

I don't do much fishing where I'm trying to hold a particular position. More often than not I'm wanting to work the shorelines and edges of the weed beds. Honestly, I like a bit of a breeze to push me along. If I'm wanting to slow my drift speed I use a drift sock. If my boat is wanting to spin around, I use a stroke or two from my hand paddle to correct it.

I'm a big fan of feedback as to what's going on in the depths, but I've also thought this is a bit of a double edged sword. Yes, it's nice to feel that small jolt as the fish sucks the bait into their mouth, but just as their movements are being easily transmitted to you, realize this can work vice versa and we all know how well fish can sense vibration.