haggard

How about fit-overs? They're meant to fit over your regular glasses, so whether or not you wear glasses, they may give you a little more room. They're not high end but not junk. Durable for the most part, though the coating is a little delicate. I think I paid about $30 (Cocoon brand, polarized).

Not exactly my ride, but what my ride will ride on. I brought it into the basement for the winter to do a roller to bunk conversion, wasn't planning on a complete tear down but the more I dug into it, the more I found it needed. It seems well built and will be roughly half the cost of a new trailer by the time I'm done, not counting sweat equity. Most of the work will be sanding and painting. New parts include winch, wheels and tires, hubs, wiring, coupler, bow roller, safety chains, bunk bolsters and DIY bunks. Re-used parts will be frame, lights, winch stand, tongue jack, axle, springs, fenders. Trailer is a Sterling (Salem, Ohio) model S-715. I can't find any info on it online; anyone know roughly when these were made? It will carry a 12 ft Lund WC-12.

I'd be concerned about condensation. I considered doing the same with mine but in the end just put a 5 gallon bucket (sideways) over the coupler. Keeps the snow and rain off but allows air flow.

Thank you!

Just ask the bait monkey.

Judging by the size of that bass, I'd say you'r right.

50 here and my balance is somtimes a little off. On the jon boat I used a char on a 1 ft post. Between the post length and seat pad thickness I'm guess it was about 17 inches off the casting deck. It felt comfortable and safe. I could fish for hours and hours. It didn't affect my fishing either; even with the chair, I still didn't catch many fish

Hobie Pro Angler is as close to complete as I've found, with quality, attention to detail and great stability. What isn't included "out of the box": - trailer (maybe a shop could fit one for you. I'm not aware of many (or any) yak/trailer packages) - anchor trolley (though it comes prepped for one) - fish finder (though it comes prepped for Lowrance) - wheels/dolly... this yak is heavy. Third party solutions available. But if you trailer it, you probably don't need the wheels. I haul mine in the truck bed so it's good to have wheels to get it to and from the water. Plus: I find Hobie seating position with fin (Mirage) drive more comfortable than propeller pedal drives. The prop drives (at least on Native) leave me lower in the seat with elevated legs, more like a recumbent bicycle position - it's hard on my butt and lower back. Hobie Mirage drive lets me sit more upright, legs lower, I can do 8 hour days. Minus: Wish I had instant reverse of the prop drive. With Hobie you pull a cable to go between fwd/rev. Not bad but not as convenient. Plus: Hobie Vantage seat is fantastic. Highly adjustable and comfortable. Minus: Cost. 12 ft is a sweet spot for me. I run a PA12. I tried a Native 14' for several weeks and found the turning radius to be rather large, at least for pond/lake. I much prefer tighter turns of the 12. If you do much on open or rougher water, longer might be better. All depends on where you yak the most. No regrets here on the PA12. I use it in ponds, lakes and inshore salt water. The pedal drive is good for typically 4 mph +/- your abilities. PM me if you want to yak about it (pun intended) in detail.

This may be a little unconventional due to rod length but recently decided for the upcoming season I'll dedicate my 6'8 Mojo Bass MH/F to frogs and jigs, spooled with braid (never tried braid yet). The Mojo Bass is a nicely sensitive blank, so that combined with braid I'm hoping it'll be sensitive enough for deeper water jigs on the bottom, plus strong enough for frogs in pads. Just another rod to consider.

My rod storage system consisted of laying the rods horizontally on shelf brackets but it was clumsy and took up 7 linear feet of shelf space. Went to Home Depot today and found a 16-inch wall mount strip (Everbilt SKU 470774) with pivoting hooks and hardware for $6.95. They can be daisy-chained together. Plastic strips with steel hooks and includes screws with wall anchors if you're mounting them on drywall and not through the studs. Got eight of them and installed them on the ceiling. Hooks are installed in every other slot so there's room to maneuver the rods in and out (I can't stand it when they're too close together and the rods tangle with each other). Not bad for a relatively cheap and easy solution. For more storage without adding hooks you can put two rods facing opposite directions on each hook pair. This increases the "tangle factor" slightly but it's not too bad. I still prefer one rod per hook pair for simplicity and elbow room. Eight strips (four at butt, four at tip) with this spacing stores 11 combos. I proudly show my wife the install thinking she'll say "that looks great" but she says "Why do you need so many of them?"

Hi Donnie - First off, thank you for your service (sorry for the cliche but I haven't found any better way to say it). I never really understood PTSD until I got a very small taste of it last summer after a car crash. Clearly nothing comparable to combat (!) but enough to know that stuff is for real. So don't beat yourself up about leaving the boat idle and uncovered for three years. In my opinion, if it was me, there's no better therapy than being on the water, especially if fishing, so get back on that boat. As much as it may be hard to part with the money, it's probably best spent on taking the boat to a dealer or independent shop, giving them the background and letting them get it going. They can probably do in a day what we'd do in two weeks. I'm thinking a year 2000 2-stroke is pretty hardy. Maybe ask them to do an initial evaluation/assessment and report back to you before doing any major work. If it looks to be too much, you can bail before spending lots of money. Carpet is small potatoes. Don't worry about that for now. First things first, the motor.

Not going to dwell on the scare you went through on Nov 13, just going to say you made it and keep going. Get stronger very day and keep thinking about family and fishing, because that makes you stronger every day.

I use a 9 Ah sealed AGM. It's relatively light weight, measures 6 x 3.5 x 2.5 in, Duracell model DURA12-9F2. Got it at a local Batteries/Bulbs store. I recommend a charger as well. I got a wall wart style charger (Werker WK12V500) which sources 500 mA. It powers a Lowrance Hook 4 which typically draws 1.1 A according to the specs, and I'll assume a similarly small finder will do the same. 9 Ah / 1.1 A = 8.2 hours of run time. I've used this combo for 6-8 hours straight on a few occasions and it's never run out. Don't forget the fuse

Curado 201 K Brakes: 2 on, 2 off (symmetrical) External dial: 1 (minimum) Spool tension knob: Set to "just barely drops". Brakes and external dial remain the same most of the time, except in dramatically varying wind speed or direction. Spool tension knob is adjusted after every lure change (and whenever the sideplate is reclosed, because apparently many Curado 200/201K do that weird thing where you can't lock the sideplate closed without releasing spool tension ) - but tension knob adjust is fast and trivial.

Trilene XL 12 lb test mono. Simple, effective, cheap. I've heard good things about YZ hybrid but just haven't tried it yet.

Funny you mention it because today I was going about my seasonal "pare down lures in prep for 2019 season" and realizing that all I really use are soft plastics (usually TX rigged) and jigs (jig heads with light wire hooks, or skirted jigs with heavier hooks). I like throwing topwater but have yet to catch anything on them. Same with a spinner bait. So yeah you're not alone when it comes to plastics and jigs. Find what works for you and don't worry about the rest.

Ford / Chevy / Dodge thing. Many stores have a bunch of models on display. Have you had a chance to try them out? A big factor and possibly one of the biggest differentiators is the user interface... buttons, menus, etc.

Thanks for all the advice; this has been really helpful. I'm now leaning to using this rod for bottom contact jigs and weighted worms, but seeing as sensitivity is a key factor there, am I canceling that out by using my standard 12 lb test mono with its inherent stretch? If you could rig a Mojo Bass 6'8 MH/F with line of your choice for bottom contact jigs and worms, what line would you use?

If you're that close to the salt, it would almost be a shame to not get a striper setup again. Best of both.

In the interest of simplicity I use only 1/4 oz and 3/8 oz. 1/4 oz at around 80% of the time for shallow to mid depths, but will use 3/8 oz when fishing deeper 30-40 ft (to get it down faster) and when the wind is up (to keep the lure down when the boat drifts, and I find it easier to feel the bottom). I could easily live with just the 1/4 oz if I want to really simplify.

It's Stupid Question time. I see many rods classified as "jig and worm", in fact I own one (a MH/F). I get that it's good for a jig rod to be sensitive enough to read the bottom, strong enough to horse a bass from heavy cover in the shallows, but why is a jig rod often doubling as a worm rod? To me, a plastic worm is usually Texas rigged or wacky rigged and retrieved in mid water column and can be done on all day on a non specialized M/F rod. I get that in deep water the sensitivity of a jig rod can help detect strikes on a worm, but is there more to it? Simply put, why are the jig and worm applications often lumped together in the same rod? Are they talking about working a worm along the bottom, but just not saying that?

I think you picked the right reel for the application. It may be physically smaller than some but I don't consider its primary purpose to be throwing lighter lures; it's not in the same class as something like the Aldebaran or SV105. I see its main advantage as comfort: size and weight, for appropriately sized hands. There's nothing I've found so far about this reel that seems delicate or fragile.

Mine is hard to turn as well; I think it's common. It may loosen up with use.

Hi JJ - I have a 71 HG (7.2:1) that I've used for one season now. 1. line is 12 lb test mono (Trilene XL) 2. rod is a medium power, fast action 3. lure is almost always a 1/4 oz Texas rigged soft plastic (worm or turtle) 4. only "problem" if I can call it that is the star drag control is very sensitive; it goes from loosey goosey to really tight very quickly (with very little rotation of the knob). I checked another reel at a store and it wasn't as sensitive so I figure it's just my one. It really hasn't been an issue. I have four different baitcaster reels and the C71 is my favorite. I don't have huge hands so it's slightly smaller size (compared to, say, a Curado 200K/201K) feels much more comfortable and controllable. That, combined with its weight of 6.5 oz, allow me to use it for long days without feeling fatigued. It's been a great general purpose reel. Haven't been spooled yet despite "only" 85 yard capacity at 12 lb.

"We're gonna need a bigger basement."