Smalls

As many as it takes to find the right pattern. I fished a tournament last weekend where they were blowing up everywhere around me, but wanted nothing to do with the 3 topwaters I had tied on. So I threw a weightless Senko, and started catching dink’s. Switched it up to a weighted wacky rig, and started to get a few bigger bites and caught my limit. Finally I figured out what they were relating to, and started chucking a jig, and the culling began. Tldr; it’s a process. Some days you just know what to throw, and some days you have to figure it out. And some days you can have 40 baits tied on 40 rods and you still won’t get bit.

I don’t have one in front of me, but I’m pretty sure the 168’s are size 2 hooks. That’s really not that big. Leave em be.

I don’t own either of those exact models, but I do own both Powell and Dobyn’s rods. If it helps, I’ve found that Powell’s seem to run a little heavier, and Dobyn’s tend to run a little lighter than their weight ratings. So if you’re chucking huge jigs, the Dobyn’s might seem a little under powered.

You can take another milk crate, cut the bottom off, and make a lid. Plenty of YouTube videos showing how.

Good point. I find Columbia and UnderArmor often at Marshal’s and Ross for under $20.

I haven’t paddled the Lure, but I fish out of a BigFish, made by FeelFree. Not exactly apples and apples, but close. From my understanding basically a rudder is pretty much necessary for all FeelFree kayaks. I DIY’d mine, cause I wasn’t forking out $200. But if you buy cable from Home Depot, and modify your existing foot rests (basically just figure out how to attach the cables and leave them unlocked to slide back and forth), you can purchase just the rudder for $90.

Columbia and Aftco seem to be the lightest and most comfortable for me. Columbia’s seem to have a little more “room” in em.

You’re asking too much out of one rod. I’m sure there’s plenty of rods that this is “doable” with, but it isn’t gonna be good at any of them. It’s bass fishing, you can do whatever you want. But there’s a reason there’s thousands of rods with different actions and weights. Certain tools for certain jobs.

This is gonna vary on a lot of things. Your kayak, your PFD, your physical shape, etc. I have a kayak with a pretty open layout, I’m a fairly thin guy, and I wear an inflatable PFD, long handles don’t get in my way. Someone who has a different set up may absolutely hate my rods on a kayak. Take whatever rods you’ve got, and test em out. Take a buddies rods. Or a stick, whatever. It’s all trial and error.

I knew it was for customers, but I don’t know if they manage the population at all themselves. If they don’t, they should. They also told me they were going to control the pads, but I haven’t seen anything done.

There’s no real ponds or places to shore fish for bass near Albuquerque, so the place gets hammered. There’s a few giants in there, though. I also don’t think they cull any bass, so I don’t know how much longer those biggins will be around. Either way, it’s a great place to have

Get there at the beginning of the season so you can fish before the Lilly pads take over, and the fish get pressured like you’ve never seen.

If you don’t want to buy all new boxes, you can buy just the Zerust dividers Flambeau makes and toss a few in each box. But you should still let stuff dry as much as possible before putting it away.

Weight rating is a pretty important technical spec regarding rods... especially when you’re chucking baits that weigh as much as some people’s entire 3700 box of stuff, and cost twice as much.

@Swbass15 I’ve pretty much given up on Butte, Rosa, Sumner and Abiquiu are all closer and don’t make me pull my hair out?. But I appreciate the help you’ve given me. Maybe I’ll try again next years spawn

I just planned on using the string method. Thanks. I think I have a total of like $350 into it, including new hubs/bearings, the rack, bunks and hardware. Nope. They’re The cheap ones you can get shipped from Walmart/northern tool/harbor freight for like $70. They’re just inverted to give me the width I needed.

I know they’re probably more than sufficient, the backing plates just make me feel better.

Kinda hard to see (bottom yak), and I’ve since shortened the paracord. Mine’s currently not drilled in, because I don’t have in hull access for a backing plate. I have a solution on how to do it, just haven’t had the time to do it.

Our trail can’t even use TourneyX because none of our lakes, and usually even the surrounding towns don’t have service. Our tournament directors have gotten extremely efficient at looking at 20-35 different phones to verify pictures. ? I’d definitely be a little sour if that happened to me. Maybe find a Starbucks or somewhere with WiFi near by before tourney day if you anticipate service being an issue in the future.

@Swbass15 after all that information you gave me (thank you, again) on Butte, I still have yet to catch anything but one tiny white bass. I know there’s some giants in there, but I’m convinced you have to be a wizard or something to find em.

I noticed the new line up at a local store a few weeks ago and played around with em. They’re super light, and the new reel seat/trigger feels way better in my hand. I’ve got a 775 from the last line up that I absolutely love, but I think it’s getting replaced with a new one.

It’s a lot of kayak for the money, but the plastic is very thin, and warps easily. Where the seat sits is a big problem area, from what I understand. If you’re prepared to deal with that if it becomes an issue, it’s got a lot of nice features. I almost bought one til I read tons of people having their seat pop out after a few hours out on a hot day. The sun is brutal on any kayak where I live, so I wasn’t prepared to risk it.

Guess it really depends on the hooks, all else equal. The whopper plopper hooks are hands down, one of the most dangerous hooks out on a sub $20 bait

Really? You must’ve got a defective one or somethin’. I had to actually retire one it got so chewed up it.

I’ll second this. Spro’s seem to last me the longest. Booyah’s are great, cause they’re cheap and they work, but seem to go down quicker than the Spro’s. I recently broke down down and spent the money in a couple Terminators, cause I hear they’re the shizz, but haven’t had a chance to use em yet.