Southernfried

For my kayak, I wanted a push pole/anchor pole. Didnt want to spend a 100$ on one, so I went to Lowes, bought a closet rack wood pole, 10 foot long, walked over to plumbing, got a pvc T that fit over the end, went to hardware and got me a eye bolt, nut and washer. Went home drilled it for the eye bolt so I could attatch a laynard, put the T on the end and wrapped it with lizard skin baseball bat wrapped, covered all whole wooden pole with poly, 4 coats, and there ya go. Floatable, push pole that actually looks good since I stained it and put poly on it, plus it floats. Spent 15 bucks......and for the end that goes into the mud, I screwed in a 3/8'' bolt, took a grinder and made that end pointy so it looks like a sharp pencil but with a metal stud in it, that way it wont get beat up on the rocks etc. Works great for my application, for a pure push pole just dont make the end pointy.

Of all mine KK reels, I havent had a real noisy one. But, I will say on my first one I bought, the Spartacus Plus, I thought I had an issue with the reel and how the magnets work. Or rather how to set it up. I called them, spoke with customer service, found out I was an idiot lol and no other issues, but during that conversation the guy suggested I take the reel apart and clean, oil or lube it, and that I should do it on all my reels going forward. I then purchased my first original Speed demon reel, had issue after issue with it backlashing, no matter how I set it up. Called them, got a super nice guy on the phone, he walked me through the braking system, even showed me a video on the internet how it works. We talked about 30 min on what all I had done, didnt do, etc. I even texted him a short video of how the reel was spooling to one side when I retrieved. We then discussed line I was using and I said I was using 8lb braid. Turns out when they suggest a recommended line size, well its there for a reason. That and I was not starting the stringing process of my spool correctly. He asked me to one, spool it the way I should, (my fault) and two, try a larger line equivalent to the 12lb they suggested (my fault). BUT after I do those two things if I was still not happy, send the reel back and they would send me a new one, no questions asked. Well I still got the reel and it works great. I thought after my 30 years of fishing and playing with reels I knew enough. Apparently I didnt. That is what sold me on KK, the customer service, the price points help, but, it was the customer service that got me. That and I can throw a frog with no backlash with my Assassin or Speed demon, with the same veritas abu rod, further than the revo rocket we have. I have used their reels, and braid, but have yet to try a rod, the rods I cant comment on.

Love your settup, looking at the Prowler myself, but where did you get that seat?

We (my son and I) have totally switched from Abu to Kastking. Have 2 of the Spartacus Plus, 3 assassins, one Alaskan spinning reel I absolutely love, but they discontinued it, Speed demon (its on sale right now I think on Amazon for 45 or it was) have 2 of those. But I just bought the second speed demon in left hand just for frogging and love the lefty so much Im now switching to all left handed baitcasters and giving my son the righty versions. I would shop around on amazon because they have constant sales on there and if you go to their website and sign up there you will get coupons for 10-25% off stuff and reels on Amazon. They are the seller on Amazon as well and their customer service has been top notch. Plus they are based in New York and make most of their mono and braid there. Now the abu's we switched from were the older 45/5500 series and one of each the revo rocket baitcaster and spinning reels. The revo rocket baitcaster has been temperamental for cleaning where the Kastkings have not yet. We are going on our second summer with them and no issues at all. Now when you get one, clean and relube. But the rocket bc was right at 300$ and you can buy a slew of reels for that price, and good rods lol. Good luck