Krux5506

Always loved fishing out of my yak despite it being cheap and extremely uncomfortable...Crippling, actually. I have an Old Town Predator PDL on the way so hopefully that makes me like yak fishing even more. It allows me to fish areas I'd never get to otherwise, and that includes waters where I guess you "could" dump a jon boat in but not nearly as practical as a kayak. It can be constrictive at times but I also like just beaching it and taking a breather or stretch on shore when necessary.

Really have been liking my Spy Angler sunglasses for the past few years but I believe they are discontinued. Last I saw still available on Amazon though but who knows if they are authentic. I can read any of my screens just fine with those and yes they are polarized.

For a plain jane no frills aluminum boat you should do pretty decent with 10k to spend.

My all time favorite would be the Heddon Dying Flutter.

I'm pretty religious about sunscreen in the summer time. Any time I forget it, or I don't put it on, i end up feeling like garbage later in the day. Then again I'm not really one to fish much when it's over 85 degrees out. Give me early mornings or dusk for that time of year.

White Spinnerbait in various weights. Usually 3/8 or 1/2oz depending on where I am. Some of you are reminding me though to focus better on T-rigs. Had one summer where I got addicted to T-rigged power worms because they just flat out worked every time I was out.

I also think boats, like fishing in general, can be as cheap as you want or as expensive as you want.

There are so many pieces to the puzzle with this question that there is no concise answer. You're getting into a realm of quite a long line of products that comprise an entire boat, from raw materials up to electronics and everything in between. In my mind there are so many things that drive costs in a boat market beyond simply "what someone is willing to pay" (but yes demand is the end result as well) that I think I would end up violating the bass resource forum rules by saying what I truly feel which is in a nutshell many, many "crazy costs" are artificially created by the powers that be. Look into an employer's cost of compliance per employee, for example. Especially in manufacturing industries like this. True, but do what I did...Buy a boat, and year by year as you are able to afford it, just add something each season. It's kinda like owning a house - you improve things little by little unless you just have piles of cash you're willing to drop at once.

I use power pro but I've always kinda liked the noise....

I've been in some sketchy conditions with my deep V lund, never really felt like anything was out of control but I really never have any desire to try and fish in those conditions anyway. There's a fine line for me between tolerable and just straight up nauseating if you're in big swells trying to fish. It's neither enjoyable nor productive. I've always felt like bass boats don't mix well with big water like the great lakes if you're going out in those sketchy conditions....I see guys do it all the time but I never would.

A dangerous lesson I've learned when coming to terms with blowing money on fishing stuff is that "money can always be made back" ??‍♂️

I have both. Luckily I blew all my money on the boat and upgrades for that long before I had kids. I consider my boat "done" besides eventually a new console fish finder but I can put that off for a while. Although I do plan to replace all 3 batteries this season. Now I have a predator pdl kayak on the way...I'm not crazy about electronics on kayaks, I prefer to just keep things minimal but who knows how that will work out. I'm sure I'll find something to drop money on ?

One of my strangest times out on the water was a few years back when I launched my boat at my family's cottage very early April almost immediately after the ice was out. It was a day of sorta time crunching hectic nonsense with getting the boat ready, batteries not actually charging, blah blah blah just one thing after another preventing my buddy and I from getting the boat in and actually fishing. Finally we get the boat launched, he drives my truck back to the cottage so I motor down to pick him up at our dock. As soon as he gets on, a neighbor who I don't know maybe 5 doors down is flagging us down from her dock. I almost wanted to pretend I didn't see her but I couldn't in good conscience just ignore her. I go down and see whats up knowing it was just something else to prevent us from starting our already very late day of fishing. She tells us her husband is across the bay on their canoe, trying to tow back their floating dock that blew away and wondered if we could help him. "uhh ok sure" so we motor out, find him trying to tow what looks like a 40ft long by 8 ft wide floating dock from the back of his canoe he is PADDLING, from the opposite side of the bay. It appeared to be a miserable failure. I offered to hook the dock to my boat and tow it back, with his canoe and him on the dock. He agrees, tries to get onto the dock and flips over in his canoe into the 36 degree water. I panic a bit but know he has a life jacket on. He acts as though nothing even happened and just rolls onto the dock like it's no big deal. I try to make it quick, thinking the guy is gonna get hypothermia. We get back to the dock, and in somewhat of a panic I tell his wife he fell in, she needs to get him inside ASAP. She immediately laughs at him, makes fun of him, and calls him an idiot. Then they both laugh. Nobody seems concerned except me and my buddy. She attempts to hand me a sizeable wad of cash as a "thank you" which appeared to be all 20's...I tell her I can't take her money but she convinces me to take $20 to go buy some beer, at which point I'd say was much needed.

For me it's a "less is more" type of fishing. I cast, let it sink, give it a twitch or two and sorta just slowly get it back to me. Seems to me more often than not, strikes come not long after the initial sink and twitch rather than when it's getting closer to me. I've turned a couple buddies onto the ned rig and they've all agreed with me it's a very interesting bite that you hardly even feel, but you usually will just get that bit of resistance on your line or feel it swimming away gently and then it's fish on. It's hard to explain but it's quick to get used to the feeling once you've gotten a few fish on it.

There's a reservoir near me where I can't get bass to bite anything but a ned rig. And it's to the extreme, like a 20+ fish day all on a ned rig, or I can cast something else for hours and get nothing. The Ned is a go-to for me in the dead of summer, but it can also be extremely boring fishing that slow in 90 degree weather. If the bite is on, its' fine, but to fish a ned rig for hours without bites can be mind numbingly boring.

Got a new kayak being shipped to me (hopefully) this month. I have Hemlock on my mind but never fished it. Usually my methods for fishing new waters is covering water either with swimbaits or spinnerbaits. Any tips or areas you guys who fish it or have fished it would recommend? I won't have electronics on my kayak....yet

Big for NY but 12 lbs? Idk, maybe...Either way nice catch. I like how they keep saying "unnamed pond" does that mean private property? I've wondered if state records can be recorded if technically a fish was caught on private property, permissible or otherwise...

I think because power loading can cause mounds of gravel and what not. I've always cringed when I see people mashing throttles trying to inch their boats up the trailer.

I've been on boats since before I could walk, taken numerous not-so-fun trips across the lake to Canada as a kid, stuff I wouldn't even do now as an adult with better judgement so I could understand someone's fear about these things if they've never owned a boat or had much experience on the water. If anything that's a good sign - the fact that you are cautious and aware about these things. Plenty of people are the opposite. Like others have said, get the boat out on the water and cruise around. Tilt the motor up and get it into weedy areas. The trolling motor will cut through a lot of that stuff surprisingly well if you have good thrust. As far as getting dings and dents on the boat, well that's just a sign of normal wear. I paid a lot for my boat and it was mint when I got it. Now it's got it's share of battle wounds from getting it into my boat hoist on those super windy days. I'd rather have a few dents in the thing than keep it as a "hoist queen" though and never fish out of it.

Call me a wuss perhaps, but I'm always the only one at a boat ramp who floats my boat with lines on and off the trailer. But I do enjoy watching others struggle to power load and make it a gigantic production.

Yup. My only excuse is I've basically gotten used to it as one of the boat "quirks". Don't get me wrong, I'm not fighting the wheel in rough water, I could maintain it just fine with one hand, but there's definitely something going on there.

i've got the same boat but the 17 footer. 2010 Rebel XL Sport to be exact. My boat also tends to pull to the port side pretty hard while moving along. This is to the point where under certain circumstances, usually if it's windy or wavy, it would be enough pull to be catastrophic if I were to let go of the wheel. The wheel will basically fly over to the port side very quickly. Under calmer conditions it's not nearly as bad. I've owned the boat since 2016 and quite honestly I've done nothing to correct the issue. I've always assumed it was a trim tab issue and just never messed with it. The boat lives on a hoist at my family's cottage and if the water is really that rough or if it's that windy out, I'm not going out anyway.

I just pulled the trigger on a Predator PDL too from ecofishingshop.com which I'm really hoping was a good move. Local shops claim they couldn't get that kayak until possibly the Fall, and this site says mine would be shipped to me in May because they put an order in a while back with Old Town to stay ahead of the curve. Fair enough, but I still don't like dropping this kind of money online and hoping nothing happens in transit. We shall see!

You're right. I fish out of a Field and Stream Eagle Talon sit on top that I bought maybe 7 or 8 years ago. I'm at the point where if I spend a day on that thing I get out of it feeling like an 85 year old man. It's literally a crippling design, even with an upgraded seat. But besides that, when there is a slight breeze yes I am just mostly anchoring or correcting my position. I think I'm about settled on the Old Town Predator pdl....If I can find one.

Keep us posted with how you like it. It looks nice. I'm in the market for a kayak upgrade too. Actually, I have been on and off for a few years. I didn't think I'd want a pedal yak now I'm really second guessing that and thinking I'll end up going that route.