CountryboyinDC

@Bass_Fishing_Socal, of those 2, I think I'd like the Pelican blade shape better, although it's really hard to tell. To be honest, I didn't know Pelican made paddles, although I see a fair amount of Pelican kayaks. Carlisle is an old name in paddles, sort of famous for their livery paddles. If you were going for the 230 cm version, you could save $34, so their's that. Both of these are fiberglass-handled, plastic bladed paddles, and with the reviews and description on Amazon, there may not be a huge difference between the 2. Without seeing you in your kayak, I can't say what length paddle is best. If you're not worried about hitting the side now and again, 230 is probably fine. The longer your paddle, the more horizontal your paddle stroke is likely to be, which wastes energy when you're trying to go forward. But hitting the side of your kayak scares the fish, I'm sure. I'm 6'0, I guess reasonably normally proportioned, and I used to use a 230 cm paddle on a Wilderness Ride 135 (I think it was 31 or 32 inches wide), and I use a 240 cm on my Jackson Coosa HD, which is 33-33 inches wide.

@TnRiver46 I've never heard of that brand, but I'm guessing it's and aluminum shaft, plastic blade paddle. They're definitely durable, just like the canoe paddles of the same construction. I didn't realize that I was somewhat sensitive to equipment until I went into the military. I realized that I don't like heavy triggers on rifles (fine on fully automatic belt-fed rifles where you don't want to squeeze the trigger, though) and paddling equipment in general. The guys that had never been in a canoe didn't know how bad a Zodiac is to paddle with the heaviest paddle that will float is, but I sure did. And the longer in the tooth I get, the more I want light equipment. As for a small diameter diameter paddle, a lot of people prefer those - you wouldn't believe the number of people that like the feel of my son's paddle, an Aquabound youth paddle. I know a bunch of Werners touring paddles come in the smaller shaft size, surely AT, Accent, etc. might as well. It might be worth checking out.

It probably weighs 3 pounds. I've got a friend that uses a Caviness that's definitely durable and fine for fishing the river he does. If he actually had to paddle for propulsion across a currentless body of water for 10 miles or so, he'd be looking for a $400+ Werner, I guarantee it. I still have different paddles that I use for shallow, rocky river fishing. You get nothing other than ounces saved (maybe a little better blade design, but not a lot) for all that you pay, but after a day of paddling, it's worth it.

$100 will probably buy a aluminum shaft plastic blade paddle, which will be durable as all get out, but not great to paddle long distances with (read heavy). Somewhere around 230 cm should be about right, but everyone holds a paddle a little different. Something like https://www.austinkayak.com/Bending-Branches-Angler-Scout-Kayak-Paddle/ACK8185P.html, https://www.austinkayak.com/Carlisle-Magic-Aluminum-Paddle/ACK28631P.html. I would pay the extra $30-$50 for a fiberglass handle, personally. Still very durable, but a good bit lighter. One like @J Francho is lighter still and good for keeping wrist pain down, but you can get into some money quickly.

Tell her it's the one thing you enjoy doing alone.

I'd definitely try it. I've had some things that I really like that I wouldn't have thought I'd like hearing them described. I would call octopus a textural thing like squid, chew (or outright tough if you cook it too long) without a great deal of flavor. I've never had it breaded like squid/calamari, but in a stir fry it was fine. I can't say it's something that I've ever had a craving for, but foods from your earlier years often evoke a longing for certain dishes.

Gov. Northam just announced some restrictions that took effect yesterday, including a limit of 25 people for in-person gatherings, so my bet is the fishing expo is off ?

That's a positive story, and we aren't hearing much of those these days. It wasn't so long ago that esophageal, pancreatic, and other cancers were all but unsurvivable, especially at that stage. You are blessed, even more so because you are aware of how blessed you are.

A lot of that is the same as what I do. I have a ceramic cooler (called a Green Egg), so that may be why we do things differently. I brine too, and I paint the skin with oil. About the only thing I do differently is to cook to 165 at the thickest part of the thigh, rather than the breast. I use a Polder remote thermometer. Still not as good as a fried turkey, but better than any roasted bird I've tried. The only thing I'm not happy with is the skin - mine is beautiful, but not crsip.

Koppers makes a good frog, but I kind of feel the way everyone else has said, most of their stuff catch us more than it catches fish.

I fished that rig just this weekend (the one with willow blades). I have fished Alabama rigs that it did help to put a heavier jighead on the bottom wire (or 2, I guess), but that one I rigged every wire with 1/8 oz jigheads and 4.3 Keitechs. It didn't roll as a rig at all. The ones that I've had worse luck in rolling are the 3 wire rigs. I know some people like to put one bait that's bigger than the rest on their rig, but I haven't done as well that way.

You can definitely spend longer than that and know nothing. I've spent more than that amount of time around women, and I don't think I'm any closer to understanding them unfortunately. Definitely there are expert bass anglers, in my book, and that's not just the Butch Browns and KVDs of the world. The problem is figuring out who they are. As an old operator who taught SOCM (a special operations medical course) told us, "It takes about 2 years for those capable to become operators, but only about 15 minutes to get kitted up like one." The same is true of bass anglers, don't call him or her a cowboy until you seen 'em ride.

1. I generally fish out of a different kayak from than my pedal drive for shallow rivers. There's more than one reason, but the main one would be that it gets in the way. I bought a plug console for my pedal kayak https://oldtowncanoe.johnsonoutdoors.com/accessories/hull-deck/predator-pdl-floor-console since it didn't come with one so I could still use it if I took a friend without a kayak. I do see some pedal drives out there on the shallow rivers, the Perception one a few times and the Jackson Coosa FD and Cruise FD quite a bit. For me personally, I don't think they'd be worth the effort. 2. @Bluebasser86's idea of a stripping basket is novel and may be a solution depending on how you're approacing things, but with the pedal drive you'd have to be really careful to keep it from interfering with the drive. Then, where to stand is another issue. If you look at the most purpose built kayak to date for fly fishing, the Jackson Mayfly, you'll see the lengths they went to avoid places onto which your line could get tangled (no foot pegs, etc.), and I would bet that the pedal drive will pose an opportunity for frusturation.

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/11/08/minnesota-hunter-comes-across-3-foot-long-baby-alligator/ This has been full of things I never thought I'd see.

It's been a decade and a half since I fried a turkey. It takes a lot of oil, and frying 1 or 2 just doesn't seem worth it. A guy I used to work with strained and refrigerated the oil, but I'm pretty much just smoking them myself these days. If you're doing wild turkeys, I'll share a recipe we used for the injection, but with store bought birds you'll probably want something with a bit more kick. The perfect place to do it is in the middle of a gravel driveway and a blacksmith apron wouldn't be a bad idea, in fact a good face shield isn't overkill. @Catt has the time right, I'm pretty sure (we used to do all the wild turkeys at 20 minutes). Your family is in for a treat.

I'm not an expert on graphs and transducers, but I would imagine it's better a little long than short, just knowing what I know about transducers of other uses (ultrasound). In general, I think Yak Attack builds great stuff, but I have a couple of rod holders and I've seen the swing arms that tells me Ram still has the best articulation point in the business, the Ram ball. What you have will probably work out fine, though.

I can't believe it! It does seem like it's either the favorite or people are not too keen on it. I put it on practically everything from eggs to collards.

Sriracha and Cholula are great sometimes, but I'm with @roadwarrior, there's nothing like Tabasco. I have a 12 oz. bottle in the fridge now.

That should be deeper than you need for side scan unless you keep your kayak on edge a lot (what am I saying, it's a Bonafide, it's impossible to put on edge). You only need to be down to at or slightly below the lowest part of your kayak's hull. I've got to say, that swing arm mount seems more complicated than necessary. I have a Ram mount similar to @J Francho , the ball is bolted to the Cellblock. It's pretty solid. If Ram makes a swing arm that fits your transducer, it may be worth switching. It looks as though yours can be trimmed to length both in the horizontal dimension and the vertical, but it still isn't as tidy as the Ram. Sorry I can't find another picture, but you may be able to zoom in to see what my setup looks like. But if you've already solved the unsteady portion, you can run it as is; you may not even notice in a while.

The throttling issue is one that really gets to people on 'unlimited' plans among some of my friends. Even there after you use a certain amount, they throttle. Usually it's a high amount, say 10 or 20 GB, and the people using this amount of data are younger streaming Spotify playlists, watching a ton of TikTok videos, etc. when they're not on Wi-Fi. It definitely doesn't happen to me often, but if we're on vacation or something, I can use up whatever my monthly allocation is. I can monitor the usage on my phone, and if you're on AT&T, I'm sure there's a preinstalled app you can use to do the same thing. That may tell you what group you're in - the ones that come nowhere near their limit, or a habitual overage one, or somewhere in between. If it turns out that isn't an issue for you, then something like the Yahoo service could be for you. There are quite a few of them out there, and the only one anyone I talk to has is the one through Wal-Mart that I mentioned. You might check that one against the Yahoo one you're looking at to see if the price is the roughly the same. This forum is probably not big enough to get enough to get a lot (if any) responses. It may be better to go on a bargain forum like Slickdeals and see if the service has a decent reputation. I wish I knew more to tell you.

I don't know that one, but I have several family members that use Straight Talk (sold by Wal-Mart, usually), and it is a similar service. It is a bit more of a hassle to set up, and the support is less (if that's possible) than the carriers. But generally they're happy, and it accomplishes what they need at a lesser price. I don't think any of them are high data users, so I'd check to see how much it throttles your data (sends you to 2G after you use a certain amount), and see if it seems reasonable to you. Saving money is good, as long as you're happy with what you get.

I keep seeing that Plano Edge terminal tackle come up on forums. They've now come up with a 3600 size, so there's no way I'm going to clean up my tackle this winter without buying a couple.

I wasn't planning to, I had put away the kayaks for the year. A guy who's kid is friends with mine said he hadn't been able to find a kayak to buy this year made me feel sorry for him so I took him out after I finished teaching Sunday School. We didn't have great luck, we had to go to a reservoir close to where we live and it's small with a lot of pressure and not a lot of fish. I did manage 1 nice bass on an Alabama rig. I'm glad I didn't spend the afternoon taking leaves You finally got that Topwater. I thought you ordered that back a couple months ago! That's breaking in the right way.

That's not always the goal, especially if it's made out of venison or turkey. Actually if it's made out of walleye it may find its way onto a cedar plank and in the smoker around my house. Most bass escape the cornmeal dredge, though.

That's a good point. It seems like the engineers on the 737 Max weren't all pilots either, and we see what kind of tragedy that caused.