CountryboyinDC

That's a beautiful truck @Harold Scoggins. If you feel 30 years younger, it was definitely worth it.

Low mileage doesn't equal reliability. My 2008 Dodge hasn't hit 31,000 yet and I've had a turbo put in it already. I'll be wrenching and doing some maintenance on it this weekend. Why keep it? I actually like the truck when it doesn't have an issue and even with the repairs, the costs are low. Putting 300k in beltway traffic would take decades and several dozen clutches. New stuff is nice. Having things paid for is in it's own way satisfying. If you aren't driving 1k miles a year, how much joy would you get out of a new truck?

I've tried the rod runner, and it may be just what you need. It wasn't for me. Normally, I'm getting my kayak shuttled quite a bit and so taking rods in and out of vans and buses from my truck meant taking them in and out of the rod runner. I also tried wraps, I found them to be a better solution until I got the mule. It's like carrying a long slung rifle. Now I use it even like I did today - just to keep thing tidy at the launch. I do use rod socks and, if I have treble hook baits, a bait sack. Here's 5 rods.

^10. Best Charlie Daniels song for sure. Here's the 2nd best.

Whatever you do, stay away from the KidCaster with no guides. Your son will definitely break the line and then reel all of said broken line back into the reel. You won't be able to figure out how to get the line threaded through this guideless system and you won't have a wireless signal so you can find a YouTube video that shows how to do this. After 15 minutes of pestering from your son and wife, you'll say 'just use my ultralight rig', which still is not entirely satisfactory because it has no mutant dinosaurs on it. Your son won't be able to cast it, so you'll be standing there doing that each time. Then he'll hook a big catfish, get scared and throw the rod into the pond. At least that's how it happen for me. Now we have 2 fishing rods for him we take everywhere we think he may be fishing, the other KidCaster has guides.

I just hope it has a unicorn head that somehow is incorporated into this upcoming comedy.

Boonedox makes an aftermarket rudder that supposedly helps with both the turning and tracking that Natives are known for being deficient in. If you can't go faster pedaling than paddling the same boat, you would be the first person. The pedal drive on the Natives (I've never tried a Slayer Propel 10) are pretty good, but they're not the Hobie system. Everytime a kayak turtles it's user error, unless the kayak is only at repose with gunnels down. Either the paddler is not centering their weight appropriately, taking the boat through water it's not designed to handle, improper boat positioning at given water hazard, and the list goes on. If you haven't turtled yet, it's only yet, or you're being very cautious with a wide kayak. Make sure you wear your PFD. I'd also check out the Old Town 10' pedal drive. It goes by a couple of names. A couple of folks on here have them and seem to love them.

The LiteTackle is a good buy from everything I've heard or read, but you can't find them anywhere according to a friend of mine! I guess that's what a lot of people are finding about a lot of things. I looked them over at the Richmond Fishing Expo, and they're not light, I would guess 80 lbs without the seat (I picked it up to see how comfortable it was to carry). So your Lure is heavier, but this is still not going to be as light as your Perception. I still want to paddle a LiteTackle and see how that hull glides, edges, etc. But the topside features were pretty impressive for an $800 kayak. I bet the prices will increase next year, like Vibe. I didn't really look at the UltraLite.

@NOC 1, you make a lot of good points. I don't fault anyone that is struggling to make ends meet not making Made in USA a priority. For Falcon, they were making $200-$220 rods (Cara T7), now they're making Chinese-manufactured Experts at the same price. There are already tons of those, and I'm sure some of them are likewise good. Me, I'm spending my $200 on a St. Croix Avid or ALX Zolo going forward. ALX makes the blanks for the Zolo and Enox in the US. The Ikos line has the blanks made in China. Again, everyone should spend their money how they want, I just want to make sure that Falcon knows that I'm not happy with their change in manufacturing strategy.

Smoked 4 racks of spare ribs today, gave away a couple of racks to neighbors. Almost forgot to take a picture. This one was one of the longer ones I kept for us because the rib ends hang over the indirect piece and end up burned, so it isn't the prettiest rack I did. Sure was a good July 4th supper, though.

I use a Crazy Alberto, and keep the leader short enough that it never gets to the line guide on the reel. I used to run 30' leaders to start (I'd cut off a few feet after each trip), and the knot wouldn't always pass through the Daiwa/Cabelas T-wing reels, and so now all of mine are 6' or so. I do wonder what's going on with your knot, that's weird, and if it's happening repetitively, something bad is going on.

St. Croix sells some US-made blanks through Rodgeeks https://rodgeeks.com/collections/st-croix-scv-blanks. You can get the blanks in a bunch of colors if you're building a custom stick. I understand that some things are nearly impossible to find USA made. Fishing rods are becoming that way and companies like Falcon are not helping. If St. Croix, Impulse, ALX, G Loomis, Kistler l, and others can find a way to do it, so can Falcon, they just chose not to. Everyone can buy what they want, but my last Falcon was likely a Cara T7. I really liked the actions in a bunch of models, but I'm coming to like ALX more with each one I buy, and they're priced as well as Falcons.

I made some cheap ones out of garden stakes from a home improvement store. They worked, but put fiberglass splinters in my hands and weren't the handiest to store. So I made 2 8' ones using the Max Gain System with threaded ferrules, one with 2 4' sections and the other with a 6' and 2' section, and so I could theoretically piece thesetogether and have a stakeout pole anywhere from 2' to 14' feet. I haven't used them yet, but they are definitely more finished than the previous versions I owned. https://mgs4u.com/shallow-water-anchor-parts-kits/?v=7516fd43adaa

I got out on the South Fork of the Shenandoah yesterday for the first time this year (normally I'd have already gone 5+ times by now), and it's low like it usually is around the 4th of July. Last year was horrible - not only was I not good enough to catch any nice fish, I couldn't catch many dinks either on the Shenandoah or the upper Potomac. I put in at the State Park, and my wife was nice enough to pick me up at Gooney Creek. For those of you that haven't done this trip, there is a lot of dragging your boat involved on this section once the Front Royal gauge is below 2'. The good part is it concentrates the bigger fish. I got a few bites on a small swim jig and a few swatted at a small torpeedo bait and a Zara puppy, but both were behind the bait, and after trying a small Sammy and getting no takers, I left the topwater stuff alone. I went to the places that normally have some 14"+ fish in them, and couldn't manage better than a 12" the whole trip, but I did catch a bunch of dinks on a 3" Senko (the only thing that I caught anything on). I took a picture of the smallest one, which frankly, wasn't much longer than the Senko. The good news is that from this trip, the fish seem to be back. Hopefully, they can start putting on some size.

I use the LC Classical Leader crankbaits in the 3/8 oz shallow version. They work well when the fish are in ultra-shallow water.

That's even better than the bass just wouldn't commit.

For your health and well being, that was likely wise.

I also have no firsthand knowledge, or even secondhand, of the kayak itself. If you want all the stuff that comes with it (I'm assuming that the graph is not a real high end model), that's a pretty good deal. If everything is installed and working well, namely the foot controls for the trolling motor, it would be hard to pass up. Right now, deals and even inventory are hard to come by. If light weight is your thing, alternatives are usually a hybrid kayak/canoe or a sit-in kayak (SINK). This allows you to sit closer to the waterline with equal stability to a wider and therefore heavier sit on top (SOT) kayak like the Malibu. For hybrids, I know that Ascend makes one (I've never seen it), Native Ultimates are nice, and the 12' Old Town Discovery would fit the bill. For SINKs, the Bonafide SINK should be at the top of the list, although I haven't paddled one, and if you can find a old stock Jackson Kilroy, that would be my pick. It's under 70 lbs. with the seat, has a great seat, is stable enough that I can stand, and is pretty efficient. The new Kilroy HD looks totally different, and I'm not sure why anyone would want one. The other way to get light if you like light is to go with thermoformed polyethylene as opposed to rotomolded polyethylene. Hurricane and Eddyline make fishing-biased SOTs, as did Wilderness Systems, Native, and Jackson. I'm not sure which models are still manufactured. Thes are more expensive, and don't do well with sharp rock strikes, so if shallow, fast,-moving rivers are in your future, avoid these.

Let the air out of the rear tires of your car. The cribbing ideas or buying a jack are probably better ideas.

I haven't had to tune the IMA Flits (the one I have it pretty true running), but I do have to tune crankbaits quite often. I'm not that good at it, and both a tool I keep on my PFD with my hook sharpener. It's called a Tune-a-fish, and it makes it a lot easier to make those fine adjustments to the line tie that are hard with the needle nose pliers. https://www.fishusa.com/Reef-Runner-Tune-A-Fish-Crank-Bait-Tuner

I use a 3/0 Trokar, because I only carry 3/0 and 5/0 swimbait hooks. I think 4/0 would probably be perfect. I get bumped without hooking up more with keel weighted hooks than I do with swimbait jigs, but it probably has to do with the fish's commitment, at least that's what I hypothesize. I use the BPS hook weights, so the weight can be almost whatever you want. Whenever I'm using these, it's usually pretty shallow, so there'll be less than 1/4 oz. If you use the hook weights, you need strong pliers to crimp them on. I ruined a Leatherman trying.

I don't have that reel or any Gen4 Revo, but I think that has the dual braking system that my Gen3 Revo SX didn't. Like most reels, you'll do best with the spool tension knob adjusted so that the spool just barely 'shakes' (best word I have for this). With new reels with dual braking system, I sort of start 'in the middle' (halfway on the magnetic and half of the centrifugal engaged) and work from there. That usually means quite a bit less brakes of both types. The other thing I do with new reels is to clean the spool bearings. I use isopropanol (rubbing alcohol), but you can use lighter fluid or acetone too. After the bearings dry, I put on 1 drop of oil for spool bearings. A lot of times the bearings are dry, packed with grease, or over-oiled, all of which can affect casting distance.

Anything from 14 lb Stren Original to 50 lb Power Pro. I did try with 17 lb McCoy's Mean Green (copoly) once and didn't like how fast I had to keep the bait moving. I've stayed away from sinking lines otherwise.

I'd get one that has a place to keep most of what you'll need fishing (pliers, Fiskar kid scissors, bobber stoppers, bag of rubber worms, whatever) in pockets. You shouldn't need a high back PFD, but a lot of the fishing-biased ones are built for kayaks with the high seat back. The most popular one, and one I have is the NRS Chinook. I have the older version. Were I buying one today, it would probably be a Stohlquist PiSeas. It's about $40 cheaper, and for my uses accomplishes the same thing.

Wouldn't whatever you're using as a trailer interfere with the trailer hook. I use a swinging trailer hook always on buzzbaits and sometimes on spinnerbaits, and I'd imagine the grub/paddletail/toad would make the trailer hook, if not both hooks, significantly less effective. Maybe I don't understand.