CountryboyinDC

We used to practice airfield seizures in the military, with Humvees strapped down with ratchet straps and in low range with the diffs locked (military Humvees were all-time 4wd). On touching down, the loadee would let the assault force know when the aircraft slowed to a certain speed, and we'd break down the straps. One time the aircraft had to break hard, and the front (loaded aft in the fuselage) Humvee skidded several feet into the rear Humvee. Fortunately no one was hurt, but our procedures changed and the aircraft had to slow quite a bit more before we broke down straps. I don't know what the force pulling on this truck in the video is versus the force pushing the Humvee forward in that C-141, but it makes you realize that once you're counting on traction and it's overcome you're in a position for a tragedy. I know since that incident, I'm a lot more careful when I put cars on ramps or jacks to set 4wd, parking brakes, check the wheels, etc. to a greater extent than I think necessary.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone punching with an unpegged worm weight; some use the screw type though. Wouldn't it just be that much harder to get through the mat/likely to get hung? I do no punching, but I peg when I'm pitching Texas rigs so the bait enters more quietly. As for the bass throwing the hook, they always get a vote, but you should have a 7 1/2' to 8' broomstick of a rod to help you waterski them to your boat if your have a 1-2 oz tungsten tied on.

I only have/throw one, and I was turned on to it when I was fishing at Briery Creek at night with a friend who was catching them fishing behind me fishing a Rover. I stopped in at Green Top on the way home and bought a couple. I had to go to the garage and measure it - it's 2 5/16", and solid black (at least I believe it was new). It has a black feathered rear treble. I'd say it is the 1/4 ounce one if there are 2 sizes, but it cast a lot better than other 1/4 ounce plugs like a Speed Trap. I think I paid $25 a piece for these things, and I almost went home and got a pole saw to get one I threw 10 foot up in a tree.

@Glenn, that's a neat trick. I was using a Shaw Grigsby hook and a basic Texas or a somewhat unconventional Carolina rig. Does that sort of spiral as it falls like it does on a tube jighead? OP, if you have trouble with weedless rigging using the Bill Lowen method using a standard offset hook, the Shaw Grigsby or a hook with the plastic barb close to the hook eye may help. You do need to make sure the hook gap is wide enough or you'll miss a lot of fish.

Anyone that wants a Lamiglass from the custom shop, there's a 7'2 medium still left here: https://www.lamiglas.com/collections/clearance-fishing-rods?page=1 Looks like a nice rod for the price.

@Sam, there's a couple of other reasons to not get too sad about missing a day fishing. I guess if it gets too bad, the park in my neighborhood has Wolftrap Run running through the middle of it. When my son and I go down to catch some minnows and crawfish, we've seen some maybe 6" chubs in it. I can get the old ultralight out and at least say I wet a line.

Lobina Ricos. The Pop-R's have probably caught more fish than all the other poppers out there combined, though. I don't fish poppers a lot anymore except at night.

The dogwoods' blossoms in the side yard came out today. A beautiful day it was, fishing would have been tough anyway.

It may be my imagination or something else, but since moving to the area, I've been using a War Eagle skirt color called 'cole slaw' in the tidal Potomac. I always thought that the blades were much more important, but if it's coincidence, it's profound coincidence.

I use the hooks that come with the Lake Fork weight system http://www.lftlures.com/catalog/wacky-hook-weight-system until they dull, then I slide the collars over 1/0 Trokars WG wacky hooks. I used to use the Trokars with a small piece of shrink wrap hit with a lighter, but the Lake Fork system is so much easier to rig and works as well as far as I can tell, that I only use that system now.

I'll gladly share my favorite lure, but I don't have any favorite fishing spots should you ask. Swim jig, color and trailer vary. Right now my favorite comes from Santone, but I bought some new Siebert's with 4/0 hooks. I really like the colors, can't wait to try them out.

That's a good deal on a paddle of that type. I've never used that one but Accent, but they're considered competitors with Werner, etc. They're not US-made or as popular, but a paddle like that from Bending Branches will run $130+ normally. I have one Onyx vest - the MoveVent Curve Vest. It's fine to loan someone and fine for a canoe with no back. The lower back cutout is not high enough to clear most of the newer kayak seats (it worked fine on the seatback of my Wilderness Ride, not the Max type seat). I've become pretty attached to my NRS Chinook (old version) and I've tried the Stohlquist PiSeas. If I'd tried the PiSeas before I bought mine, I'd probably save $30 and get that one, I actually think I like it as well. I also tried the Kokatat Leviathan and liked it on on my pedal kayak, but it didn't work with the seat on my paddle one well (again the back height thing). It has a ton of features, including a built-in handwarmers and more pockets than I'd ever use. I now think of the PFD like I did my plate carriers (body armor) in the service. It's a great place to keep the stuff that you might need even if you step away from the boat. So I'd recommend one that you aren't always wanting to take off, and the Onyx got to be like that once I wore out the Ride.

I think people have touched on what I consider the most important things for a kayak, except for hull design. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to someone who got sold on the topside features and bought a kayak they later regretted. Stability is the easiest to test, and what most folks getting into kayak fishing prioritize. With stability, you're going to compromise on efficiency/performance and to a lesser degree maneuverability. But if the best fishing spots are 2 miles from the launch site or you're going down a rocky technical river, paddling that barge can be a chore. The Bonafide is a great boat (sit in the seat some before you buy it, most really like it but it sort of pinched me at the hips, strangely), and it has amazing stability for its width. It won't be quite as stable as the Big Rig @GTN has, but it's 20 pounds lighter or more. It is still somewhat of a pig to paddle, it weather vanes quite a bit (rudder really helps this boat) and is in no way nimble for its length. But it may be just the compromise for which you're looking. Otherwise, the seat and weight are most important like others have said, IMHO.

What to do with your paddle is something you'll struggle with, even as you get a lot more time in fishing from a kayak. Most of the time, if the kayak is not in some way anchored and I'm seated, the paddle goes in my lap. On my paddle kayak, anchored in many cases means that I'm on a river and I've eased up on a rock and am using it to anchor me so I can fish some area of interest. In these cases, I'll use the paddle holder that is on the front hatch of my kayak (a Jackson Coosa HD), but this on the track rails would serve the same purpose. It will probably be a little slower and noisier. Where the paddle goes when I'm standing unanchored is dependent on the circumstances. If I really need to be accurate with my casts, I leave the paddle in the paddle holder. If the situation dictates that I grab my paddle, I sort of bail on whatever I was doing fishing, sit down, and get the kayak going in the direction it needs to go and sort out the fishing part as soon as time permits. If I'm in quite a bit of current (or I guess wind could also be the case for this, but I rarely stand and fish in strong wind), but standing, I'll tuck the paddle under one of my armpits. You can definitely make small adjustments with your rod tip, but there are a lot that call for the paddle. I would say don't stand and fish where you need your paddle until your comfortable to the point everything else you're doing doesn't feel like you need 2 more hands. I'm not familiar with that kayak, but likely the track rail is there because that's th most useful place for most accessories, this paddle holder included. Most things that are on a track rail will get in the way of your paddle stroke the closer they are to your seat. 6 inches is very short, though. If you need more track, it's fairly inexpensive, although molded in recessed is the best in my opinion. You could also consider the 'taco-type' paddle holders. They're probably slower and as noisy as this paddle holder, but they're lower profile.

My only problem is that my only choice is A. I hate hearing that there arena lot facing a lot more on hear. My heart goes out to you all.

If you really want to go fast and first class, you could always get a Torqeedo for your G3. I've seen them on pontoon boats on an electric only lake around me. 20 hp should give you speed like you never experienced with a trolling motor or 4. https://www.torqeedo.com/us/en-us/products/outboards/cruise

We've got a couple of kayakers missing around here today. They found one kayak and paddle. I hope somehow they're on land finding a way to survive. It's too cold around here for them to be in the water for long. https://wtop.com/anne-arundel-county/2020/04/md-coast-guard-searching-for-2-missing-kayakers/

I guess it all depends on your system. If you carry 30 rods remembering what is newly tied on and what was tied on after a days fishing could be difficult. For me, the night before I go some where, I cut off the lure (and leader if there was one), tie on a new one, and if the new lure is one that tangles easily, it goes in a Bite Sack. The rod goes in a rod jacket and then in a Rod Mule. In the morning it goes in the truck or whatever I'm riding in to go fishing. Rarely do more than 6 go with me, and a lot of times it's 4.

Dogwoods haven't bloomed yet, at least not where I'm confined in Vienna, VA. The Japanese cherry in my front yard already bloomed and is getting its leaves. I'd love to be out on the Occoquan River or up around Fletcher's pulling in some hickory and American shad right about now, but I'd hate to be the cause for anyone including myself to end up on a ventilator. I guess I'll miss the largemouth and smallmouth pre-spawn, but I hope they lead to good spawns this year. We've had a couple of bad years of smallmouth spawns around here, and it'd be good to have a really good class year for 2020. I think there's many good fishing days ahead if we can just be patient and prudent.

I can see this scenario playing out in your household: Wife yells down the stairs, "Do you ever get a shooting pain across your body, like someone's got a voodoo doll of you and they're stabbing it?" Concerned, you reply, "No....". A couple of seconds later, she'll respond, "How about now?"

I really like the finish you chose for that one, sort of reminds me of the color that they used for a lot of laminate gun stocks a few years back. That looks good enough to go indoors in my book.

@WRB, I'm not sure I understand your point. I could either cut the lure I was fishing off, and tie a loop, then cut that off, then tie the new lure on the night before I go fishing. Or I could leave the lure on, cut it off the night before, and tie on the new lure (or retie). Either way, I've got a fresh knot, or in my case a lot of times, a fresh leader and couple of knots. Folks from where I'm from would say you need a few guns. I love that you have kept the cabinet in the family. Your grandfather did a nice job on that one.

Why would anyone build tandem axle cart? The wheels that you normally use to build carts are rated for more than 300 lbs, and a C-tug can typically haul 2 kayaks, so long as they're not 2 Hobie Pro Anglers or Native Titans. It's not because I'm Vector from Despicable Me saying, "Have you ever seen a tandem axle kayak cart. No you haven't, I have the only one." For me it was because after years of faithful service, my original kayak card, the one with the blue pool noodles, was literally falling apart under the weight of my pedal kayak, the Old Town Predator PDL pictured. The cart did fine with a WS Ride 135 and the Jackson Coosa HD, but it began creaking when I put the heavier kayak with all it's gear on it. Finally, toward the end of last summer, it started fracturing the 'bunk' PVC members one by one. I was able to chisel out the old ones and make repairs, but after 3 consecutive trips of dumping the kayak off the cart in the parking lot, I knew I was going to have to find a remedy. I thought about the C-tug - a bunch of people have them and like them. Supposedly after you get the tie-down routed, it's smooth sailing from there. They fold up and you can put them in the front hatch like I do with my old cart. I've never seen one break. I tried one out, and the biggest issue for me was getting it under the Predator. It was easier than the one I had, which was designed for you to lift the stern of the kayak up and then slide the kart under. The Predator has a tendency to want to turn over when you lift it, more so than the other kayaks for which I'd used this kayak. The C-tug took quite a few tries, even with it's kickstand, to get everything lined up well enough that you could get it cinched down. I also thought about the Boonedox Landing Gear. Those would be a great system for most similar kayaks, but with the deck/gunwale design of this boat, people that have done it have had to improvise quite a bit. The gear tend to end up much closer to the transom than you'd want for balance purposes. So I decided on this design. I figured that the tandem axles would give the stability to the cart that made positioning under the kayak easier. In the limited testing I've done so far at my house, that seems to be the case. Once you figure out where to set the cart, and the direction to point it, you can just use 2 hands and lift by the stern handle and sit it on the cart with relatively little fuss. No need to kick up a kickstand. So far no creaking or complaining. It doesn't want to turn sharply, which is predictable for anyone that's ever pulled a triaxle trailer with their truck. You have to lift on the bow when you make turns, but otherwise everything works well on hard surfaces. I'd change a couple of things. I made the frame the width I did before cutting the round stock into the axles. I was waiting to borrow a horizontal bandsaw to cut the round stock, and in the end just cut the 4' piece in half with a hacksaw (it turned out to be way easier than I suspected). So I would like to have made the cart a couple of inches wider, and I think it would benefit from being a couple of inches wider. The axles sticking out sort of bother me. The short unsupported 'bunk' members could have just used caps to hold on the pool noodle. If anyone is interested, I'm happy to give you a source list, cut plan etc. by private message.

Certainly not aspirational and Instagram-worthy like some of the above solutions, but improvised and marginally functional, like the builder. Just takes some 1 1/2" pipe hangers, a 2"x3" and a way to hang to your ceiling. It's better than the way the rest of them are stored, through trusses in the attic, etc.

@dickenscpa, the backing plates are these. You'll need 3 of them per trolley - 1 for each pulley and one for the cam lever thing. I thought there was an upgrade kit, but that might have been discontinued. https://www.yakattack.us/AMS_1005_p/ams-1005.htm Installing these could be easy or tricky depending on how much access you have to your hull. On my pedal kayak, I have a hatch at the bow, under the seat, and at the stearn (I added that one), so it was easy. I've added some gear track with backing plate without that great hull access, and it was tedious.