CountryboyinDC

The stern keel is where I've had a kayak wear. My WS Ride finally wore to the point that I couldn't patch it with pieces from a 5 gallon bucket to where it sink over the course of a 4 hour float. When I cut it apart to put in the recycling bin, I got to see how much wear there was and the places that wore over the length of the hull. It was surprisingly far worse in the stern. I wish I had taken pictures. I got a ton of use out of that kayak on a bunch of rivers and dragging it over railroads and other assorted improvised launch sites. If they all last that long, you'll get your money's worth before you wear one out.

X2 for Sawyer. I'm not really an oar expert, but almost every raft and cataraft I've encountered fishing on the river has Sawyers. If it's just durability you're looking for, both Carslile and Caviness make an aluminum handled, plastic bladed paddles. They're sure to be heavy, if you're actually going anywhere, though.

The first one I caught, and my biggest one wasn't that big (the folks with me said it would go about 8 lbs, but they could have been generous), but sort of fought like that one you caught. I was sure I had hooked a catfish, guys I was fishing for had been chumming for them, and I went working a casting jig down the other side of the point. Since then I've only caught smaller ones on hollow bodied frogs in still shallow water. I've wondered what made that first one bite a jig.

If you can find the right size, they make a great drag "chain" too. Where I live, they tear down houses as old as mine (45 years ), so it's hard to come by those, but they're perfect.

Sorry, that wasn't how meant it for you and @Dens228. I meant to say heed the advice of the 2 other people who have said don't worry about holes above the waterline.

I was scared to look after the last thread - I thought this might be purple with pink polka dots.

Believe me, @Dens228, and @J Francho, you're worrying too much about the holes. I would worry more about the fastener protrusion under the deck and it tearing up your legs or something. If your kayak is like the one pictures, it should be drier than a SOT, but it has a fairly large cockpit opening and no means for a sea skirt. Even the WW and touring kayaks with skirts are rarely completely dry after a paddle. For gear track, that helps you because you can take things on and off and are left with a much less obtrusive piece once you take your accessories off. @michaelb's suggestion about track with backing plates mitigates this risk. If the contours of your kayak make this hard, use a shorter piece or something like a Yak Attack Mighty Mount. Adding a crate might be difficult in your case. You probably don't have a tankwell (I know some like the Bonafide SINK and the Jackson Kilroy do, but most don't). The crate will be sitting behind and above you, and nothing will be very easily accessed. It's better to go with a flush mount rod holder behind you and the tackle storage inside the kayak with you. If you were dreaming of taking a dozen rods and a mountain of tackle, your kayak is going to end up looking like this guy.

I have 2 Yak Attack Leverloc HD anchor trolleys on my pedal kayak. If you only have one, I'll bet 9 out of 10 times it'll be on the wrong side. There are certainly others that are almost as good as these - I went with these because they have backing plates at the pulleys and the cam lever that keeps the line from moving. I really l like these for stakeout poles (although a rod holder will do too), and I use them for anchors. I don't think I'd want an anchor over 3 lbs, you really shouldn't need it for a kayak. I use a 3 lb one, and keep the tines taped up to it. If you do get to the river, an anchor off the front helps you to fish the eddies facing the right direction, and a drag chain slows you down in spots you want to spend a little more time fishing. I use both. Remember that however you rig the anchor, you need to be able to cut free from it quickly to avoid submarining your kayak or getting pulled yourself. Quick release strategies are great, but I think a river knife strapped to your PFD is pretty much a necessity too. Once you get started rigging your kayak, ask away about all the setups. I'm sure there are some great ideas posters have had on here.

X2

That doesn't mean you can't put a 3700 somewhere. When I thought about it, the simplest place for me would be inside the front hatch for me, with my soft plastics binder.

I use them to keep all the lines, lures, and rods from getting tangled up. I put the lures in a "Bait Sack" (Cal Coast), the rods in a sleeve (I use several, but usually the Rod Sox with the plastic collar at the opening, and all the sleeves rods together in a Rod Mule (Cal Coast too). It takes me a while to get all these off and on, but I can carry them easily (in other people's vehicles, outfitters' buses) without them getting all tangled up.

I don't use 3700 boxes because the accessories I use don't accommodate them. My Coosa HD has storage for 4 of them - 2 under the seat and 2 molded in spaces beside the seat. I only use the 2 under the seat, the other 2 get on the way of a backward paddle stroke or sweep. I got so used to this, that I put a couple of Wilderness pouches under the seat of my OT Predator pedal drive. The rest of the boxes go in my crate, and I can get either 5 or 6 there depending on which type (the 'worm' ones are really thick). Anyway, I do wish that I could just throw everything in, but with the 3600 boxes, there are several boxes of hard baits, several boxes of jigheads, etc. and so I have to consolidate. It's probably better to just stop buying so much tackle, but for certain baits (crankbaits), a 3700 box would make it easier. I don't know enough about the Topwater PDL, is there any moulded in places for Plano boxes, either 3600 or 3700? And how do you carry your boxes now, in those bags or just the crate?

I'm a relative newcomer to the Potomac estuary, and so I have little firsthand knowledge of what the river was like before snakeheads. But I admit that I carry a folding entrenching tool to cut any snakeheads I catch in half if no one is with me that will eat them. For me, it reminds me of so many things I've witnessed introduced, starting with kudzu in the southeastern US. It didn't kill every Virginia pine, but it sure wasn't the help that it was promised. Since then, there have been other things introduced, plant, fish, and beast with various effects. It's a larger discussion about introducing non-native (however you define that), and one I don't want to go into here, but I wash my kayak hull and paddle everytime I fish the tidal potomac to make sure I'm not the introducer of snakeheads to the Shenandoah or elsewhere.

Another lap-paddle-rester here.

I use the one with the screwlock, I guess the pro. If you're worried about hooking up, you can always Texpose and skin hook the plastic. I guess it depends on your depth, current, and wind, but I only have the 1/4 oz one. I only fish it on rocky bottoms, and I do little shaking or dragging this particular shaky head. For me it's just subtle lifts of the rod tip and drop on semi-slack line like a Neko rig.

Thanks @J Francho and @Choporoz. Good points about bugs and good to know that I'm not likely to get in trouble with the game warden for putting on lights for fishing. I was worried that using green (for the lights to attract fish on the sides of the kayak) and red (for the cockpit and tankwell) might be something for which I could get cited. I am probably stretching a bit, bit in my younger days we used to shine a flashlight on the water surface and gizzard shad would jump out of the water and we'd net them for bait for stripers. There were some boils around them that were likely stripers chasing them, but I wonder if some could have been from largemouth. I think I'm still going to move forward, the biggest downside is the cost and drilling 4 holes in my hull. If that's the stupidest thing I do for a while, I'm probably besting my average by a good measure.

@iabass8, I need this for my Tatula SV TW? https://tackletrap.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=898_660_1136&products_id=13422. I need to get another item, might as well throw one of these in to try on one of my reels. @Junger, if my reel has the inductor you want and Tackle Trap has the one that will make my reel cast a little better I'll mail you mine.

The ramp at Burke is fine, and for the boats that should be putting in there, turning around should be no problem. The problem is there are a ton of runners, dog walkers, and bicyclists who use the VDGIF lot because there's no entrance fee. I go to that lake because it's the closest to me, but it's usually to try things out, not to do a lot of fishing. To say that you are never alone is an understatement there.

@crankbait2009, the stern/anchor light, especially the one fro Yak Attack, is not going to blind you. With the places I fish, there's so much light from other sources, it's not going to even have an impact on your night vision. I'm trying to put lights on my kayak sort of like you have drawn on yours. I was going to put all green, since they're supposed to be the fish-callingest, if you believe any of the hype. The 'interior lights' would be red, since that affects night vision the least of the colors in the visible spectrum. The 'Extreme' setup is sort of what I have in mind https://shop.supernovafishinglights.com/category-s/119.htm.

@J Francho, I was planning to add some lights (I think they're called Supernova kayak lights or something). These are not navigation lights (and I get why you're saying those are a bad idea); they're supposed to attract fish and you can use them so that you can see. White light is the worst for destroying your night vision by a large margin (although someone smoking a cigarette can around you can take an hour to recover), so I was going to use green for the outside and red for the cockpit/tankwell. I'm not worried about a large boat swamping me, I only plan on going out on electric motor only lakes or ones that restrict H.P. to 10 or 15 like Briery Creek. But could they cite me for that? I also use that Yak Attack flag/light, and it doesn't seem very bright to me - different subjectthough.

I hope so, maybe they have a sense of humor. I worked at an organization led by someone with that notion. Interesting guy, don't know where he works now. I never thought that could be anything else, but I guess I don't understand art. Before this, I thought that the $120k banana duct taped to a wall was ridiculous. This is probably a cheaper form of ridiculous.

I don't know if Okuma is still a sponsor, but you better shut this thread down if it is. This could be the brainchild of one of the executives, and he may think that color scheme is great. With the folks that contribute to this thread, the hits are gonna keep coming.

Here in the DC area, the most common snake in the grass is the politician.

I think that might be realistic for a boat that size, but be careful about how much mind you pay those ratings. If you load that much and there's not at least 6 inches or more from the waterline to the gunwales (at the lowest point), plan on bailing and/or swimming. This is going to be a purpose-built fishing canoe, or one that you occasionally take the family down the river in too?

Got an email today that erased any interest I had in these before - starting price $630.