CountryboyinDC

@Malik Adeel, some things are impossible to get from a forum, even one like this where most of the members are genuinely interested in sharing their knowledge. For the canoe versus SOT kayak versus SINK kayak, there are advantages to each that you'll need to weigh, and it still may be a matter of trial and error to get to the point you're happy. I own a canoe, a paddle kayak, and a pedal kayak. I think for most people a SOT kayak is the way to go solo fiahing, whether or not you may face a deep water re-entry that the OP was concerned about. For two anglers, there are probably more knowledgable responses here than I could offer. When I'm out with the family, we're in the canoe (usually not my most productive fishing time). As for specific models of solo SOT kayaks or a canoe, tell me what your priorities are and your budget, and I'll try to give you a helpful opinion.

@Fishingmickey, I get on my wife about buying stuff because it's a good deal, but I did just that with the IMX.

I use a Falcon 6'10 MH/F Cara T7 (finesse jig model, imagine that) with a Shimano Curado 70. The rod is the lightest powered MH I've ever used. I use 30 lb. braid and a flurocarbon leader (usually 12 lb). My go to finesse jigs have small bit stout hooks. I've never fished a finesse swim jig, but I might try it next year. I have to do something with the G Loomis IMX/Shimano Bantam combo I just picked up.

I bought one of the baitball jerkbaits when they first came out. It was about the same size as a Baker jerkbait that I had done alright with. For some reason, not too long after I started fishing it, it started standing up (tail down) instead of sitting level. It didn't seem to be the rattling ball stuck toward the tail, but after talking to a couple of other guys, they had bills broken off or some other issues. So it seemed like a good idea, and maybe they corrected the issues, or maybe there's a reason they're on sale.

You might want to try the Northeast Bass Fishing section forum too. There are surely some anglers on here that fish the upper Potomac. I personally have never fished much above Brunswick, and I'm almost always in a canoe or kayak. Sorry I can't help you more.

I don't fish tournaments, I'm a donor to enough causes, but there seems to be a bunch of equally prominent leagues cropping up. KBF is the one folks fish around me, but there's the Hobie series, River Bassin' (haven't heard much out of those guys lately), and a bunch of state organizations. Even as many folks as there are around me, they sometimes have trouble getting 30 anglers to show up. How many leagues do you need?

Tuf-line Domin8 is some I tried that was slick and stayed round relative to PowerPro. I think it cost a couple dollars more and it's hard to come by (even at BPS or Cabelas), so I decided I didn't really need smooth so I've only tried the one spool.

I think if you were to compare St. Croix to the other brands I've used and base it on the power (light, medium, heavy) rating alone rather than the line/lure weight rating, the St. Croixs will seem more powerful. That seems particularly pronounced in the Avid line, but in the Premier and Legend Tournament series too. I don't have any experience with the Triumph line but you'd think they would use the same mandrels for the same tapers across their lines. I think what @Scott F mentioned about lure weight ratings is spot on, and it appears you're coming to that realization yourself.

Since I have had mine, I pretty well anytime I go fishing, including what the OP is asking about and when I'm getting my kayak hauled by an outfitter or friend. It makes for less trips back and forth to the truck when you get to where you're fishing. It is $40, and the bungee solution is not. But I was going to cobble something together with PVC to carry my rods, and the hassle-free nature of this makes me glad I didn't.

I use a Cal Coast Rod Mule to carry mine. https://calcoastfishing.com/products/rod-mule. They work with 4 rods or 8 rods in a sleeve and except for the price, I've had no issue with mine.

@Crankin4Bass, do you have any firsthand experience with that BPS reel?

I haven't tried the new Revos, but most of my baitcasters were Abus until the Gen3 Revos came out. I still have a couple of them running, a Premier and a SX, but after the luck I had with the Gen3s, I am reluctant to go back. That said, it's getting harder and harder to find a reel with a slow retrieve. So if there's 2 people on this forum saying Abu Winches are their go-to, they're probably worth considering. I have 2 cranking outfits with 6:1 reels, and I wish both of them were slower. For me, I like the BB1s for cranking. I don't necessarily want them for everything else, but when you're cranking, that would be my choice.

On my Coosa HD, this is not a great setup, and the listing to one side is one of the reasons. I have a light battery (the larger capacity Nocqua), and I think this setup might still be around 15 lbs. On the Coosa HD, this setup also gets in the way of my paddlestroke unless I put the seat way back. On my pedal drive, the listing is no issue. It's a Predator, and the stability is significantly greater than on the Coosa HD. On neither did I feel like the stability was compromised to the point I'd worry about it, but the Coosa has a tendency to "carve" when it's leaned (I put that in quotes, because I know what carving is, and calling what the Coosa does on edge carving would be stretching things bit), so it also veers off to the side as well. I had a setup in mind much more like @J Francho has, but due to the combination of getting a more complex graph and transducer and finding that my transducer scupper would not accommodate most transducers (the cutout is tiny), this became the best solution for me. If I were in your position, the option to use the Berley Pro might be be something I took into consideration before committing to a solution like I used. That's a really good solution for side scan transducers. If it were available for my kayak, I would probably rig mine so the battery and head unit came off separately and the rest stayed with the kayak. There would be tradeoffs either way. This is long, so I'll end with saying I think side scan is worth the expense as is GPS/plotting capability. I think that you'll really find that you make a lot of use of it once you have it.

They're sharper than anything else out there, but I agree with @Junger. Texposing is impossible and they tear up the bait even when you're not Texposing. I do have some 1/0 round bend offsets in my tackle box for a very specific bait, and the hookup/stay pinned ratio is pretty phenomenal. Otherwise, I use the regular lazer sharps or Gammys.

This is with a 7 inch Lowrance Carbon HDS and a Totalscan transducer. The best part about it is it comes off and goes on as one piece, using a box Yakattack sells. I wouldn't want to tell you the benefits of this particular graph - I went into Cabelas wanting something like what you have and somehow walked out with this thing (it was on clearance, great deal I keep telling myself). If you want the details, I can get those for you.

@Further North, that's the tiniest drift boat I've ever seen too. For really skinny water, you may want to consider an inflatable (cataraft). Most drift boats have a much deeper draft. That one being so small, it may not, but the inflatable would probably still go in shallower water without worrying about damage. For the OP, I think a drift boat would be an order of magnitude more logistically challenging and an order of magnitude more expensive too. The plastic boats (kayaks and canoes, which are often polyethylene or ABS) are about the simplest way to leave the bank.

You haven't ever played golf, have you? It will make you want to go bass fishing more than you ever have in your life. Why are bass put into golf ponds

What @Bird said is right, a SOT deep water re-entry is the simplest of the when compared to a canoe or a SINK. So long as water doesn't breach the 2 layers of the hull, you don't have to bail it if it ends up turtleing. That said, the SOTs usually do get some water in that space, particularly ones with big hatches. I had to be part of a party that brought a guy a boat to get him back because he turtlled a SOT so many times and had so much water in it that it became unpadleable. So with a SOT, you still need a system to bail the boat if you're going to take it out into bodies of water where a deep water re-entry is feasible. They're usually some sort of pump-primed siphon. Coordinating a deep water re-entry between 2 people in the same boat might be interesting, especially if one is not a confident swimmer. I think in that scenario it might be easier to reassure your wife that you would help her if you yourself weren't bobbing next to her. (If it's you swimming, it would give her a good laugh, and you could just climb back into your kayak.) Again, I've never paddled a tandem SOT that I felt was all that stable, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. Maybe someone on this forum has some experience with one. I'm sure the Hobie tandem Pro Angler is, but it's like 250+ pounds and $6,500 or so. Otherwise, it may make sense to think of this in terms of 2 solo SOT kayaks.

I haven't paddled a tandem kayak much. What little I have is a Big Tuna, and with 2 people it can get a little squirrelly if one of the people is not used to keeping a boat upright. A canoe is the more versatile of the 2, if it's a symmetric hull just turn around backward in the bow seat and you can manage it most of the time solo. I would say if you're switching back and forth between tandem and solo, probably the canoe is easier (although the hybrid Native Ultimates are pretty easily switched and you can make good progress with 1 or 2 paddlers). If you're by yourself, a kayak can be set up so much more easily for efficient fishing, and so I wouldn't bother with a canoe. Safety-wise, I guess it would depend on the application. Obviously canoes can get swamped more easily, but if you can let us know what your concern is, maybe we could address that better.

I don't use any of the other baits mentioned, but the Whopper Plopper's tail will definitely seize up, usually at the end of your record distance cast. If you don't have a swivel of some sort, you might as well just cut the line off once you're done with your retrieve with the tail seized. I haven't been fishing WPs like I did when they first came out, but I've taken to using a snap swivel as the connection.

I use whatever terminal knot I use for that line type other places - a 5 turn uni knot for monofil, a palomar for braid, and whatever the knot is called that Shaw Grigsby uses for flurocarbon. Like all big baits, the palomar can be a pain to tie, but I still use it in the rare instances I use braid for a wire bait.

Sit inside kayaks (SINKs) will have generally better performance overall, all other things being equal. They'll be more efficient, more responsive, more stable, lighter, and drier. There are three main drawbacks to them as a fishing platform. They are almost impossible to self-recover if flipped in water too deep to stand. With a sit on top (SOT), as long as water doesn't get between the hull and deck layers, it's pretty a straightforward process. With the SINK, about the only self rescue is the paddle float, and that's not super easy, or you need another paddler to get you going again (still not easy). SINKs are more confined than SOTs, so getting to all your stuff is harder when fishing. And last, SINKs are generally not as comfortable, due to the restrictive cockpit and seats they have. Hybrid canoe/kayaks a la the Wilderness Commander or Native Ultimate have the same self-recovery issue as a SINK, but otherwise can be generally as satisfactory as SOTs while being lighter than either, particularly considering the carrying capacity. There are SINKs that mitigate the uncomfortableness and confined cockpits somewhat - 2 I'm aware of are the Bonafide SINK and the Jackson Kilroy. As for trolling motor, I've seen transom mount trolling motors mounted to practically every thing that floats, including a float tube. It may not be as straightforward as mounting to a square sterned canoe or a SOT with a flat tankwell with a flat transom, but it can be done (wouldn't be straightforward with my Predator PDL, either). As for an inflatable, I think back to nights of paddling a Zodiac. I would think to myself 'if this many guys were paddling a canoe this hard, we'd be done with the raid already, back in the patrol base ready to rack out.' I'm sure that the inflatable kayaks are a lot better, but there's got to be some of that "Zodiac effect". There are guys I fish with using catarafts, and even though those have oars with locks, when there's flat water they have to use the electric motor to keep up with the kayaks.

That's the first trailer I used for a jig, and I'd probably still use it if that red pork rind was $3 a jar. You could catch a lot of fish on a single rind.

@rtwvumtneer6, I use 12 lb leader on my lighter rod I use for spinnerbaits and 17 on the heavier one. The lighter rod is a Falcon finesse jig rod and the heavier one is an Avid MH/F. Most of the places I fish a spinnerbait I figure merit FC for the abrasion resistance more than anything else, certainly not because I'm worried about the fish seeing it. As for buzzbaits, I have fished them on braid, but I prefer fishing them on the same rod I use for topwater plugs which gets straight monofil.

I'm with @Dens228, I have probably caught more river smallmouth with a Senko with a light worm weight than any other bait. I rarely fish a craw unless it's on a jig. I wouldn't peg either one unless you're pitching it and need it to have that soft diving entry.