CountryboyinDC

After that trailer, I'm scared to death to take my kayak on the Occoquan.

I use the same pattern (black skeleton looking one) for a little torpedo bait that I use on rivers around me. I hadn't tried the blue color, but the dragonfly/damselfly explanations makes it seem like it would be worth getting one next order.

I don't have any Cara T7s in anything as heavy as the Amistad, sorry I can't help you with that. The Lowrider 20s were notorious for being on the slow side, but the 2 Caras I have are rated fast and I think that's what most manufacturers would rate them (something like 1/3 tip, 2/3 backbone). I haven't tried the new Experts, but I liked the old one I had better than the Cara line. The made in US thing is making me consider other rod makers.

I've wanted to try these, I've heard that the blanks are pretty good, they're made in NC, and the owner is a fellow VT chemist. Every rod I've seen has a guide pretty obviously out of line (though not always the tip top like you're seeing) and a good bit of excess epoxy on one or more guides. I just couldn't get over these imperfections at this price point. Maybe the real world effects are less than I imagined and I need to try them out. The grips are a lot different from cork, for sure.

I waited since last October for a Cara T7. I finally saw one in stock (CC-5-1610S) and bought it (TW), cancelling my other order. Now you don't see them anywhere. I broke a T7 and sent them the cut-down piece, and customer service recommended I take an Expert. I didn't see one with the exact same lenght/taper, so I asked about the Cara T7. Evidently I may be in for another long wait. All of the US-made Falcon rods are out of stock everywhere, so my next rods may be ALX or St. Croix.

If you want a US made rod under $100, that's tough. Falcon has the Jason Christie line, and I have a couple. The 6'11 Heavy-Fast may be the best for this, although it's definitely heavy for 3/8 ounce and under jigs. I like mine for Whopper Ploppers and frogs too, and for heavier jigs and T-rig. I don't always bring it along, but I generally find a use for it when I do.

For mono, I like a uni knot, and for flurocarbon it's like a 'double' uni that Shaw Grigsby promotes. I've seen a lot of folks use the double San Diego Jam knot too for flurocarbon. I've tried loop knots like the Rapala, and they give crankbaits and jerkbaits great action, but are tedious for me to tie on the water (I'm mostly out of a kayak). Getting the loop the size I want seems to be an issue. Adding a split ring has been my solution, although I may give snaps a try one day.

It seems like there's different definitions of a finesse jig, and the only ones that I use in this category are a War Eagle and Santone (both have heavier hooks than the original Jewell jigs), and if memory serves, they're around 3/8 oz. I use a braid-to-leader line configuration, with 30 lb regular PP and 12 lb 100% fluorocarbon Trilene. My rod is fairly light for a jig (even though Falcon rates it a MH), so I've found that heavier leader does nothing but increase manageability issues. There are a lot of anglers better than I am using straight fluorocarbon, but I can't understand it. It costs more and gives you less manageability, sensitivity, durability, castability, and probably some things I'm not thinking of. A Crazy Alberto's is too easy to tie.

Koppers Live Target. They're twice the price of the pad crashers, but they seem to me like they're softer. I bend the hooks up and get a better (still not great) hook-up ratio. That's definitely the angler not the frog though. The River2Sea frog has the best name (phat mat daddy or something like that), and so I bought one, but haven't caught a fish yet on it. And it has to be wrung out every cast.

The one in Farmville usually doesn't run discounts on new equipment then (I think it usually sometime early June). The better deals start in November. They bring a lot of kayaks out to that lake, though, so you'll probably get an idea of what you like.

Tube with either a salmon corkie in the cavity.

That's funny right there. My grandmother bought me a banjo minnow for my birthday knowing how much I loved to fish. I had to use the thing enough to catch a few so I could tell her how good it worked. They say most lures catch the anglers...or their grandmothers. Mine is probably a Lobina Rico (spelling?) popper. I remember it was north of $25, but it does seem to do better than a Rebel popper for some reason.

So I went out Saturday, and turned the transducer around. Not the ideal testing conditions, the winds were gusting, sometimes as much as 40 mph. I did see the see obvious structures and they were showing up on side scan in the correct orientation. I think they were last year too though. But there was definitely as much if not more artifact than before, and how much of that could be attributed to the conditions I can't say. I plan to be back out on a body of water I can test again this in a couple of weeks. I may see if I can cobble up some kind of temporary baffle to see if that makes a difference before I take the project too seriously.

That's the great thing about kayaks. You don't have to spend a ton to get on the water. Just a little warning, though - 'mission creep' with kayaks is pretty common. A lot of people started the same way you did and now have more than that in a paddle.

I don't think they make a 'satanic' model, probably the Saranac. I think those are only made in the 3 layer polyethylene WRB spoke of. Their (Old Town's) kit is probably as good as any, and even if your canoe is made of Royalex (I'm not an expert, but I don't ever remember coming across a fiberglass or Royalex Saranac) the patch will be fine. Maybe you can say a little more about the graph and transducer you plan to mount to your kayak?

My absolutely favorite way to fish. I use a St. Croix Premier 6'6 MF casting rod. Anything longer and the rod tip ends up in the water when I pop it on slack line. I use the same rod for all my topwater plugs unless it's something huge like a 130 Whopper Plopper or something pretty tiny that doesn't cast well with a baitcaster. I use 12 lb mono, so I don't feel the fast taper is too fast with the trebles.

It wouldn't seem as though the mounted direction will fix what I'm seeing, but it's worth a try. I had a smaller one mounted in the scupper, and it would only go one direction, so I didn't pay much attention when I mounted this one. I'm going shad fishing Saturday, so I'll try that. It sure would be a pleasant surprise if that cleared up the noise.

That would be easy enough to test. I'll try that next time I'm out. It would just be a matter of turning the piece of the mount that holds the transducer head 180 degrees. The graph seems to read in the normal manner (things on the left show up on the left side of the graph), but that could be the graph making a correction. Thanks.

That's a pretty cool piece of kit. That's pretty complete considering what goes in most survival kits.

3/75 Ranger Regiment 60 lbs. ago (aka 11 years). I actually went fishing in Ramadi back in 2006. I didn't pull any bass out of the Euphrates, though.

Sit inside kayaks are tough, unless it's a Wilderness Commander, Native Ultimate, Jackson Kilroy, or something similar. If you were going to fish out of it, the first thing I'd think amount is what to do with my paddle while I fish. I see the crossed bungees up front, but if the work at all I'll bet you'll be looking for another way to rig it after your paddle falls in for the 100th time.

I bought a HDS Carbon with the Totalscan transducer for kayaks. Since I want to be able to move this between kayaks (so long as the have enough gear track on the gunnwales forward the cockpit), I mounted it on a YakAttack Cellblok and put a Ram transducer mount on top of that (PN 316-18-TRA5U-NB). The setup is fine on a pedal kayak, kind of in the way on my 'paddle' one (Jackson Coosa HD). That's not the issue I'm trying to resolve, though. The artifact on this thing is pretty pronounced, and I'm deducing it's because the transducer is not protected the way it is on a transom mount or a scupper mount for kayaks. Yakattack advertises their mount as being baffled, but it doesn't fit the Totalscan transducer. I know I'm not getting the images the Hobie Pro Angler guys are getting with the same graphs, and the difference that jumps out is the transducer mount (they have a neat cover for the transducer from BerleyPro that allows mounting in the transducer scupper). If anyone has found a way to make a baffle for a similar purpose, I'd appreciate any help I could get.

For you the muffin tray is definitely the way to go.

I've used Tuf-line XP and regular Power Pro in 15 lb yellow with a leader for finesse setups. It's just so I can see the line. Both will fade and get dye on the rod and reel, but it takes a while. I've never tried white, but the yellow definitely stands out against the water I fish.

This is a good idea too - I use an egg carton.