Craig P

As an exclusive Shimano user, I see no reason not to try the reels you listed. I have tried several brands, both in spinning and bait casting but shimanos just feel right in my hand. I even tried to go daiwa once but again, the Shimano in that size just felt better in hand to me. To each, their own.

What I’ve learned from this thread. If we had the space and budget, and uncrowded waters, we would all own both! The right tool for the job is always variable to the job.

I’ve seen them online, they look like a beast of a machine. Way overkill for fishing where I go.

Where have you seen these ad ons? Yes, the internet is quite toxic, Fluxjet even had a video of a site trying to fake sell them. This isn’t the owners first gig though, he has a successful background.

I put my money where my mouth is and placed a fully refundable deposit. Note that FR portion. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, it will not deliver until late summer so I have plenty of time to see what people who start receiving them next month and forward think about it.

I agree with @gim, the storage and towing are problematic, and I will add the expense. Many do not have the budget for a boat or the knowledge on how to fix up a cheap used boat. I am fortunate to have owned both. I understand your point of view @Jig Man and having been on both sides, as a possible future kayaker again, I'll be staying away from those powered boating areas, I've seen too much. I will boast however, I will enjoy the heck out of getting to the areas those boats cannot go. On the other hand, If my wife and I were to move to an area with more boating opportunities than my current area, I will be right back in a boat.

I’m not fully committed. I’m doing a lot of research right now to figure out the best tool for the job. “Sales” wise, it makes many promises and checks off all the boxes for me if true. Videos releasing in the next few months will tell the tale I hope. I do appreciate the input from you and others on this thread. It makes me think of other aspects than just fishing the Skook but getting over skinny spots on the Skook is huge for me.

My experience has been great. My catch rate has gone up due to it. I am up to 3 setups now as I just prefer baitcasting over spinning.

I have never worked on a jet impeller so I only understand it in theory. The fluxjet electric one is contained within a housing and then that housing is contained in a space covered with a guard. I can’t see it being easily damaged. For my wants, I see a prop motor as not being able to meet the want other than pulling up the “X” brand electric motor or even pedal drive and paddling. I’ve thought about just buying a cheap kayak and doing drifts down the river, we did that as kids with inflatable rafts, was fun for sure but you can’t thoroughly fish it that way.

My interest is the Skook. Susky is about 2 hours from me. I never say never but in owning a boat for about 10 years, I never made the trip to the Susky with it. I do have a ton of experience on the Schuykill with boats as well as the Hobie I had. With a boat on the Skook though, you are very limited with how far you can go and prop damage is very real thing.

@Susky River Rat great points. I can only go off of what the engineer of the company states at this point. I can say that they have categorically addressed your points, other than the spin but video reviews by testers will be coming out in a few weeks. I can see through video reviews like a hawk so I’ll have my ears and eyes wide open for bias.

Yes, I have space in my garage to back a trailer in and plug in the charger just like my old boat. Your perspective seems opposite of mine. It can turn on it's own radius, something my Hobie could not do. What are you seeing that I am not? @FryDog62 the advantages you listed are things that are attracting me to it. The disadvantages, it has been weed tested so that gives me more confidence than say a pedal prop drive or tm. I had spot lock on my boat, I got so use to toe tapping that button when hooking a fish that I found myself toe tapping the shoreline when pond fishing, LOL. The new company thing is a concern, as said in my original post, I've early adopted many products, they come with their own nuances. This is of interest to me. If you are in say a 2 MPH current, I know that would be really fast, how hard or easy do you find paddling upstream in say 8" of water. I know, just get out and pull the kayak but how does paddling do in that situation? Thank you for all of the responses. Keep them coming. I know I am buying a kayak, I just need to figure out which one. I do want the propulsion to be battery powered and I do not plan on installing any electronics but I will never say never on that. Like I said earlier, I am an early adopter and had livescope for 4-5 years. Great tech, it taught me a ton! but I've watched it make fish scatter as they've become use to it now. My intent is for river fishing, I doubt it will make a visit to Blue Marsh, Beltzville or even Nox. Marsh and Leaser, maybe?

Kayakers, I'd like to hear your opinions on the Fluxjet Kayak releasing soon. I would provide a link but I know forums have certain rules when it comes to brand names and promoting things, to which this post certainly is not. I am teetering on pulling the trigger, but I would like current kayaker opinions. Quick background. I had a Hobie at one time but about 10-ish years ago, I bought a boat. It was fun but I sold it this year. In my area of SE Pa, the number of places available to fish from a boat are limited so with my personality, you can only fish the same place so many times and I got bored, so I moved on. So here I am looking for a kayak to fish from. The Fluxjet is really attractive to me as I have MANY miles of river available in my area to fish where boats cannot go but a kayak surely can, especially one that can go through a few inches of water. It's new though and I've been an early adopter of many products in the past, and I know the headaches that can sometimes create.

I’ve had a design in my head for a while for something that could hold EWG and Offset Shank hooks…. on a whole other OCD level so I put brain to design and bought a 3D printer. It took ALOT of time to perfect the design but I did it. Along with that, I’ve been printing some fishing stuff like an FG Knot tying tool, a simple line spooler and small tackle boxes dedicated to different types of fishing I do. The idea with the boxes is to grab just that box and that’s my X stream or X lake box, everything I need for that place. It’s been fun. I’ve been printing and even designing things to print that are useful around the house like a towel holder, TV leg stands, desk accessories, etc. I swear, next week I’ll go to the gym! ok, maybe the following week … or two. Holidays crush my waist line!

Bulldog1935's statement of "Get your mind set on diameter and forget about lb-test" is right on IMO. When I started using baitcasters, before BFS, I had a tough time with backlashes. With diameter in mind, I learned I was trying to make my reels do things they were not designed to do. Once I got into that mindset, and within specs, it was smooth sailing. As for line type and whether to go PE/Floro, to me, the bait / method dictates the line and I rarely find myself in the situation where the weed cutting advantage of braid is needed in a BFS setup so I mostly use Sniper Assassin FC on my BFS setups. Braid does cast just a little nicer than Sniper but not enough to force me to a leader setup. I do run mono on my trout BFS setup. The stretch in mono gives a hooking advantage when throwing inline spinners for trout.

I stopped hunting 4 or 5 years ago. I lost interest as fishing has taken over most of my outdoor time. While I curse Pa for its lack of lakes, I will be chasing salmon next week in NY and the months after, Striper in NJ…so I guess living in SE Pa isn’t that bad.

I sold my Hobie on FB. I just sold my boat on FB as well. With an honest price, it will sell quick, maybe even the same day. Be careful though. Lots of scammers out there. If anyone wants to send you money or have other interesting ways of payment, that is scam-ish. Don’t get roped into the hold it for me thing either, make it clear in your ad, first one to show up gets it.

The Pontoon of waverunners?

Not much weight there. You’re fine.

Their website “appears” that they are building them. You can order for a March delivery right now. I don’t know about the investor or sell thing but if they sell to a reputable company, it should hit the market. I’m waiting for the YouTube brigade to get their hands on it to learn more. I won’t decide til spring for me. I have a salmon fishing trip coming up in a few weeks, then there is chasing stripers in NJ and next thing you know, it’s winter….booo! lol

I sold my bass boat a couple of weeks ago and this subject is on my mind as an option going forward. In short, the reason I sold my boat was that my area in SE Pa has too many people for the amount of available boating space. You can only fish the same areas so many times before it becomes dare, I say, boring. Before boats, I had a Hobie Outback and really enjoyed it and I could go pretty much anywhere, I miss fishing those places and would like to get back to them. This time around I am looking for something more river and shallow oriented and that has me leaning to the recent announcement at iCast of the fluxjet kayak. Not terribly pricey when comparing a kayak and adding a garmin or other motor combo. No props or fins to worry about, that is a huge benefit. And for me, as geeky as I am, I'm not too concerned about adding electronics. I'm sure I'll add something but I've been through the multiple graphs and livescope stage, I just want to fish.

Caught a nice NJ Fluke (flounder) on a friend’s boat yesterday. 28”, 8.4lbs. Going to make some nice meals!

I don’t keep track but I suppose I have OCD. I am a sports person and know the jersey numbers to many greats across many sports so when I catch #12, he/she is Cunningham. Say 23, that is Svoboda….i know, I know, that should be another greats number but hey, I love hockey over basketball. The goal is to get one over Gretzky, rarely happens! As for pictures. The first always gets a pic, documenting the day and then each larger one gets a pic.

Just a couple I was tinkering with to dial in a new Trout BFS setup.

I’ve done it for many years, a couple of times in just the last 2 weeks. I’m a wimp though, I can’t wet wade, I wear waders because the water quality in my region can always be questioned so I take no chances.