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If we're talking the first bite of the day, I'd say about 10%. Unless I get bit right away, I have a habit of zoning out and getting distracted and completely missing that first bite. Then, I get upset enough to get focused and I'm usually pretty good, unless I go another 2+ hours without a bite. Then the process resets. It's not that I don't set the hook in time, it's just that I don't set the hook hard enough. After that, it depends on what I'm fishing with. I'm probably in the upper 90's with a straight shank hook and maybe in the 50's or 60's with an EWG where the eye is inline with the hook point. I hate those EWG's designed like that, but they are about the only thing I can pull cleanly through reeds and water willows.

I wouldn't worry about it. Now, I have had issues with that in the past. Some where caused by me just not being ready to give a good hookset. And some were due to the rod being too wimpy to get a good hookset. But none were due to the kayak. I once had a really wimpy M/M rod that I was trying to use for deep diving crankbaits with mono, and I had problems setting the hook with treble hooks on long casts on that setup. I switched it out to braid, and that fixed it. Later, I swapped out the rod to a stouter MH/M and switched back to mono, and that also fixed it. While a kayak is light and can get pulled around by a big bass, you still have an awful lot of inertia to overcome on the hookset before the kayak starts to slip in the water. A hookset is quick and doesn't really allow enough time for the kayak to overcome it's inertia to weaken the hookset. If you're having issues, then the most likely problem is either too stretchy of line, too wimpy of a rod, or too thick or too dull of a hook. But the role of the kayak in this should be a non-factor. Definitely with mono, you need to really drive that hook hard to get it to overcome the stretch of the line on a long cast. For a long time, I used braid with about a 10' mono leader for spinnerbaits for this reason, before just deciding to go with straight braid. I could have made it work with the setup I had, but I'm pretty bad about not getting good hooksets, so I decided it was easier to stack the deck in my favor with my gear selection than focus on my technique. Probably not the best choice, but it worked.

I usually do alright in the summer. It's too windy here to fish around the time of the spawn, so I rarely do much fishing when most people do their best fishing. The fall is usually the best time for me, but it can be really hit or miss. The summer is usually a pretty consistent, catch a few each time I go out. However, starting around last fall the fishing has just been terrible! I don't know what happened, but no one seems to be doing well around here. So I'm not so confident that this summer will be like normal, as nothing else really has been.

I've seen people make 3D printed ones. But again, it's the same problem. Sure the thrust and motor is the same, but the weight and drag will be different. So, they won't provide much benefit without a custom fit. From what I've seen the numbers a pretty much the same as a similar size and pitch normal 3 blade prop. Also, trolling motors usually don't need maximum speed or maximum efficiency. The way most people use them, they're constantly speeding up and slowing down and changing direction. So any benefits aren't huge. Weedlessness is pretty important, however, and I don't know how well these would perform in weeds. Plus, I believe the design is patented. So I doubt any other company could make them for trolling motors without a license. And for applications like a kayak, where trolling motor speed actually is important, you'll do better with a RC plane prop, because it's thinner and only has two blades, so it has a lot less drag. You'll lose torque, but you don't need torque with a lightweight kayak. Or better yet, go with a motor that was actually designed for speed (like a Torqeedo), as most trolling motors are actually designed to move slowly on purpose. Props are one of those things where there isn't a once size fits all scenario. It's all a balance of give and take. You add one thing, and you have to take away from something else. The only advantage of the Sharrow prop over a normal 3 blade prop is it reduces tip vorticies, because the tip folds back into the prop. Now if you're pushing a system to it's extreme and are near the limits on every other aspect of your system, then something like tip vorticies can be a big deal. But if you're no where near the limitations of your entire system now, then something like a Sharrow prop would be a big waste of money on such a tiny fraction of gain.

One more thing to consider is bringing a small bucket, sponge, towel, or something like that with you on hot days. Something you can use to dip into the lake and pour lake water over yourself to create the same cooling affect as sweat. Or just take a dip. I do this a lot in the summer. I'll also leave an old towel in the truck to sit on, on the way home, so not stink it up with the smell of lake water. It won't replace the need to keep your body hydrated, but it does help. When we were kids and stuck outside on a hot day, it was nothing to grab the hose and cool off, play in a fire hydrant, run through a sprinkler, or take a dip in a pond. But somehow, as we get older, we tend to think it's nasty or a bad idea. But to me, being soaked in smelly lake water is probably still a bit better than being soaked in smelly sweat. So if you can't avoid smelling and being wet, might as well stay cool!

When it comes to knot strength, usually the one the holds the best is the one that you tie the best. Like a lot of people on this site and elsewhere love the Palomar. But I keep getting it twisted and have had a ton of failures with that knot. So I avoid using it if I can. It's not that it's a bad knot. It's just that I'm bad a tying it. Same thing with leader knots. Theoretically, one can be stronger than another. But realistically, usually whichever one you tie with the least twisting and the most consistent tension is the one that holds the best. Which for me, in the case of a leader knot, is actually going to be the FG, followed by the double uni.

In some Asian cultures, they drink hot drinks in hot weather to cool themselves down. And there's some science behind it, as a hot drink will temporarily raise your internal body temperature, and cause your body to react by trying to cool itself down. Whereas a cold drink can temporarily lower your body's internal temperature, and cause your body to react by trying to raise it. It's a little counter intuitive. Also, warm drinks get absorbed quicker. As to whether coffee or caffeine will dehydrate you, I think that's different for everyone. Sodas and coffee doesn't seem to do much to me, but for some reason, black tea will open me up like a faucet! And it's not the sugar, because I drink it both ways and always with the same result.

Your body can only absorb about 1 liter of water per hour. And on a hot day, you can easily sweat a lot more than that. And maintaining a balance of electrolytes is important. Which is the theory behind sports drinks and salt tablets. Sports drinks are basically just flavored sweat in a bottle. I'm also a big proponent of climate acclimation. In other words, getting out often in the heat in a controlled manner to get your body used to the heat. Usually, by mid August, I have no problem fishing all day in 105° temperatures with no shade. But this time of the year, before I've had a chance to fully acclimate to the heat, 90° in the shade can do me in if I'm not careful.

Yeah, I think fishing pressure has a lot to do with it. I definitely notice it more on some lakes than others. I also notice it more on certain days than others. I've also experienced where the bass will bite off the claws of a craw before trying to swallow it whole. You'll feel something that feels like a bite, try to set the hook, and nothing. Reel it in, and your craw is missing a claw. Throw it back out with the missing claw, and this time you set the hook and reel in the bass. Some days when this happens to me, I'll cut off the claws or switch to a ned rig. Bass are stupid. But they're not incapable of learning things.

I would prefer it if they did limit the use of electronics. Make it more about their skill than their gear. But I also understand that would restrict the sponsorships and thus money involved, and it's a business. Like most businesses these days, profit is the top concern. I'd liken it to baseball, where the amateurs can use lightweight aluminum or composite bats, but the pros are limited to heavy wooden ones. To me, the professionals shouldn't need training wheels, like forward facing sonar. They should have to do things the hard way. That would make the sport more compelling. Less profitable perhaps. But we'd be forced to believe they're actually better than the rest of us, and not just better equipped. I say, limit them to a GPS map and a flasher. That way they know where they're at, but don't know much else. Let them prefish with all the fancy electronics to get to know the lake, but for the actual tournament, have them rely on their experience and intuition.

To me, the biggest advantage to upsizing your bait isn't catching bigger fish, but not catching as many smaller fish. Even the big girls will enjoy a small snack if one swims by.

Nah. Forgetting to remember things is how I learn to remember things. It's remembering to forget things that I struggle with.

I've seen those racing sailboats with hydrofoils. I need to do something like that with my kayak. I think that's the next step in kayak fishing. https://youtu.be/yUBwqBRgun8?feature=shared

I haven't used one, but from what I've seen online, they do do what they claim. However, you really have to have it tuned to your boat to take full advantage. Which they do, which is partly why it costs 3 grand. So the question becomes, is that the best way to spend $3k? I guess that depends on whom you ask. I'm of the mindset that you don't really need a fast fishing boat unless you're a serious tournament angler. In my mind, the best way to get to your favorite fishing spot before anyone else is to launch before anyone else. Now, if you're a pro and your mortgage is on the line, then it might be a worthy investment. But for the rest of us that just do it for fun... man, I don't know.

Many times. And college was one of them. A little self sacrifice is a good thing. In our Amazon Prime lifestyle, we often loose sight of the joys of delayed gratification. It's hard to sell a better tomorrow when they could sell you a better today. But invest in the things that you love and the things that love you. The interest compounds over time. Honestly, it's not as big of a deal as it sounds. You'll get busy and distracted and won't miss it too much after the initial shock of having your old life uprooted wears off. You likely won't have time to be bored or thing about what you're missing out on. Life it going to get intense for a bit, but you'll come out the other end better for it. Do a little of what you don't want now, so you can do a whole lot of what you do want later.

Lifetime and Pelican are probably your best bets. I bought a Lifetime Yukon (also sold at Dick's as the Teton Pro), and I really like it! I've had that kayak for about five years now and I still haven't found the desire to upgrade yet. I've made a ton of modifications to mine, but even straight out of the box it isn't too bad. Stadium seat, stable enough to stand (if you have good balance, anyway), and plenty of room. It tracks well enough. But it's slow as a barge. Well built though. Probably a bit outside your budget, but if you're willing to push up to it, it's well worth it. Especially since it's on sale at Dick's for $550 right now. One thing I would recommend is getting the biggest one you can afford. Bigger is slower, but bigger is also more stable. And if we're talking about inexperienced kayakers, stability will probably be the difference between "this is fun" and "this is scary and dangerous".

And then your insurance probably goes up when you make that claim. And I don't know about you, but my insurance is getting ridiculously expensive as it is, without making any claims. And that's assuming you've got comprehensive insurance. Pretending to be a lawyer might be unethical, depending on your ethics. Ethics are a complex and deeply personal belief, not universal. Lots of people make a living arguing various ethical dilemmas with no clear answer. But to me, if I had borrowed someone's boat and it got stolen, I would want to make them square, as best I could, rather than deny all responsibility. That's my ethics. So in this situation, I'd be okay with pretending to be a lawyer, if I was doing so to prevent having to hire an actual lawyer. I might be lying about being a lawyer or having hired a lawyer, but I'm not lying about being willing to hire a lawyer. So to the other party, the situation they're in is unchanged by the lie. It doesn't affect them either way. The only real difference between the truth and the lie is the lie allows me to avoid a potential fee from the lawyer to get the same result. If they believe they're in the right and that the law is on their side, they won't be bothered by the intervention of a lawyer, real or imagined. But yeah, we don't know the whole story. I'm just saying it's a path I've chosen before when wronged and I found it useful to motivate the other party into doing the right thing. But if the story is to be believed, and they didn't even inform him that it was missing until he went to pick it up, that does suggest to me that they weren't respecting his property to begin with. If someone cut the bolt off your fence and stole the boat, that's one thing. If a thief wants something bad enough, they're going to get it. But if it wasn't locked up and wasn't even noticed when it went missing... well that doesn't seem very responsible to me. But that's IF the story is true as told...

Yeah. That'll happen. Here's what I've done in the past (though not in necessarily identical situations). I have a good buddy who's a federal judge. He informed me years ago that it's not illegal to impersonate a lawyer. That is protected under the first amendment. It IS illegal to impersonate a police officer, military veteran, and a few other occupations where specific laws apply, but not a lawyer. It IS ALSO, illegal to PRACTICE LAW without a license, so while you CAN claim to be a lawyer and defend yourself, you CANNOT defend someone else, offer legal advice, charge fees, or anything like that, under the guise of being a lawyer. I'm not a lawyer, obviously, so it may be prudent to contact a lawyer if you need clarification on any of this. Anyway, what this means is you can borrow a buddies phone (for caller ID purposes), call up the sales manager and say you're from the law firm of whatever and whatever (I like to use my buddy's last name for authenticity with the caller ID), and you're doing your due diligence to avoid a lengthy and costly trial for "your client" but are committed to "making him whole". Don't make it threatening and get angry. Act bored, like you do this all of the time, like you're a real lawyer. You don't want to seem like you're trying to scare the guy, but instead seem like you're trying to help everyone, your "client", "yourself" (as a lawyer), and the company, all get to a satisfactory conclusion with the least amount of time and effort possible, and everyone can be happy. Or you can send them a letter with some legal jargon saying the same thing on some fake legal letterhead on some good quality paper. One of the truths of life that I've discovered is that people are like water. They always take the path of least resistance. And if someone has chosen the wrong path, you can easily get them on the right path by creating resistance on the wrong path. So the goal here isn't to force someone to do something against their will, but rather to discourage someone from doing something else. Basically, change the optics of how they view the problem to change their behavior towards the problem. Now, if all of this fails, and it could, then you actually go out and hire that lawyer. The good thing about a company like BPS, is they have deep pockets and can't just close up shop and skip town like a small roofing company might. So it's actually worth hiring a lawyer because the path of least resistance for a company like BPS is to pay up, rather than close up shop and leave the state. But I'd bet 99 times out of 100, when big companies do things like this it's because they made the calculation that most people are lazy, and the path of least resistance for them is to take their lumps and sulk rather than take action. And by just showing initiative that you're willing to take action changes the math on their calculations in your favor.

1923! A lot has changed in the last 100 years, that's for sure. A lot has changed in just my lifetime of 45 years! It seems like with each passing year, we spend more money and time catching fewer and smaller bass.

That's what I wear. But mine are the convertible ones. I've never actually converted them and don't ever plan to, but I think they were on sale and cheaper than the regular ones at the time, or something. Or else, I don't know why I would have bought them. Either way, they're perfectly fine pants. The fit isn't great, but very few pants fit me well anyway. And since these are sized S, M, L, XL, etc. they're not really gonna fit you well unless you're lucky. But with the elastic wasteband and belt loops, the fit doesn't need to be great to "fit". They're comfortable. And yeah, pockets are good. Material seems to be pretty durable, as I've probably worn and washed them close to 100 times now and they're still holding on. No real complaints. But in 2024, I wouldn't expect any brand of clothes to be all that much different from any other brand of clothes.

The thing with a "fish finder" is they're usually not that good at actually finding fish. Well, they can certainly find fish and be useful in catching fish, but in my experience, most of the fish you find on a fish finder are suspending and not being very active, and thus really hard to catch. And in shallow water, you'll likely scare off any fish you're close enough to see on your fish finder anyway. But there's other information a fish finder can tell you that help you find and catch fish. Things like cover, structure, cover on structure, a thermocline, or finding at what depth the fish are holding. So if you're just using a fish finder to look for actual fish and then trying to catch those same fish, it's not often very useful, and especially so in shallow water. But if you're using it to find points, channels, drop offs, submerged vegetation, bottom composition changes, an all of the other stuff that attract bass in a lake, then they can be very useful. You won't often see the fish you catch on a fish finder, but you may often see the places that you'll catch them.

It shouldn't be making any noise. But it's possible, if they switched out the brushes, that it just needs time for the new brushes to set, especially if they just used generic brushes. Or it could be something else rubbing and causing damage. It's hard to say without know what's making the sound.

I'd take quantity over quality. That's just more fun to me. But either is better than what I have now. It's been a tough year at my local lakes for some reason. I almost want to blame myself, but everyone I've talked to at the dock seems to say the same thing. "Any luck?" "Nope. You?" "Nope. But nice weather though." "Yeah! It is!"

I've had some good days on the water in the past where it seemed like you could still get bit throwing a bare hook. But the only waters I have access to now are highly pressured, public waters where you struggle for each bite. And that's fine with me. It's hard to say what my weirdest bait setup would be. But I do have a mold I made from a masonry drill bit that I've used to make soft plastic "worms" from, and I've caught quite a few with it. I should try an auger bit next and see what happens, just for fun.

Tie the knot you tie best. The execution of the knot is more important than the choice of knots. I haven't really had too many issues with knots failing on me with any line. But I've had some. The most common knot failure for me is using a palomar with fluorocarbon. So I try to avoid using that knot when I can. But it's not the knot's fault. It's that I often get a twist in the line while I'm tying it. And then the way the palomar cinches down, it can create a weak spot in the line if it's twisted at the right spot. It's really a "me" issue. I don't tie that knot well.