Bankc

Chartreuse and anything seems to work best for me. The fish don't seem to care about color, so long as there's some chartreuse in there.

This is actually what I do with old gas. I just run it through my car. The trick is, to not run too much at once. So, for something like this, I'd probably just put in a gallon into a nearly full tank of gas. It'll mix with the good stuff and run just fine if it's something like a 15:1 ratio, new to old. But I'd give it a good look to make sure it's not too bad. Make sure the color is clear and it doesn't have a lot of water in it and stuff. If it's bad enough, there's always some kind of hazardous waste disposal center you can take it to.

I usually fish on my lunch break at a "lake" (really more of a big pond, but the city owns it and call it a lake). I typically will pack whatever I think I might need that day based on the weather. Or, more accurately, that week, as I don't swap out mid week too often. I can fit a one piece rod in my car, but generally prefer to bring along a 2 piece rod so it doesn't extend into the driver's seat area (I can load a 2 piece rod sideways in the trunk). And I usually just bring one bait, sometimes two. Since I'm fishing on my lunch break, if I break off and lose a lure, I call it quits for the day and bring something else for tomorrow. After I've driven there and eaten, I usually have maybe 15-20 minutes to fish. Sometimes as much as 30. So I'm not too upset if it's over after the first cast. Besides, I'll be back tomorrow. I like to keep it simple. Since I'm fishing there almost every day, I don't feel like I have to maximize my time there or fear making a bad decision. My main goal isn't to catch fish. It's to go fishing and relieve some of the stress of work. If I catch a fish, even better! It's more important that I get my mind off work than anything else. I've found it's an especially good time to learn a new technique. You can experiment with something over the course of several weeks in multiple conditions and find out what works and what doesn't. And since you're not there long, you don't get frustrated or feel the need to switch to something more familiar, as you're going to very rarely catch anything. I mean, it's 15 minutes at a pressured lake, fishing from the bank, at high noon. That's about as bad of a worst-case scenario as they come.

Casts by Fly has the right idea. As for a starting battery, some LiFePo4 battery manufacturers will publish the max amperage for their battery. Whether or not a lithium will work for you in this capacity kind of depends on the size of your motor and how many amps it needs. You'll usually find most 100Ah LiFePo4 batteries with max amp discharges of around 100-200 amps (for short bursts of time), whereas a traditional lead acid starting battery will usually be around 800 amps or more. But they do make LiFePo4 starting batteries with up around 1000 amps of starting power. But they're a bit harder to find.

What fish finder are you using and for how long do you need it to run? I use a 7Ah sealed lead acid (SLA or AGM) battery. My fish finder is a Lowrance Hook2 5". It claims to draw 1 amp per hour, but I've fished for 8+ hours with that thing many times and not run it dead yet. It's a generic brand that was made for either an UPS or a wheelchair. It's a bit on the small side for some fish finders. For a larger one, you might want to step up to a 12Ah battery or possibly even bigger. It kind of depends on how much current it draws and how long you plan to run it.

Do this, but tie it up with a swivel inline, so it can spin freely to untwist itself. Or tie on a lead weight and drop it out or troll it in the water so it's free to spin around as you reel it back up. Or come up with your own method. The idea is just to unspool the line and reel it back up in a way where it's free to untangle itself. But yeah, when spooling up new line, you want the line to come off the manufacturer's spool in the same orientation that you put it onto your fishing reel's spool. So that Piscifun line spooler is only good for baitcasting reels. With spinning reels, just lay the spool flat on the ground and keep the line tightish by pinching it lightly with your fingers as you reel it up. You might want to grab an old rag or something to hold the line with so you don't burn your fingers, or in the case of braid, get gunk all over them. Sometimes it helps to drive a nail partly into a board and push the center of the spool through the nail so it doesn't roll around. Or put the spool into a small bucket that's just big enough to keep the spool from flopping around. There are tons of methods that work. You just need a way to keep it from flipping over or getting up on its side and rolling off.

Koz pretty much nailed it. Personally, I'd take the Xi3. Speed is nice, but I've found in a kayak, you're always going to be slow. 4mph vs. 7mph or whatever, isn't as big of a difference as spot lock vs. no spot lock to me. What you could do, battery wise, is get a 50Ah battery and give that a whirl. If you find out you're using all of that one, you could add a second 50Ah battery in parallel and get 100 Ah total. The downside is it would cost more. So there is a gamble. However, having two smaller batteries might be easier to store and balance in your kayak than one big battery. That's the path I took, and I found out one 50Ah battery was enough for me. As I understand it, the difference between the 403A and 403AC is the battery. The A gets you about 4.6 miles at full throttle and the AC gets you 21 miles, so it's pretty significant.

Add a Shad Rap and you've got my list. I might add a jig with an Uncle Josh Pork Frog as well.

Be careful with that. Avgas is leaded so it will destroy catalytic converters (so don't use it in your car). And it can also coat O2 sensors which will kill your horsepower and fuel economy because they won't get a good reading. Neither of those are problems with most older boat motors, but some of the newer outboards with EFI will have O2 sensors on them. So any savings you bank now might go back into repairs later. Also, that's a bit weird that it's cheaper there. I guess it's a California tax thing. Because here, it's a good bit more expensive. If for no other reason than, there's no competition. Any savings you might find by flying to another airport will get eaten up by the cost of flying there. Kind of like gas at the marina.

Ask yourself this: Do you have something else you'd rather be doing instead? I don't hardly catch anything until the water hits about 50° F. But I've heard rumors that the cold water is the best time to catch the biggest bass. They say you won't catch as many, but the ones you do catch will be bigger. I can't vouch for the latter. But I can fully endorse the "won't catch as many" part. These days, I typically only fish from December through mid March if the weather is nice and I'm bored and have nothing better to do. I know I'll probably get skunked. But probably isn't definitely.

Leaving the wires loose is definitely a good idea. But don't be too afraid of making the wrong holes. I've filled a ton of holes in my kayak. All you need is a plastic welding kit (or something like a 15 watt soldering iron you don't mind ruining with melted plastic), some HDPE plastic, and a file or sandpaper. If you can find the same color of HDPE, even better. My kayak came with some of the cutout plugs from the scupper holes still inside. And whenever I drill out a hole, I save the shavings from the drill. So if I need to plug a hole, I just melt the edges of the hole and feed some scrap HDPE plastic into the hole to plug it up. Then, file or sand it smooth. I won't look perfect unless you're really good at it. But it'll work perfectly. I've also had my kayak warp on me (got a dent in the side from a strap that was too tight on a hot day) and used a heat gun to warp it back straight. That's the beauty of a thermoplastic kayak. It's so much easier to repair than fiberglass, wood, or aluminum. And it's not just repair. You can semi-permanently attach things to your kayak by plastic welding them. Just make sure to use the same type of plastic, because if you try to weld too different types of plastic together, it doesn't always work. And easy way to identify HDPE is to look for the recycle code (the three arrows forming a triangle with a number in the middle). If that number is 2, it's HDPE.

Yeah. I do it all the time when I'm bank fishing. Obviously, certain lures will be out of the question, depending on which rod you have. But I can get enough variety out of any rod to get out there and catch some fish no matter what the conditions are. Maybe not every single time. But enough times that I wouldn't freak out if for some reason I could only take one with me.

I've done it lots of times. Not because I'm looking for some kind of advantage, but because I'm too cheap to buy split rings sometimes. It works pretty well. Honestly, if it wasn't more difficult to do than a split ring, I probably wouldn't ever buy split rings. My guess here is, since it's on a jerkbait, he might be using an X-fast rod, for better control of his rod snaps, but had problems with fish throwing the hooks due to the rod's lack of flex. So he attempted to solve that problem from a different angle. Just speculation, mind you.

I'm not a fan of these. Maybe it's just been bad luck. But pretty much every other spinnerbait I've ever used has never given me any problems, but these Covert spinnerbaits seem to always want to get tangled in my line when I let them sink on a slack line. Granted, I've only owned 3. And after the 3rd in a row gave me troubles, I have no desire to try for a fourth. The other Booyah spinnerbaits are great though. I have no problem with them. But yeah, if you want cheap, the Ozark Trail or just whatever is cheapest is probably okay. I'm not loyal to spinnerbait brands as I've tried dozens, and they all seem to catch fish about the same. I usually just buy whatever has the color, weight, and blade combination I'm looking for and ignore the brand. But I usually avoid the cheapest ones, as I assume I'd have to sharpen the hooks or maybe the skirts wouldn't last or something. Either way, the best quality to look for in a spinnerbait is one you're not afraid to throw in thick stuff.

Casting distance is all about the length of the rod, pairing the right power of rod with the weight of the bait you're trying to cast, and matching the speed of your cast to the speed of your rod. You don't really get longer casts with more expensive rods, for the most part. But you will get longer casts by matching the right rod to the weight of your bait and casting within the limits of the rod.

Ask yourself if you actually need either of these. I don't use rod covers. The only times I've damaged a rod, came in instances where a rod cover wouldn't have helped. To me, rod covers don't do anything but get in the way. I do use reel covers. Less for protecting the reel from scratches, and more for protecting the reel from dust while they sit in my garage. However, you might have different needs than me, and you might store and transport your rods and reels differently. So there's not a universal answer that fits everyone. You just have to figure out what your rods need protection from and if either of those options do anything about that. Also, I tend not to buy and sell gear at a rapid pace. So my plan if more focused on getting my gear to last about ten to twenty years, rather than keeping it pristine so I can resell it and upgrade a year or two later.

That's more or less what I have with just a couple of minor, cosmetic differences. I would have linked to it, but I can't find it for sale anywhere anymore. Still, it's a great, compact layout and just about the perfect size.

I would look into tackle bags designed to hold either 3600 or 3700 style boxes. I have one that holds 7x 3600 boxes that I've used for several years now and has carried all of the tackle I could ever need, in a single, convenient bag that's easy to access. I own more tackle than that bag will hold, but depending on the lake and time of year, there's always a lot of baits that I can easily rule out. So I just swap out 3600 boxes as needed. The idea behind the bag being that it's easy to carry everything you need at once and move it out of the way quickly, if need be. What size bag depends on how much you plan to bring. I prefer the 3600 boxes because they're smaller, so it makes organizing easier if you're not taking everything with you. You can usually carry more boxes that way and have them divided into smaller groupings. But the 3700 sized boxes are just as good if you prefer the bigger boxes. Plus 3700 is the more standard and readily available size. But I do recommend that whatever size you get, you get good, quality boxes, as I've owned some of the cheap ones, and they're not worth the money. The Plano Pro Latch are a good, low-cost start. If you can inspect them in person, just look for good latches, hinges and dividers. A little tip about those boxes: I prefer to using a plastic welding iron to weld the little dividers into place so they don't fall out and water doesn't migrate around. Just drop one in place and slowly trace the edges with a low watt soldering iron or plastic welding iron, and it'll fuse the gaps.

You can't really do anything about color bleed once it starts. Just don't leave your plastic trailers attached to your jigs when not in use. That's also good advice to prevent rusting. But I wouldn't worry about it. I doubt the fish will notice.

I assume you're going to sell them online, locally? If so, I'd say ask for $75 each and take the first $50 offer you get. If no one bites at $75, lower it by $10 a week or two until someone bites. It seems most people who buy from CL or FB Marketplace LOVE to haggle and negotiate. So I always bump up the price a bit so they can do their thing and feel like they get a good deal. And if a buyer is nice and makes the whole thing easy, I'll go ahead and give them a discount to get them down to the price I was actually expecting, because I'm not a store trying to make profit. I'm just a guy trying to make some free space who hates to see perfectly good things go to waste.

Guys who wear Crocs are worried about their boat and truck colors matching...😄

Yeah, there's a good argument to be had here. If your life is truly worth an expensive inflatable, then would it also not be even more worth the discomfort of a cheaper foam PFD that will work 100% of the time, and doesn't rely on multiple points of complication that could each fail? But that's just a argument, not my argument. After all, if you're not willing to wear a foam PFD, then it doesn't do you any good. I'm thinking about getting a BPS AM24 during the spring sale to wear on those hot summer days where if I fall in, I'm probably going to have no problem getting back into the kayak unassisted. And I'll keep my current Onyx foam PFD for those cold days, where the extra warmth is nice, and I don't want to take any chance on a PFD failure if I hit the water. In near freezing water temperatures, your body can go into shock instantly. So you're a lot more likely to need a PFD in cold water.

I still haven't received my flyer yet. But something I've noticed in the last few years is a company will take an item that normally costs, let's say $800. Then they'll list it as being on sale for $800. Then the sale ends, and it goes up to $900. It's like a sneaky way of introducing inflation.

BPS and H2O are my cheap tackle brands of choice. I'm not an Eagle Claw fan anymore. I've had problems with them rusting on me and being really dull straight out of the package. Maybe they've gotten better. I don't know. But BPS and H2O have really impressed me with their value.

For bank fishing, I often just bring one rod, and one bait, and maybe leave a backup in the car. If I'm fishing soft plastics, I might bring a couple of them. Typically, if I'm going to be fishing for several hours, I'll go ahead and bring the kayak. So if I'm bank fishing, it's because I don't have much time and usually don't get too upset about having to leave early because I've lost my lures.