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I don't. I made some out of some rope and velcro once. But they were always getting in the way. I've only lost one rod in several years of kayak fishing, and that was from a tree branch overhead sneakily grabbing my rod tip, pulling it out of its holder, and silently placing it in the water behind me. I didn't even know I lost it until an hour later. Heartbreaking, but it taught me to be mindful when passing under tree branches. It also allowed me to upgrade my rod and reel!

Or truck. I watched my uncle back his trailer into the lake to get his boat out once, and his parking brake failed and the truck slipped into lake. Still, my best day at work was when a construction crew down the road cut a buried power line and the power company said it would take a day to fix it. So I got paid to go fishing that day.

Not MY couch. But in Oklahoma it's not unusual for people to dump large furniture, car parts and appliances along the sides of lakes. And the summer heat can wear you out. So yeah, I've caught fish sitting on a couch before.

It mostly likely is the same battery. The thing with all of these types of batteries is there aren't that many manufacturers out there anymore. Most of them will be the same battery, rebranded with a different sticker on the outside. Sometimes the warranty will differ, but remember these are almost always pro-rated warranties. And if you've ever made a claim on one, and I have, it's usually something like $5-15 off your next battery. So it's not a full replacement warranty, but rather just a fancy coupon that loses value the closer you get to the expiration date. Honestly, I'd ignore brands and models and look for the sticker that says the date of manufacture instead. The longer these batteries have been sitting on the shelf, not being charged and sulfating, the shorter lifespans they'll have.

I'd go with lead acid in your situation. It seems to me like you'd be paying double just to not have to check the battery water levels two or three times a year. I don't think any of the other advantages of AGM would really do you much good. But that's up to you. Honestly, if you're willing to spend more on an AGM, I really think stretching that a bit more to get lithium batteries would make more sense. Besides, we've kind of hit the point where they could actually be cheaper in the long run. Plus lower weight, no maintenance, more charge, longer lifespan, deeper discharges, and even higher voltages for more power for your trolling motor (slightly).

It was on the northwest coast of Maui. And I don't remember the size of the waves, but I do remember each wave pushed me forward and then back about 20-30 feet as they passed. Honestly, it was probably too dangerous to be out there. You definitely had to keep your head on a swivel to keep from getting crashed into the corral. And the pressure wasn't so much from the weight of the water above you as the wave passed, but from the force of the movement of the water across you. Kind of like how the wind can exert a lot more pressure than just the atmosphere itself. Pressure is pressure, whether it's coming from all points at once or just one. The camera was a Sea & Sea Motormarine II EX (35mm film) and was actually supposed to be rated to 45 meters. And while not a Nikonos, it also wasn't a toy and had all new seals. It was designed for divers, so it should have been up to the task and did fine in a test run at a swimming pool, though that was only 18 feet. My point being that the IP ratings are designed with static water pressure in mind, and in the real world, that's not always what you experience.

Yeah, but I can't blame it on age. I mean, my reaction times have definitley slowed down from my 20's. But being mid 40's, they're not that slow. I've only lost a few milliseconds. Mostly, it's me not staying focused while fishing. I get to working a lure and thinking about what to try next or where to go and when a fish strikes, it takes me a second to figure out what's going on and react. Then, usually after I muff the first one, I tend to dial in my focus better and quit missing them for the next hour or two. Staying mentally active as we age is tough to do. And while your reaction times will inevitably slow and there's not much you can do about that, you can work on your ability to remained focused. When you're actively expecting a strike, your reactions will be a lot quicker than when your focused and something else and notice a strike. So beyond diet and rest, it's also a good idea to do things that require deep and prolonged periods of focus. And it's become even more important now that we live in a society where we're always multitasking and being distracted. Exercise also helps quite a bit, which is also hard to keep up with as we age. And no, yard work and chores don't count as exercise. Neither does a physically demanding job. Even though they wear you out like exercise, they don't provide the same benefits to your physical or mental health.

Each region, and even each lake, is different. What works in one area may not work in your area. Videos, blogs, forums, etc. are all good places to find new ideas. But that's about all they're good for. That being said, time on the water has been hurting my confidence lately. It's been a tough summer and it's starting to wear on me. I have a job and family so I don't get to pick and choose my fishing days, and it seems like every time I can get out, the fish just won't bite. Once or twice is no big deal. But three months of bad fishing and you start to look inward. Have I lost it? Was I just lucky before? Am I doing something different? Then again, this summer I seem to always go the day after a cold front has passed. So I'm not entirely surprised at how tough the fishing has been for me.

It should be fine. I would think any fish finder would be able to handle any amount of splashing or rain you could throw at it. They're almost always fully sealed to prevent any water from getting inside. Where the issue arises is water pressure. So long as it's not submerged below the water, the pressure inside the fish finder (1 ATM) and the pressure outside the fish finder (1 ATM) will be equal. So while there might be water all over the device, there's no pressure to push the water past the seals and into the electronics. Hence no damage. However, submerge the device in 10 meters of water, and now you have twice the pressure on the outside than on the inside. And that's 14.7 pounds of pressure every square inch trying to push water past the seals. It's gonna take some stout seals to hold up to that for very long. IPX7 is rated for 30 minutes at 1 meter. And that's way more protection than you need for any splashes or heavy rains. Another funny thing I learned while doing some underwater photography is that water pressure ratings aren't just about depth. I had a camera rated to 30 meters and went to photograph some stuff about 5-10 meters down. The camera got immediately destroyed because the waves in that area were really rough and exerting more than 30 meters worth of force on the housing. So that's something to keep in mind.

Yeah, I can understand that. It rarely gets into the single digits here, and when it does, it doesn't seem to matter how many layers I wear, I can't stay warm. I never really get much of a chance to acclimate to that here. Not like I did when I lived up north. It takes a good month or so to fully acclimate. But I still recommend everyone try their best with what they have to work with. If you've ever had your A/C go out in a severe heat wave, you'll be thankful you did, because if you're not one of the first customers to have their A/C go out, it could be weeks before a repairperson can get out to see you. And even the small window units and local hotel rooms can be as hard to find a COVID toilet paper. I've done that, and it was miserable even with some heat acclimation!

Something I learned long ago was how important it is to adapt to the heat. Get out in the uncomfortable heat and put in some daily hard work in May and June before it gets crazy hot. Don't push yourself too far, but don't be afraid to get uncomfortable either. Then, when the real heat of late July and early August hit, you're prepared for it. I'm out almost every day in this heat doing something physical during the hot part of the day. I sweat like crazy, but it doesn't bother me. It doesn't wear me out and I don't struggle to keep hydrated (though still drink lots of water, but I just don't fall behind the curve, so to speak). I'm actually handling this 100° weather a lot better than I was handling the 85° weather we had in May. Even if you can't get out and do the work, just go sit outside and let the heat wash over you. My grandparents used to do that and it really did make a difference for them. 30-60 minutes every day allowed their bodies to slowly adapt, so they could still get out and mow the grass or work the garden in the Texas summertime heat well into their 90's. It all seemed crazy at the time, but now I know that they knew what they were doing.

The toluene may have etched the gel coat. Most of those stronger solvents will do that, though some take longer than others. You've got to time it right so that it doesn't stay on too long. It may also be sanding marks from the sandpaper. 1500 grit isn't high enough for a mirror shine. Since the cloudiness goes away when wet, I'm assuming it's not more oxidation. It's hard to say without seeing it in person. Either way, I'd probably keep sanding, this time wet sand it with 3000 grit and then 6000 grit, followed by a polish with a polishing compound and a buffer wheel. That ought to get the shine back.

The problem is there's not a good ground on a boat. Neither the negative battery terminal nor the water make for a good ground for getting rid of interference. However, interference is rarely a problem. And when it is a problem, it's usually not something that grounded shielding will solve. It's usually caused by signal noise in the power supply itself (battery in this case). The problem is usually caused by the battery getting called on to provide pulses of high power on one circuit, and not having the capacity to provide steady power on a second circuit while keeping up with the pulses. So residuals from the pulses bleed over to the other circuit and create noise which is interference. Shielding it from outside noise won't help, because the problem is coming from within. Hence why most people keep their trolling motor and sonar on separate batteries. Plus, transducer cables are already shielded internally. So you're shielding an already shielded cable, which means you won't gain much, if anything, from it. It shouldn't hurt. But it shouldn't help either. Now, there is the rare problem that you've got runs of wires or a transducer wire running right next to something like a trolling motor and picking up stray EMI. However, like I said, it's already shielded, so more shielding usually won't help. You usually need a better contact with ground, which you can't really do on a boat, or to physically move the wires so they pick up less interference. The intensity of the radiation is inversely proportional to square of the distance. In other words, if you double the distance between the wires, you cut the noise the wire picks up by 1/4th. So moving a wire from 1/2 inch away to 4 inches away will cut the noise it picks to 1/16th the original amount. Which is a huge amount of noise loss for just moving a wire over 3-1/2 inches.

It's a technique I picked up in my youth working customer service call centers. The turnover in those places is ridiculously high because you just get abused by everyone and they won't let you stand up for yourself or hang up on abusive customers. So the senior employees taught me if you want to last longer than a month there and not become clinically depressed, you have to develop some thick skin and learn how to take back control without breaking the rules. So, when you get an abusive customer, you anger them into a frenzy until they ask to speak to your supervisor. Then you can transfer them, and they're out of your hair. And when they tell the supervisor of all of the things you said and did, it sounds a whole lot like you were a model employee and followed every procedure to the letter. Plus, your call times drop because you're not wasting time with abusive customers, so you get raises and promotions. Yeah, it's a messed-up system.

I forgot that Motorguides are faster than Minn Kotas. Same with those Newports.

People are crazy these days. And anger has a way of spreading, like a disease. Best thing to do is walk away before you get angry. Avoid the problems before they get worse. Because the last thing you want is them to drag you down to their level. Keep your happiness intact, even if it means letting the bad guys win, because your happiness is worth more than your righteousness. Second best thing to do is ruin it for everyone else. And in order to do that without getting into a confrontation, I've discovered a little secret about humans. No one believes you when you tell them you're smart, but everyone believes you when you tell them you're stupid. So you can act like a real jerk, so long as you're super friendly and don't seem to be aware that you're acting like a jerk. In other words, you can do things like pester them with constant questions and keep reminding them that you're new to this, so you don't know what you're doing. Then maybe cast way off to the side and cross the other guy's line so you get caught up in theirs and say something like "sorry, I'm not very good at this". If they tell you to leave, just say "one more cast, I've got a good feeling about this one" over and over again. So long as you smile and act like you have no idea that they're getting angry at you, it makes it really hard for them to act on that anger. People want to believe that they're good at heart, so they need your help to escalate the anger into violence. That's why people almost always shove each other before throwing punches. But you can often avoid the violence by pretending not to recognize their attempts at escalation, and just remain calm and happy. It's still risky, because there are people crazy enough to snap without warning and not need you to help them escalate things. So you can still get yourself hurt or worse. But it's a method I've found that works more often than not.

Yeah. And I have the Teton Pro 116 (actually a Yukon, but same thing with a different name), and even after three years, I still like it a lot. But the thing with any kayak is there's almost always going to be a better one for more money. You can convince yourself that "for only a few hundred dollars more I can get an even better one" all of the way up the list until you're in a Hobie PA 14 360. It's best to just set your budget and find the best one in your budget and get out and fish. Chances are, no matter what you get, you'll want to upgrade it one day. And the longer you fish out of your current kayak, the more money you'll save for your next one, and the better idea you'll have of what you want out of your next one.

I don't. If the thermocline is at 12 foot, I'm looking for brush piles that start around 12 feet or less. If the brush doesn't even extend up to the thermocline, I'll usually pass on it. You might find suspended fish above those brush piles you mentioned, but targeting suspended fish is tough work. They tend to not be very aggressive. I prefer to spend my time chasing fish that are more active. Then again, I don't have FFS, and targeting suspended fish with FFS is a lot easier. Typically this time of year, I'll get out on a lake and get out over some deep water to find the thermocline. Then I'll mark some transition areas on my map that occur at the depth of the thermocline. I might not fish them right away, as I'll usually fish the skinny water first, but those spots I marked are usually the deepest I'll go.

I could, but I wouldn't want to. Not in this heat. It would take some careful planning to stay hydrated through all of that.

I blame the lack of acid rain, chlorofluorocarbons, and leaded gas pollution on bass being smarter these days. They were easier to catch in the 70's and 80's when we kept them dumbed down with all of that stuff. Sure, it also affected us into thinking disco and hair metal sounded good, but it was worth it!

Sometimes, but not in a long while now. This year has been cooler than in years past where I am. I don't think we've broken 100° yet. It's also been a lot wetter than normal. Also, our water is pretty muddy, so when you get soaked, you also wind up with a fine layer of rust colored grit when you dry off. Also, it's technically illegal to swim in these lakes. But there's no one out there to enforce those laws, and lots of people do it.

That's what I've heard from many, many people. And it makes sense, which is why I passed it on. I, myself, don't do that. Everywhere I fish it's either muddy or sandy. The only thing to get caught up on is submerged timber, and that's usually decayed enough that you can still break free if you need to. It might come back to haunt me one day, and it only costs a zip tie to try (which I have plenty of), but I'm just too lazy to solve problems I haven't yet encountered. I'll be sure to do it on my second anchor though!

About this time of year, most of our lakes set up like this. However, it's far from ALL of the fish. A good number of fish set up around the thermocline. Some just suspend in the middle, and some relate to structure. The suspending ones are hard to catch. However, there's still a significant population that still live in the shallows. And some will go back and forth between the deep and shallow water. It's harder to see the fish in the shallow water on sonar, because they'll scatter before you pass over them. And they like to hold tight to cover, so you usually can't even see them on side scan or FFS. But you can still catch them, which proves they're there.

My guess is you'll probably be looking at around 2.5-3.5mph out of the Xi3 and 5-6.5mph out of the Torqueedo. So it's a pretty significant jump. Almost double the speed. The Xi3 will probably get you to around a moderate pace while paddling. The Torqueedo will get you to about as fast as you could possibly paddle on your own, if you attempted a dead-on sprint with everything you have. However, if you're going to be fishing a lot of grass, I'd rather have the control than the speed. Plus, a bow mounted trolling motor would be easier to clean off on the water. Sometimes I'll get vegetation wrapped around my stern mounted trolling motor and have to paddle to the bank to get out and clear it. It'll cut through hydrilla just fine, but there are some plants around here with thicker stems that don't want to separate so easily.

It depends on the motor, but what a lot of kayak people do in this situation is buy a PWM speed controller and hook that up between the motor and battery. It'll need to be able to handle the voltage and amperage draw of the motor. In fact, I'd upsize it to near double the actual amperage you'd pull, just to keep heat down. I also installed a DPDT waterproof switch rated for the voltage and current that my motor pulls so that I can turn it off, on, and reverse it. Look up "switch for reversing motor" and you should see how to wire it up. Though some PWM controllers have reversing options built into them, and most should have an off switch, so you might not need a separate switch, especially if you don't need reverse out of the thruster. The problem with a PWM controller is it needs to be cool and kept dry. So you'll probably want to install it into a waterproof box. And this could overheat the circuit. What I did to mine was drilled some vent holes and then sealed them up by gluing some KN95 mask filters, because those N95 style masks will pass air, but not liquid. So it's cheaper than buying purpose build water glands. It's won't protect it from submersion but will do just fine from splashes and rain. Of course, a big enough box and sizing the PWM (using one with a much higher amperage rating than you need) so it's not being stressed might allow you to keep the heat down enough that you don't need vent holes. I'd look for a PWM that doesn't have a fan built in. The reason being, if it doesn't need a fan, then it doesn't generate as much heat as one that does. Plus, a fan in a sealed box won't do you much good.