Bankc

I fish a lot of things that are out of favor at the moment with most anglers. I have a belief that if it's something the bass has never seen before, they're more likely to bite it. I don't know if that belief is true or not. But that's what I believe.

Sitting. I'll stand maybe 25% of the time. I do a lot of cruising the banks and I can't really control the kayak while standing. But sometimes I'll drop the drift chute is the wind is out of the right direction and stand to pitch at cover as I drift or anchor and stand to get longer casts. And sometimes I just need to stretch my legs and back for a while. But most of the time I prefer to stay on the move and getting up and down gets old after a while. So I'll just pull up to my spot, stay seated to make a few casts, and move on to the next spot.

It all depends. There's a point where a slower rod will give you more casting distance due to the sling shot effect. But that point depends on the weight of the lure, the speed of your cast, and the strength of the rod. If the rod is underpowered for the weight, it won't load properly and you'll lose distance. If the rod is overpowered for the weight, it won't recover in time to do a sling shot. Really, with heavier baits, I tend to use more of a lob than a cast and prefer a stiffer rod for this. It doesn't affect distance than much and is much easier on my body.

I went with the Weize as well, though I did a 50Ah, since that's plenty for my needs with my 30# trolling motor. I figured that would work based on the fact that I had an 85Ah lead acid battery before, and never drained it more than 50%. And I chose the 50Ah more for its smaller size, so I could stow it in the front hatch, otherwise I would have gone for the 100Ah just because they're not that much more. If I'm on the water for 8 hours, I might spend one hour running at full speed to get to my spots, and the rest of the time just putting around at the slowest speed or anchored, so I don't use as much electricity as one would think. I figured with the cheaper price of the Weize, I could afford to have one go bad on me prematurely and buy a second to replace it for less than one of the top name brands. I also went with the NOCO Genius, but got the 5 amp model, because it's still fast enough to charge that particular battery overnight. They're great chargers for the money. Now I have seen people use solar panels on small boats before to keep their battery charged while on the water. But the solar panels are huge and double as a roof to shade them from the sun. And even then, it probably only works on sunny days. To get all of the electronics set up for that is probably very expensive. It would be much, much cheaper to just buy two batteries and swap them out so you can have one charging while you use the other.

I've got mine lower (it's not sitting on a box) and it's smaller (5" screen) than Koz's. The top is probably around 4" lower than his. But it's more or less located in the same spot. You do have to be careful about not hitting it with hooksets and working some lures off that side of the kayak can be a challenge (like jerkbaits). But you get used to it. I hold my rod up higher off the water when working on the left side, so I don't accidentally bump it. And since I use a long paddle, I don't really have issues with hitting it while paddling. That's the beauty of mounting your sonar screen on an accessory track. It's not permanently attached, so you can play around with it to find the best location. Eventually, you'll figure it all out.

Every time I've fished a bed, the best I can do is get the bass to bite the tail of a worm or whatever and drag it off the bed. So I might see my line move, but they don't bite down far enough to get to the hook. It's frustrating. Prespawn is much better. As for my most productive, I'd going to go with a bright pink trick worm on a shaky head. Though prespawn bass will bite lots of stuff, and depending on their mood, there are often better options. But that one seems to be the most consistent and will often work when nothing else does.

It's kind of a pain getting photos off my phone and uploaded, due to the file size limitations. Plus, I don't often catch bass above 3 lbs., so they're rarely something worthy of sharing. As a result, most of my posted photos aren't fish catches. But I might get one or two a year up here.

I try to keep my inventory levels low, so don't own a lot of backups. But I could probably make it a year or two if I needed to. Though, at the end of the second year I'd probably have to get really creative. Also, I do remelt my old soft plastics, so I've can go longer than you'd think just by looking at those.

I've been told that "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying". And I've also been told "You can't blame a guy for trying". Therefore, "You can't blame a guy for cheating." must also be true.

The one near me is alright. I try to go at lunch on weekdays so it's not too crowded. Honestly, the local retail environment in general is just bad these days. And I think BPS buying out Cabela's has hurt both brands, as they're still both located in places meant to compete with one another (i.e. often too close to one another). So they're splitting inventory and qualified staff needlessly to serve virtually the same amount of people. They were a better brand when the stores were bigger and less common. I just hate buying things online unless I have to. In today's environment where everything is so cheaply made, it's becoming more and more important to see things in person before paying money for them. Even trusted name brands these days will gladly burn a centuries worth of trust and goodwill to turn a quick quarterly profit, something that was unthinkable until about 10-15 years ago.

I haven't really noticed realism having an advantage. Bass are curious and opportunistic feeders. They seem to bite something they don't recognize pretty easily. Maybe even more easily than something they do recognize. I'm less concerned with throwing a bait that looks like prey than I am with throwing a bait that doesn't look like a bait they've seen before. Hence why I really like to fish old lures that nobody uses anymore. I would like to point out that in these studies, you're asking the animal to distinguish between members of its own species. The monkey's brain, just like the human brain, is highly adapted to recognizing the slightest details of the faces of its own species. It's part of the reason why faces are so hard to draw, yet something that's much more complex, like an aircraft carrier, isn't. And it's why we can easily distinguish other people just by looking at their face, but aren't nearly as adept at recognizing individual monkeys by just looking at their face. You show me a page with 100 pictures of monkey faces and tell me that two of them are the same monkey and ask me to figure out which two, I'm going to struggle. You show me a page with 1000 pictures of human faces and tell me that two of them are the same person, and I'm much more likely to choose correctly. So a bass is probably pretty good at recognizing other bass, and might be able to tell a fake bass from a real one pretty easily. But that doesn't mean that skill will translate over to shiners and crawfish.

I almost always hop. Dragging, in most of the areas I fish, just kicks up a bunch of mud and hides the bait. A slow hop produces much better. There are a few areas where I can and will drag. Sometimes it works. Sometimes the hop still works better. But I will say, that often times the trick to the hop is to make your lifts very subtle with long pauses. And to get it off the ground, you have to put a bit of speed on it, so you can't lift too slowly. It can take me 10 minutes to retrieve a bait sometimes, with 10-15 second pauses, and hopping the bait maybe six inches at a time. Just a quick pop to get it to move, and then immediately let it die. And watch your line, because it often won't be falling long enough to feel a bite.

Most of the time, it's one rod, one bait. Sometimes I'll bring a backup bait. If I lose it, I go home. To me, the beauty of bank fishing is the simplicity. Besides, I rarely fish from the bank for a long time. It's usually just for 30 minutes to an hour. If I'm going to spend all day fishing, I'll bring the kayak with all (or most) of my gear. On the rare occasion that I plan on spending a couple of hours fishing from the bank, I might bring two or three rods and my tackle bag. I just set whatever I'm not using on the ground next to me. But it's harder to navigate through our thick trees and brush with all of that gear. The lakes and ponds near me usually aren't set up for bank fishing. At least, the good spots aren't easily accessible on foot.

They last longer and consume less electricity. So once you install them, you'll probably never have to replace them. But on the downside is the cost and hassle of replacement. Plus environmentally speaking, you'd need to go through a bunch of old-style light bulbs before you balanced out the carbon footprint of throwing out the old light housings out and installing new ones. So I'd say it's probably only worth it if you really want to do it. You might be able to install brighter lights, if that matters to you. Or if you think you might actually benefit from the power savings if you've had your battery die on you before. So if you ever had to replace the housings or the lenses, I'd probably take that opportunity to upgrade to LED. But otherwise, I probably wouldn't. Unless it's a real pain to replace your old bulbs, in which case I'd do it the next time you need to replace a bulb.

As far as I'm concerned, my kayak is an accessory for my fish finder, not the other way around. Though there are many days when the bass will be pushing up shallow where my fish finder becomes more of a chart/GPS/speedometer/thermometer/clock combo unit than a sonar unit. If I'm fishing water less than around 6 feet deep, I don't need it and will often shut the sonar part off for the irrational fear of scaring off the fish. But I'm pretty much worthless in 10+ feet of water without a sonar of some kind. Give me a flasher at least!

I'd skip that aerial photo. I get letters from a roof repair company on occasion that has a picture of my house on the envelope. Now, I know they got it from Google Maps, because it's the same picture. But it still feels really intrusive. And this older couple might not know those pictures are available online. So they could see it as you staking out their place. I know a few that would see that photo and assume you work for some government agency and are up to something nefarious. I'd probably just approach it with something like, "I heard you own the property over on whatever and was wondering if it would be okay if I fished it" or something. The "I heard" part at least sounds like someone they know vouched for you. I wouldn't lie about that, but it doesn't hurt to let them fill in their own blanks. And I agree that face to face is still the best method for meeting new people. Bringing over a pie would be nice too! Who doesn't fall for a little bribe? I'd just feel a little better about easing into that face to face meeting and letting them decide on the details of it. It's highly likely they'll still want to meet you and probably accompany you on your first visit. At the least, they'll have to unlock the gate.

Years ago, it wouldn't have been an issue to just knock on some doors. But times have changed. I don't know that I know of a good approach now. But my gut instinct would be to mail them a letter. That would be the least threatening option. It would also remove any sense of urgency on their part to respond. So they might wait until they're in a better mood before making a decision. Plus, hardly anyone gets handwritten mail anymore, so the novelty and nostalgia of that might help persuade them that you're an alright person. There's a good chance they ignore you and you never hear back. If so, I'd just move on. I'd also put several forms of contact information in your letter, so they could call, email, snail mail, or coordinate a meeting to let you know of their decision.

I've got one of these reels. I actually won it in a contest on this site! Yeah, it's an all graphite frame. However, it's pretty rugged. I've had it for about 1.25 years now, and it's been my frogging, punching, glidebait, and A-rig setup. So it's seen a lot of abuse in that time, and it's held together really well. It's still ultra smooth! I also have a BPS Pro Qualifier II with an aluminum frame that's about 2.5 years old, and it hasn't held up nearly as well. It still works fine and everything. But it's not nearly as smooth as it was when I got it. I don't feel like that Zata has changed at all. Having said all of that, the first Zata combo they sent me got destroyed during delivery. The plastic frame cracked and the rod broke in two places. But they sent me a new one. Though I have a feeling that due to the extent of the damage, even an aluminum frame would have been damaged. It just would haven bent instead of cracked. My point being, I'm no longer sold on the idea that aluminum frames are always better than graphite. I think a lot has to do with how it's designed and manufactured. I now believe that graphite frames got a bad reputation because it is the cheaper material, and thus is usually found on cheaper reels. But it's not inherently an inferior material. Honestly $200+ for a Zata reel is pretty steep to me. But $120-140 is probably around the region where I would think that reel is actually worth.

I could see it working well for some people. But it offers me nothing over my current cart, which I almost never use anyway. My next upgrade in that department will be a full trailer. Though, I'm betting that'll come with a jon boat and a small gas motor.

You got me!

Yeah, but those Plano boxes are made of polypropylene. Mono is made of nylon, braid is made of polyethylene, and fluorocarbon is made of... who knows what. Different plastics will react differently to different chemicals.

I wouldn't think so. I imagine that if it did, we'd hear more people talking about it. But all fishing lines are made of plastic, so I wouldn't be completely shocked if there was some truth to it.

Usually Sufix 832. But if I had the money, I'd probably go up to Sufix 131, which is the 13-strand version. Though, I'm not married to it. If I find a better deal with another brand, I could switch over. I've used a lot of braids and while some are better than others, I've never ran across one that was bad. To me, it's not like fluorocarbon line, where you HAVE to get a quality brand or else it's almost unusable.

Braid for everything. No leader unless throwing a drop shot, Ned rig or C-rig. Typically Sufix 832 but sometimes Power Pro. Usually 30-50#, with 30# being for most things that don't require a heavy rod. The reason why? Because braid lasts forever and stays limp. I don't fish clear water and I don't need line stretch, the way I fish. Also, we don't have toothy fish here or shells to deal with. But I'll be honest. I could go all mono or all copoly and be just as happy. I'd just have to replace my line more often because it doesn't last as long as braid. Anything but all fluoro, which I hate because of the line memory. But even then, if someone gave me a lifetime's supply of fluoro, I'd make even that work. Try not to get too hung up on specific lines for specific techniques. It's all personal preference. And some people prefer switching up lines for different presentations, and some people prefer keeping everything using the same line. Just pick something and go with it. And if you ever run into a reason why you'd like to change, make that change.

I generally use 30#, 8 carrier. But I've used heavier and lighter (only on spinning reels, 30# is as light as I'll go on a baitcaster) with great success. Which is better? I would say the biggest trade off is: the thicker the line, the more shallow your crankbait will run. However, the thinner the line, the more likely you are to get line dig in on the spool which can cause problems on your next cast. How thin is too thin depends on things like how tightly your spool is wound, how heavy you set your drag, and just your general fishing habits. I recommend going as light as you can get away with for the reduced drag. But anything from 30# to 65# is probably in the ballpark for most people. It's all kind of personal preference. Just choose one and if it doesn't work out for you, you'll have learned something for next time. As for which carrier count is best, the higher the better for cranking. The higher the carrier count, the more rounded the line will be and the less spool dig in you'll have to deal with. Also, the smoother it will be, so it'll create less drag and allow the crankbait to run deeper. And lastly, with all of that strain that a deep diving crank will put on your rod, the higher carrier counts will put less wear and tear on your line guides. The only downside to higher carrier count is cost and it not cutting through vegetation as easily. But if you're fishing a treble hook lure, you're probably not pulling it through thick vegetation.