Bankc

Or... skip the rod and get a Chuckit ball launcher...

If you want 0 holes in your kayak, then get a plastic soldering kit. I recommend a 15-30 watt soldering iron with a flat tip. Though they make higher wattage ones especially for plastic, but I'd be afraid of them generating too much heat. That's the good thing about the low wattage ones, is they melt plastic slowly, so you have more control. That way, you can drill your kayak full of holes, and then easily plug them back up again. But yeah, and anchor trolley is essential if you ever fish in the wind or current. I have two, on one each side of my kayak, because if I'm going to anchor my kayak, then it needs to be pointed at the correct spot. Otherwise, there's no use in anchoring. Check your state regulations for lights before making a light decision. Each state is different. My state just requires a solid white all around light pole or even a handheld light within reach. Red and green lights aren't required unless your vessel is capable of speeds over 7mph, which even with a trolling motor, mine is not.

This year it's been a shaky head with a Zoom trick work on a 6'10" ML/F Abu Garcia Zata spinning reel and Veritas rod. But every year it seems to change. I couldn't seem to buy a bite on spinnerbaits this year, but typically they've been a top producer. I think the drought and warmer than usual temperatures have contributed to that.

I think most of the premium hook brands are all about the same. Now, there are specific hooks within each brand that may be better than the competition. But I'm not convinced that one brand is unequivocally better than any other across the entire line. I believe it's largely going to be personal preference as to what you like best.

Yes. But they're totally different lures for completely different purposes. I always struggled with multi-jointed hard swimbaits, until I learned to fish them fast and close to the surface. Like really fast! With glide baits, you want to fish them really slow. The former relies on a reaction strike where the bass bite the bait without getting a good look at it. They need to be in an aggressive mood for it to work. The latter work better for when bass are in a less aggressive mood. Bass will often follow a glide bait for some time, without committing to a bite. It almost seems to hypnotize them. The former also will catch more bass, while the latter will catch bigger bass (and in my experience, lots of catfish for some reason). So I've caught a lot more bass off the multi-jointed, hard swimbaits, typically because when they're keying in on them, you can usually catch quite a few in a day, due to their aggressive mood.

Really, just keep your head on a swivel when out in areas with power boats. You can usually hear them way off in the distance. When you hear a motor, stop, look for it, and try to figure out what it's doing. Position yourself so you avoid the close call. Keep a whistle or horn handy just in case. I've had a few close calls over the years. What's kept me alive and dry is always assuming they won't see you. A boat that's two miles away is still a threat, because it can take you a long time to move somewhere safe, and it won't take them long at all to put you in danger. Early detection and recognition is key to survival. And it's not just getting hit directly that can be dangerous. Sometimes a wake boat or something can swamp or even flip you if you're not prepared and align your kayak to endure the sudden waves.

On my home lake, I tend to catch my biggest bass, and on certain days, the most numbers of bass, when fishing the few areas other anglers can't/won't. The easy one is the skinny water up in the backs of coves where the small, dead trees make it almost impossible to get to with a power boat. But with my kayak, I can slide over and around them to get back into the areas no one else ventures. Those spots are also inaccessible by foot, which helps. The harder one is finding the offshore spots. The lake is nothing but a thick layer of silt and heavily stained water with almost no rip rap, docks, large rocks or any other kind of cover you might hope to find. Therefore, finding bass on structure in deep water isn't easy. And then getting them to find your lure in the that near complete darkness without kicking up a ton more silt makes it even harder. So the learning curve is steep, and the chance of skunk is high. But, the most reliable method of consistently putting fish in your boat is doing what the other 98% of bass anglers do on that lake, which is troll around targeting the standing timber.

I would love to have a pro come to my home lake. I wouldn't even need them to show me where or how they caught fish. I'd just be happy knowing what was possible. Of course, if I could tag along, even better! So far, all of the locals I've talked to tend to do about as well as me, with a couple of outliers that I'm not sure I fully trust. When 98% of the people you talk to claim to catch around 3-6 bass in the range of 1-3 maybe 4 lbs. on a good day, and some random dude claims to have caught 20-40, some in the 5-7 lb. range, you tend to be a little suspicious. But you never know. They might know something you don't. It's a large lake. Anything's possible. I mean, in theory that lake doesn't have any smallmouth bass or drums (even according to the official government website that does electrofishing surveys), but I've caught both there, and most people don't believe me until I show them the photos.

That ought to be a good one. The C-Tug gets good reviews as well. I bought a cheap $30 one off of Amazon. It didn't work too well at first, as the kayak would twist around on it. If I hit a bump, I'd have to stop and realign it. The shape of the hull just didn't align with the top bars. However, I bought a pair of PVC pipes, some bolts, and a pool noodle, and basically turned it into a clone of the Malone Paddle Gear WideTrack ATB cart, by drilling some holes and bolting two padded crossbars across the top. It works great now! And a lot cheaper, all told, than the other options out there. It's got nice air-filled tires as well, which really help with sand. However, there are a few hours of DIY involved, which while easy to do, is something not everyone will be interested in, even if it saves a few bucks. My inclination is to avoid any that attach through your scupper holes. Not only will it introduce unnecessary wear onto a structurally delicate part of your kayak, but I imagine it would be hard to load and unload a fully loaded kayak onto one by yourself.

I have the same lift, and I just use thick work gloves and wrap the rope around my hands. Then I just squat down and let my weight do the lifting. Then repeat the dance until it's lifted up all of the way. I can also help to just pull on one side of the rope at the time, to see-saw the kayak up. It seems to operate easier that way. I keep the gloves on my work bench next to the rope. It helps to keep the rope from digging into my hands, and prevents me from having to maintain such a strong grip, since the wrapped up rope will secure itself to your hand. The gloves won't help with the lifting part, but they will help with the gripping. They also help with lowering the kayak, as I can just let the rope slowly slide through my hands without burning them in the friction. I thought about adding a winch, but they're not cheap, and you'll need a pretty powerful and slow speed one, plus you'll need a sturdy place to install it. And the way the braking system is set up, it won't allow you to lower it easily, so you'd probably need to rework the brakes so you can set them when the motor isn't in use, and remove them when the motor is working. It's all doable, but too much hassle and cost for me to pursue. One thing I must advise, don't use the lag bolts that it came with to attach it to the ceiling joists! I had read that they fail, and one of mine failed after about a year of delicate use. I thought it was just due to people not drilling a pilot hole and over torquing the bolts on install, but no. They're extremely fragile! It's worth the time and money to take one into your local hardware store and buy 4 replacements. Even the cheap bolts at the hardware store will be about 10x's more sturdy than whatever pieces of junk they came with (though I bought stainless steel versions). The other nuts and bolts are fine. It's just the lag bolts that are weak. If you use the ones supplied by the company, they will fail, and it can do some serious damage when they do. Plus, you won't be able to remove one when it does, as there will be nothing to grip onto when the head shears off.

I wouldn't worry about brands. Just about any brand of LED you buy will be made in a handful of factories in Asia. And the technology behind them isn't new or anything special. They were invented over 100 years ago and have been in mass production since the 60's. So I can't see a compelling reason to choose one brand over another, since the brand on the box in all likelihood won't be the name of the company who made the light, but rather just the name of the company who made the box. I'd just focus on the technicals, like power draw, voltage, lumens, light color, and what kind of lights you want to run and how you intend to mount them (dome lights, strip lights, screw mount, taped, etc.). To me, I'd want red IP67 strip lights for night fishing to help preserve your night vision so you can see out on the water better. They're easy to mount and replace, and cheap to buy. Other people may prefer brighter, white dome lights so they can see inside the boat better and will look a little more classy in the daytime. And other people may prefer yellow lights of some kind, as a compromise between seeing well inside the boat, and not attracting too many bugs.

Electric boats would mean nothing to the grid. The drain on the power grid of the entire residential sector is only about 20%. EV's are less than 1% of that 20%. And electric boats would be less than 0.1% of that. The real problem with electric outboards is the same as why you don't see them on airplanes. It's the batteries. And it's not so much a safety issue (remember EV's seem to handle driving in the rain just fine). It's the weight of the batteries. For example, a Tesla Model S battery weighs about 1,200 lbs.! And that's just the battery by itself. A 15-gallon tank of gas? Maybe 120 lbs, or 1/10th the weight. In a car you can make up for that weight with the added torque of an electric motor. But boats have to float. So if you take a normal bass boat, adding a battery for the electric motor would be like inviting 6 of your 200lb friends to come with you every time you went out! Well, actually you probably wouldn't need the full capacity of a Tesla Model S battery, so you could probably get by with a smaller battery. But you get the idea. A trolling motor is tiny and produces just a fraction of one horsepower, and those batteries are still kind of large. Adding an electric motor that produces 150-250 horsepower? That's going to need quite a bit more power than just a few Group 27 batteries will provide. Even lightweight lithium versions will take up a lot of space and add a significant amount of weight.

I enjoy a bit of both. Some days, I'll take my kayak out with the depth finder, half my rods, and just about every bait I own. Some days, I'll fish from the bank with just one rod and whatever I have tied on the end. And when I lose my lure, I know I'm done for the day. Both are equally fun, but just in different ways. Whether you're trying to learn something new or trying to refine an old technique, either way you're getting better. It's the journey, right?

It depends on the wind more than the temperature for me.

The balance of the load can have a HUGE effect. Of course, port to starboard should always be 50/50. But stern to bow may be better off balanced. In my kayak, I originally had my 65lb battery behind me, and it ran fine. My kayak is rated for 350lbs, and everything included (including the kayak itself), I was just a bit shy of that limit. Then, I swapped the battery to the front, and it moved like a fly in cold maple syrup. Same weight. But the different balance point changed everything, speed, stability, and maneuverability. And the odd thing is, it was technically evenly balanced with the battery up front. But the design of the kayak preferred more weight towards the stern. So with the weight balanced 50/50, it acted like it was overloaded. But with the weight balanced 35/65 towards the stern, it acted like it wasn't even close to the limit, other than the stern sinking a good bit below level with the bow. Now I've got a lithium battery that shaved 50lbs off my total weight, and have it balanced around 45/55 towards the stern. It really likes it there.

I was more consistent than normal. I didn't have any great days. But I had a lot less bad days. Best producer was probably a shaky head trick worm. It was hot and dry all year, so the conditions were tougher than normal. But somehow I managed to avoid the skunk pretty well this year. I got to fish a lot more in the spring than normal, because the wind actually cooperated, which usually keeps me off the water during the spawn. So that was fun! But I also didn't get out as much in the fall, because the wind did not cooperate as much then. And I usually do my best fishing in the fall. Overall, I learned a bit, had some fun, and am looking forward to getting out there and catching some this winter. Last year I caught my first winter bass. This year, I'm hoping to catch a few and find some patterns.

It'll do better than you think. With trolling motors, every speed that you go up, you double the amp draw, but you don't double the speed. The speed goes in an inverse logarithmic line, meaning you get a whole lot more of a speed increase when switching from speed 1 to speed 2, and very little when switching from speed 4 to speed 5. So on speed 4, you'll get the twice the run time as speed 5 (because you're only using half the amps), but probably only lose 1/2 mph of actual speed. And on speed 3 you might lose 1.25 mph vs. speed 5 but gain 4x's the run time (1/4 the amp draw). So you'll likely have more than enough battery to fish all day, as you'll probably spend most of your time actually fishing on speed 1 or 0, which won't tax your battery at all. But if you're worried, try running on speed 4 to get from place to place to start off with, and see how much battery you have left at the end of the day.

It usually damages the paint more than the fiberglass itself. Typically, what happens to fiberglass boats if left outside is the wood inside the fiberglass will rot (eventually). So a ventilated cover is always a good idea. But the UV rays from the sun will damage just about anything if left out long enough. But I've owned a fiberglass boat for 20+ years that never saw a garage, and the fiberglass outlasted just about everything else on it (carpet, vinyl, wood, motor). Try to keep them in the shade if possible. And give the boat a good cleaning and coat of UV resistant wax every few months to help slow the finish deterioration.

Agreed. A lot depends on the bank you're fishing from. Like if there's 400 feet of shallow vegetation between you on the bank and open water, that's going to limit what you can throw and still get back to you. But if you're fishing from the bank of a rocky d**n, you might be able to get away with some deep-water techniques that you wouldn't ordinarily associate with bank fishing. For the banks I frequent, I'd say my top 5 in order of most used are: 1. T-rig worms 2. Jigs 3. Shaky head 4. Squarebill crankbait 5. Ned rig My five least used, in order from least to most, are: 1. Jigging spoon 2. Jerkbait 3. Glide bait 4. Deep diving crankbait 5. Wacky rig

Nice! It's so rare that I get to throw a 6XD. In my lakes, the fish are almost always much deeper or much shallower, so it's not often I get to use one. But they sure do produce when the stars align!

In order to safely run two batteries in parallel (or series), you'll need to buy two new batteries. Never mix two old batteries in parallel or series, even if they're the same brand, because you can't guarantee they have the same amount of wear. You could run two batteries and just switch between them (either with a switch or manually removing one and hooking up the other). That would get you same runtime as two batteries in parallel (or more) and avoid any dangerous situations like batteries exploding or catching fire because only one would ever be connected at a time. The best bet if you're looking to maximize trolling motor range or speed is to go with a lithium (LiFePo4) battery. They can be drained down much further than traditional batteries (they should shut themselves off if you drain them too deeply to prevent damage), have a slightly higher voltage, much flatter discharge curve, and are much lighter. They also have a much longer lifespan, so over the course of the battery's lifetime, they could actually be cheaper than traditional batteries. And while they also can be hooked up in series or parallel (sometimes depending on the battery in question), you can find 24v or 200Ah lithium batteries fairly easily, which tend to be cheaper than buying two 100Ah 12v batteries.

It would need to be a pretty powerful servo to pull that off. Most of the ones made for RC planes wouldn't have enough power to keep the rudder in place. But they do make bigger ones for robotics and industrial equipment that would handle it. A waterproof linear actuator might be another option, as that allows you more torque with less motor, plus the design would allow the rudder to hold its position without wasting electricity. Though accuracy with a linear actuator would be more difficult to set up as you'd just control the direction it moves, and not it's actual position without some additional electronics setup. I run SS cables through Teflon tubes on my kayak. You could use your old cables to feed the Teflon tubes through the kayak, and then flare out the ends of the tubes with a soldering iron, and secure them in place with some Goop. Then, feed some nylon coated, stainless steel, saltwater fishing leader wire through the tubes and crimped them down. I use an adjustable eye bolt on my foot pedals and a pair of Progrip rope lock paracord hooks on the rudder (or trolling motor depending on what I'm fishing that day) to fine tune the length. The end result is a cable that doesn't fray, doesn't bind, is super smooth to use, won't stretch, and won't break. Or if you just need cables that don't fray, look at replacing what you have with the coated cables and use two crimps on each cable. One to hold the loop in the right place, and a second to cover the end of the cable so the end isn't exposed. That's also what I did.

Yeah, that's fine. It's more efficient from the stern, because the trolling motor is pushing straight versus at an angle to correct from being off center. But it'll still do what you're wanting from the side. My concern is with the well nuts pulling through and widening your holes. Since you're already invested in this route, you might want to go ahead and give them a try. The alternative is a lot more work and money. And the good thing about a plastic boat is you can always plug any holes you drill with some melted plastic if things don't work. Remember, we're talking about an electric motor here. A 55# thrust trolling motor will still output 55#s of thrust at 1/3rd speed. Eletric motors tend to output the most torque at their lowest speeds. It's not like a gas motor that has lower torque at lower speeds. So keeping the motor at its slower settings won't avoid this problem, even if it will address battery drain.

I'm in OKC, and this is pretty much what I'm seeing down here. In the last few weeks, I've had the best luck off of moving baits, squarebills, shallow diving crankbaits, topwaters, soft jerkbaits fished fast, spinnerbaits, and small, jointed, hard swimbaits. Basically anything that looks or acts like a shad or minnow, so long as it's small and fast. The cold fronts and rain don't seem to be affecting the bite as much as the wind. It's not like spring where a cold front will almost always kill a bite. The cold front we had about a week ago triggered a good bite for me and gave me one of my better days this year. And the bass seem to be on the move, so I tend to choose anything that will allow me to cover a lot of ground quickly. Slow moving, subtle, and finesse presentations have not worked for me well the last few weeks. However, it's Oklahoma. And things can and will change in a heartbeat. And I expect they will very soon, as the bass are usually not keying in on baitfish or being this aggressive this late in the season. In the lakes I'm fishing, the water temperatures are right around 60°F still. It's been a pretty warm fall this year. But things will change soon.

I agree. Trolling motors put a LOT of force on the hull. I'd consider something more substantial. Originally, my trolling motor was attached to my rod holder bar which was mounted into the recessed rod holders just behind my seat. The force of the 30# motor flexed the plastic pretty good and started to wear out my kayak, so I relocated it to the rear for a sturdier mount after about a year. What I did, was make a backing plate out of a sheet of, I think it was 16-gauge stainless steel and cut it to size with some sheet metal shears. You could install it in place by cutting out an access port and then covering up the port with a waterproof access hatch, allowing you to get back in there if you needed to. I have an access port in the front of my kayak, and installed the trolling motor mount in the rear, and used braided fishing line to feed the bracket through to avoid cutting an access port. It's a lot more difficult and time consuming to go that route but gives a more professional look.