Bankc

True. And my apologies for veering off topic. People don't troll much around here. But my advice remains the same. It might be a bit of a reductio ad absurdum, but either way, getting angry and making a big deal out of it won't help. The only thing you can really control in this world is yourself.

No backups for me. If I lose one, I have something else that's close enough to get me through the day. Then it's to the store for a replacement. Of the lures I own multiples of, I get drastically different colors. I'm not a tournament angler. If I was, I would probably want multiple identical backups. But as it is, I'd rather save my money and space and focus on good technique.

Stuff like this happens all of the time to me. I had a wake boat buzz by and swamp me in my kayak several times a few weeks ago. I could tell they didn't know what they were doing, or that they were endangering me, because it was a brand new boat and they waved and smiled at me. Plus, they were pulling their kid in a tube in a cove which is not only against the law but dangerous because there are sand bars there and the lake is 10 feet below normal. Really, there's not much you can or should do. Maybe if you get the chance, explain to them what you were doing and how their actions impacted you, without getting upset about it. You don't want to start a fight, but a friendly education isn't a bad thing. Mostly though, just let it slide. Some people are jerks. Some people don't know any better. Some people just aren't paying attention. But getting angry won't fix the problem. It will ruin your day, however. And picking a fight could ruin the rest of your life. And even if you were to win that fight and get away with it, it wouldn't change or fix anything. They'll go back to being who they are. The best thing to do is focus on that next cast. That's why you came. Don't let them take you out of your game.

In that price range, wanting one you can stand up in, you're best option is to buy used. And since these things are ridiculously expensive to ship, you're going to be buying locally. I'd just keep an eye out on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace and see what pops up. Maybe check out a kayak specialty store and see if they sell used ones. Otherwise, there are only a few options new that meet your requirements. I can only think of two, the Pelican Catch and Lifetime Yukon/Teton Pro. I'd probably lean towards the Lifetime Teton Pro, since it's a bit longer and will track straighter and be a bit easier to paddle. But if ease of transportation and storage space are more important, the Pelican Catch is lighter and shorter.

It's easy for me to stand up without using my hands. Sitting down is a bit more difficult. But I'm pretty skinny and only mid 40's. Get yourself a standup assist strap or rope. It's the easiest, cheapest, least obtrusive option, and it's highly effective.

Just be careful with the acetone. It'll eat a lot more paint and plastics than naphtha.

Use distances or lengths of things you're familiar with and place them between two points in your imagination. Imagine how many you can fit between two places. I played a lot of basketball when I was young, so I know a basketball hoop is 10 feet high, a full court is 84 feet long, and to half court is 42 feet. For smaller distances, I know my middle finger nail is 1/2" wide, my first three fingers are 2" wide at the first knuckle, my shoe is about a foot, and my stride is about a yard. Also a line made with a Bic pen is about 1/2mm wide, a nickel is about 2mm wide, a quarter is about 2.5cm across, and a meter is about a yard.

I've had it happen a few times. Twice that I can remember. I just reel in what I got out, set the hook, and do everything like normal. Then after I've released the fish, I cast it back out with a gentle cast, and it'll itself stop once it gets near the backlash. From there, I pick it out like normal and go back to fishing. I use braid for most everything these days, so it doesn't really hurt my line to do this. Using fluoro or mono, I'd assume the kinks would be permanent, and you'd want to respool afterwards.

I wouldn't worry about it. Most people who are outwardly friendly like that, and also outwardly confident in themselves, aren't easily offended. He's probably unaffected by the whole thing. Sensitive people don't usually throw themselves out there like that. And the kind of people who do, aren't usually very sensitive.

It could have just been the way they were biting that day. Two months ago I went out and got a ton of bites, and I lost every single fish. I switched lures, rods, lines, etc.. I focused on my hookset. Nothing I did changed the fact that I could easily get bit, was able to fight most of these fish for a little while, but every single one got loose before getting back to the boat. Topwater, crankbaits, jigs, T-rigs, ned rigs, whatever. They all got loose. A few days later, I'm back on the water and everything was back to normal. I can't tell you why I couldn't land them that day. I learned no lessons and changed nothing. But it seemed to have been a one-off fluke. Some days are like that. So I wouldn't count out the 3/4 oz. jig just yet. See if it happens again. In the mean time, make sure the hooks are sharp. I wouldn't think there'd be enough difference between a 1/2 and 3/4 oz. jig to make such a large difference in landing percentages on their own.

I do well with worms, drop shots, ned rigs, and all finesse lures in my local lakes, which normally have 12-18 inches of visibility. 5-6 feet wouldn't be normal for me, it would be incredibly clear. Natural colors like green pumpkin often produce for me as well. But bass become accustomed to their environment. Clarity, like depth, is largely subjective. It's less important how clear the water is compared to a different lake, than how much clearer the water is than usual in that lake. And you're right, you do have to get closer to the fish in dirtier water. But they'll also hold tighter to cover, which means they're often easier to pinpoint. One thing I have noticed is that you can't really dead-stick anything in dirty water. It doesn't have to move fast, but dead-sticking a drop shot, at least for me, never produces anything. Slowly dragging it or slowly hopping it does, however. Also, rattles, beads, anything that makes noise or displaces water tends to help. It's not necessary, but it does seem to get the fish's attention at little better. My point being, these techniques still work, but you have to get a little more accurate with them. As the visibility narrows, you lose margin for error.

It depends on how much line you have out when you try to set the hook. It's a math equation with a lot of variables.

You're not wrong! I guess I'm putting myself and my own experiences into this. In the lakes I frequent, there is very little vegetation or shade available, and the water is always windy and stained. So even though I know where to find them, getting to them and getting them to bite is tough. But clearly, not everyone is in the same situation as me.

It's pretty common in the summer for the bite to die down when the sun is out and high in the sky. Your best bets are to look for shade, vegetation, and deep water. Basically areas with cooler water. So right now, the fishing can be very tough, especially in the heat of the day. It's best to be out in the early morning or late evening, or even at night, when the fish will push up more shallow and feed more aggressively. The higher temps will also slow their metabolism down, so they're less likey to chase or move far for baits. So you'll likely need to drop your lure right in front of them, and slow down your presentation. Maybe try a Ned rig or drop shot as well. Though a T-rig senko isn't a bad choice either. You may need to make multiple casts to shaded areas to drop one right in front of them. Or you may want to try to find a place to access deeper water. If you can find a depth map of the lake, look for areas with steep elevation changes where bass can easily move from deep to shallow water.

Never heard of them myself. But they have a customer service number. I'd give them a call and find out. If they're willing to spend some time with you on the phone, and talk you through your questions, my guess is they have a decent chance of standing behind their product if something goes awry. And when it comes to lithium batteries, that's what you're paying for. All of the cells are going to be made in China. And I'm betting the BMS boards are too. Grade A, grade B, grade ZZ, all that is just marketing spit. There's no governing authority that regulates what constitutes a grade A. It's entirely possible that you get the same internal parts from an Amazon battery that you would from this company for 1/3rd the price. There are very, very few companies that actually make these parts, after all. Then again, the cheap Amazon one might be made out of used or rejected cells. So yeah, you're not necessarily paying more for a better battery. You're paying more for a better company. Because I doubt many, if any, of those Amazon companies will be there to answer your phone call or honor a warranty. And a decent company might actually do some testing before sending the batteries out, to save you the hassle of every having to deal with a warranty claim. So yeah, give them a call. Find out from the horse's mouth.

I have good luck on garlic and coffee scents sometimes. Shrimp seems a lot closer to what bass naturally feed on than garlic or coffee. So, yeah, I could see how it would work!

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Good to know. I'll toss it then. But I do love my Shad Raps, and especially the bigger ones look like they might be deeper diving Shad Rap esque baits. So the thought did appeal to me. I guess it would be worth trying to buy one and see how I like it. I do like the Dredgers from Berkley that never gave me any trouble. But being a different design, I didn't know if these had a different set of flaws that the Dredgers managed to correct.

I found a Berkley Flicker Shad (3-1/2") a year or so ago. I hadn't really used it, but the other day I decided to give it a try. I couldn't get it to run straight. I spent more time tuning it than fishing it, and when I finally got it to run straight enough (never did get it to run perfectly straight) it would throw itself out of tune anytime it hit bottom. And even when it was close to being in tune, it would blow out if I retrieved it with any speed. It was the most frustrating crankbait I've ever used. I've never thrown something so finicky before where just a hair's breadth determined whether it stay down at all. And I never did catch anything with it, though it did look like it might be a nice bait, if I could get it to run true. Since it's a found lure, I'm wondering if there's something wrong with it, and perhaps the old owner just threw it away rather than keep dealing with it. Or maybe something warped on it sitting the sun between it being lost and found, and it doesn't run right anymore. Or is this just the nature of these lures? Has anyone else had issues with these? I'm always on the lookout for deeper diving cranks with smaller profiles, and this one seems to fit that bill. But I won't buy another if they're all like this. I'm not against tuning crankbaits, but tuning and retuning and retuning isn't fishing.

If the water is clear enough, it will. It all depends on water clarity. Light will get down pretty deep, even in stained water conditions. If you can see a lure down to 10 feet, then I'd imagine a bass would have no problem seeing a lure down to 20. This is because the light you're seeing has to travel 10 feet down and then 10 feet back up, and then it has to compete with all of the bright light surrounding you. Deep down in the water, there's a lot less light to compete with. So you don't need much to produce some flash.

Brilliant!

Carry however many you want. I've carried up to three on the bank. Any more, and it's just too much of a hassle. Even three is hassle sometimes, especially if I'm navigating around trees. I typically just carry one, since most of the time when I'm bank fishing I'm not spending all day on the water, and will typically try to focus on just one, maybe two, presentations. From my kayak, I always bring six. Six is all that I have room for, and it's not really any more difficult to carry two than six for me. Even then, I typically only use four.

Can't decide? Try a co-poly like Yo-Zuri Hybrid. I've gotten away from using leaders in most situations. When I do still use them, I tend to prefer fluoro for things that just sit there. So for a drop shot or ned rig, I'll use fluoro. If I'm fishing something like this, it's because I can't get a bite otherwise, so I'll take every advantage I can get. If I'm fishing something like a topwater where I'm using the leader to make a stiffer line so I don't get my braid fouled up in the treble hooks, I'll use mono. It floats and it seems to hold knots better. Also, mono will stretch and shrink back, whereas fluoro just tends to stretch, and stay stretched out. But if I where in a situation where I wanted 8lb fluoro, but only had 8lb mono or 12lb fluoro, I'll go with the 8lb mono. Line diameter is more important to me than line composition. Point being, sometimes it doesn't matter and sometimes it does. It's up to you to decide when it does or doesn't. But there's no right or wrong answer here. It's all just personal preference.

It makes no difference to me. However, lighter rods do tend to be more sensitive, and THAT makes a difference. But if we're talking weight alone, then I don't care. They're not that heavy to begin with. I'll even fish with an old fiberglass rod from the 70's from time to time, and that rod heavy! But it's still not heavy enough to bother me. Same with balance. In theory, a balanced rod is better. But in reality, I've yet to use a rod that made me think "the balance on this is terrible". And the reel, where you grab the rod, what angle you hold the rod, etc., will all effect its balance. So even a perfectly balanced rod is never really balanced. Then again, if I'm paying top money for a rod, I do expect it to be lighter and better balanced than my other rods. I probably won't notice the difference on the water, but I'll notice it in the store, and want some kind of value for my money.

1/2" of line left says to me that the line was weakened when you tied the leader knot. Make sure you're wetting the line enough. Also, try a different line. It may just be a bad line for leaders.