Bankc

Nope. I prefer to spend my free time doing stuff rather than watching other people do stuff.

I use a Plano Model 3440 for my wallet, keys, and used to have my phone in there. It's tight fit for all of that. You may need to go up a size, depending on the size of your stuff. I've since switched to just keeping my phone in my pocket, since it's water resistant. That way I can keep a log of my catch. I'm not really worried about dropping it, since my kayak is wide.

PVC tubes should be fine. I've moved about every 2-4 years in my life, so I have WAY too much experience moving. Something will always get broken. It's just the way it goes. The number one mistake everyone makes is not packing everything up yourself. Too many people think it'll save time letting the moving company do all of the packing. But then you'll spend forever trying to find where stuff is when you unpack, and waste even more time trying to buy new things that didn't make the trip. The best thing you can do is about two weeks out, start packing everything up. That way, by the time the movers arrive, they should be able to load up your whole house in about an hour or two. If they're not worn out by putting everything into boxes for you, then they'll have much more time and energy to load things properly into the truck. And by giving yourself plenty of time to pack, you'll be able to do it right and not have to make compromises at the last second because you're running out of time. By the time the movers arrive, they shouldn't have to do anything other than wheel it out to the truck, and maybe wrap blankets around the furniture. It also helps to help them load and unload the truck, if you can. That way, you'll be able to see how they handle and load your stuff, and since you're involved, they're more likely to do a better job. That way they'll appreciate the help and respect you and your stuff a little more.

I'd say 50% of the time, it doesn't matter. Sometimes it does, however. And sometimes, it matters what kind of sound the rattle makes. As for when I throw each, well, I just tie one on, and if it doesn't get bit after a while, I change it up. I let the fish tell me what mood they're in.

6 and 1/2 dozen. To me, they're effectively the same color.

I can't get bit on a swimjig, and rarely find bites on chatterbaits. Spinnerbaits are killer though. I mainly only throw spinnerbaits where they'll bump into hard structures such as trees and reeds. And that's the main cover in most lakes I fish. Honestly, I'd just throw what works for you. For me, spinnerbaits will come out of wood a lot better than chatterbaits. And the water is too stained for swimjigs to be of much good. So the main reason I throw them is because they can go places other baits can't. When I do fish other waters, like ones with more vegetation, I tend to leave the spinnerbaits alone and switch over to the chatterbaits or swimjigs. A lot of times, what works and what doesn't has less to do with how you use it than where and when you use it. Also, try killing the spinnerbait. That seems to elicit strikes sometimes when a straight retrieve won't work. Just give the handle a couple of turns, stop for about a half second, then start back up. I also like to use trailers with them. Usually a grub or paddle tail.

I've been saying this for years. If you see the pros do it growing up, then you grow up wanting to do the same. It'll save the lives of many children, and adults. It's effects on the general population may not be immediate, but in a generation or two, countless lives will be saved. Actually, it does. A friend of mine's father drowned while saving a child who was drowning and not wearing her PFD. He jumped in after her from the bank and swam over to her, fully dressed. Somehow he managed to find her, swim her back to the dock, but when he went to lift her up to some people on the dock, he went under and never came back up. Also, my brother in law who's in law enforcement, is on the Dive Team. And diving in a deep lake with no visibility is extremely dangerous. So every time he gets called out to recover a body, he's putting his life at risk.

I always leave about a 1/4-1/2" of tag end. This knot will often slip, and if you have a lot of tag end left, it'll tighten itself as it does. If you don't, it can untie itself. And make sure your wraps don't overlap themselves. Also, as others stated, don't use it for braid or cheaper brands of fluoro. I use the Fish N Fool for braid and Berkley Braid knot for Fluoro.

That's the way to do it. My boss has a Uline scale at work that will do what you ask. But I believe it costs just this side of $700. I've got three scales at home for various hobbies to span the range from .001 grams up to 300 lbs. I probably spent less than $30 on each. As long as what you're measuring isn't on the extreme ends of the scale's capacity, even cheap scales tend to do a pretty decent job.

One thing I've been told about boats by many people, is to not buy one that needs to be fixed up. They say that the amount of money you put into fixing a boat will never equal the value it adds to the boat. So, something like $2,000 worth of repairs will only add about $500-1,000 to the value, and that's if you do the work yourself. In other words, it costs less money to buy a boat that works now than it does to buy a boat that needs work and get it into working condition. Of course, I'm sure there are exceptions. But there's a reason there aren't a lot of people out there flipping boats for a living, like there are with cars, houses, furniture, vintage electronics, household appliances, lawn mowers, industrial equipment, etc.

Yes. I don't tie on short leaders, but I'll tie on a long leader and change baits often enough in a day on the water that I'll wind up with a short one. Sometimes just a few inches. The fish don't seem to care. In fact, the fish don't care if I'm using straight braid. But I also don't fish in ultra-clear waters, for what it's worth. I mainly use leaders for the stiffer line, added stretch, or for presentations that are fished really, really slow, to give me some added confidence that the line won't be seen. Sometimes I'll also use leaders to extend the life of my braid. If I think I might be retying 10 ft. worth of line in a day, changing out my T-rig bullet weights and hooks, I might tie on a 12 ft. leader before I go out. Of if I know I'm going to get snagged a lot, a leader gives me a weak point to break off so I don't have lose a bunch of line. The way I see it, the bottom of a lake is filled with twigs, algae, vegetation, and trash that looks a lot like fishing line. So they don't seem to care. And if the fish are going to be really line-shy, then they'll probably be able to hear the noise and feel the vibrations that your line makes as it moves through the water. So visibility is only a part of the equation. So I tend to focus on line diameter as much as line composition when trying to keep my line hidden.

That's kind of along the line of what I usually do for holiday weekends. Weather permitting (which it probably isn't this year), I usually go to one of the junk lakes that everyone avoids. The fishing is never as good, but being in a kayak, I don't have to deal with all of the drunks on party boats, jet skis, and wake boats trying to run me over. You have to keep your head on swivel those days, and you really can't afford to focus on fishing, but rather just staying alive.

I try to remember to keep my pliers and scale under my seat. Otherwise, I just hold the bass in my left hand while getting my stuff out of my tackle bag with my right. I've got my camera phone in my left pocket. I rarely measure them, but I've got rulers on both my kayak floor and paddle shaft, as well as a tape measure in my bag should I choose to use them. I'll usually dunk them back in the water every 10-15 seconds to keep their gills wet. But unless I have issues removing a hook, it rarely takes me more than 30 seconds to do everything I need to do before releasing him back into the water.

We're lucky we have it here. But I do wonder about the 100% claim, as that's pretty much impossible. They usually also claim to have special cleaning additives and I know by law it'll at least contain 10% butane this time of year. So even 89% gasoline would be pushing it. But I'm trusting that it at least doesn't contain ethanol. Best thing to do if you can't get ethanol free gas, is to just empty the tank and then run the engine until it dies. Ethanol will affect gas mileage and power a little bit, but it's real harm comes from sitting around in your engine for a long time, unused, where it can draw in water and corrode the engine from the inside. So running ethanol should be fine for most small engines, so long as you take the extra step to drain it after every use.

Use whatever you like. Personally, I'd go with 30# braid. But I use 30# braid for most everything anyway.

Nope. 30mph winds whisper "stay home, dingus". Well, maybe nope. There's a small river near me that's surrounded by trees and we've had several inches of rain this week, so the river is likely to finally be navigable from a kayak, unlike most of the year when it's just a dry trickle. It'll probably be crazy crowded and parking may be neigh impossible. But it's probably my only option, should I choose to exercise it.

I picked one of these up a few weeks back and it's done pretty well for me too. It's small and dense, so it casts well. And the subtle one-knocker type rattle makes it versatile. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the hooks though. True, they're not the best you can buy. But they're not terrible either and I haven't missed a fish with it yet. I haven't even had to sharpen them yet.

Anything you can stand up in that's also light weight will be a barge in the water. With kayaks, everything is a compromise. In order to make it paddle well in the water, it needs to be skinny. In order to make it stable enough to stand in, it needs to be wide. In order to make it do both, it need to be really long, so its width to length ratio is smaller, and then it's going to be heavy and harder to turn due to its length. A flat bottom hull will be more stable, but very slow and get blown around in the wind. A V hull will track well and handle the wind and current well, but be unstable. A pontoon hull will be more stable than a V hull (but less than the flat bottom) and be faster in the water than a flat bottom (but not as fast as the V hull), but also not cut through waves or track well. A tri-hull will cut through waves and track better, than a pontoon, but not be as stable. In order to gain anything, you have to give something up. Kayaks are all about compromise. None are perfect, no matter how much money you spend on one. The Pelican Catch 100's are noted to be very slow. They're typically best with a motor as they're not much fun to paddle. They also don't handle rough water very well. The Lifetime Kenai looks like it's probably not going to be stable enough to stand up in, but it should be a bit faster (which means easier to paddle) in the water than the Catch 100. Another thing you'll want to deeply consider is the seat. The Lifetime Kenai has a cheap molded (and padded) seat. It won't be comfortable for long. The Pelican Catch 100 has a much better stadium seat.

It looks like Missouri has different requirements for title and for registration. So you don't have to title a trolling motor, but you do have to title an outboard motor. And that's separate from the boat itself. If you put a trolling motor on your kayak, you don't have to title the trolling motor itself, because trolling motors don't need a title, but you do have to register the kayak, because it is no longer propelled solely by oars. A bit confusing, I know. It probably wouldn't hurt to place a phone call just to make sure.

Mid 80's. When the water temp finally makes it into the mid 80's is usually around the same time the wind starts to die down, and I can usually go fishing whenever I want.

Good to know! Yeah it definitely does feel like they're shaking it sometimes. I've got some things to try anyway. Luckily, I don't have to deal with teeth too often. About the only toothy fish around are walleye and sauger. And they're pretty rare. I don't even own a net or fish grippers, because it's just not something I run into. There are alligator gars out east, but I don't get out that way too often. And while box turtles are very common, snapping turtles have become pretty rare in the last decade or so. Kind of like our rose rocks, tarantulas and horned toads. 9 times out of ten, the only toothy critters I see in the water are water snakes. And me and common water snake are friends. We can both fish right next to each other without bothering the other one. But the cottonmouths and I don't get along.

Instead of graphing a lake, I would try to look up depth charts online for the lake before heading out. Use that as a means to find some places you'd like to try. Then use your sonar to further narrow it down once on the water. It would be a waste of time, in my opinion, to try to graph the lake yourself, unless you were prefishing for a tournament there. But, I would still keep an eye on the sonar to look for places to fish once there on the water. I just wouldn't waste my time trying to figure out all of my options, and instead take the first good option I find. And if it doesn't produce, look for a second good option, or a third. When fishing new waters, I too like to stick with what I'm good at. But, if it isn't working, I'm quick to switch it up. Maybe give a bait 30 minutes, and if you don't get any bites, switch it up. And I'd probably only give each area maybe 10 casts or so. On unfamiliar water, I try to cover a lot of water rather than focus on specific areas or techniques until I find something that's working.

Doubtful it would be crappie or bluegill. Like I said, it feels more like a bass. And there are no gar in these particular lakes. There is some walleye, sauger, and perhaps saugeye in the area. But I doubt it's them. Me too. I've thought about this and will occasionally go to a Ned rig. But I don't usually get as many bites with the Ned.

Definitely no Pike. I really doubt there's any smallmouth too, as only one lake is even rumored to have smallmouth in it, but in 20 years I've never seen one. And they're all man-made reservoirs, so they're not connected to any river systems. What's in there is what was stocked at some point. There are lots of spotted bass though. I am seeing that on occasion. I primarily throw a lot of crankbaits and get into the habit of trying not to let the fish have any slack. So I'm sure I'm not dropping the rod tip like I should. Thanks for tip!

I've been having an issue this year with jigs and T-rigs where I feel a good tug and go to set the hook and nothing. Then I reel it back in to find my plastic bitten in half. So it's like they're only biting the back half of my plastics. At first I thought it was just bedding bass, but we're well past the spawn now, and I'm still getting this a lot. It almost sounds like bluegill, but one of the lakes I frequent doesn't have any bluegill (but does have gizzard shad). And a lot of these bites have a harder thump than I'd expect from panfish or gizzard shad (which don't seem to get above about 8-10" around here). A lot of the bass I do hook are around 1-2 lbs, so I was wondering if I'm just running into a lot of even smaller bass that have trouble fitting the whole lure in their mouths. Any ideas?