Bankc

If the waves get choppy enough, you'll notice the bottom starts to look wavy. But that's about it. As long as it's roughly level, it should tell you what you need to know. You're fishing, not taking USGS survey data. And even if it's showing a wavy bottom due to your kayak bouncing around too much, you can still figure out where structure and fish are as well as get a general sense of the depth and stuff. The waviness will usually be pretty regular, so just look for irregularities in the regular pattern.

I can't speak for him, but in the old days before graphite rods were common, I always gripped the rod at the foregrip with my wrist facing up. That way my finger and thumb could hold the line as it entered the reel. It was a technique used to feel soft bites by keeping your finger tips on the line before rods got sensitive enough to feel them through the rod. It also helped with hooksets, as you could get more power behind the rod since the rod was going to flex pretty good anyway. It's a lot like what some saltwater anglers do when using reels without line guides. I still do that from time to time, though more often than not, it's in situations where I'm trying to reel a bunch of line in under tension, like after a bad backlash or when respooling a reel.

I usually tie stuff on from my kayak. However, I do use clips for a few things like topwaters and crankbaits. You get better action with a clip (or by using a loop knot or tying onto a split ring). Just something that give the nose a bit more freedom to wiggle. And the speed of switching out baits with clips is a bonus. There are several different clips that I've used, and the only ones I've had fail are the Eagle Claw snaps. Duo-Locks and Mustad Fastach are my favorites. Just get one rated one step above whatever line strength you using. The caveat is to make sure it's big enough, as especially the Duo-Locks, they can get almost too tiny to easily use.

I'd try them if nothing else is working. Every body of water is different. I've never had much luck with bass suspended out in the middle of nowhere, unless they're white bass. But I also don't fish lakes with tons of baitfish everywhere. In a really tough lake, the best thing I've discovered is just to try a little bit of everything until you start to pick up some patterns. A great way to do that in a kayak is to get a drift socks and drift along the shore line and just keep pitching a jig, worm or square bill towards the bank. That'll allow you to cover a lot of water quickly. Target anything, everything, and nothing. Just keep casting and eventually you'll find a few bass and can start to piece together a pattern. It can take a while. One lake near me took about six months of getting skunked before I finally started to figure it out. But now I can almost always catch a one or two on it by just repeating things that have worked in the past. There are a lot of spots that look good by sight or sonar that are useless. And there are a few spots that look like a waste of time that almost always hold a bass. It's a heavily pressured lake, so that may be why.

I went through my rods last night, thinking about this thread. I discovered most of my rods are pretty unbalanced and a few that are pretty well balanced. It hasn't bothered me before, and it's not going to now. If I hadn't sat down to examine this specifically, I never would have known. I'd be much more concerned with adding weight which might rob the rod of some sensitivity, versus the feeling of it being unbalanced.

I would wrap it in braid and then superglue the braid down. But put a piece of wax paper or tin foil over the reel foot so that the superglue doesn't stick to the reel.

I'd start with some heavier jigs, since you're going to try to be punching through stuff. 3/8-1/2 oz. ought to be a good place to start. Structure, casting, or Arkie style head would be my first choice. But you can fish any type of jig in any manner, so it's not dire to get one of each kind, especially at the beginning. Brand won't matter much when you're starting off either. I've never fished a jig that was terrible or one that was far superior to everything else. There are better and worse jigs out there, but not outright bad or greatest ever when it comes to jigs. If the water is stained, I'd go with black and blue. If not, green pumpkin. As for a trailer, I'd say use what you got if you can. My favorite jig trailer is a zoom lizard with the head cut off. Worms work too. Craw imitators are always a good choice if you have them. You're just looking for bulk and maybe some kick for water displacement. Most of the action of the jig comes from you. The hardest part of fishing jigs is detecting bites, which usually happen on the fall or pause. With an Ugly Stik, which are known for not being very sensitive, I'd probably keep a finger on the line right in front of the reel to help with sensing any light taps. Fluoro will definitely help with that. And I'd keep an eye on the line and pay close attention for anything that doesn't seem right, because it's probably a fish causing it. Then later one, when you get the hang of it, you can upgrade to more and better jigs. But for starting off, the best jig to fish is the one you're not afraid to lose. Because that's where the big girls are.

I'd probably start looking for a new place to fish. Algae blooms like that can lead to a massive fish kill scenario, where the algae starves the water of oxygen and all of the bigger fish that need higher concentrations of oxygen die off. Also, some varieties of algae will release toxins that will kill fish, and can make you sick if you touch it. So even if it has fish in it now, it might not in a short while. And catching fish in an oxygen starved environment will stress them and may increase the numbers that die off.

Most sonar units won't mark the thermocline. What you have to do is play around with the sensitivity, and you'll often see a flat line that appears all over the lake, that hovers at a pretty consistent distance from the top. You usually have to set the sensitivity high enough that you get a bit of interference showing up on your screen. So if your sonar is set to auto, it usually will turn itself down to avoid the interference, and often won't show you the thermocline. So you'll often have to set it to manual and dial up the sensitivity to see it.

I don't think there is a good side to put a fish finder. No matter where it goes, it's always in the way, it seems. But I do have mine on the left side, as it does seem to be in the way less often there. One thing I've learned about fish finders is to not worry too much about looking for fish. If you see a bunch of baitfish by themselves, I'd say still fish it. Sometimes the bass will be hugging tight to cover or the bottom and won't show up on the sonar. And sometimes you'll see a bunch of fish on the sonar, and they're either not interested in eating, or the wrong species. I use mine more for looking for structure and cover. And, if I notice a bunch of fish all at the same depth, then I'll know to concentrate on structure at that depth. If you have livescope, you can target individual fish you see on your screen. But with traditional sonar, it can often be a waste of time.

You break them down the same way. Look for structure and cover. The good thing about a small pond is it narrows the options for you. So you can usually try a little bit of everything every time you go out. Each pond will be different, and things like vegetation, water quality, wind exposure, fishing pressure, bottom composition, and what kind of fish are in the pond will all have a huge effect on how to fish a pond. And these are factors that won't show up on a depth map. In the above example, I would target those three islands, especially the tiny one on the left. It's got deep water access, two choke points, and some very rapid depth changes. I'd also target any grass or wood you find when you get there, because they're always worth a look. It might be worth your time to concentrate on just one pond for a bit, and get to know it pretty well. Then you can start to pick up on patterns and take them with you to the other ponds.

It depends on a lot of things. Sometimes the noise scares them and sometimes the noise attracts them. The one thing I've noticed is the further out you cast and the deeper the water, the less they seem to care about the noise. So I think if they can notice your boat, the noise of the cast might bother them more than if they can't. Which is probably why they're not bothered by a loud skip under a dock, or a loud punch through dense cover, but do get scared off by a loud flip into a laydown.

Accuracy can definitely be important sometimes. Often times you'll only get one chance at a piece of cover before you spook the fish, so you want to make it a good one. My problem, isn't so much accuracy. I can be pretty accurate when I want to be. My problem is I get in a hurry and don't think about where I want to cast until after I've made the cast. So I'll often cast first before I have a plan on how exactly I want to present the lure to the cover I'm casting towards. It's especially bad when I'm drifting along and don't wait that extra 10 seconds to get a better line through a couple of pieces of cover or something. I just get into the habit of as soon as I've retrieved my lure, cast it back out there before the water's done dripping off.

Everything I own is either one of two colors. Stained water or clear water. It's either black and blue or white and charteuse for stained water. And it doesn't seem to matter much between the two. Or I'll go natural, realistic colors for clear water. Again it doesn't seem to matter which you choose. You can fish a trout looking lure in a lake that's never seen a trout and it seems to work as well as a bream or shad pattern. So I won't say color doesn't matter. But I don't believe they're as important as many people assume.

I have the best luck with deep diving crankbaits that runs down to about their depth, maybe just above it. Pull a little past them to give the crankbaits space to get down. Spoons also sometimes work. But nothing works well. You almost have to snag them. I usually ignore them unless I've run out of other options. Like I might try for them in the middle of the afternoon if the bite has turned off. Targeting suspended bass is a waste of time, so I only go after them when I'm trying to waste time.

I go with no brakes, no spool tension, and just let my thumb gently ride the spool the whole time. Getting the pressure right is key, but once you get that down, it's second nature. I think it helps me that I pitch left handed and do everything else right handed. So my left thumb is in the habit of always riding the spool, and my right thumb is in the habit of backing fully off the spool and relying more on brakes and spool tension to keep overruns under control until the bait is ready to hit the water.

I'll also recommend the tackle bag with some 3600 or 3700 trays (I prefer the smaller 3600 trays on a kayak). I used to use a plastic tackle box in my kayak, but accessing the thing meant grabbing the whole box from behind me, swinging it over to my lap, and digging around for what I'm looking for. It was always such a mess and I was always worried about spilling the darn thing. With the tackle bag, you can access everything from the top, so you don't have to mess with the whole bag at once. You just grab whatever tray you need, leave the rest behind you, and have a lot less to worry about. Plus, you can organize your trays according to whatever is most convenient, so I'll often just grab one or two trays on a day, and store them under my seat, since I know I'll be in and out of them frequently. If you don't have room under your seat, you can store them under your knees in front of your seat. They're small enough to not be in the way if you just have one or two out.

I wouldn't do it on a spincast reel. They have a tiny knob that stick out on the front of the spool that grabs the line and reels it around the spool when you retrieve the line. If you have a knot in there, you'll have a stiff section that will likely either get hung up on that knob, or want to roll over it. I'd think that you'd have a situation where the reel would occasionally either hang up or quit retrieving line once the knot got inside the reel. If nothing else, I'm betting that knob would do damage to your knot. If you want to go with a lighter line, I'd just spool some lighter line on there. But I'd be afraid to go too light with those reels. They're not very versatile when it comes to what kind of line you can put on them. If you're wanting to cast far and catch bluegill with light line, you'll be a whole lot better off using an ultralight spinning combo. That's what those reels are made for. I understand you probably don't want to spend a lot on one, but you could probably find one at Walmart or something.

If braid is getting cut, then there's probably some metal cables down there or rusted metal structures. Something that's sawing your line. So your best bet will probably be a fluorocarbon. It's harder and smoother than braid, so it'll take more abuse from sawing. Mono is softer and will nick more easily, but will still probably hold up better than braid due to being a singular filament.

I run my Lowrance Hook2 5 on the same battery as my Minn Kota C2 30 on my kayak, and I don't have any issues. I have a second, smaller battery for when I want to remove my motor and just paddle my way around. And while I could hook up both batteries, there's no way I'd want to deal with the weight, lack of space, and inconvenience. Just make sure your cables aren't running next to each other and your fish finder and transducer are a good distance from your motor. A battery is a constant voltage source, so it shouldn't be the cause of any interference itself. If you get interference, it's most likely a wiring or some other problem.

Agreed. And a lot of conventional wisdom about needing a low speed reel for deep divers comes from back when most deep divers pulled really hard. A lot of the newer deep diving crankbaits don't pull as hard as a lot of the older ones, so you can get away with a higher speed reel. Especially if your reel has longer handles, which give you more leverage. I like to reel my deep divers in pretty fast sometimes. Just like my shallow crankbaits. I will usually experiment with speed and the number and frequency of the pauses to see what works. I don't really have a set pattern until something starts working for me that day. Pretty much everything you do with a square bill, I'll do with a deep diver. The only differences for me are I'll use a heavier rod and usually switch over to braided line.

Are there any fishing piers or boat docks? You're usually looking for cover in deeper water for crappie. Fishing piers and boat docks are usually good places to start, even if you do have access to a boat. Doubly so because other crappie anglers will often drop fish condos or tie old Christmas trees to a cinder block and drop them down around there, which will attract them. If you don't have those available, the next best options would be a dam or bridge. Again, deepish water (to us bass anglers anyway) and cover. Bridge pylons are good, as well as the rip rap or rocks that prevent a dam from washing away. However, don't fish off either if it isn't safe to do so. So don't go to a high traffic bridge with no walkway and try to fish off it. It's not worth it. And don't fish off an active dam or one with traffic (or one that doesn't allow fishing from).

It probably is easy to fix. But on the off chance that it isn't, you don't want to open it up to fix it, find out there's something seriously wrong with it, or not be able to get it back together right. Because then, if they can tell that you've been inside the reel, they may not want to honor the exchange. So I'd just go do the exchange for now. That's your safe bet. One thing you can try, is to back all the way off the drag and then tighten it back down. I had a new reel, a BPS PQ II, which is a pretty similar reel and made in the same factory, do that to me. It did that several times to me, but backing off the drag and then re-tightening it always seemed to fix it. After about a month of that, I took it apart, cleaned and lubricated it up real good, and it's never done that again. I couldn't see anything wrong with it. Everything looked fine. But I guess something wasn't aligned properly or there was a blob of grease or something where it shouldn't be. I don't know. I never did find out why, but it's fixed now, as it hasn't done it again and it's been a few years.

Spinnerbaits or crankbaits get thrown 50% of the time, just about every time I go fishing. I've got a lot that I'll go through, depending on the depth, recovery speed, and activity of the fish. As for favorite brand, I don't care much. Anything chartreuse that's cheap and easy to find in stores works for me. I'm less likely to want to throw expensive or hard to find lures where the fish are. So I'm mainly throwing Strike King, War Eagle, Berkley, Rapala, Booyah, Norman, etc.

I think line diameter plays a large role in hi-viz line. I've gone through several different colors of 10# braid from several different makers, and I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I can't see any of them very well against the rust colored water I fish.