Bankc

My experience with Dirtybird, which isn't extensive, is to hit the fishing piers and marina. Dirtybird is a tough lake to fish if you don't have a boat, and not much easier if you do. There's not much cover and if you don't know the lake well and don't have sonar, you're basically fishing blind. Plus, a lot of the bank area can be hard to access (during the summer anyway) and can be rife with ticks. Though usually if you sit at a fishing pier long enough with some minnows, you'll catch a crappie or two, even on a bad day. There's often some kind of artificial cover that someone sank near those, and it's practically the only shady spots on the water so the fish tend to congregate there, or at least pass by it. The trick is to find out where the cover is, and get over it. Probably your best bet is to go there on a crowded day, find the guy who's catching a bunch, see where he's at, and then come back and try that spot on a less crowded day.

A shop should be able to give them a look and tell you what's wrong and what it'll cost to fix. There might be a fee for that, but if you're having them do the work anyway, then it won't really be costing you any extra. I have no idea about repair costs myself. I haven't owned a power boat in a decade, and even then, I did my own repairs. Definitely find a local boat mechanic in town. Don't mess with ones at the marina, as they will almost always charge you more. And I'd take just one boat in at a time. That way, if the costs are a lot higher than you were anticipating, you can sell the other to try to cover some of the costs, leaving you with one good boat and lots of fond memories.

The only reel I have had issues with is my 1974 Abu Ambassador 5000D. But being almost 50 years old and having been in service pretty much the whole time, I can't say that it's unreliable. Well, I guess there have been some minor issues here and there. But nothing that wasn't easily fixed with a clean and lube. I take care of my stuff and do regular maintenance and don't abuse them, however.

You can also use a drift sock to help keep you positioned in the wind. Throw an anchor over on one side, and a drift sock over the opposite side, and the waves/current will keep you mostly in line between the two. There will be a bit of motion still, but not nearly as bad with just one anchor. Also you can use two anchors in much the same way. It's a bit more difficult to set up, but holds better. And an anchor and power pole work too, as others have mentioned.

I just stand, face forward, and shoot for the side. I always make a mess on the side, but luckily there's plenty of water nearby to wash it off. In the summer, when the water is warm and I'm hot, this is usually a good excuse to take a quick dip to help cool down.

I have a buddy who is always running around this time of year searching for those things. I've gone bank fishing with him where I think he just used the fishing as an excuse to get out, into the woods to look for morels.

If the LM and spotted bass aren't biting, I'll usually just troll for white bass on my way back to the dock. That's usually the last resort for me, and doesn't really require any special gear, you're just using what you already have in different locations. Most other species nearly require different rods, lines, and bait, or a coming back at night.

A lot of the reviews on Bass Pro, for any rod, complain about rod's breaking. I think that's because a lot of people who write those reviews step up from an Ugly Stik and think that for more money, it ought to be more durable. But generally speaking, the more sensitive the rod is, the more expensive it is and the more fragile it will be. But as long as you don't abuse it, it shouldn't break on you. They're made to be fished with in extreme circumstances. They're not made to be stepped on or banged against stuff. The only rod I've ever had break on me was a BPS PQII. It snapped on a cast the second time I took it out fishing. I'm guessing it was either a manufacturer's defect or it got damaged in shipping or by a customer on the floor. In either case, Bass Pro took it back, no questions or receipt asked, and gave me a replacement. The replacement has been bulletproof for me. Most of my rods are BPS brand rods, and with that one exception, they've all held up really well, and they all had a ton of reviews online about people complaining about them breaking. My last one I got, I ordered online and had it shipped to my house. The box it came in was broken in half, but somehow, the rod survived and hasn't given me any problems.

I slightly prefer a good foam grip. They seem to be more durable when abused and require a little less maintenance. Though, I own cork grips too, and as long as they're quality cork, they're fine by me.

Another vote for the Daiwa LT series. They are as they are advertised, Light and Tough.

I'd go with fluorocarbon, myself. Mainly for the increased abrasion resistance and slack line sensitivity, which would be important for flipping. I use Yo-Zuri for my shallow cranking stick, mainly because it handles memory better than straight fluoro, which was always a problem for me on that rod. With flipping, however, that won't really be an issue. And while I don't use the Yo-Zuri for flipping, I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work as well as or better than braid or mono.

I only have experience owning older ski boats (10+ years old). From my experience, they are a HUGE pain. Every year I had to work on the motor. Sometimes it was something small, sometimes it was something expensive or hard to get to. And if that wasn't enough, I'd also have to occasionally repair rotten fiberglass coated wood and vinyl seats. I've heard stories of people owning problem free boats for years. But the common thread seems to be that they bought their boats new and then traded them in for another new boat after about five or so years. So the way I see it, owning a boat is going to be expensive. Either you're making monthly payments on it, or your spending money repairing it. And if you do your own repairs, like me, you're spending lots of time working on it. Both boats I owned, I never could trust to work when I got to the water, so I always started them up before I left my house to make sure they were running. And if it was the first trip of the season, I'd start it up a few weeks early to give me time to do the repairs. And even then, there was no guarantee that it would still work when I got to the water. I sold my last boat a few years back and bought a kayak. It's much, much cheaper, and infinitely more reliable. It's a pain to load and unload, and I can't take friends with me. But it means I can enjoy fishing without having to sacrifice other things. And now that I'm older, I rarely have friends who want to go fishing (or that I want to go fishing with) and never really ski anymore. If I get another boat, it'll be a jon boat, probably with two outboards so I can switch between them should I run into problems.

That's close to what I try to do. I keep the rod tip down, but not so much to as to keep the fish from jumping, but rather so I have someplace to go when they do. So when the bass jump, I'll pull back on the rod, almost like a hookset, but not as quick or hard. The idea is to keep the rod flexed and pressure on the line so they don't have a loose lure in their mouth that they can fling out so easily. You're not TRYING to pull the bass across the surface when they jump, but you will pull them a little bit. It's a bit difficult to get the timing and amount of pressure down. You also want to start your pull just before they break the water. So you kind of have to predict what they're about to do. And even if you get it all right, you'll still loose some fish. It's just the way it goes.

I'm kayak fishing in the Oklahoma wind, so I sit mostly. I've even developed a method of pitching that I can sit while doing. It's basically just roll casting with the rod a few inches above the water. It's a little harder to do without making a splash, but I can pitch it a lot further that way. But if the weather's nice, I'll stand as much as I can. If nothing else, just to stretch the old legs.

That's where I'm at. A good sonar that's easy to read is number one. Number two is good mapping. That's especially important in waters that you're less familiar with. Those are your two must haves. Well, that and speed and water temperature. Beyond that, SI and 360 are worth having. 360 may or may not be worth the money to you, as SI can often be found at fairly reasonable prices, and 360 doesn't offer anything game changing over SI. But I'd go 360 if you can budget it. I've never used Livescope, but man does it look cool! Still, at those prices I'm content to wait ten years for that technology to become affordable before I get into that. DI is found on most units these days and is interesting, but it rarely ever tells me something that sonar cannot. I use it, but I wouldn't miss it if it was gone. Everything else is just convenience, as far as I'm concerned. They're handy and make fishing easier, but they won't make you more productive unless you're tournament fishing and trying to save every wasted second. Then again, this is coming from a guy who says wasting time is the reason to go fishing. If I wanted to be productive with my free time, I'd get a second job.

I'm glad to hear someone else say this. I've been thinking the same thing since November, but wasn't sure if I was just remembering things differently. I mean, it's always windy in central Oklahoma, but I don't remember it ever being this windy this often. I'm in a kayak, so wind is especially bad. I have managed to get out a few times. Though once I was only able to cast about ten times in a five hour outing due to constantly fighting the wind and waves being too large to safely anchor. Desperation inspires stupidity sometimes.

In a boat that old, its all about condition. If the boat, motor, trailer, and everything else is in great shape, that would be a good deal. If everything needs a ton of work, even free might be too much money.

Oh yeah. The first few times I tried to stand up in mine, I couldn't hardly do anything without fear of falling over. Now, I can do pretty much anything. The trick is to keep your knees bent and stand on the balls of your feet. Also, keep the kayak locked in the secondary stability point. So I've always got a little bit more weight on one leg than the other, yet my center of gravity is always over the center of the kayak. As for hooksets, you learn to shift the balance of your body with your legs to compensate for the shift caused with rod swing. It's not something you consciously think about. It's just some submental correction you learn to do when while trying to keep balanced. It's like learning to ride a bike. At first, you struggle just to stay up and have to control your balance as you steer. But after a while, you don't even think about your balance and can ride with no hands. The kayak becomes an extension of your body.

They're popping up pretty frequently, but disappearing almost immediately near me. In my town, your best bet would be to hit up some sporting goods stores frequently and be ready to pounce when they get one in stock. With the shortage, the big box stores are often first in line to receive new stock, and they often don't know what's coming until they open up the truck. Of course, if you're looking for something specific, might as well get on that list. Kayak fishing was exploding before the pandemic. With the pandemic, plastic shortages, and start of Spring, it's kind of the perfect storm right now.

Are you sure there's enough fish in it to even make it worth the hassle? If the pond is completely covered in algae, that usually means there's high quantities of fertilizer being washed into it. That'll mess with the pH of the water. In high concentrations, algae can also suck all of the oxygen out of the water. Even though algae creates oxygen in the day when the sun is up, it can suck the oxygen back out at night. Some algae is beneficial, but if it's covering the whole lake, it can wreak havoc on larger fish.

Cottonmouths. They're aggressive and territorial. And during mating season, it's not unusual to see dozens all right next to each other. Most snakes run away when they see you. But not Cottonmouths. They'll chase you. And it's bad enough to run into them on land, but when you've got one coming at you and you're stuck in a kayak... Well, let's just say it's worth the investment to buy a nice paddle that won't break if you slap it hard against the surface of the water. Although, realistically, the most dangerous animals on the water are other people, bees, and dogs. That's what's most likely to kill you.

Personally, I'd opt for the 7' just to get that tiny bit of extra casting distance. But if all they had in stock was the 6'6" version, I'd get that be perfectly content. There's going to be very little real-world difference between them.

I use a 100Ah lead acid battery in my kayak that weighs about the same. And while I was tempted to try a lithium ion battery, there are a few things that kept me away from it. First, the cost. Second, they can explode (small risk, but still a risk), and the best place to put a heavy battery in a kayak is right next to you, which is the last place you want something that is known to explode. And we're not talking about an e-cigarette or smart phone battery here. These things are huge! Third, they output a higher voltage than standard batteries, and this can damage some trolling motors. (https://www.minnkotamotors.com/support/faqs/can-i-use-lithium-ion-batteries-my-minn-kota-trolling-motor) So if you're using a lithium battery, you need to keep the trolling motor down below 85%. And that's fine for a fishing boat where you rarely run a trolling motor full on because they're too loud that way. But in a kayak, the trolling motor is your primary motor, so running it full tilt is it's primary purpose. Still, I might get a lithium battery one day. The LiFePO4 technology they use are less likely to explode than the lithium ion types found in phones and stuff. And running it at 85% should equal the same voltage and thus same thrust as running a normal battery at 100%, so it's more of an annoying thing to keep in mind than a true loss in speed. And costs are coming down. Just make sure that the current draw of the motor is a lot lower than the max current output of the battery, or your significantly increase the risk of explosion! Which means if you went this route, it would probably be wise to downgrade to a 30lb thrust motor for safety. That, and it being a kayak, your top speed is a lot more likely to be limited by your hull design than the thrust of the motor. Anyway, I keep my battery directly behind me. I have the motor (MK Endura C2 30) right behind me to my left, hanging about six inches out on the out side of the hull, and the battery is about the same distance back behind me, but on the right side up against the inside of the hull. I have the battery oriented with the short sides pointing towards the bow and stern. The reason for this position is because it balances the kayak from side to side. The motor weighs a lot less, but since it's further out, it exerts more leverage against the center of gravity. So in this position, they cancel each other out. The problem I have, is with it's weight and my own weight, it overloads the stern a bit, and pushes the bow up higher than it should be. It's nothing crazy and doesn't make the kayak hard to maneuver on the water. But on land, it's way to heavy and if you tip it just the slightest bit to one side or the other, it wants to topple over. So I have to load the battery and motor in the water, and everything else on land.

I'd check there first. Make sure you didn't leave any exposed wires touching any metal or reverse the positive and negative on that switch or on the lights. Either could ground out the positive terminal and cause the drain. Plus, everything worked fine up until then, so that's the most likely place to find the culprit.

Gear ratio doesn't matter to me unless you're throwing something like a buzzbait where you need the high speed to get it started, or a deep diving crank where a high speed will wear you out. Other than that, I'm fine reeling slow, fast, or in the middle. So I use a Daiwa Tatula CT-H 6.3:1, which is in the middle. To me, what's more important, is castability. That's why I chose the Tatula and it's Magforce-Z brakes. Some reels handle lighter baits better, and I'm often fishing in the wind. So for me, any reel I own needs to have externally adjustable brakes, as I would have to adjust the brakes depending on if I'm casting into the wind or with it. Centrifugal, magnetic, or DC doesn't matter. So long as it's externally adjustable. That's especially important with a crankbait reels as some smaller balsa cranks are really light. Some people prefer a reel without infinite anti-reverse for crankbaits as well. They allow you a little better feel when bumping into cover. I used to use an old Shimano Bantam B-100 mag for that reason, but lost it in the lake. The Lew's BB-1 has the old style anti-reverse, but don't have an externally adjustable brake. So it was either buy used, or get used to infinite anti-reverse, and I chose the latter. In the end, it's the all about personally preference. That, and I'll say the rod is a lot more important than the reel when setting up a crankbait rig. So I'd be willing to skimp on the reel and get a good cranking rod. Luckily, there are some great options on the cheap for crankbait rods, like the Berkley Lightning rod, which in medium power will have a medium/fast action on a fiberglass/graphite composite blank, which is just about perfect for cranking.