Denny

Pretty much what I was thinking, i'd also like to be able to take it out into long island sound and do some salt water fishing and totally get rid of my 14 foot tin boat if possible so thinking i'll definitely want at least 12 foot worth of yak

By any chance how tall are you? I've been looking everywhere for a 120 PDL and only find people selling used 106's. Very tempting but not sure ill be happy long term. Demo'd a 106 but it had zero gear in it so not sure how cramped id feel after all my stuff at 6 foot tall

Great topic and info. Im in a similar situation looking at 'yaks. So many to choose from End of last year I tested out an Old Town Sportsman 106 pedal drive and was very impressed, but no way I would go that small. The 120 wasn't available for demo but would be the smallest I would go. I also plan to use mine out in the flats and islands right here in long island sound though so bigger would be better. I havn't purchased yet but hoping this is the year I upgrade out of my tiny old metal boat

Bigger baits mean bigger fish. What are you throwing now?

Are you catching smaller bass? Or none at all?

Awesome boat. Best of luck with it!

Find a quieter lake with less traffic no just go out and use it. It takes years for people to become one with their boat. I doubt you could parallel park perfectly the day you got your driving license, well perfectly controlling your boat and fishing a bank/structure area is the same thing. It all takes practice, but you can’t let your anxiety take control of you. Most lakes are going to have any extreme hazards marked well, anything else that you come across like weed beds etc will not be detrimental to your boat and you will make it out just fine, maybe just a few curse words later. Keep it on the slow side and before you know it you and that boat will be a finely tuned fish catching machine

For some reason I back the drag off on my baitcasters but not my spinning gear at the end of the day. No idea why I’ve just subconsciously done it for a while

If I ever make the leap into a serious fishing rig, I think an 1875 would be what I wanted

Might have been fishing them a little quick?

Keep your breaks up high when you first start out. I’m not great at it at all but I kept the breaks super high to start off and try and keep the birds nest from happening each cast

Awesome! Nice fish!

I keep my rods in sleeves and my reels covered while they ride in the bed of the truck everywhere with me 24/7, when I get to the lake I take all that off and put them on the boat. Just makes sense to me to protect my investments, even though I only have a few medium cost setups. A lot of time TW runs deals when you buy a reel or rod to get a sleeve or cover for free or at least discounted

New to baitcasters last year, went to the local shop and they let me fool around with RH and LH reels for what was probably an hour. I do everything righty, EXCEPT reel. RH retrieve just felt wrong every time I picked it up. The LH just felt natural. Before plopping down those green backs, get them in your hands if you can. The choice should be obvious then for you

Thanks for the suggestions guys! All added to my list.