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That does remind me of another gripe - I have a carbon handled paddle and the rubber strap on the OT paddle holder is a bear to secure. I was hoping it would stretch a bit with use but no luck yet. I can't remember the brand / model of it right now so it may just be an issue of that one having a large diameter handle. The prop stuff is always good to have, I haven't broken a pin yet but I did bend one. That was a bear to get out. Don't bother trying out the MK weedless prop - it fits on the hub but the blades are too long and hit the hull. I haven't felt the need for any scupper plugs, the hull stays pretty dry and drains fast if water does get in.

You'll love it. I run a Relion 100ah in mine - I would never spend that much on a battery, but a buddy's dad was upgrading batteries in his RV and sold it to me for $150. I put in some connectors to run my power pole off it as well. For a fish finder, I run a 73SV if I'm lake fishing. I run that off a separate Amped 32ah NMC. I ran the power cord into the front hatch, but didn't hard mount the transducer to the hull. If I'm fishing rivers I generally don't bring the finder, and don't want to bash the ducer off rocks. Like I mentioned in the other thread, if you're anywhere shallow keep the drive unit unlocked. If it hits bottom it will just pop up and pull the kill switch out. Then remember to close the throttle before putting the kill switch back in.. I've heard the electrical plugs for the battery box and drive can be fragile, but I haven't had an issue yet. The only other gripe I've had with it is I wish the front t-tracks came farther back towards the seat. I like to stick a rod holder in them for trolling, but it's just far enough away to make it awkward. Otherwise it's been a great setup.

$2k is one hell of a deal, even if the battery is a dud. I paid $3k brand new without a battery. I picked up the MK as I was doing more fly fishing out of the yak, and not having pedals in the middle makes that a bit easier. Of course, the first time out I launched the hold down knob for the drive 5 feet in the air and ripped the riv-nut out of the hull.. I was a bit too used to the flex drive and learned the lesson that you shouldn't have the drive locked in shallow / rocky water.

They rate it for up to 1500 pounds, so if your boat weighs less than that it should work.

I've got a Jackson Bite FD and an Old Town Sportsman 106MK. I've had the Jackson for a few years, and picked up the OT last spring. They're both pretty similar for stability with the OT having an edge there. The OT also rides higher in the water, although bow splash is similar on both when the lake is rough. The flex drive on the Jackson is tough to beat when fishing shallow rocky rivers. Having it just fold in to the hull and not having a big hole open to drop things into is real nice. The hulls are tough, I've drug it over probably miles of rock at this point and haven't had any leaks. The keel is worn from loading / unloading on concrete ramps, but still solid. The OT is more maneuverable, the rudder works just a bit better. Interior storage is nice, but it's open to the whole hull. Fit and finish are a bit better than the Jackson, and the forward facing rod holder and built-in cupholder are nice. I can't speak to how the pedal drive compares to the Jackson as I have the MinnKota setup.

Most any fishing kayak has plenty of holes through the hull from rails, rod holders, all the little gadgets that are bolted to the hull from the factory. Also usually not sealed or just a flimsy gasket from the factory, because they don't really leak too much water inside. My Jackson Bite FD would have maybe a cup of water inside after 2-3 months of decent use. It has no in-hull storage so that never bugged me. My OT 106MK has a front hatch, I tend to keep a rain jacket in a dry bag stuffed in there.. but I found out the hard way that it gets a little more water in there and I really need open the hatch to let it air out after pulling out a moldy bag.

They're likely running a separate NMC battery for the livescope. Charge cutoff for those is 16.8v. My 32ah NMC will show 16.4-16.5v off the charger.

Too much. I've got 1 3700 two tier, 1 3600 two tier and 2 3600 cases. A few fly boxes. Plastics in a pouch hanging off my crate. All that to use mostly the same 5-6 lures that I usually do. I really need to go through (again) and slim down my selection.

My St. Croix Mojo Bass Glass MH-Moderate is my most used. Love it for choppos, walking top waters, crank baits and chatter baits.

I really only use Livescope for ice fishing, and it has absolutely taught me a lot about fish behavior. Watching in real time how fish react to your presentation is a great teacher. Plus it's pretty dang cool watching a pike creep in from the side and get into an ambush position. With that said.. @Boondocks Hunter I think you'd be better off buying something with side scan. Now, I've only really bothered bringing my livescope setup on my kayak once but I wasn't super stoked on it. In my opinion it works best when you have a really stable platform to work from. With a small boat and no spot lock you end up drifting around and having to constantly re-aim the beam, it becomes a hassle. Unless you really want some new toys to play around with, nothing wrong with that.

Another weekend in the Northwest for me. Got on the road a bit late, so I wasn't on the water until about 1230pm. Water was a bit colder than I was hoping for, around 57-59* but I had a pretty consistent bit up until around 430, and then they seemed to shut down. Tomorrow could be interesting, a falling barometer and a windy day in the forecast. Hopefully the weather change puts them on the feed. Pretty good average size today with a few tanks. Of course, the batteries on my scale died and I left the bump board I just bought for this trip at home.. oh well.

I throw the back of the kayak on the tailgate, and awkwardly try to keep it from sliding off. When that fails and it falls off, I throw my hands up and mutter to myself a bit before trying again. It's usually only an issue at steep launches, and I'll just pull all the gear off the kayak and use a cart to haul it back to the parking lot if that's the case. As to the original question, I've got about 4 seasons of launching my Bite FD the same way with no issues. I did finally buy some Kydex to make a keel guard for that and my 106MK over the winter.

The high temps keep getting bumped up for next weekend in the long term forecast. Hopefully that holds up, I'm planning on heading up to Fergus again.

You just gotta drive 2.5 hours outside the cities! In all reality, the spot I was fishing Friday and Saturday I know pretty well, and it's almost always guaranteed to be decent. This just happened to be some of the better days.

I pinch the barbs on most of my lures with more than one treble hook. If I'm not really focused on keeping the fish pinned they will absolutely take advantage and shake that lure off. I had it happen a few times this past weekend and decided to try a bit harder. Once I made it a point to always keep a good bend in the rod they tended to stay on much more often. But, I'd rather lose a fish than get another lure stuck in my hand..

I fished the same spot on Saturday, and it started out slow. Found the random smallie with a shallow crankbait. Had one gigantic blowup with a topwater. Early afternoon I threw on a ned rigged crayfish and oh man.. I pulled 4-5 out of one rock pile and plenty more scattered around. They only got more aggressive as the day went on. I threw on a little topwater crankbait and they were just crushing it, usually within a few feet of the shore. I had 4 17"+ fish in 6 casts. One of the best days of fishing I've had for a while. Checked out a different spot on Sunday, this one deeper on average. The wind made it a PITA. The shoreline dropped off pretty quick, and being in a kayak with no spotlock made it tough to focus on a spot. Most of the spots were too deep for the power pole just a few feet off shore. Lots of hammer handle pike. Only a few smallies, but if I found one it was usually a pretty good size. bladed jig was the winner of the day.

Decided to head up to Fergus Falls for the weekend and get some fishing done. Bass are fired up, very aggressive strikes. Upper 60's for water temp where I was. Even managed my first carp on the fly!

Got an email yesterday from the MN DNR on the year-round C&R for bass. Looks like they're trying to expedite the changes to get them in before the 2026 opener. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/input/rules/fisheries/continuous-bass-season.html

I finally made it onto the big river this past weekend. It was high, muddy and a bunch of weeds floating downstream.. exactly how I don't like it. Managed one decent smallie in the first 10 minutes, although I thought I had a carp on at first. This guy just dogged straight down and refused to come off the river bed. A few more small ones after that, along with 2 decent pike. Good to get back out there, but hopefully this no rain forecast holds up and levels drop a bit for the fall fishing.

Posted this over in the MN fishing reports thread, but figured it deserved it's own post here. I went up to NW Wisconsin to check some spots out and do an overnight on the river. Nice days, didn't catch much but had the craziest moment of my fishing career on Sunday while floating back downstream to the ramp.. I was coming up on what looked like a decent hole to anchor upstream of and swing a few flies through. I did just that, and in the middle of a retrieve heard a few paddlers behind me. I paused with the fly about halfway back to the kayak, turned around to see 2 canoes upstream and then felt a <thunk> on the line. Seems the pause triggered a little 14-15" smallie to hit. Got him up to the side of the kayak and then *wham* a silver torpedo broadsides it from upstream. All of the sudden I'm fighting a high 30" to low 40" musky.. on a 7wt glass fly rod with a 12lb fluoro tippet. I really didn't want to break it off, mainly because I didn't want this fish to ingest the fly along with the smallie. But I couldn't budge this fish, he was sitting right beside the kayak probably really confused why this smallmouth was trying to pull him towards the surface. Suddenly the smallie broke free of those teeth, and I tried to get him up to the surface and in my net. Mr. Ski did not agree with that, and proceeded to launch himself and the smallmouth out of the water while grabbing hold of that poor bass again. After those acrobatics he decided to head downstream and there wasn't much I could do to stop him. That rod was doubled over, and with the drag being set pretty light I had to palm the reel to slow it down. The fish ended up probably 10-15 yards downstream and, again, just sat there. I held on for dear life, and eventually the smallie came free. I reeled in as fast as I could, skipping that bass across the surface with the musky charging behind. This thing was aggressive! I got the smallie in the net, beat up but still alive. Removed the hook, snapped a quick pic and released... And then I saw a flash of silver. Not sure if that musky left with a full belly, but I switched to my casting rod and hucked a glide bait around for a while with no success. One of the few times I really wish I had my go-pro with me.

I went up to NW Wisconsin to check some spots out and do an overnight on the river. Nice days, didn't catch much but had the craziest moment of my fishing career on Sunday while floating back downstream to the ramp.. I was coming up on what looked like a decent hole to anchor upstream of and swing a few flies through. I did just that, and in the middle of a retrieve heard a few paddlers behind me. I paused with the fly about halfway back to the kayak, turned around to see 2 canoes upstream and then felt a <thunk> on the line. Seems the pause triggered a little 14-15" smallie to hit. Got him up to the side of the kayak and then *wham* a silver torpedo broadsides it from upstream. All of the sudden I'm fighting a high 30" to low 40" musky.. on a 7wt glass fly rod with a 12lb fluoro tippet. I really didn't want to break it off, mainly because I didn't want this fish to ingest the fly along with the smallie. But I couldn't budge this fish, he was sitting right beside the kayak probably really confused why this smallmouth was trying to pull him towards the surface. Suddenly the smallie broke free of those teeth, and I tried to get him up to the surface and in my net. Mr. Ski did not agree with that, and proceeded to launch himself and the smallmouth out of the water while grabbing hold of that poor bass again. After those acrobatics he decided to head downstream and there wasn't much I could do to stop him. That rod was doubled over, and with the drag being set pretty light I had to palm the reel to slow it down. The fish ended up probably 10-15 yards downstream and, again, just sat there. I held on for dear life, and eventually the smallie came free. I reeled in as fast as I could, skipping that bass across the surface with the musky charging behind. This thing was aggressive! I got the smallie in the net, beat up but still alive. Removed the hook, snapped a quick pic and released... And then I saw a flash of silver. Not sure if that musky left with a full belly, but I switched to my casting rod and hucked a glide bait around for a while with no success. One of the few times I really wish I had my go-pro with me.

Dang, I love wake baits but somehow missed the train on this one. I'll have to check the local Cabela's to see if there's any left.

Same reason I have a Zillion 😁

Sure they weren't carp / suckers? They like to jump during a spawn.

The only lures I can't catch pike on are the ones I'm using when I'm specifically targeting pike..