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While I could go out and spend $1k+ on a rod and or reel.. I'm a cheap ass. Or frugal, if I want to be nice about it. Usually about $150 on a rod and $250 on a reel is my max. I usually spend less on rods because, for me, they're easier to break than reels..

For my "regular" day trip spots, anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours one way. If it's 2+ hours I try to save it for when I can do a multi-day trip.

I'm almost exactly the same way, except my list generally goes: *Plopper, walker *Wake bait, shallow running crank bait *Deeper crank bait, stick bait, jerk bait *Plastics or get the fly rod out if I brought it with.

I had one BassX with the reel seat issue. On the water, I just threaded some line under the reel seat and jammed it down, held the rest of the float. Picked up some epoxy on the way home and fixed it myself. Probably could have gotten a new rod out of it but it wasn't a big deal. The only unusual failure I had was with a Mojo Bass glass. I was anchored on one side of some fast current, casting to slack water on the other side. Hooked into a decent smallie, he took a run into the current and the rod just folded near the handle. I actually sent this pic in to St. Croix, you can see the cracks near the belly of the bass. There's a decent chance I had dinged the rod prior to this, I'm not the easiest on gear. But they sent me out a new rod. Their customer service is pretty great. I had another rod I busted that was my own fault. I started the warranty process and then life happened, completely forgot about it. They actually called me up a month or two later to finish the claim.

Reels stay on the rod. I'm irritated enough stringing up the fly rod each time I use it, don't feel like doing it with my other setups.

You could do an upper Mississippi -> Mille Lacs -> St. Croix road trip. July/August is a good time to be on the rivers.

I can't speak to the Legend, but I have a Mojo bass glass 7'4 MH-M and it's my favorite rod. I highly recommend picking up a glass rod if you've never fished one.

With the warmup this weekend I'm having a tough time deciding whether to go ice fishing or heading down to the driftless area for some fly fishing..

Glad I won't have to hoof it over to Wisco in the early season. Official wording can be found here in the 'Completed Rulemaking' section: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/input/rules/fisheries/index.html None of the online regs have been updated yet.

I've been out on the ice a few times in the -10 to -20*f range, and it just isn't worth it.

Copy and paste from my post on the Fluxjet thread - 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. Because I'm generally fishing shallow, I went with a power pole over an anchor wizard or similar. That's been the best upgrade for the areas that I usually fish.

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.