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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..

Even with my pedal kayak, the paddle gets plenty of use. I picked up a Werner Tybee quite a while ago - I wanted something decently lightweight, but with standard 'plastic' blades as I'm mainly on the river, and slamming carbon blades on the rocks just doesn't appeal to me. It was a nice upgrade from the cheapy paddle I was using before.

Fished a river in the Brainerd area this weekend. Usually pretty decent smallmouth river, but it was slow. Fished a familiar stretch on Saturday, and only managed two smallmouth. They didn't want anything to do with the upper 2/3's of the water, and I only managed to get them once I switched to the fly rod, with a crawfish pattern and a sink tip leader. Swing through the current with no movement, they were pretty lazy. Also managed my first walleye on the fly with that technique. Fished a new section upstream of that on Sunday, and saw why. Lots of beds, most with smallies actively guarding them. Got my one bed bass of the year.. I don't normally try for them, but the water was so clear that it was fun to watch it interact with my jig. Saw a giant walleye mixed in with a bunch of river redhorse, but it spooked before I could get a lure down there..

AKA when I get the crap scared out of me and almost fall out of my kayak. Seems like it only happens when I'm starting to zone out.

My Bite FD has one in-hull holder at each side of the seat, and I have a crate with 2 rod holders on it. At the start of the day, my favorite / most used setup goes in the left hull (I'm a lefty), second choice for the day in the right hull. Backups go in the crate. They'll rotate through positions depending on what's working.

I've been looking at those but feel like the first thing I would do is snag the pull cord and trigger it accidently.

I do, mainly the west side of WI targeting smallmouth. I may try some spots around Hayward this year.

I picked up that same reel from Digitaka 2 or 3 years ago. It quickly became my favorite. The finish has help up really well, and I'm not too gentle with my setups.

I've had an SLX DC for a few years now. Although it's not my most heavily used reel anymore, it's never let me down. Only rebuilt it once and all the internals looked great.

MN and WI for me.

Sometimes I wish my kayak had hatches, but never having to worry about a situation like that is nice. Water can get in the hull through screw holes and such, but I've had maybe a cup or two of water in there after a full season of use.

Very slowly and carefully, any sudden movements may spook it. For lakes, I'll check the DNR website and see what the latest fish survey says. Check out their depth maps if they have them, and also look at the depth chart from Garmin if they have one. For rivers, I usually just check out the satellite images on Google Maps and do some searches for any fishing reports.