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Mentioned on another thread, but I run the Amped 32ah NMC battery for my 73sv and LVS32. Also run my power pole off of it. Unfortunately looks like it's out of stock until late feb / early march.

I use my 73sv with Livescope for ice fishing in the winter, and run it with the GT54 transducer on the kayak in the summer. It works fine. I'd upgrade to the 9" if I found one cheap, but they rarely pop up. Buying new to upgrade would cost way too much. The one bonus is that it lasts forever on a 32ah NMC battery.

I just lay mine across the front, especially after I used it to scoop a little bird out that was struggling on the surface.

Fishing from a pedal kayak, I almost always troll when I'm moving spots if I'm fishing a lake. I've got some nice bass over seemingly featureless spots while trolling.

Bought my 73SV a little less than 4 years ago when Cabela's had them for $400. It gets used on my kayak when I'm lake fishing, and hooked up to a shuttle and livescope for the ice season. As it's not really permanently mounted to anything I tend to chuck it around a bit, but it's held up great.

It all depends on where you fish. I primarily fish shallow rivers and the micro power pole is a game changer. I think I'd give up the pedal drive before the power pole.

The Hybrid is usually my next step if I'm not getting any interest in the wake bait. Depends on where I'm fishing, but I usually start with topwater and work my way down through the water column.

Love the Wakebull, although I only have 2. I didn't realize they were discontinued until I tried to buy more... Speaking of KVD, I really like their Hybrid Hunter. It's versatile, fishes a little deeper than a wake bait but I've had really good luck with them. Checking the website I see they have a Shallow Hybrid Hunter now, I'll probably have to pick up a few of those.

When the conditions are right, I have more fun catching bass on the fly versus a lure. But there's a fine line between the fun and frustration factor with fly fishing for bass, especially out of a kayak.

https://www.startribune.com/search-on-for-duluth-man-who-left-home-to-go-ice-skating-on-bay/601189606

Much like @papajoe222, I stop throwing topwater once they start bouncing on the hard water.

Berkley Wakebull. I stopped in to a random tackle shop up north a few years ago and bought one, not even knowing at the time what the hell a wake bait was. Turned out to be an amazing lure for the areas I usually fish, caught some d**n nice smallmouth on it. Stopped at the same shop the year after, they had a single one in stock so I bought it as a backup. Didn't think I had to worry about it being discontinued so I didn't give it too much thought.. when I wanted to grab a few more, out of stock everywhere! I've picked up a few different wake baits, but that Wakebull has always been a slump buster for me.

Only in very broad strokes. Baitcasters - 7'4" MHM glass rod for my topwater / crank baits. 6'6" MF for jerkbaits. 7'6" MHF if I'm throwing bigger stuff or trolling. I've got a few others but those are the main ones I use. Also have a 6'8" MF spin setup for plastics or smaller lures. I used to bring 5-6 rods, but it gets to be a bit much on the kayak and I found that there was always one or two rods I didn't end up using. I'm usually only bringing 2-3 rods now.

I'll keep the occasional Walleye if I happen to catch one, especially while camping. If I'm ice fishing a stocked trout lake, I'll keep my limit. I should keep some pike, but I don't really feel like dealing with the slimers. Not sure I'll ever keep a smallmouth, and a lot of the waters I fish have special regs anyways.

I've used it below freezing without issue, but not a ton. Yakima has been making cargo boxes for a long time including plenty marketed to the ski / snowboard crowd. They wouldn't use a plastic that couldn't handle the cold. I'd recommend trying to get in touch through their website. They generally have very good customer service.

I purchased mine early 2023, and although I used it all last season, I never bothered to put it on the truck this year. I also bought it for half price, and I feel that's an acceptable amount. No way would I drop $700(after shipping / tax) on it, although even then it's on the less expensive side of rod boxes. It does feel flimsy, but I never had any functional issues with it. I didn't have any combos that wouldn't fit, and I liked that the box is deep enough to throw my waders and wading boots or other gear underneath the rods. I didn't notice much added wind noise or buffeting. As for security, it latches at the front and back, I think it would take some work to pry into it. I'm more worried about someone with a cordless angle grinder cutting the clamp brackets and just taking the whole thing away. It really only stayed on last year because I was doing more shuttle trips with a buddy. Getting the rods out of the cab and throwing my yak on the bed rack just made that easier. But he moved away, and I've been doing more solo / camping trips. The MPG hit with both the rod box and kayak on the rack is just too much for the longer trips, and I'd rather have my tonneau cover on to keep the box covered when my truck is at a landing overnight. Overall, if it retailed in the $350-450 range it would make more sense.

Winter - usually whatever panfish jig I'm using that a bass happens to grab. Spring - Choppo Summer - Choppo Fall - Choppo

A lot of online sites do that, especially if you haven't ordered from them before. I got 10% off my micro power pole order the same way. If it's not something I need right away and I'm just 'window shopping', I'll punch in everything short of my CC info and see what happens. Unfortunately that also tends to get me signed up for their mailing list but it's usually easy enough to unsubscribe.

I'm a big lure guy, so I start with the 120 size Choppo and go down from there.

From the MN boating guide: https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/regulations/boatwater/boatingguide.pdf Probably a good idea to check your state regulations. I'm not saying that what the row team did here was right, but from the looks of it I'll bet more than a few folks here get upset at cyclists riding on the road as well.

Fished the upper Mississippi this past weekend. It was flowing pretty decent, and surprisingly muddied up where I was. Bit of a bummer, was hoping it had cleared up by now. Saturday was rough, I was off my game and had maybe a 50% hookup rate. Sunday was much better. Got on the water early, and the bass were up shallower and hanging out around current seams and breaks. Only fished for a few hours, but got some decent smallmouth and a surprise largemouth. First time I've got one in the Miss' here, and it was the biggest one I've got in a while. Smashed a walking topwater. Just over 4lbs and somewhere above 19". I need to find my bump board..

30-40lb flouro leader material has worked well for me. I think a lot of folks will just grab flouro line and expect it to behave the same as leader material, but it doesn't. Seaguar blue label is my go-to.

It's legal to target beds here, but I don't like doing it (unless it looks like a big'un). They're never all doing the same thing at the same time, so I'll usually just look for the hungry ones roaming the shallows.

Micro power pole is the best thing I've bought after my pedal kayak. I got the 8' HD spike as I do a lot of river fishing. One trick - add everything you want to the cart, run through all the steps to check out but don't complete the purchase. Make sure your e-mail is in there. A lot of times after 24 hours or so you'll get an e-mail from the retailer offering a %10 off code to complete the purchase.

Had a pretty good weekend, even managed a few on the fly despite the wind. Ended up with about 25 smallies on Saturday and another 15 or so Sunday. Saw a few beds but didn't look like they had spawned yet. A wake bait running 6-12" was the top producer for me. Fish seemed to be hanging out at drop offs, especially around points. If there was a shallow flat with a drop, it was almost a guaranteed strike once that wake bait made it to the drop. They weren't too picky though, also got them on a chatterbait, spinner, a few top water hits, wacky worm, crankbait.. Not sure what the water temp was, but they were for sure bulking up before the spawn.