Big Al

Awesome That second pic sent a chill down my spine.

Most people will say shimano, abu, or diawa, but I've had the best experience with quantum. I don't have any experience with "high end" reels. I own two Quantum AC500CX baitcasters, and they are my favorite out of anything I've tried. The reels retail for $90 but can be bought on sale right now at cabelas for $55 if the same sale is on that was last week. Extremely nice reel for $55; one piece aluminum frame, casts a country mile, really solid, smooth drag, look dang nice, and has a flippin switch which is actually out of the way so you don't accidentally hit it all the time.

On my line- a seagull grabbed a red and white popper right out of the sky Also didn't really catch it but one day my dad and I were in our canoe paddling back in to the landing and about a 24" snot rocket jumped in. I was in the front and saw a wake comin head on and all of a sudden it flew in and made a decent thud on the aluminum. btw: snot rocket=little northern pike

I'm only seventeen so the time you guys are talkin is probably more like what was in my grandpa's box. One grandpa had a big plano with two triple cantilever trays. It had a bunch of topwater stuff like jitterbugs, poppers, rubbery frogs and spiders, and big wooden plugs. We mostly only used worms with a cane pole and beetle spins which we went through a lot of in the farm ponds. The bottom of the box was a bottomless pit that you could throw whatever into and it seemingly dissapeared. The other grandpa was a wallye fanatic on Mille Lacs that had shad raps, bottom bouncers, slip bobbers, spinner rigs, and roundhead jigs. We mostly just used a slip bobber and leech. He also had to have the gimmic lures from the tv commercials like the flying lure and bionic minnow.

If the kayak is going to be mostly used for fishing and you don't mind getting wet, the sit on top wuld be my choice. I still get plenty wet in my sit in though, so thats not a big issue. Sit on tops are easier to use because you don't have to reach underneath the deck everytime you need to grab a tackle box or whatever. They would also be easier to mount rod holders, electronics, gps, etc. to. You can stretch out easier and you don't get a goofy lookin tan only on your upper body. And if you absolutely had to have a motor, a sit on top would probably be easier to mount it to. A couple good things about the sit ins are that you can keep your gear in them and just slide em in the water and go and that all your stuff doesn't get as wet when in a little chop. There's some pretty sweet mods people do to sit on tops that you could probably check out by a quick google.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I think I'll try running everything off of one battery at first and if it doesn't go well I can get another. That battery sounds like a deal to me. I agree with the suggestion about upping the trolling motor power, and I might do it if I can scrape up some more cash. The 40 lb thrust unit is $299.99 at Basspro right now, and if I want to go up only 5 lbs to a 45 lb unit, it will cost $120 more. Can anyone share how your electronics are set up (path from batt. to devices) on your simple little boat like mine?

I'm a new guy on the forum, but I've been fishing a long time from our canoe, my kayak, and any other ways I could get on the water. Lately my dad and I have been working on installing decking, flooring, and other structural features into my grandpa's old 14' herters vee hull boat. We basically stripped it down to a bare hull and worked from there. It will be used with an old 9.8 Merc for now, and it is only pull start. I may get some pics up on here as we progress on the project. My questions concern electronics: I have an Eagle 320 graph, livewell pump, nav. lights, and will soon have a bow mount trolling motor. (probably a Minn Kota Edge 40) These all have to be powered by a battery, possibly two only if it is really necessary. Can anyone recommend a battery that will last me a good day of fishing? Also, I have been wondering about the wiring. I think I will run power to a control panel, with switches for various devices, and from there I'll have fuses/breakers inline with tolling motor or whatever else needs it. I also understand that there can be interference between devices (i.e. motor and sonar). What would be your recommendation on a wiring setup that minimizes interference? One more minor thing. I will have a pedestal up front and one in the back as well for piloting the boat. I am wondering where the best place to mount the soanr unit would be. It would be nice to have it in back so I could view it while navigating, but the majority of my fishing will be done from the front. Where would you put it? Ok, I know there's a lot of very smart people on this forum that have plenty of experience with boating electronics. Anyone wanna help out the newb? Thanks in advance...