casts_by_fly

congrats! with two puppies in the house (14 weeks, 11 months) I can attest to the time requirements you will be under and the challenges you will face. Over the past 48 hours I have offered to give up one of them multiple times....

Maybe the 106 pdl is light enough. But I’ve seen too many pictures of bolts that have pulled through even with backing plates. I'm not the best for a paddle reco since I use my motor all of the time. for a jacket I went inflatable from bass pro. I don’t wear it when the water is over 60 so I wanted something compact to store. And when I do wear it, it’s out of the way pretty well. Youll get a lot of recommendations for the chinook vest. If I wore a solid one that’s probably what it would be.

couple things. 1- the old town sportsman series kayaks are not rated for a boondox setup. Don't use a boondox or a scupper setup cart with them. Get something like the wilderness systems cart. 2- fish it before you start making any big decisions. My setup probably won't work for you and yours probably won't work for capt frydog or bluebasser. Where you put your fishfinder (and if you even need one!), where you store your rods, what type of tackle setup you need, etc, all depend on your style of fishing. Sitting vs standing, offshore vs fishing the bank, the types of lakes you're fishing, etc. 3- take it out with just a jacket and paddle the first trip. Maybe one rod with a lure already tied on. Get used to launching and loading. Get comfortable getting around, holding your position, etc. Obviously a jacket and paddle are a must. One thing that I've found very helpful is a front of seat organizer for pliers, clippers, scale, scissors, etc. Whether you sit or stand they are organized and ready to use.

i use a net from the kayak (or boat flip smaller ones). However, a belly grip like you're seeing is great for treble hooked fish like noted above. It keeps your hands away from the hooks. Also for smallies like Toxic said, they chill out a little some times. Also, if you were watching a tournament it was probably the opens on St Clair. Remember, they aren't allowed nets. And trying to get your thumb in a fish's mouth that is thrashing around is a tough ask. You can try to tire them out even further, but at the risk of them getting off or getting so tired that they die in the livewell. With belly cradling them you can more or less pin them to the boat and then pin them to your body (or worst case flop them into the boat) to control the fish. If the full length of the fish is pinned its really hard for it to flop away.

for anyone looking for a bag, the plano guide series are quite nice. I started with a 3700 size in the boat (5x 3700 plus a 3600) and it served me well for years until I bumped up to the XL this spring (7x 3700 plus 3x3600). However in the small bags category they have a 3500 size (and also a 3600) which is a nice little bag for a travelling light angler. It comes with the 5x 3500 sized boxes. The three pouches on the size are enough to throw a couple packs of plastics or small items. And Amazon has them on a prime day sale today and tomorrow for 15% off ($57 now). That's not a cheap option, but its a very nice option.

I’ve used multiple Fanny packs of different sizes for the past 30 years ever since I would ride a bike to the creek and fish for smallies. Then pond hopping for bass it was the same. I still use one of them to this day. It’s big enough to fit two 3500 boxes but I don’t do that. I have a plastic tube for a couple treble hooked baits, spinnerbaits and chatter baits go in the front pocket loose. A couple terminals in the little side pockets. A bag or two of known quantity plastics.

Lews SLP is what you describe. The flip and pitch was another. Some of the reels on the market are pitched to certain angling types as well. BFS is the obvious one. Deep narrow spools are marketed for long casting applications like cranking.

yeah, I'd agree with that. I've done all of the updates to my head unit and firmware to the megalive. Its not as good as the others for sure. But I'm invested in HB so will stick with it. I just wouldn't buy another of the same. The sales earlier this year were probably due to inventory levels. I am a little surprised that they didn't come with a little more mega live improvement. Even if it isn't hardware, the software probably has some more tweaking available.

they do in the premier league for egregious examples. Or at least a yellow card.

https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#boating@12&key=ocfeFrv`kO if that doesn't put you on freeman then you can scroll the map to find it. Also, if you look at google maps right now the satellite imaging was from when the lake was a good bit low. That will show you shoreline cover (there isn't much).

nice! Can't wait to hear about the lighter side of things too. What rod are you using? Also, are you local or on a trip? I'm curious which river you're on if local.

what fishtank posted are wooly bugger variants with dumbell heads. If you're going to go down a fly route, I'd suggest picking something like that up. They are normally 2" or so and castable on light spinning gear. Maribou comes alive on a dead fall or sitting on the bottom and small bass will inhale them.

all good advice so far. I'll offer a few different things to consider. I'm assuming you're launching at the kayak launch on the south side. There are three of you. My own personal preference is to go down the bank in the morning and hit cover with moving baits until you find some. With three, that's tougher but not impossible. I like to find shoreline cover early as this time of year the bass will often be shallow early (or the shallow bass will be eating early). I like to have some deeper water nearby, especially if the lake has a fair amount of boating pressure. Looking at the satellite map and depth map, I see three options for you. 1- leave the ramp and make a pass down the south shore. Its not deep, but 4' of water close enough to shore and what looks like a bunch of downed timber should fish early. You could hopscotch each other down that bank first and see if there are any there. Once you get past the swimming beach there is a lot of deeper water nearby (outside creek channel swing) so lots to check out. 2- leave ramp and go straight across. It's about a 1/3 mile paddle which is nothing for a PDL drive but I don't know about the paddle people. Its the outside creek channel swing and it looks like 10' close to shore with downed trees. The downside is that its right next to the state park and cabins. Could be heavy pressure, not sure. 3- the best looking water from satellite and navionics is the north west quadrant from the dam all the way back to the state park. Outside creek channel swing, long tapering point, plenty of cover in the water, unspoiled shoreline. Its a 3/4 mile paddle from the kayak ramp though, so if you can launch closer I'd do that. If it were just me in my own boat and forced to launch at the kayak ramp, I'd run the bank on #1 with moving baits while the sun was low and it was still shaded. Use that opportunity. Then when you run out of cover or if its not fishing well I'd take a break to cross the lake and hammer out that northwest side, either shoreline or the long points. Considering you have 3 of you, I don't think you'll cover that much water so I'd start at #1 and assess from there. Or if you can launch closer I'd go straight to #3.

hahahahahahahaha! You’re new to this. Soccer players are maybe the softest of all of the professional sportsmen. The lightest foot to foot clip and they look like they are trying to be Superman.

https://shopkarls.com/blog/how-to-use-bobbers-while-trout-fishing

Braid is about the same as mono for creating a backlash. It hurts a lot more when you have to cut one out that’s braid vs mono. I don’t get more than one cut it out a year (usually inattentiveness on my part) but the occasional minor overrun isn’t a thing. Just cast those out. if you’re having issues with backlashes, figure out if it’s at the start of your cast or end of your cast. If the start, add some brakes and smooth your stroke. If at the end, train your thumb a little more.

you won’t be disappointed. Report back when you use it.

The ones you already mentioned. Makers cask or special cask, four roses single. That said most any of the $45 range bottles are pretty good.

What kayak and how are you going to mount it? I don’t like shoot through transducers. Look up the switchblade setup. You can have a removable rail mount setup that is simple and compact.

NJ doesn’t have the best bass fishing however for fish variety it’s amazing how much is packed in a small area. Just one of the lakes around has four types of bass (small, large, hybrid, rock), musky, walleye, pickerel, two perch, both crappie, trout, all of the pan fish, and of course carp and cats. Might even be bowfin but I haven’t heard of much. That’s just one lake. And in one day a couple seasons back I caught most of those all in a day. Within 30 minutes of the house in the lakes I normally fish you can add northerns, landlocked Atlantic salmon, lake trout, and plenty of other oddities. Sometimes you never know what’s going to eat your lure and it doesn’t matter what lure. Some of the more notable ones for me: musky on a rage bug. It bit me off in the end but I’d have never thought that one walleye on a choppo (two in fact) and another on a spinnerbait. All 24” fish crappie on a 5” dshad. Only a 12” crappie but he inhaled it northern on a jig head minnow- not because he ate it but because I landed it 8# hybrid on a spinnerbait- not because he ate it but because I wasn’t expecting it

yeah. 10 lb supernatural as well so not thick. He hit it 2’ under the surface with 5’ of line to the rod tip. I basically boat flipped it from the hook set in one motion. Who knows what would have happened otherwise.

not a bass but it’s amazing how quickly they can swallow them. The crankbait was within 6” of the surface and on the way out when this one hit.

A spinoff from Beryl got up to southern Indiana. In the article where it says 'warehouse' that's our warehouse. Work is a little busy right now. EF3 300 yards wide which is approximately how wide the warehouse used to be. https://www.wlwt.com/article/tornados-indiana-mt-vernon-damage-ef3/61573577#:~:text=The remnants of Hurricane Beryl,of Posey County grew to

not mostly. I peg mine most of the time and leave just enough knot and hook exposed so the weight isn't pushing the plastic back onto the hook. The plastic stays in place better I find when pulling it through cover. If you put to much past the eye of the hook then the weight is constantly pushing it back onto the hook. All bets are off after 2 fish.

Owner beast 6/0 is too big. the back of the hook would be in the tail. Its also a beast of a hook (no pun intended). The Owner twistlock lite in 5/0 has enough gape and not too much length. The 4/0 isn't enough and the 6/0 is too much. They come weighted and unweighted. The Lazer Trokar swim blade in (I think) 5/0 fits. I have the hooks here and they fit. Pretty sure its the 5/0.