JayMac89

Thanks guys. I think i will go the yak power route. Clean install from how it looks. I'm not really seeing any multi colored lights. White, green, red. But honestly I think that's on. I currently use a head lamp and the white light messes with my vision. Red or green works fine. So the interior lights being red or green only would be fine. Since I'll have extra "slots" on the yak power, I may just put multiple pairs of button lights in. Thanks again to all. Iv seen the yak power but never actually did any research on it. Quickly realized that's exactly what I'm looking for.

So iv been fishing out of a old town 106 pdl for 1 full season. And it's pretty much perfect. I put a garmin 93sv on there, upgraded to a black pak, will soon be adding a short stack, and a few other little things. But it doesn't quite feel complete. Like it's missing somthing. No real issues or things that need to be addressed. After much thought, I know what my final touches needs to be. Lights and usb charging ability. I keep things fairly simple. But those two things would really make it so I can almost live on the kayak. Iv done some looking around, but would really like some suggestions. And also have some questions. First of all, what I'm looking for in lights. I don't fish waters where gas boats are allowed. I don't need nav lights. But in the summer I will go out before sunrise and I need help seeing. Some nice strip style lights for inside the kayak would be great, as well as maybe a small light at the front to illuminate what's in front of me, being able to see my line, that sort of thing. But also a way of turning them off/on only when needed. I saw a sort of 3 channel switch (I belive by yak attack) to control these accessories. Somthing clean to install. Ability to switch between red and white light would be really nice. Secondly, I'd love to be able to charge my phone. I do HVAC, and although I'm not the owner, I run the company. It's very common for me to be on the phone alot taking service calls, then calling the on call mechanic, checking history, or invoices on the spot. You wouldn't think it is, but it's a thing. And my phone can drain fast. Especially in summer. Somthing like a thru hull wiring kit, except it's a USB port would be great. A nice clean but functional addition. Then my final question would be battery power. I use a nocqua 10ah for the 93sv. Works great. Better to get a separate power source or could I run it all off the nocqua (even if I have to possibly upgrade to the 20ah)? Any suggestions on brands or products, experiences had with certain products, any input at all, would be greatly appreciated. I found lights and USB chargers. But nothing really jumped out at me and gave me that "that's what I'm looking for" feeling. I'm very comfortable with electric (like I said HVAC guy) but battery power isn't my wheel house. It's there anything I should know before jumping in to this?

Decent morning. Caught 4 small guys in 3 hours. All on a t-rigged creature bait. Went back to my favorite lake. It's just so bassy looking. Ton of lay downs and brush and lily pads and grass. Really enjoy just making my way around hitting all the juicy looking spots. Wind was making things a tad difficult but I managed. Lost about a many as i caught. Which leads me to a quick question.... I'm relatively new to bass fishing. Belive this is my 3rd full season. I think. Any way, iv improved alot thanks to this place. Today I think somthing clicked. Could be way off though. Let me hear your thoughts. This was only my 3rd outing this year. Last Saturday I fished the same lake as today. Both days the bass we're not super aggressive. Skinny. And I had alot of what I think were swipes. Felt the tick tick but no one was home on the hook set. Yesterday at the other spot (deeper bigger lake) fish were aggressive, fat bellies. Today I noticed alot of what I belive to be beds along the shoreline. But didn't see any bass on said beds. In fact alot of my hits came in deeper water in the grass just off the beds. Because of the behavior, what I'm seeing (empty beds), and the physical condition of the fish themselves I was thinking the fish are post spawn. My thought was, shallower lake, warmed up quicker, bass spawned and now we're in the post spawn phase. Where as the deeper lake maybe is still in pre spawn? It's not super important. I fish regardless. But I do want to learn and am curious if I'm connecting the right dots here. Improving and putting the puzzle pieces together is just as rewarding as catching fish for me. Any way, hope all is well and everyone's getting on some bass!

First off, glad to be back for another season! Got out for the first time last weekend, caught a few. Nothing special. But man was today and doozy. And I'm not sure if it's good or bad. Comedy of errors but some good fish. Was really excited to fish today. Set everything up last night. Was waiting all week for the weekend. Finally, Saturday is here. Got to the lake early as usual. Setting the yak up. And realize....I don't have my nocqua battery for my 93sv. Any other lake I wouldn't really care. But this lake is really challenging. Only started fishing it late last year but struggled. It's very different then any other lake near me. So the electronics help. Oh well. No biggie. Well until I got home and found out the battery is just gone. Must of left it at the lake last weekend. South wind. Planned on fishing the wind blown bank/grass/grassline. Well, knowing what the forecasted wind would be, I already knew where I'd be fishing. I envisioned it the past few days. Problem was, somehow in my head i reversed it. And I'm my morning haze I didn't pick up on it. Dumbie. I'm fishing the protected side of the lake thinking to myself "huh, I thought it'd be more windy!". Still caught one average sized bass. Once I realized my error, I scooted over to the wind blown side. Saw a ton of activity. Caught one, but came unhooked at the side of the yak. Shoot, that one doesn't count. Then i hooked a nice one. Not a big as a 5LBer, but was close. Had some weight to her for sure. Few casts later, I feel somthing pick up my t-rig and booooogied! I'm not sure what it was. But it took off so fast, rod bent in half almost immediately, then tink, line snapped. Ugh. Few casts later, hooked into another one. Set the hook..... spinning reel snapped of the rod. You have got to be kidding me. I'm frantically trying to "reel" by hand. But the fish was gone. Called it quits right there. Caught a few average bass, the big one was the biggest iv caught at this lake by a long shot. Lots of activity, but also alot of mishaps. Not sure if it's a sign of an exciting season or a frustrating one. But happy to be fishing again for sure.

I put a garmin 93sv on my old town pdl last year. At the time I was asking myself if the 93 was too big/over kill. Not at all. Not even close. It's prefect. Extremely happy I didn't go smaller. Doesn't get in the way and can see the screen no problem. Somthing to think about.... go smaller, harder to see, needs to be closer, gets in the way more. Bigger, easier to see, doesn't need to be as close, gets in the way less or not at all. I can say with 100% certainty, if I had gone smaller I wouldn't have been happy with my purchase one bit.

I had a jon boat with no title at one point. Never got it registered, got rid of it and got a kayak instead. But I was looking into the process. Anywhere, long story short, if I couldn't produce a title I would of had to provide a bill of sale in order to get a title. I was able to look this all up on my states dmv website. But they went into extreme detail on boat size, type of motor, and so different scenarios.

Been a rough end of summer for me. Decided to go back to my favorite and best producing lake just for a bit of a confidence boost. Still struggling in that big lake iv been trying to conquer. Think that's just going to be how that lake fishes, but that's besides the point. Been at least a month, maybe 2 since iv been to the lake I went to this morning. Vegetation looks like it's starting to die off. Lots of matted vegetation. Wasn't having luck in my go to spots, had a long hard weekend without much sleep, decided to call it quits. On my way back to the ramp I was tossing a weightless t-rigged creature bait on the outer mat line and in little holes. Ended up finding a few, one being a really good one. A little skinny, didn't get a weight but probably close to 3 but not quite. Had she been a little more full of would of been a 3.5-4 pounder for sure. Put up a real good fight too. Confidence boost.... mission success

Oh boy. Alot. -3k on a kayak -Close to another grand for fish finder, battery, transducer mount -3 rods, all about 150 each. -A few hundred on tackle id guess -I don't even no but quite a few kayak accessories (black pak, beef up plate, rudder bolt, spare prop, spare shear pins, floating prop nut, kayak cart) That's not including gas, licenses, or monthly tackle subscription box. I'm at 5k easy if not more. Unless we're talking year from this day back.... in that case there's a second kayak in there. If we're just talking this calender year then it dosent. Granted, most of it was kayak and kayak accessories. Wouldn't normally spend that sort of money

I personally don't worry about "pressure". It's sort of a non factor for me. Now I'm not saying it dosent have an effect. Not what I'm saying at all, I just don't worry about it. I'm also only 3 years in, but in my limited experience, it's not a thing in my world. There are two lakes in particular. The first was before I got into a yak and the second was after. Both lakes get a ton of pressure. Both those lakes I can go to and an basically guaranteed fish. In certain spots at least with certain techniques. Now maybe that's me figuring them out and doing somthing different so I have success? Not sure. Then there's other lakes where it's not a guarantee. It's a crap shoot. The other thing is a lesson I learned this year. Iv watched other guys fish on multiple lakes. Alot of guys are lazy. They do the same thing over and over. They won't throw a jig into a gnarly laydown. Maybe around the perimeter, but not deep in there. They shy away from grass. Well, are the fish hiding in those spots feeling the pressure of no one is throwing there? Again, I don't know. So I'm not saying pressure doesn't play a role. I'm just saying I've seen lakes with pressure where it's like stealing candy from a baby. Iv seen other lakes with pressure where I struggle. Too many other factors for me to worry about pressure. Especially with my limited experience. I get cold and hot streaks and hadn't really got it 100% figured out. Probably never will, that's fishing after all. I just found another lake that is virtually impossible to fish from shore and is a challenge to get a kayak or boat in. Shouldn't be too much pressure. I'm going to try it out soon. Maybe my opinion on pressure will change.

I fish from a yak. I just got a garmin echomap 93sv. First electronics ever. Only had it for a 2 months now, maybe a tad less. I can't speak on most of what your asking. But I can say the garmin is easy to use/learn. Granted, I watched a few videos before hand to get a feel for what I was potentially buying. But I had the thing figured out enough to use almost instantly. Had it figured out enough to really start using it to its full capacity in a trip or two.

Good stuff! Happy for you. I was doing some self reflection the other day. Similar to you, although have not been fishing nearly as long, always power fished. Cranks and jigs. Slow bottom contact was not my thing. This year I really got hooked on just a weightless t-rig. As well as improving on other areas. Well, I made a big leap this year. Huge. I take pictures of most of my fish. Went back and looked. I more than tripled my fish this year from the past two years combined. I to credit the people who contribute to this forum for that success. And would like to thank everyone. You guys really make me think on a deeper level of that makes sense. And I feel it's made a huge difference. Thank you all

It's all good, disagreeing is fine. It's healthy and creates good conversation. I was just clarifying what I meant. For instance, I didn't say 2.5 pounds was average. I did say I consider a 2.5 pound bass an average size. Meaning not big, but not small either. Not that it's the average size bass caught. There's a distinction there. Plenty of dinks around here. And the reason for me bringing that up was that it makes a 4-5 pound bass a monster... to me. To others a 10 pounder is a monster.

Just to be clear, I think/know bass move. I think specifically bigger bass tend to lock down on a spot and hold. On a day to day sort of scale. Obviously seasonally they move as climate changes and as bait moves. The point being if he's trying to catch a big one, and finds it. But for whatever reason can't land it, go back a few hours later or even the next day. As long as there weren't any major changes in weather there's a good chance it'll be in the same spot. Iv seen it quite a few times in my short experience. I already have the one earlier about coming back and catching the same fish. But I got an even weirder one... Local lake. Saw this one bass, roaming in a certain area. Maybe like a 20sqft area. Bigger bass. Tried catching it, no luck. Next day, same bass. Roaming in the EXACT same spot... not area, exact spot. Went back a week later..... guess who's in the same spot. Couldn't catch him. But very clear water and got a good look at him. No other visible bass. See this guy 3-5 times over the course of a week or two. I'm too unexperienced to make a judgement on exact reasoning. But seen it a few times. On specific bass, not the majority.

Has anyone ever told you that your a genius? If not, then let me be the first. I just started using electronics in a kayak in the past month or so. One of the main learning curves for me has been approaching a waypoint and knowing when I'm close enough or to far based off the screen I'm looking at... if that makes sense. Marking position is a slick move. Granted I'm still finding some points of interest depending on the lake. So I'll still mark the structure/cover. But I'm stealing this tactic. Absolutely genius.

Iv only been fishing slightly longer than you. I am still learning myself. But I have been lucky enough to catch a few big ones. For my area at least. For reference, in my opinion a 2.5 pounder is a normal sized bass. Anything under is small. Anything over up to 3.5 or so is a really good one. And 4-5+ is a giant. Iv caught 3 in that 3.5-4 pound range and my PB is 5 pounds even. Most of what I've learned cane from the guys here. But with my limited experience iv been able to confirm a few things. First, as already mentioned, is time and consistency. I fish alot. Hell my 5 pounder I caught this year in early spring. Still cold up here. It was a day that I wasn't really expecting much action but just wanted to get into the routine with warmer weather on is way. Second is that big bass don't move. The first big guy I caught was a crazy story. The short version is I hooked up with it but it threw my crankbait in the morning. Went back in the evening that very same day and caught the same bass exactly in the same spot. And third is big bass get the best hiding spots. Every big bass iv caught was deeeeep in some sort of cover. If I come up on a lay down or over hanging trees, my first cast is going to be the risky (but high reward) cast. Deep in there. Might get hung up but might get a big guy. If no takers then I'll start to cast around the cover. You mention throwing at the edge of grass. And that's all good. But for me at least, that's not getting the big ones. If I see cover and my first thought is hesitation due to getting hung up, my follow up thought will be big bass. Again. These are all thoughts and advice iv read. But as iv caught a handful of bigger bass, they started making more sense to me and I understood what they meant better. The pieces have start coming together surely but slowly