Rucksack

Reading this thread hit close to home. We've been getting the crop of summer tourists. Several places rent them jet skies, pontoons, and kayaks. It's honestly TERRIFYING to watch them all interact. It's not only a lack of respect for somebody else's enjoyment on the water, but a general lack of understanding that you can end up dead or crippled very quickly on the water. Like others here, I avoid peak times. I also head into shallow back waters to avoid the chaos. But man, the baseline thing for me is I just don't understand the mental process. It's like they think the universe has special guardrails or cheat codes that are going to prevent tragedy from happening to them or others. And it's not just here on an island chain in tourist land. Feel like I see more and more news stories everywhere about folks getting themselves or others killed or maimed doing the most brain dead stuff. Can't tell if something changed the last few years or if it's always been this way. It's not just motorized vessels either. Saw a news story the other days that a couple of guys drowned taking a canoe out on a reservoir in a freaking tropical storm in another part of the state, for example.

This is also a good point. How you're spending time on the water is a whole other vector of expertise. I should have mentioned that earlier. I thought I was a very solid angler, bank angler with occasional boat outings when the stars aligned or I did a charter, but then I got a kayak this year. Man, what a humbling experience that has been. Some skills are transferable others are not. Just know it's a whole other world of skills development between bank, boat, kayak, or canoe. Each has it's own challenges and advantages. Don't get discouraged if you feel totally out of your element switching between them.

Had to look it up. Looks like the same genus, but different species between the coasts. Guess folks also call them mole crabs. How are you presenting that? Beneath a bobber on a worm hook?

Very cool! I'm considering doing the same on the beach because fresh bait is scarce at the tackle shops here. Sand fleas for sea mullet and croaker, with the too small to eat ones becoming cut bait for blues and drum. I'll stop there in the food chain because anything bigger than drum is probably a shark and I'd rather those stay well away from me. 😂 I'll give your method a try on the bass side soon.

I'm back surf fishing while I wait for the heat to die down a little bit. I'm having great results digging out sand fleas for bait. This got me me thinking. Does anybody do the equivalent of this for bass? I know folks do minnows. I used to do worms for panfish. Anybody out there using live bait they find? If so, what works best for you?

Drop shot. I just can't make it work. This is probably because I get bored and over work it. But man, I just can't get bit on one.

No need to start with all of that. I echo the majority opinion. Master the texas rigged worm in all of it's presentations before moving to anything else. You can pitch/flip with it, skip with it, fish it shallow, fish it deep, you can fish it slow, fish it fast, fish it weighted, fish it weightless, and change colors and sizes if you think that might matter. If I were to have access to my fishing data, I can promise you the vast majority of my fish were caught on some sort of texas rigged soft plastic -- probably a Senko. They are pretty unbeatable.

I think you'll be able to do whatever the heck you want from frogging to texas rigged soft plastic with #12 Berkley Big Game. I have to get a stout stick, wrap the line around it, and pull extremely hard to get that to break-off and I'm a fairly strong dude. I don't think you'll have any issues with that in heavy cover. I say keep it simple and inexpensive. Live the traditional mono lifestyle of your bass fishing ancestors.

I say hyper focus on one technique at a time. Only bring that bait/lure out with you. Throw that thing in all conditions. Take mental notes of what worked and what didn't. Fish it until it becomes your confidence lure. After that, pick another lure and repeat the process while occasionally returning to your previous lure(s) to stay sharp. This is the basic process I use for all my hobbies from power lifting to guitar. It works. I've gone through soft plastic jerk baits, stick baits, and bladed jigs with this method. I'm moving over to something else soon --- maybe a squarebill or shakey head. What's cool is you start to take techniques from previous baits and apply them to your new one. For example, I found you can reliably pick stubborn fish off by flipping a bladed jig into cover and dead sticking it like it was a stick bait. Am I good yet? No idea how to answer that. I'm the best bass guy in my friend group. I'm however probably bottom tier on this forum in terms of skill. Love fishing because of the endless learning curve though.

Bass Pro Shop has an amazing selection. Their clothing is shockingly decent as well. My wife has actually bought clothes there she enjoys. I'm glad you're getting one! I'm a fan. My only real knock on them (other than the standard gripes I have with big companies making it harder for family run shops) is their employees often times don't have deep knowledge or passion like you get from a mom and pop place. But man, like I said above, you cannot beat their selection. They have pretty much everything on the floor you might want.

Updating the thread. Purchased the YakAttack anchor trolley and installed it. Went well and has really improved my kayak fishing. Thanks for the encouragement!

I've landed red drum over thirty pounds and I hold a drum out fights a bass pound for pound. It was a very long fight that I depended on drag to win. I've also landed catfish and striped bass close to 10 lbs. This leads me to think I can land a 15 lbs bass. However, I try to apply some healthy skepticism to myself. It's very possible a huge bass fights in a way that I'm just not prepared to deal with. Also, I like to go after bass flipping and pitching in the gnarliest cover. That probably would turn this into a whole other kind of fight. A bass that big is probably crafty and will somehow find a way to try to break off in wood given enough time. All I know for sure is I'd love to have a chance at it!

Oh totally! I'm about to install a kayak anchor trolly system recommend to me in a thread I started. When it comes time to replace my spinning reel next season, I'll use a similar thread I started on durable reels to make my choice on what reel.

Did anything in North Carolina make the list?

The answer to "should I squeeze in some fishing" is almost always yes. Exceptions being funerals and things that will make for angry spouses.

@Pat Brown thanks for the detailed info! I'm going to try to put that into practice

I've pulled in 30+ lbs Red Drum on that kind of equipment. I therefore doubt you going up in test is going to help you much. I equally doubt it was your drag setting if we're talking a 5 lbs bass (congrats on hooking one by the way!), but you totally should set that properly. Your reel will thank you. I'm going with abbrasion on your braid. It can come from a lot of sources. Heck, I've even gotten it from knicking the line with a jagged finger nail while picking out wind knots. Check your line routinely for knicks. Cut out bad sections. To directly answer your question, I used eight strand braid when I fished with the stuff. I did that in hopes it wouldn't saw into wood. Emphasis on used to fish braid, I moved off it after several abbrasion related heart aches.

I'd love to be learned up on this, because all I seem to be able to catch during those hours is sun.

I'll take this from a slightly different direction. I have no electronics and here's what I feel like I'm missing out on. Mostly subsurface structure and depth changes which hold fish when they move off shore. I'm pretty good at reading water, but man, it feels like moon man talk when I watch videos with advice that presumes I can just locate that stuff. The other thing is locating bait fish. Again like reading water, I can read nature sign pretty darn well. However there are some days and locations where wildlife just doesn't show to indicate that. With enough trips on a body of water I piece that stuff together. It's when I'm fishing new water that I really envy the folks with electronics. I'm probably going to get a small pull behind system (Deeper Pro 2) for my kayak next year.

I keep hearing about folks throwing these big worms during the summer. That video just about convinced me to try it. I usually down size instead of upsize when the bite gets tough, so it's kind of a hard thing to convince myself to try.

Thanks for going out of your way to brighten some vets' day! Most of my friends from growing up ended up as GWOT combat veterans. That stuff really matters. Also, stripers are a total blast. Got into my first one unexpectedly in the surf this year. Fantastic fight!

I've got a buddy that says "everything will eat a shrimp". This definitely bares that out.

I've been fishing the bladed jig for most of the year. The bite has really dried up as it's warmed up. But, I've got a lot time with it on the water as a result. A bit of juice I don't see here. The name brand bladed jig has a big blade edition. Very few people throw it, which is a benefit in itself. But the juice is in that the big blade starts chattering VERY quickly. This lets you work it easily like a jig off the bottom with small pops, and because it pretty much instantly starts to chatter, you can really keep it near the bottom and get lots of attractive noise. You can also work it A LOT slower if you're doing a straight retrieve.

Lifelong southerner reporting in. Heat stoke is no joke. Seek shade. Stay hydrated. Keep curtains closed to help your HVAC out. If you've got to work outside, do it in the morning or evening. If you've got older neighbors, make sure they can get cool. On a lighter note. Our ancestral strategy tends to be to talk real slow, drink cold sweet tea, and mostly not move off the porch if we have to be outside. Seems to work well.

I hate encounters like that. My strategy is mostly smile, nod, say something vaguely pleasant, and carry on my way. People are on hair triggers it seems these days. Maybe they should try fishing 😂