dickenscpa

I have a FeelFree Lure so the front and just front of center I have the backing plates. The back two I don’t since I don’t have access, just marine gooped screws.

You were just out fishing and discovered a dead body?! Holy smokes that would freak me out!! I don't even do well at a funeral in a controlled setting. If my boater would've been killed back then it would've affected me greatly. Even though I didn't know him really that day and now we're close friends it would've scarred me I'm sure. People just don't realize how the shock occurs in water below 70*. If you go swimming and take it slow it's one thing but to fall in or go in all at once it's a different story. It causes a lot of people to suck in a large breath. Everybody just stay safe!

Mine are YakAttack Levor locks

I live in Mid TN and as long as you don't power your kayak with an electric or gas powered motor it does not have to be registered. You also don't have to register trailers in TN. If you want power though it's cheap. My bass boat is only $13/year. Used to be an old trick here in TN that when you bought a used boat for say $10k, the seller would put on the paper that he sold you a $2000 boat on an $8000 trailer so you'd only pay sales tax on $2000. They closed that loophole, LOL!

When I got into kayak fishing back in September, my wife and two kids wanted kayaks too. My boat hasn't gotten wet since and we go out a lot together. I live just West of the Caney and we were going to kayak it Saturday, but decided to drive an extra 150 miles and hike Panther Creek on foot. The main reason was I had just fished Friday and the water temp was 56. It did get up to 80 on Saturday here but wasn't expecting a huge jump in fast moving water temp. PLUS we have gotten a TON of rain lately. The ramps I've launched at last Mon, Wed and Fri were so high that the courtesy dock and parking lot were underwater. This was just a local backwater with no current, not a river with strong current like Caney. So we decided on hiking on foot on marked trails. Wasn't gonna risk it with my wife and two kids. Not wearing a PFD is just insane in any water. I'm an exceptional swimmer. I was a lifeguard back in the day and even got my ocean cert. People don't understand that when you go swimming you get in the water on YOUR terms. When you're in a boat/kayak, 99.99% you get in the water it's NOT on YOUR terms and that's where the problem comes in. Ultra cold water can put you into shock and you could pass out or you could fall and knock your self out - way too many variables to take a chance. I used to only wear my PFD on my bass boat when the big motor was on and I put an end to that long ago and wore a self inflate even while up front on the trolling motor. I'm not big on speed on water. May be one of the reasons I've taken so strong to kayak fishing over my bass boat. I was a co angler in a tournament years ago and he was in that 60 mph range and I'm not gonna sit here and lie - I was TERRIFIED. I told him to let me off at the bank and I'd call my wife to come get me. He laughed and offered to slow down. He kept fishing and we were gonna be late getting back. He punched it and hit something underwater. We were both thrown from the boat and both wearing PFDs. I hit my head and it didn't knock me out but I was very unaware of my surroundings for a bit. I had an inflatable and wound up face up. He was wearing trad and knocked out face down. To this day I don't know how I had the bearings to get to him and get him on top of that boat until help came. Afterwards I could NOT get myself on the boat. Usually I would have hung on to the motor and trimmed it up but the motor was gone. I hung on to the boat and let the PFD hold me. It seemed like everything around me was silent and in slow motion until help showed up and then everything was loud, frantic and fast paced. I didn't know that guy that morning and we have been friends for years now. He's a pro fisherman and I've done his taxes for years now.

I was in some pretty decent wind this past Friday and got out the stake out pole and hooked to the trolley on the side. Wind got fairly stout and I happened to look back and it seemed like a fair amount of pull on the line and I was concerned it was putting a bit of stress on those screw mounted trolleys. Hopefully I was just overstressing.

My wife bought me a pellet grill for Father's Day there last June and a complete hammock/camping/backpack set up for my bday this past November. So I get a flyer in the mail last week from my points with some really good coupons, etc. They did away with hunting stuff back when Gander Mtn moved in across the street. Academy was already on the other side of the street and Bass Pro less than 7-8 miles. However, I went in last weekend and ALL fishing was gone as well. That would've literally been the only thing I would bought there. Nothing outdoorsman left just clothing for sporty stuff and golf clubs. Academy has the most awesome return policy. It's so good I don't see how they afford to do it honestly.

That was a couple of years ago, they upgraded the wheel/tires and started selling them again. I bought one in Nov or Dec and made it into a kayak trailer to carry four yaks.

So you've met my wife? She tells me the same thing about archery AND fishing. A few of my thoughts - (1)I liked this new MLF format and weight limit (2)I liked the previous one too and the old Cup format. I enjoy seeing big bass OR lots of bass. (3)I still like BASS, FLW and the 5 fish deal as well. (4)I don't think I like one format better than the other. I'd rather watch any of them as opposed to most crap on TV. (5)I used to not care for Jacob Wheeler, I could maybe explain why but you would just figure out how shallow my thought process was. I subscribed to his YT channel and got to quasi get to know him better and I was wrong, seems like a cool dude. In the process got to know DC and MDJ better and like them too.

Back in September Hook1 was getting rid of 2019s to make room for 2020s and they are right on Old Hickory Lake. They let me try out everything but their wives and I settled on a Feelfree Lure and 25% off, plus 15% off all accessories. To be honest I've went back 5-6 times as I've settled on accessories I want after kayaking for a bit and was there just this past Friday 11/1 and I bought the kayak 9/4 and they're still giving me 15% off all my accessories. To be fair I'm impulsive and compulsive and spend a lot though and 15% turns into a big deal to me. However, the manager (Matt) is SUPER friendly and helpful so they got my business anyway even if they cut the 15% off. As far as a trailer, ya gotta be saavy. Harbor Freight had their 1720# $449 trailer on sale for $349 and their 1195# $349 trailer for $249. They're both never on sale at the same time and their 20% off coupon is not good for the trailer and other stuff, but negotiate and wheel and deal. I wheeled and dealed and came out of there with the 1720# trailer for $107 plus tax. Bought 3 sets of J Hooks at Academy $49 apiece and $46 worth of superstrut stuff at Home Depot and have a trailer to carry mine and my wife and two kids (4 total) pretty cheap. I also added bearing buddys from Amazon ($28) and I'm set. I have a truck for when it's just me but a trailer is so much easier and lower to the ground I use it 99% of the time unless I put the kayak in the truck and go to the office and want to fish on the way home. Don't really care to pull a trailer in rush hour morning and evening but in the bed of the truck is easy peasy. I live in Lebanon, TN and have pulled that trailer to Reelfoot Lake with all 4 kayaks which is about 170 miles one way at interstate speeds and to Chattanooga which is about 140 miles one way and no problems. First trip I was nervous about the hubs and checked them EVERY stop but no problems and they're fine. I've never pulled my bass boat over 15 miles one way and that was back in 2008 and all the rest have been 8.1 miles to the local launch. Don't trust it. If you get a HF trailer - trust me - don't pull it without redoing the grease in the hubs. Mine came with some blue bearing grease but I had no idea of the quality. I've heard some come with a light coating of something similar to olive oil. I removed the inner and outer bearings of both hubs and cleaned with carb cleaner and repacked by hand the old fashioned way and then installed bearing buddys with Lucas grease. My kayak is only 92# dry and the wife and kids 42# apiece. I will never need to back mine into water but I have peace of mind. If I bought any trailer new or used I would redo the hubs. People just don't maintain them like they should.

I couldn't do it. If there's one thing I HATE it's driving. The only thing I hate more is being somewhere riding with someone else and can't come and go as I please - so I wind up driving. I LOVE bowhunting and target archery, but I can at least fly and shoot if I want to. Or, switch up with my wife since no trailer to worry about. Kinda hard flying a boat out to places and my wife ain't pulling a trailer with a boat on it. I'd have to make good money fishing because I'd have to hire a driver to handle my boat and fly everywhere else. Of course I'd be a nervous wreck wondering if my boat was gonna make it safe and on time. No win for me. I've got a close friend with four daughters he adores. We live in TN and he has one daughter at Georgia Tech, one at Purdue, one at UCLA and one is at home senior in high school. He loves driving and at the drop of a hat will just drive to eat dinner with a daughter and drive home. He stopped by my office Saturday to sign his tax return and just stated, "I think me and the baby girl will drive to FL tonight since Disney is not crowded at this time." That's at least a 12-14 hr drive for where we live, I couldn't imagine that.

I watched an Elite Series event on YT one day this past week. I think it was St Johns(?) the one with the two Canadian brothers up close to the top. I'd never heard of a single soul in that tourney except Rick Clunn. I have heard of Zaldain though, but it has only been recently like in the last couple weeks and that was because he was on an episode of Zona that I watched a week or two ago.

I fished yesterday from 6:30 to almost 1:00 and I stood a few times but not really for a comfort break. I stood twice to get to brand new looking crank baits out of some limbs. LOL! I don't think I ever found a lure when in my boat but I've found 6 in the kayak. I've only had the kayak 2 1/2 weeks but fished it every day but one. I bought the wife and our two kids one as well and now my 9 yr old daughter has fell in love with kayaking and fishing. A quick trip is at least 4 hrs. I don't have a back problem but I do have a lot of knee problems and 3 knee surgeries already in the books. I rarely got more than 2 hrs out of my boat. Standing and fishing does not agree with me. I apparently compensate in my back to alleviate pressure on my knees when standing and that will make my back stiff. I've got a pedestal seat on the front deck of my boat but to me they're awkward. I also don't care for my seat all the way up. My knees get in the way and I sit at a desk all day as well and maybe that's another reason. I like to sit flush with my legs straight out and relaxed and my backrest straight up. I went early Saturday morning by myself and our daughter had a bday party to go to that got out at 2:00. I fished until about 11ish and found a shady bank about 2' deep and put my stake out pole down and took the most peaceful nap. Got home about 2:30 and we loaded my daughter's kayak, ate at a drive thru and then fished until dark. A kayak is really agreeing with me. My boat's spot in the garage is barely hanging on by a thread. LOL!

One thing I've noticed in my 12 days of kayak ownership is my seat position. Of these 12 days I have fished 10 of them and 7 of those trips were in the 5-6 hour range. In my head my thought was seat all the way down paddling to location, raise seat up and fish. Lower to paddle back. I LOVE the seat on my Feelfree Lure but I've noticed when raised and I fish my posture is horrible and I can start to get stiff. If I have the seat flush I stretch my legs out and I tend to actually lean against the back rest and can fish all day. I'm a side arm caster anyway, always have been. Casting is actually much easier for me on a kayak than my bass boat.

I have my "by myself" routine down to a science - one bit of advice, if you predominantly launch alone and get used to it and have a guest fish with you politely decline their help to launch. I find if I get out of my routine I skip or forget little things.

You can test a battery with a voltmeter at rest but you can't test it under a load. I have a battery tester that will test under load which simulates cranking it. I've put it on many batteries that read 12V and hit the button and they drop to 5-7V, which is not enough to crank a motor up. I don't hook electronics up to my cranking battery because I've always been under the impression an outboard doesn't operate like an alternator on a vehicle on the recharge side and I don't want to get stranded far from the dock. You can always carry your battery to an Advance Auto, Auto Zone or O'Reilly and they'll put a test on it for free.

How old is the battery? Sometimes a battery can just go dead. Those electronics that are working, are they hooked up to a separate battery like the trolling motor battery? I have a starting battery and then two my electronics are hooked to. Since trim is on the motor my starting battery does control that though. But, you can have enough juice to work a trim and still not have enough to crank and it may be so dead it won't take a charge. I put a brand new battery in my truck 5/03/13. Get my oil changed mid August 2018 and they tell me battery is weak. Still started fine so I kinda ignored them. A week later I take my daughter to Tae Kwon Do and when we get out we drive two doors down to Wendy's and then across the street to Krogers. Get out of Kroger and my key fob unlocks doors and windows will run down but SLOWLY and starter wouldn't even make a clicking noise, it was DEAD. I had cables and a stranger came over to jump me off. It was so dead it wouldn't even jump. My daughter and i had to get in the vehicle with a stranger and go buy a new battery.

TNRiver, I bought some "fishing" pants at Academy that the legs zip off into shorts if I need to and they're SPF 50. Talk about a chicken - I know why boats scare me so bad at speed because I was involved in an accident that nearly killed me when I tried to co-angle ONE time. My heart attack in 2017 didn't help. There's something about being healthy as a horse and having a heart attack out of the blue 6 days after your checkup that gives you a big mortality check.

My wife costs me way more than the kids! I can handle the kids but my wife....whew! She’s high dollar. I haven’t listed my boat. Im gonna keep it thru the next spring. If I don’t use it I’m selling it. Unless someone just makes me a heckuva offer between now and then. Ive already had this yak on the water more since I bought it Friday than the last three years on the boat BUT I’m not stupid I understand the yak is a new toy right now so we’ll let the goody wear off before I make a knee jerk decision. I made a big snafu today. Took the yak to the office today and stopped at a place I always wanted to fish on the way home. I parked sideways on a hill. Set the nose of the kayak on the ground and tail end slid off tailgate. I tried to catch it but my crocs twisted on me and me and the yak rolled down the hill into the water. Luckily no rods in the holders so no breakage but I picked stuff up for a while. My wife bought me a new waterproof case for my phone - it works. Nothing broke or hurt but some young bucks bucks jet skiing got a good laugh. When I climbed out of the water I had somebody’s nice crank bait stuck in my arm so I had that going for me. So I got a free lure outta the deal.

Buy used or if you have legit kayak shops in your area a lot of them are running deals to clear out 2019 to make room for 2020 models. I'm blessed to have a few good shops in my area and 2 out of 3 were running awesome deals. I bought mine at Hook1 in Hendersonville, TN and they had all 2019 models 25% off with an additional 15% off any accessories you bought with it. So I splurged a bit on my paddle. TNKayaks in Carthage, TN was selling a brand new Malibu Stealth 12 for $895 and that's a $1400 kayak. A Jackson Bite for $600 even and one more that MSRP's at $899 for $595. They had other fantastic deals but the three I mentioned were the ones I was interested in. All were brand new and never in the water.

To me it's not difficult, I just hated doing it. I have it down to a science but just hated fooling with it. To me it was like when I'm driving home from the office in rush hour traffic and I get that text from my wife. "We're out of toilet paper stop and get some please!" No it's not physically difficult to get off the interstate and pull into a grocery store and pick it up and then get back on and finish driving home - but I HATE doing it. I've pulled trailers all my life and can back one up faster than some people can drive forward with nothing on the hitch. I know it's me and in my head but I'm a nervous wreck pulling my boat or my ATV on a trailer. I bought ramps that go into my hitch and pull my ATV in the bed of my truck. My kayak is in the back of my truck right now and I'm going to hit a spot I'd never pull my boat to on the way home. The biggest kicker for me is my wife, son and daughter don't give a care about fishing, I know breaks my heart too. My wife has never stepped foot on my boat, my daughter once and my son maybe three times. We rented kayaks and they fell in love with the sport. So I bought mine on Friday and went back and bought three more on Saturday. I fished most all Saturday morning, bought 3 more kayaks and we all went back Saturday afternoon. Went out again Sunday after church. If I miss my boat I'll keep it. If I sell it and regret it I'll buy another, it was time for an upgrade anyway.

For me I’m just literally burnt out on the hassle of pulling, launching and loading my boat. I love fishing but it got to the point that dreading dealing with my boat trumped my love of fishing. In the last last five years I’m 3/4 into my second tank of gas. I still have my boat so if I want to fish out of it I can. I paid cash for it when I bought it, it’s not costing much in gas that’s for sure and the ramp is 7.1 miles from my house so not much truck gas either. We’ll see I guess. If I miss it I’ll keep it and have both. If I see it’s not being used it’s gone.

I was in the kayak from 6:35-1:55 and all went well. Very stable, I could easily stand but I hate fishing standing up and one of the reasons I wanted to try kayak fishing. Seat was wonderful. No worries getting into my cooler behind me. Everything actually went perfect save one thing - the top of my legs and feet are COOKED. I caught 7 fish in these two areas I always wanted to try but couldn’t get a boat back there. So I guess she’s been slimed. I can’t even count how many dink’s had the back of my soft plastic all the way to me before letting go. Definitely have to find something to cover my legs and feet that’s not hot and ok to get wet my feet are miserable. LOL

Well I took the day off and spent all day at three different kayak shops. Two of them were next to water and let me demo. I paddled everything but a bathtub. I went to Hook1 in Hendersonville, TN which was very patient and helpful. I think they had every kayak made available for demo as well it seemed. 10’ from their back door was Old Hickory Lake. I fell in in love with a Feelfree Lure 10. I thought I wanted the 11.5 or a Moken 12.5 but they were both cumbersome loading and I knew I’d be in the same funk not wanting to fool with it. Plus the seat on the Moken did not agree with me. So im glad I went to multiple shops that carried different brands to get a taste of many. I’m happy with my decision and very thankful for all you guys advice and patience as well.

Unfortunately keeping both isn’t really an option. My wife told me to get the kayak but boat gone by Christmas. LOL! Theres a local shop here that has been very helpful AND patient. I’ve narrowed it down to a Jackson Bite, Malibu Stealth 12 and a Pelican Catch 120. I LOVE the Jackson Bite! I could do cartwheels on the deck but it’s slow. The Malibu is great but doesn’t feel super stable. Standing up was problematic. The Pelican kinda felt best of both worlds but it concerns me that it is also sold at Academy. I would hope the quality is there. One note to add - the Pelican wasn’t as fast and nimble as the Malibu but felt more stable. It also wasn’t as stable as the Bite but more flickable.