3 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

Yaks are a great way to fish and they provide some inherent advantages, but controlling a large fish is not one of them.

 

I disagree.  If they run down, let them.  If they run away from the boat, lock down.  They'll never gain any ground on you.  The boat becomes the drag, but the fish is still on a short leash.  It's for this reason, I use a quick release loop and a float on my anchor line.  Catch a large gamefish, just release and run with it.

16 minutes ago, J Francho said:

 

I disagree.  If they run down, let them.  If they run away from the boat, lock down.  They'll never gain any ground on you.  The boat becomes the drag, but the fish is still on a short leash.  It's for this reason, I use a quick release loop and a float on my anchor line.  Catch a large gamefish, just release and run with it.

For the record, that's not my quote. I've caught more and bigger bass ever since I started kayak fishing. When I hook a big one in the big boat it almost always makes a run under the boat. When I hook a big one on the kayak and it goes under it just turns the boat. I do so love kayak fishing.

1 minute ago, the reel ess said:

When I hook a big one in the big boat it almost always makes a run under the boat. When I hook a big one on the kayak and it goes under it just turns the boat.

 

Exactly.  For the record, bass are the smallest species I catch in the kayak.  I also target much, much larger species available in my diverse waters - salmon, steelhead, brown trout, northern pike, musky, and carp to name a few.  I like my bigger power boats, but I prefer the kayak in most instances.

So to refresh you are not controlling the fish they are taking you for a ride.  If you get a big one near a tree your going to have a fun time getting all rapped up and pulled into the tree.  Open water fish are fine but close quarters in heavy vegetation sucks.

 

18 hours ago, the reel ess said:

That! You won't get tempted to swing a 5+ lb bass over the gunwale if you're already at water level. And if you get hung, you'll just drag yourself over to the snag and get it off. I have braid on one baitcaster and two spinning combos. The spinning are not great quality rods and I've had no problems with them. The BC rod is a Falcon MH that used to be my frog rod and I had the drag as tight as it would go sometimes.

"not great quality rods"  The fact is that the most fragile rods are the "highest quality" rods, the high modulus/most sensitive, rods.  

13 minutes ago, MickD said:

 

"not great quality rods"  The fact is that the most fragile rods are the "highest quality" rods, the high modulus/most sensitive, rods.  

True. But I haven't broken any of my higher or lower quality rods since I was a kid except for shutting the tailgate on a 9' crappie rod. I turned it into an 8' crappie rod and gave it to my buddy who trolls for crappie so i could use it in his boat. $40-and-up rods should last a while. Granted I don't have any $200 rods and I probably never will.

On 1/30/2017 at 4:53 PM, Jaderose said:

It was a joke

Got the joke, but for real he is usually fishing an Okuma Komodo.  From the way the rod jerks that drag is not that smooth.  Probably less that 30 bearings.

9 hours ago, the reel ess said:

True. But I haven't broken any of my higher or lower quality rods since I was a kid except for shutting the tailgate on a 9' crappie rod. I turned it into an 8' crappie rod and gave it to my buddy who trolls for crappie so i could use it in his boat. $40-and-up rods should last a while. Granted I don't have any $200 rods and I probably never will.

 

I agree.  The only rods I've ever broken have been stupid things I did.  Never with a fish on.

I'm with MickD. The only rods I've had break on me were (a) a freak occurance, and (b) a victim of my stupidity and my truck's tailgate.

 

Regarding your using braid on your baitcaster while still on a learning curve, I'll suggest getting some 12 pound mono ($$$), start reading here: http://www.bassresource.com/beginner/how-to-use-baitcaster.html, and get out and practice, practice, practice.  I started with a BPS PQ. It took me almost a full season to get comfortable with it.

 

Keep with it, and best of luck.