It's been a while since last I've been on the forums, just wondering how everyones doing-

;D

just waiting for the weather to warm up so i can cast w/o having my line freeze.  Haven't been out in a looooooooooooooong time.  :-/

yea same here-  I added some new equipment to my yak and i'm dieing to try them out..  

Nope, most local lakes/ponds are frozen.  :'(  Last time I tried to fish was probably two weekends ago, water temp was 38 deg.  We lasted about half an hour.

Nothing going on here, just trying to gear up for Spring. Doing what I can now household wise to ensure some quality time early season outings. ;D

I went fishing with Rob a few weeks back. We tried to get some dropshot going but to no avail. I'm pretty much just getting gear ready for warm temps now.

Has anyone had any luck at Huntsman recently?

Huntsman is soooo frozen........has been for about 2-3 weeks now.  unfortunatly it freezes much quicker because its kinda shielded from sunshine on a lot of the surface for long lengths in the winter.  need a nice week of above average temps and that place cracks wide open!!

Anyone heard of this new native kayak with a trolling motor center console??  I'm like..  yak for sale!!!  

are you talking about the propulsion system with the peddles? It's like combining a bike with a kayak. If thats what you're talkin about it has it's pros and cons.

pros: it can go in reverse

cons: you can't tuck them like the hobie flippers, you have to work a lot harder to get it moving (from what i read), and it won't work too great in very shallow water.

Hobie, for the win.

that's a whopping negative..  i'm talking about this.

look below..  

It looks cool, but I have a few issues, mainly that it doesn't seem easy to retract, and it takes hand control.  

agreed on the retractable..  BUT.. i believe the native is much easier to stand in with the hull designed the way it is.. and it looks easy to maneuver with your legs if need be..  i have a heritage redfish myself w/o anytype of motor on it.. but it is not easy to stand in..  and i think once in a while, it would be cool to be able to stand on it..

No issues standing on my PBG:

Nice setup for your kayak.  I've got a canoe I use for the hard to get to places but if your by yourself its a pain to load/unload the thing.  Kayak would be great in that situation.  Hopefully one day I can own the trifecta, boat, canoe and kayak  ;D.  Sick picture flippin the craw, where were you fishin?

waiting on things to warm up and itching for the shad to start running

I was tempted to put a motor on my kayak but didn't want to go through the hassle of getting it registered.

shad run should be CRAZY.  This will be my first run at it..  not sure if i'm going on the potomac or the james..  Anyone know which is better?  Also, didn' tknow that you needed to get an battery powered motor registered..  that suucks

I think SimonSays was tearing up the shad on the james last year.

yea, last year I was stuck on land but even then I caught fish almost every cast, they fight hard too! Where I went was majorly crowded one step left or right and you'd run into someone...line tangling up...it was horrible. In the water i hear you have to deal with crazies in bass boats zooming around =/

But it's major fun! I wanna try fly fishing for some this year

we should all yak out in the middle of the river, clam a spot, anchor down, and do it gangster style!

Waiting for the warm weather to come. Every time we get a day of warm weather, the next it gets freezing cold.

I like the idea of yaking an going OG.

memo

Simon, let me know if you go for some with the fly rod. I just got a fly setup myself and I'd love to use it. I definitely need to practice casting though.

BTW, have you used your fly rod for smallies? I have a 5wt and I was wondering if I need a tippet or backing.

Definitely eddie, claim a spot on the river with some other yakers =D

My fly fishing is horrible, the local orvis told me to get some 8lb Abrasion Resistant leader and 4 lb AR tippet so I've been using my 6wt for smallies but I haven't caught anything of size just some small ones but they still put up a fun fight on the fly rod.  

Shad on a reg rod/reel was fun enough...on a fly rod it should be amazing!

I already got some backing, but I didn't really get the purpose of having tippet as well. What does it do?

So you don't use any backing? I wasn't sure if I may want to get some if I happen to hook into something a little bigger that might take my 5wt for a ride.