the reel ess

A pedal kayak is really the way to go if you aren't going electric. You still need a paddle if you get in weeds or very shallow water. You have to pull the pedal gear up/out when you get really shallow. Remember the kayaks with flippers don't go backwards that I'm aware of. I could see the need for pedaling backwards when you hook a fish. You'll still need a hand to adjust steering. There are some battery/manual pedal kayaks. In my state you have to register any electric vessel to use it on public waters. Of course, if you really go out in the wild it might be impossible to recharge. Beyond that, I'd definitely recommend a good seat. It makes all the difference in 3 hours of discomfort and 6 hours of slightly less discomfort. LOL. If you get a kayak stable enough to stand on you can stretch your legs without getting out/off. Along those lines, I'd definitely recommend a sit on top model. I've been using a paddle since I got rid of my old FeelFree 13' with electric motor. I don't think it makes much of a difference in how many I catch. But then I don't paddle for miles. I also don't fish big waters where it might get windy. Even so, aa 10 mph wind is about the max I'll try in my kayak. I do have a pond in a wooded area I can go to when the wind is really howling.

I have a 6' light casting rod that my dad had when he died. I've used it a time or two for a Pop R or small spinnerbaits where I know there are stunted bass. It makes small bass seem big. But there are some bruisers where I usually fish and lots of grassy cover. I can just imagine some possible PB bass taking that lure straight to the grass and breaking my heart. You know every big bass you lose was probably a PB. I do have one pond devoid of much cover where I could use it and I probably will someday.

I went to a pond that had some male bass on the bed-no females in sight. One by one, I went down the bank teasing them into biting a trick worm. The last bass would pick the lure up by the tail and move it away every time no matter what I did. So I cut it down to about 1" and wacky rigged it on the EWG hook to catch that one. Everybody wants the new bait right out of the bag. But the truth is, the smaller the bait gets, the more bites it will entice, generally speaking.

This is my favorite walking bait and color. IDK if it really matters when the fish want a topwater. I've caught bass on shad, frog and baby bass patterns. I have other productive topwaters in silver, gold, bone and bluegill.

My very competitive friend went with me one day to a place that has good average size bass. He caught about a 4 pounder, his PB at the time, and sat down in the back seat, drinking beer and texting his buddies and talkingsmack to me. I kept casting and eventually caught one bigger. I told him to take a pic of mine and send all his buddies. I said "You can't outfish me if you don't have a hook in the water."

Topwaters are by far my fav. If I could catch 5 on top or 10 on bottom, I'm going for the topwater bite. My favorite hardbait is the Super Spook Jr. I love to see the bass attack it. They're vicious. The small ones miss it a couple times, then get it. The big ones simply crush it. Next up would be the frog when the pattern is on. This is a pattern that's steady on smaller bodies of water. When the lake gets bigger, bass have other, often better options. But when they're under the mat in numbers and size, it's too much fun! Third is the T-rigged plastic, pitched to cover like weeds, lilies and laydowns. I catch more of my bigger bass doing this. Even in smaller ponds with stunted bass, the bigger ones on average prefer slow moving baits. They're not into chasing bait. If you can present a bait in their face, they'll usually take it. This means dropping a bait into heavy cover. It's a thrill when you have to drag a big gal out of a laydown.

I've been through chemo, surgery, more chemo and immunotherapy infusions and I'm not the same. I don't feel like suffering in midday heat anymore. I'm fishing by 6:15-6:30 and done by noon. I used to then go home, drink a beer, eat lunch and take a nap. Now I skip the beer. If I do happen to fish the afternoon I'm focusing on shade. Weeds, lilies, laydowns and overhangs. I'll pitch to it all. I won't hesitate to throw a topwater to the shadows. It's always surprising how some big bass will simply stay shallow. I'm a shallow water fisherman. If you must fish midday, points are steady producers. Docks on or near deep water will almost always hold bass. Deeper, shady or both. Understand that the first day of hot temps hasn't turned the water to bath temps yet. That takes a couple days.

Some things I had to learn. Positioning yourself for the perfect cast. Make that cast because you won't be sitting there long. Anchoring: I don't use one. I just haven't taken the time to try. But I'll use whatever is at my disposal. If there is vegetation I'll paddle right into it to hold my position. If there's flooded timber that will do. Just try not to get "high centered" on a stump. That's scary and you can dump yourself in on top of things you can't see. Be ready to bail out if necessary to save your equipment. I've only done it once with my first kayak, which was less than stable. Using the paddle with one hand against your belly as a lever so you don't have to put the rod down. Assuming you have a "fully manual" kayak. I usually do this just to back myself away from the target I'm trying to fish. Recognizing cover or structure just comes with practice. I don't fish where there are lots of other boats. And the ones I see are pretty much electric. Watch YT videos and do as they do. One constant is fishing docks. You'll find fish from big water to creeks stopping along the way at docks. In between use a search bait, like a Whopper Plopper, Trap, spinnerbait or bladed jig. Fish have to get from one spot to another somehow and there are objects between like stumps, brushpiles, laydowns, etc. I don't fish big water with boats running. That's the whole reason I got the kayak. If I did, I'd isolate a big creek arm and work it all from the opening to big water all the way to the back. You can't fish the whole big lake. Look for places boats won't or can't go. This is where kayaks get their advantage. Remember, the smaller the water, the more likely you will drag your bait across fish. You can fish the whole pond (several times around) or 20 acre lake. They'll also be way less pressured. The more you fish repeated areas, the better you'll get at expecting fish to be on targets.

From 2 years before I was born until a couple of years after my dad died, about 49 years, my family had a modest house on Lake Wateree. We didn't take many extended vacations. We spent every warm holiday there. One week of the 4th when I was maybe 13, a strong storm blew over and cooled the sweltering evening. My friend and I went down to the dock with our cane poles and worms to see if anything was biting. To our surprise, we caught bream, bass, crappie and catfish for hours. My dad and my friend's dad told us to start keeping them and we had a fish fry later in that week. It felt so awesome to catch the fish that later fed two families. It probably wasn't all that glorious. But that's the way I remember it.

I fish from a kayak or seated in a jon boat. You're angle is not as good as from a boat because the elevation of the tip is lower. I keep my rod high until the fish bites. Then I reel down fast and go ahead and cross its eyes. You gotta use braid in heavy cover. You can cast a frog a country mile. Mono can stretch 10%. Say you have 50' of mono line out, you really don't put pressure on the hooks until you've moved the tip 5'. Even then the tip is bending. That gives the fish a good chance to get off. A Hvy/fast action rods is very useful in the thick vegetation. I use a XH/XF frog-specific rod. Try a toad or a Johnson Silver Minnow spoon. If the fish blasts a hole in the mat and totally misses, those will sink and give the fish a second chance. I've used frogs, toads, Silver Minnow, Strike King Moss Boss, weightless and weighted Senkos and lizards with some success. Use some kind of superline or flipping hook with the soft plastics.

tie about 10 feet to something that won't move and the other end to a scale. Let us know at what weight it breaks.

Hope you use the money for another boat or something else you love.

T'is better to be lucky that good.

I agree with you in spirit. But the dirty secret about tournies is that many of those fish do not survive, especially in the hot summer. That's one thing I find hypocritical about the tourney anglers who tell you not to eat bass because they want to weigh them in. They're disproportionately, unintentionally killing larger bass.

On my pitching stick and frog rod I winch them in. I do play the biggest ones a little on the pitching stick once they are clear of cover. On anything with trebles or light wire hooks I play them out. If you don't you'll rip the hooks out or straighten them. I have straightened a standard EWG hook out on a possible PB. On the other hand I have landed a big bass that had one point of a treble on a Chug Bug in its nostril. The proximity to cover plays a part in the decision as well.