crankbait2009

Now that the Bass Pro Spring Fishing Classic is under way. How many of you are planning on a trip to take advantage of the deals?

well, I see advantages/disadvantages to both lights. I realize you don't do a lot of fast speed traveling in a kayak/canoe, so the light can't necessarily fall over. Unless knocked over. I am mentally picturing this light not necessarily secured in place due to that bungee chord. seems like that chord would cause it to lean slightly. as for the track system, common sense would be to buy another rail/track. cut it to length, and mount it anywhere you'd like (behind you). SO it will essentially be out of casting way, unless you fish overhead. But you necessarily don't have to use the tracks to your left and right. the OP light is only $20. So it's not like you're dumping a lot of money in to it if it doesn't work.

I was just watching the video on the yak attack light. I do like how it folds up like tent poles. place it in the bag and put away. but, having the fold up option, plus 6" more length, has a 3x price tag on it. definitely things to consider.

the gear trak idea is quite beneficial too. I have those tracks. Other than my rod holder, I try to leave those tracks empty, to not have another obstacle to tangled up in.

I saw that, but it doesn't explain mounting of the light in the link I provided.

Has anyone ever used this type of light on their kayak? How has your experience been? Easy to fasten without a bracket? can you post pictures of your mounting? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GTZQJW/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A25MX40X05LDPD I've never went night fishing on my yak, but feel the urge to do so. According to the Ohio boating laws, I don't need the navigational lights, but rather just a lantern or white light source as I am showing in the link. easy peasy now it comes to mounting. I have an eyelet to clip the light to, but the securely fasten part of it, is still in question. No, I do not have this light yet. just visualizing it. and does anyone wear a head lamp so they can see what they are doing? I do not want to add a battery to the yak, or have to worry about providing power in order to get light. So I was thinking about a head unit. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=head+lamp

Is there anyone on here that fishes Cincinnati waters that has ever caught a largemouth bass larger than 2-3lbs? I have fished these waters for 9 years and have never broke 2-3lbs. Starting to wonder if they even exist in a larger weight class

Anyone else going to the fishing expo in Columbus, Ohio this weekend? (Feb 9-11) All the other "fishing" expos I've ever seen are more for the boat/travel side of life. With very little fishing involved seminars/vendors. This one seems like it will be worth the trip. http://www.columbusfishingexpo.com/visitors

but that's IF they even exist in my waters. If no biggies go after a larger lure....it goes in my non confidence box. not good but the 130 is 1.375oz in weight. holy crap!! ya, none of my rods can handle that weight. that's crazy

I do use a baitcaster from time to time. But mainly when I can do long casts. Anything short casted......forget about it.

I bought my first Whopper Plopper yesterday. Never tried one before but hear a lot about them. Now if spring would hurry up and get here. Before settling on this one, I was comparing the 110, and the 130 to this 90. The 110, and 130 look frickin huge. Too big for my liking. I know it's not about me, but I had to put myself in the bass's shoes. I don't think I'd like something that large. so 90 it is

I have thrown a jig a time or two, but never long enough to see any results. Another no confidence bait. i agree, very easy to cast and control from a seated position. will still throw from time to time in hopes something happens

I just started using soft plastics at the end of last season. Prior to I was only using crankbaits. I don't have much confidence in plastics. But so far, the 3-4 times out last season, I caught fish on nothing but senkos. For now, I am definitely becoming a fan of them. Hopefully they catch me bigger bass this year. and if I land myself a whopper plopper, maybe that will work for me as well.

I just realized this probably should have been posted in the kayak section......but it kinda talks about both On a side note, A few months back, a guy here at work (non fisherman) said that his friend uses a whopper plopper. I thought he was just messing with me. so i decided to google this so called whopper plopper. holy hell, it is a THING!! Within the last few days, I am hearing this term come up quite often. Just as it did in post by @BassB8Caster. So I am in the process of googling these bad boys. Right off the bat, I see an expensive price tag. I don't like to spend that much on a lure, but man, theirs a lot of talk about these. I know this goes against the lures I struggle with while casting from a kayak, but if I learn to stand, or learn to use them while seated, it might just work. OR I save them for non kayak days

I've never caught anything heaver than 1-2 pounds from my kayak. So I certainly don't set my expectations too high

I'd also have to agree with casting to close targets. I have to be very careful when using a baitcaster for that reason alone. Backlashes are my friend when I don't have the space to cast. So I primarily use my spinning outfit to avoid that birdsnest.

and I thought I was going to be in the minority when it comes to topwaters.

For those of you that fish from a kayak, and that don't stand.... Are there any lures/techniques that you find rather awkward/difficult to use/do while in a sitting position? Mainly due to the fact that you are at the same elevation as the surface of the water. I have an Ascend FS128T kayak that I can stand on, but have not taken the time to master the balance while fishing. So I remain in the seat. I find it a little awkward fishing any lure that needs to stay on the surface of the water, or that needs to have constant retrieval. (buzzbaits/spinners, etc). I think I might attempt standing this year. Definitely more comfortable for fishing.

I will say this, I love using cranks, and me catching one fish every time out, was ok with me. Do they produce a lot for me? not at all. but i still enjoy them. this past friday i skipped work and went out. the waters were high, muddy, and not exactly ideal. but figured id give it a shot. was out for four hours, caught a saugeye via the crank. nobody i talked to was catching anything. senkos wern't working either. i'll give it another go next weekend.

I tried a black ribbon tail (berkley) last weekend, for a few casts, and nothing happened. SO I gave up. I'll eventually try it again, but I'll ride the senko wacky rig train for awhile

hmm, i thought i lost him due to missing the hook set, mainly due to not being ready for it. I knew treble hooks will help set the hook on their own, I didn't know that with circle hooks. thanks for the advice

As I mentioned, My numbers certainly went up that day. Went from my normal 1, to now 3 in a short amount of time. This also happened between 10Am and 1PM. Not the ideal times to fish, but obviously these bass missed the memo. I usually get one fish from 9am - 1pm

I did lose a few senkos that day, due to the fact I did not have my o-rings on hand. Never thought I'd fish the senkos, so never bothered to bring them. They are now on board and I will definitely use them tomorrow. Hopefully that will save a few more worms for at least a few more casts. I did try a jig here and there in the lilly pad beds, but I've never caught a fish with a jig either. I bought so much terminal tackle throughout my years of fishing since 2009. I have all this terminal tackle for worms, for what reason? to say I have it? I'd say so.

wordy thread, but thought I'd share....... I am primarily a crankbait user. Over the past 8 years or so, a friend of mine always tries to get me to use worms/plastics. He swears by them, along with many others. I have purchased worms over the years, would use them for a couple casts from time to time, but obviously have ZERO faith in them. They didn't produce immediately, so back in the box they'd go, and back to the crankbait I'd go. Normally I'd at least catch one bass every trip out via the crankbait. That was good enough for me. Essentially, it was enough to get by, and I was OK with that. Back in April, there was a month long kayak tourney that I signed up for, so I figured I would need a lot more than crankbaits if I wanted to have a fighting chance. So I stocked the yak with everything in my arsenal. So every time out, I tried everything.........Between the cold weather and the rain, it wasn't a fun time. Again, the plastics, along with everything else never produced for me. Back in the box they went. Needless to say, I never caught a fish in the month long tourney. Well I caught catfish on a crankbait, but obviously they weren't the desired fish. May pulled me in a couple of bass via the crankbait. All was well. Fast forward to the month of June. June 10th to be exact. Went to my main body of water. I found a river that branched off the lake and I took that back for a couple miles, fishing along the way. The waters were very calm. No boat traffic due to the shallow depths. No one would dare go back there. Except for me and the kayak . I started with my trusty crankbait casting over and over, coming up short. I tried a few other lures on and again, nothing. I was frustrated and bored at that point, so I dug to the bottom of the barrel and pulled out my circle hooks, and 5" senkos. (Saw a kayak video a while back, where the user swore by these worms and if all else fails, throw one and you'll catch a fish ). Obviously he left an impression in my mind, so I listened. I tossed out the wacky rigged green pumpkin colored senko a few times, and nothing. Paddled a bit to the next promising spot, tossed it out. nothing. Wasn't giving up yet, close, but not yet. Hit the next spot, tossed it out, as soon as that worm hit the surface of the water, BAM!! I didn't even have time to set close the bail. Scrambled to close the bail, and set the hook all in one motion. I lost him due to not being able to set it in time. I was excited at this point. So I figured, well, let's try that again. Tossed it to the same spot, I was able to get a turn and a half in before the bass slammed it again. set the hook, got him in. Now I was even more excited. Thinking it was a fluke, I paddled about 20 feet up, casted to another spot, and same thing. about a turn and a half of the reel and another largemouth slammed it. At that point, It was hard for me to swallow my pride to tell my friend he was right and that they do work. SO I refused to. I tied on a couple other colored worms, T-rigged, to see how they'd do. They didn't. So I quickly lost faith. Threw the crank for a bit, nothing. figured I'd try one last time with the senko again. Tossed it out, and slam....another one. SO after the third, I sent my friend a text and pictures showing what had happened. I could tell it made him proud I stopped after that, it was time to go home. I plan on going out tomorrow to the same river, using the same senkos, and I will see how they produce. If it happens, yet again, then I will no longer say worms suck!, and they actually produce. As of right now, I still have zero faith . I am almost there though. Here are pictures of the first two I caught.

I am going to repeat some of what others have posted on this topic, but here is my experience. I went from bank fishing for a couple years, to a jon boat for a couple years, to what I have now.....a kayak. I always fished solo, so loading/unloading and fishing alone took it's toll on me. I loved being on the water, but it's a lot of work when doing it alone. At least in my opinion. Other than the maintenance alone....making sure batteries are charged, keeping oil in the motor/in the gas, lights are all working, trolling motor working as it should, trailer tires, trailer lights, trailer bearings, etc etc. etc etc. A lot of time, money, and upkeeping to keep the boat in tip top shape for each season. that's my issue with a boat. bank fishing wasn't all bad, but I was very limited to the shores I could fish from. whether it be obstacles I couldn't get around, to people always fishing my local holes, to the waters just being over fished.....it made the bank fishing experience less than fun after awhile. my kayak, well, that changed everything for me. SInce I am always solo, I throw the yak in to the bed of my truck, strap it down and go. The only maintenance that I have come across thus far is my kayak wheels. Just need to keep the frame oiled so it slides apart easily. I don't have a trolling motor or lights so that all went away. My yak is very simple. I added an anchor system to it, and made a rod rock, but other than that, its quite simple. This is my second season having it but I think my upgrades/modifications are complete. It's definitely easy to load/unload alone. load the yak on the wheels and walk it where I want to go. The lake I go to has tons of lilly pads and they are very deep, meaning distance from the edge to the shore. I have seen all the boats on the water come to these pads and stop. they dont go deep into the beds for obvious reasons. I on theother hand will paddle through them and fish the middle or other edges no one else can get to. I find that as a huge benefit. No worrying about props getting tangled in the mess. I have the Ascend FS128T kayak from BPS. I have the 2016 model. It is very stable and you can stand up to fish. The yak is 100#, but stable. I don't need to get anywhere fast so speed was not an issue for me. I will say that the wind has kicked my arms a$$ a time or two. but that has taught me to not be such a sally and use some muscle. But I would definitely ditch the bank and get a yak. I think you'll enjoy it a lot. I know you just wanted to know whether you should go yak instead of shore, but I gave you more info than you wanted. sorry. I hope it helps Here is a picture of my yak from about two weeks ago Ascend FS128T