tstone

Kayak fishing salt here is great. Snook will be an easy transition from bass since they act similar. Topwater like a spook is one of my favorite ways to catch them. Soft swim baits on a weighted hook or jig head are great, and I have caught tarpon and snook on flukes. I use 20lb braid with a 30lb flouro leader. Fish on moving tides, I prefer incoming but either is good. Snook like structure so as the tide is coming in and water is up toss under mangroves and docks and you’ll catch some.

Thanks! It's a Lake and Bay Backwater 20.

I would recommend doing a search for carrot stix before buying one. I had one. It broke. They essentially have no customer service, so the "warranty" is unusable. Combine that with the fact that there are tons of people who have problems them, I'll never buy another carrot stix again. The St Croix Rage at $89 is really hard to beat.

LOL

They're going to have a very hard time fixing the reputation Carrot Stix has. Why would I buy from them again given my horrible past experience when there are so many other companies that are proven to have better rods and customer service?

Watermelon red has been great in the river lately. What part of the river are you fishing?

Yellowfin is a top tier boat, a bare bones 24 starts around $89k. Rigged like that one you're looking at $100k plus. That being said you don't have to spend that much to get into a nice bay boat that will ride better in slop than a bass boat. Champion, Skeeter, Triton and Ranger all make bay boats that have similar casting decks and storage to a bass boat. Others to check out would be Blue Wave, Nautic Star, Tidewater, and Pathfinder. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. Nautic Star has a 21 ft that starts at under $30k and is a pretty nice setup

I highly recommend Power Pole. Their customer service is second to none. I have an 8ft on mine and use it every trip. Having one is great, having 2 really makes it worth it. With one the boat can spin around the power pole when it's down. With 2 you can point the boat whatever way you want and it will stay there.

When people say this, I know who not to take reel advice from. The Curado E and Chronarch E are the exact same reel.

I see quite a few flats boats in freshwater around here, mostly because we're so close to the coast it makes sense to have a dual purpose boat.

The snook bite in Tampa is on fire. Reds have been hit or miss for me and when I do find them it's hard to get them to eat artificials.

Just saw your builds, all the rods are looking great! Hope everything is going well.

I went from polarized oakleys to 580g costas and the clarity was a little better, but the big difference was the amount of glare they cut. I can see in the water much much better with the costas.

Come to a saltwater ramp down here on a nice weekend afternoon. The jetski guys will make you appreciate almost any fisherman no matter how bad they are at the ramp.

The Merc EFI motors suck fuel compared to an Opti.

Abu is one of the better companies as far as customer service. Give them a chance to make it right.

Snook are definitely one of my favorite fish to catch. With the cooler weather the residential canals have been producing good numbers of underslot fish with the occasional slot or overslot. Skipping docks with paddle tails or shrimp. Smaller tarpon are a blast too on light tackle with artificials.

I run strictly ethanol free in my 250XS. There's quite a few stations that sell ethanol free 89 in my area.

No experience with procraft but if it is an optimax it's 2 stroke

I throw a toad at least a little while every time I fish. I'd start with the toad, if you don't get much switch to the hollow body and vary speed. I have had some days where I could pretty much dead stick a hollow body with a small twitch every once in a while to get em to eat.

2 low end reels that aren't designed for saltwater didn't hold up when fished in saltwater? Go figure.

Not exactly a bass boat, but an awesome little skiff. It'll run 24mph with the 15hp or 28mph with the 20hp. $8k boat, motor, and trailer with the 15hp http://www.wingmasterboats.com/sandpiper-150-skiff/

I have a calico jack 7' ML, same company that makes the redbones and same 6-12, 1/4 - 1/2 rating. I have a 2500 reel on it, and use it for weightless flukes and 1/16 and 1/8 oz jigs. It throws the 1/8 jigs great, and I have caught some decent sized snook with it. I also have a 7'6" M clarus that is rated for 1/4-3/4 and I agree it doesn't have quite as much backbone as other medium rods.

For reds, if I had to choose only one thing to throw, it'd be a 1/8 oz jighead with a DOA cal. Otherwise, a mirrodine 17mr, or DOA shrimp. Super spooks work great along with flukes as well.