HeavyDluxe

Sometimes catch-and-release isn't the best thing for the health of a body of water (especially if sporting purposes are in view). Sometimes catch-and-eat is.

Doesn't seem to want to load for me, A-Jay... I keep getting a redirect error. How'd you find whatever page this is (and I'll go hunting for it)?

4/0 EWGs, though I've used 3/0 if that's all I have on hand. I'm cheap, so I've mainly used Eagle Claw's Lazer Sharp hooks for 90% of my fishing applications. I do have a smattering of 'nicer' Gamakatsu and 'cheaper' BPS wide gaps that occasionally get employed.

I'm totally into tight lines... If it tugs, I'm happy to catch it.

Either the President or the comparably priced Daiwa will serve you just fine.

I should add that I fish with spinning gear spooled with mono exclusively (yes, even for jigging, punching, etc). I always have the index finger of my 'rod hand' touching the line unless I'm reeling. That little extra bit of contact directly with the line makes me feel like a feel everything. For example, I can be semi-slack and not watching the line but 'feel' the line slipping ever so slightly sometimes when the fish picks it up. And I know I've felt taps in the line that didn't seem to be felt up in my hand on the rod. Something else to experiment with, I guess.

These look awesome... but also look very difficult to find.

3/8oz Siebert Outdoors Brush Jig in either black/blue or bluegill. Paired with GCYB Flappin Hawg or Zoom Ultravibe Craw.

I read and just started re-reading Largemouth Bass: An In-Fisherman Handbook of Strategies ... I think the suggestion originally came from a poster here, and I got it on the 'Zon for cheap (electronically). There are tons of other great articles out there, but this book has (so far) proved to be a good, one-stop shop for information.

As others have said, trout like this are coldwater fish... You'll find them all the way up into the northern reaches of Canada as long as there's moving water that's not frozen solid. If you're nerdy, here's an ok article on trout habitat (specific to Rainbows in this case) from the Fish and Wildlife peep at Uncle Sam. https://www.fws.gov/northeast/wssnfh/pdfs/rainbow1.pdf

I don't normally call this stuff out, but I think this is not sound advice. The best kayak angler I've fished with fished out of a sit-in kayak. They're perfectly suitable for fishing, though the form factor does come with its particular strengths and weaknesses. Again, try paddling some other boats that others have and see what you like (and can afford). If you're fishing in moving water where a self-bailing kayak is important, then fine. But I have fished all the local, non-white-water here out of both a SINK and SOT. Sure, I end up with some water at the bottom of the SINK at the end of a day. But, I end up with a wet bum in my SOT too - whether I have plugs in or not. There's absolutely no reason to fear having a SINK for a fishing kayak in 90% of angling circumstances.

As others have said, watch the line is the key along with keeping a SEMI-slack line in the presentation. But... I will admit to cheating. That is, if I throw into a spot that looks REALLY fishy, I'm half expecting that the bait will get whoofed on the fall. I know I have missed strikes because the fish sucked it in and spit it right back out on the fall and I never would've noticed. So, what I do in those situations is give a test pop as the bait descends. When I think it's somewhere that it might've been eaten, I'll get a light 'hop' with the rod tip and wail on it if I feel any resistance. I'm sure there are an equal number of cases where this means I pop the bait too early and either jump it out of the money spot or spook the fish into not biting because of the erratic movement. But, it makes me feel better, so I mix it in sometimes for myself. Feels like I'm a genius when it works. And, I never really know when it doesn't.

No experience with those particular products... But, their jigs are top-notch. So, I have a hard time believing that the other stuff would be of questionable quality.

Must've been a fun ride on the kayak... Congrats!

In fairness, I should've chosen a different word than 'ridiculous' in my previous post. I know there's real improvements in both boats - so I didn't mean to imply that it's simply price-gouging. The ATAK looks awesome... and, were I not the homeschooling-family-of-six-sole-breadwinner, I'd be totally down for it.

Frog fishing is the next technique that I want to focus on... I don't fish much topwater at all, and frogs are a major forage in a couple of the ponds I regularly fish. Should be fun. I've been scared away thus far by the rather steep price of the hollow-body frogs I've seen. I just learned about the Stanley Ribbit and Top Frog from this thread. I know the ribbit is buzz frog, but it appears to be buoyant where other buzz frogs I've fished (Horny Toads) seem to sink. Is that true? And can anyone give me a better idea about the concept of the Top Frog? It looks like a cross between a soft-plastic buzz frog and the hollow-body concept. Everything I've found is a little vague on the differences. (hope this isn't a threadjack)

The seat comfort is important, obviously... But I find the seat that came on my Ride 115 is actually fine. I'm sure there could be improvements, but it's plenty comfortable and would be perfect if I was more willing to stand in my boat to stretch periodically. I'm just not that confident with my balance yet. The bigger things to me are speed, tracking, and glide. As I start fishing bigger bodies of water, the ability to cover water more efficiently is a big deal. That said, the ATAK and so on prices are RIDICULOUS... and even the Ride 115 has gotten much pricier than it was when I bought my boat. Glad I was on the earlier end of the yak fishing craze, I suppose.

Drat... If only I'd waited! ;-) Have fun, everyone!

I use 7' rods that I bought while I was strictly a bank angler. It is sometimes an issue using the longer rods in tight quarters or making what are often short, accurate casts with longer sticks. However, I think you'd just encounter different issue with shorter rods... Less casting distance if you're anchored and hitting multiple targets, less leverage on the fish, etc etc If you can borrow a setup of whatever size you're looking at (longer or shorter) from a friend and try it... That's the only way to be sure what will work best for you. But, I imagine that you can learn to use anything with practice and then that will become your 'preferred' setup.

So, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this from a statistical/probability standpoint since the thread started. I'm curious about this, though: I know some fish can make it through the winter even if they get frozen in the water. However, I'm not sure that's true re: LMB. So, while I think smaller, less-targeted waters would be the places to find big fish, I wonder whether a lot of the small bogs, etc would actually be able to sustain a large fish through the colder months. Thoughts?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Fixing-a-plastic-polyethylene-kayak-with-a-hole-/

This sounds about right to me... At a functional level, the more consistent anglers are just better at putting themselves in a position for success. That's a combination of 'smarts' and experience. They think things through methodically, start with a good plan, and make adjustments based on what they're seeing. There's also the mentally tough side of things in the competitive world... Being able to stay in the game without going 'on tilt' is huge. I don't watch a lot of of tournament fishing... But, what I have seen on the webitubes seems to confirm this. Plus, when you look at most tournaments, there's always a local angler who does much better in the tournament than his rank/status would imply. The consistency with which that happens would seem to imply that knowing how to find fish is just huge - and far more important than presentation skills overall.

I'm no super-skilled angler, but I've always heard it different. THICKER hooks are for use with heavier braid. I believe the idea is to keep the hooks from bending open and unbuttoning when you're applying LOTS of pressure to the fish. A lighter-wire hook is more likely to straighten. So, the strength of the hook is proportional to the pressure you're going to put on the fish, and that is tied to the type of tackle. The SHAPE or style of the hook (EWG or straight) has more to do with the kinds of plastics being fished and hook-ups. You want a hook that allows the plastic to fully clear the barb of the hook when a fish is on. That means a more solid hook-up and less chance of coming unglued. So, an EWG works for really THICK plastics and the straight shank for thinner ones. I imagine there's also something application-oriented here (like Carolina rigs are best with [insert hook] because of the way you set the hook and the position of the weight relative to the hook) but I don't know what that is. Take with a relatively large grain of salt... And discard completely if others chime in.

Funny coincidence... I just fished nothing but a jig all morning and was coming online to post something similar. I started with a black/blue Siebert brush jig (3/8oz) with a black with blue/gold GYCB Flappin Hog as the trailer. Had a productive morning, and fished that trailer until only two appendages were left. Then, I grabbed the wrong bag of trailers. Being lazy, I stuck with it and just put a green pumpkin Hog on the same jig. The mismatch still seemed to catch fish. I was interested to hear more about how particular people are with color-matching the trailer. re: Length - In this case, the body of GYCB Hog (the smaller size of them) runs a little more than 1/2" past the end of the hook and then the 'flappers' extend even further. The other trailers I've fished were Zoom UltraVibe craws... They are a little more compact overall than the Yamamoto trailers. And, I definitely did 'downsize' even further sometimes by biting off a bit of the crawbutt from time to time.

I don't usually draw attention to unintentionally funny misspellings, typos, or the like. But, this one made me spit soda all over my computer.