Subaqua Adinterim

The rod is actually quite nice. Nice cork handle and IM8 graphite rod with nice guides. You are right, this is a fantastic deal.

James - I like your set up. If you turn your rod holder to the left, so it faces the water, depending on the length of your rod, you will get approximately 7' of separation from your kayak. While paddling doesn't create the noise and turbulence of a motor, it wont hurt to get some separation from your paddling action. Also, no need to completely stop paddling, just pause or vary your speed slightly, Trolling parallel to the outside edge of weed lines is very productive. Good luck

You can have success with a variety of lures - Rapalas, Thin Fins, various crank baits. Also spinners, gitzit tubes, whatever you can retrieve below the surface when you cast, you can use trolling from a kayak. Don't try to win races when trolling, just go at a slow, leisurely pace. Initially, take a look at your lure in the water, close to the side of your kayak, to see how it's tracking and try to maintain that pace. With crank baits, you can see the rhythm and bend of the rod tip which will indicate that the lure is tracking properly when it's behind your kayak. Don't be afraid to let a lot of line out, particularly if you are trolling a shallow running lure such as a small floating Rapala. Have your rod holder in front of you and your rod horizontal to the water, with the tip close to the water, maybe a few feet or less from touching it. It's good to have the rod on a mount in front of you so you can see it pull back when you get a strike. You will also be able to see if your lure stops tracking properly, due to weeds or whatever else may happen. Trolling from a kayak can be very successful, because of the inherent difference between a motorized craft and a human powered one. For the most part, a motorized craft will travel at a constant speed when trolling. A human is not machine like, and will from time to time, pause and/or vary paddling speed. This will cause irregularities in the travel of your lure and can trigger a strike. I have caught many bass when trolling in my kayak; also, pike, pickerel, pan fish and surprisingly brown trout and even more surprising lake trout. Trolling is not the primary tactic that I use; however, if I'm traveling from one place to another on the lake and am not in any hurry, I might as well have a lure in the water and give myself a chance to catch something. Good luck with your efforts.

Back at it, and did much better than the week before when I caught only 1 big pickerel, a sunfish and a small LMB. I got out yesterday about 3 p.m. and fished for about 3 hours, stopping to stretch a few times. Before leaving at around 7, I landed 15 LMB (a few were about 3#, the rest were maybe 1#), 1 pickerel and a SMB that was just over 21". I caught the SMB around 6:30 and didn't have a scale to weigh it, so I rowed over to a nearby aluminum boat (keeping the fish in the net and in the water as I went) and asked the 2 guys in the boat if they had a scale so I could weigh it. They did; however, it didn't work, so they measured it for me and took my picture with the fish before I released it. They asked me what I was doing to catch so many, as they had tried everything and caught nothing; so I told them the depth and the technique to use and one of the guys caught a 19" LMB on one of his first few casts. That was good to see, as they were really nice people and they were thrilled to catch something. Also good to see that they released it after measuring. I wished them luck, and headed back to shore, happy to end the day landing a big fish and able to drive home in daylight. I would post some pics, however when I try to attach a file there is a message that says I'm only allowed to upload 501.76KB which is strange because I have 195.31 mb capacity left for attachments?

You know, I never thought about it like that. That's a good point. This is exactly why I came to this forum. Thanks Also consider using the snap on your main line as suggested and tying a swivel to each of your leader set ups that actually require a direct tie to the lure, such as spinners or EWG hooks for soft plastics. You will then be able to tie a good knot, such as a Palomar to each swivel and have a lower profile connection that can easily be taken on and off and reused. You will also eliminate any line twist as you will be creating a reverse snap swivel as described by JFrancho above. I attach a snap to anything that it can be attached to directly such as a crank bait , however, for items like hooks I will make a leader that attaches line directly to the hook and then have a swivel at the top which I can attach to a snap on my main line. This makes changing rigs on the 2 rods that I bring in the cramped quarters of my kayak much easier. As far as the warnings that you will get about more connections and additional points of failure - if you tie your knots correctly and set your drag properly, there should be little concern. There are steelhead and salmon fisherman who routinely use multiple line/leader connections to catch heavier fish on lighter lines than most here use for bass. Your aim is to make your time spent on the water as enjoyable as possible and it's good to look at options that will allow you to do this. Best of luck.

John - I'm just trying to understand. If you are attaching a Duolock to a swivel, aren't you just creating a snap swivel, albeit an upside down one? If you are in effect engineering your own snap swivel, is this how you get it to "measure up", by using higher quality components?

Look at the Pflueger President Combo. DSG has this combo on sale right now. You can get the one piece rod in 6' or 7' length, or the two piece set up if that is what you prefer. The rods are light weight IM8 graphite with nice cork handles and line guides as well as a hook keeper. I recently tried out the 6' rod combo on my kayak and was quite impressed. These are a very good value for the price ( approx. $60).

Never used Mepps specifically for bass. I use 3 types of spinners depending on the species. Mepps for Northern Pike, size 4 with either the long silver blade or the oblong blade with red and white sticker on it. You will probably get many good suggestions from Mepps users on options for bass, I just haven't used them much for bass. Rooster Tail for bass in streams - watermelon color body/gold blade with pink and green tail. For trout - black or white body with silver blade. Panther Martin - my favorite - will catch just about anything, but primarily used for trout in streams - yellow body with red dots and a silver blade, or the black body with yellow dots and gold blade. If you are having a tough day and just want to catch something and there are fish in the water to be caught, get your ultralight rig out and throw a small yellow body/ red dots, silver blade panther martin. I have caught trout, pike, bass and every kind of pan fish with this.

No matter what you are doing - tie direct, snap, snap swivel; whatever the connection - check your line often and retie when necessary. I have retied a snap swivel when the line looks frayed or worn in the same way that I retie a direct knot to the lure. Taking your time on that one knot to make sure it is right, is a good idea anyway. Sometimes I choose to use snap swivels and I like them. I understand that some others may not like them; I will not dismiss their choice, but will offer why I like my option and why I feel it helps me enjoy fishing, which is why I fish. I would recommend a quality coast lock, ball bearing swivel like a Spro or Sampo, if someone decides to fish this way.

There are benefits to using a quality snap swivel in certain situations. The little cleo lure pictured above would be a good application for a snap swivel, as the split ring and swivel is rigged to replicate a snap swivel. Many spoons, such as a little cleo, don't come with any connection at the top other than the hole in the metal. These types of lures are perfect for a snap swivel. The benefits of a snap swivel are ease of connecting and changing lures, as well as eliminating line twist. The eliminating line twist part may help prevent break offs, as there will be less side to side tension on the line if the swivel is turning and twisting rather than your line; especially when you are fighting a fish or it is thrashing back and forth when you are trying to land it. If you use a swivel, make sure that you go with a quality one similar to the Spro coast lock ball bearing snap swivel. Also, try to use the smallest swivel you can get by with. Good luck with your fishing.

Yes, this is on sale now for $40 at DSG on line, with pick up at the store. Also, the Lightning Rod Shock is very good. Make sure to take a look at the tip of the Shock (or any other rod for that matter) at the time of purchase to inspect the ceramic guide to make sure that it is not damaged; as this will fray and cut your line; making the rod worthless from the start. Good luck with your decision.

When I bought some U.S.A. Braid a few years ago, the choices were green or orange. Orange has the benefit of being easier to see; additionally, being a Syracuse University grad, I am partial to orange so the choice was easy. I love orange.

Agreed; this feature is beneficial in many ways.

Besides back reeling as discussed above, which I rarely do; there are times when you will reel your lure up too close to the rod tip and will want to lower it back down a bit prior to casting in order to be able to get optimum whip and thus more distance on your cast. It is easier for me to just flip over the reverse lever and let the lure drop a few inches than to pull out the line with the drag or to flip the bail. Also, sometimes when in my kayak, my lure will get hung up and I will just flip the reverse lever so line will come out as I struggle to get in position to free up my lure. This again is easier than flipping the bail or putting stress on the drag. Additionally, if you are trolling and letting line out, you may find that you have more control; i.e. can let line out a little slower if you just flip the reverse lever and let your spool spin slowly rather than flipping the bail and letting the line go out fast. Hope this helps.

I hear you on that. When I hunted turkeys, I used a Mossberg 835 pump, with the 3.5" mag turkey loads. It wasn't an auto, so there was even more recoil. Never felt it when shooting at a turkey, but you didn't want to spend too many shots sighting it in, as it would about take your shoulder off. Also, made sure there was no turkeys behind the one you were shooting at or you would be looking at extra birds on the ground after the shot. As to my screen name, my first screen name was cutbait - as in the second part of fish or cut bait. I recently changed it and decided to personalize it and make it my first name combined with my town (Penfield) and state (NY) location as coin - penny, so I could remember it easily.

Farmer - thanks for the update. Like your update posts, not liking the results that you are getting. It has been a crazy year, but it's still early, so better days should be ahead.

Yes, it was really nice for that couple to help out. I hope their little engine will not suffer any ill effects from the strain of the tow. There were a few other motorized boats at that end of the lake then, but as you pointed out at certain times, there may be no one. There are some sandy spots along the lake, near the road, where someone could beach their boat and hitch a ride to a gas station and back if no one was around. This nice couple saved the day for these people.

I had great success yesterday using the 4" size on a size 3/0 Skip Gap hook fishing shallow water on a local lake. I pegged a 1/8 oz. tungsten bullet weight in front of it. This was weedless and I had great hook ups with it. I am going to be using the Skip Gap hooks in a variety of different ways to see what the best application is for these. I can say at this point that the Pit Boss is an ideal application for these hooks.

Went to Canadice yesterday afternoon. It was somewhat breezy and tough fishing to start, and no luck for the first few hours. It calmed down around 4pm and I started catching. Total of 7 LMB, one rock bass and 4 pickerel. Most of the bass were 1# or less, a couple were about 3#. One of the pickerel was massive as far as pickerel go. Most were caught on a pit boss, which I pegged with a small bullet weight. I saw a young couple in a small motor boat as I was heading in and they were having no luck fishing senkos. I told them they needed to head to a different spot where they would have better luck. As they were going away to the spot that I directed them to, a boat came up to them and they said it ran out of gas?? Running out of gas in a car is stupid, but seriously; running out of gas on the water is a totally different story. So this little boat ended up towing the bigger boat with 3 people in it, back to the north end of the lake. That little motor was really chugging away as it was towing the bigger boat the 3 miles back up the lake.

This reel offers a lot of value for your $. Has a stout drag - 14# and is quite solid. Not a fancy looking reel, but very functional. This is a seldom mentioned gem. Have one paired with a Veritas that has taken a lot of abuse fished from my kayak for the last few years and works great. I am considering the 308 size the next time I purchase a reel.

Many good brands out there - Feel Free, Wilderness Systems, Native, NuCanoe and more. Even some store brands such as the Field and Stream (Shadow Caster) have good, stable, comfortable fishing kayaks. You have received some good advice above: try them out if you can; and after you do get one, get a comfortable PFD that you will wear all the time on the water. Know this: you should never even attempt to stand in a kayak if it is not wide or stable enough to support that. I had a Tarpon, and you will go in the water in the blink of an eye if you shift your weight quickly in less than calm waters. I saw someone last week almost tip a Jackson Big Rig that they were clumsily trying to get into at the launch. Use common sense and be smart about it; no matter what you get, if you think that you are going to go out in 30 MPH winds and whitecaps and not be in trouble you will quickly learn a hard lesson. You do not want to learn the hard way; after all, this is supposed to be fun. Have fun researching your options and then have fun getting out on the water and fishing with your choice.

This will be moved to the bass boats section of the forum. Do a search there or look for recent posts which duplicate your question. There are many tradeoffs: comfort, weight, transportability, etc. After researching, hopefully you will find one that works for you. There is no perfect answer; you just need to find something that approaches perfect for your situation.

DSG flash sale includes Pflueger President reels for about $49 and for approx. $10 more you can get combo that includes rod. Free shipping and $10 coupon for online order ship to store: so for about $49 you can get the combo.

Don't know what others do, as there are many here that are more experienced and expert than me, however, I am successful casting around docks and other structure such as downed trees and rocks and in fairly shallow water. I fish from a kayak - no electronics, and you would not believe how successful you can be by casting directly toward shore into water less than a foot deep and reeling slowly back out to deeper water. Also, casting parallel to shore in various depth works well too. I should add that I mostly fish my t rigged worm weightless. Good luck.

Farmer - thanks for the update. It has definitely been a strange spring; the rain has been extraordinary, maybe that has thrown things off. Went out last week expecting big things, however, things were slow on one of the smaller finger lakes that I usually do well on at this time of year. Hopefully things will pick up soon. I look forward to your reports as you are a great source of what to expect in our area of the state.