Predator130

Changing seat position on the water is very possible for the record contrary to what was mentioned above. Also no amount of comments here will tell you what you need since everyone's got the best, otherwise they'd own something else. Demo Demo Demo! You need to spend some quality time in a boat before you can decide what is best for you and you may make the wrong decision the first time. Fortunately with these name brand yaks you can usually get a lot of your money back out of them and go another route. I won't tell you the Ride 115 is the best cause it's not for everyone in every situation. I do enjoy mine though and I find it comfortable, stable, and a little slow. That being said I'm almost never more than 2 miles from the ramp so speed is irrelevant to me, I can't catch fish at full tilt. Is the ride stable? You tell me.

30 lb braid for my spinning rod for skipping frogs under trees and 50lb on everything else. I drag them through the muck and have no issues.

What kind of boat did you get? I fish the backwaters of Wheeler where the the trolling motors won't do you any good. Because of lack of pressure I find some pretty dumb and some pretty big fish.

When fishing frogs I don't have drag, I lock it down 100% and have no issues loosing fish after hookset.

I've actually had great success for the last month with a sharpcat that was $29.00. I wanted to try a left handed reel for cheap and I decided to also test the chinese baitcasters at the same time. So far I've landed several nice bass with it frog fishing and it has stood up to the abuse. Much better than I can say for the cheap pinnacle I had tried. Like others have mentioned only time will tell but the bearings are the same in all reels so it really comes down the the fit and finish of the frame those bearing sit in. I did choose one specifically that had a centrifugal brake instead of a mag brake. Figure it's pretty hard to mess up a manual brake and sure enough it adjusts easily to whatever weight of lure I'm throwing. I'm all for Lexas and Citicas, but you can't deny value in a cheap reel if it does the job.

I can stand in mine and I'm 6' 230, actually I don't just stand but fish. Check out this vid where I do everything from set the hook to land the fish standing. Only time I sit down at times is to take pics or change locations if the fish are stacked in certain areas, if the fish spread out I stay seated since I'm moving as much as fishing.

I'm a fan of the ride myself. Lots of capacity but it is a bear to load it on the roof. I do it but I also have a beater jeep that I slide it up the hood and on the roof, not everyone is willing to do that. I can set the hook standing and have had no issues with it so far. Look around for a good deal. I got mine out the door for 699 brand new, you should be able to find one used for less than that.

I'm a ride 115 guy myself. Love the stability. I'm 6' 230 and have no problems setting the hook on big bass while standing up. Even while frog fishing I can lay it to them and not worry about falling out of the boat. Can't even say that for my 1648 lol.

Keep an eye on craigslist, my brother picked up a perception caster for $200 on CL that normally retails for 550. Also don't be afraid of sit ins, I use a Ride 115 SOT (Sit On Top) and it's nice but plenty of fish have been caught over the years in SINKS (Sit INside KayakS) and you can get them a good bit cheaper at times. My personal opinion is that SINKS paddle a little easier than SOTs and if you're covering lots of water it's what I'd prefer. I used to have an Old Town Predator K111 and it was actually marketed as a hunting and fishing kayak, only paid $200 for it as well. Be patient and check some of the kayak forums in your area, it'll pay off.

This is my buddies 20'1" bullet with a 225 Mercury. No music necessary for vids like this one.