sgjackson

Was pretty happy with the Ark someone suggested as a flipping/frog rod out of the kayak so I figured I'd ask about the next hole in my collection. Been having a lot of luck lately ripping a rattle trap through grass but I'm doing it on my MH/F baitcaster with braid and it's been an adventure landing fish on a setup with basically no stretch. Want to get something with a slower action that still has enough backbone to rip through grass and can also do double duty with chatterbaits on the kayak. My current main baitcaster has an SLX with a 6.3:1 gear ratio on it, probably going to move it onto this rod and get an HG speed Shimano to put on the MH/F. Seems like a lot of manufacturers have fiberglass rods as well as composite rods from MH to H power for this purpose, and I've been eyeballing the St Croix Victory Rip n' Chatter, the Ark Tharp B-Hittay, Evergreen Combat Stick Jackhammer Rod, and others. What rod would you get for these techniques and what line would you use?

The Tarpon is only 32" wide and pretty wobbly - I also don't have great balance admittedly and want to stack the deck in my favor

I currently have a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 130X that I got a few years ago and I've never really been happy with it - it's not stable enough to stand in, the seat isn't great and I'm constantly adjusting it, and it's kind of noisy when waves slap against the center pod. One of the seat straps snapped on it this weekend - a new seat is 400 dollars, so I'm chancing a kayak seat strap repair kit I found that specifically mentions Tarpons, but I'm also thinking about just pulling the trigger on a new kayak. I've used this multiple times a week for years and I've got a pretty good idea of what I want at this point. I really only fish on lakes in Florida. Pedal drive that can either handle thick grass like Kissimmmee grass, milfoil, and lily pads, or can be lifted easily to paddle. Stable enough to stand in Light enough that I could toss it on a cart and take it up and down from the lake easily. The Tarpon X is ~80 pounds rigged and I can drag it up the bank no problem without a cart, but I'm guessing anything Pro Angler-sized would be too large. Right now I'm manually using a stakeout pole, and if I get a new kayak I want to get something that cleanly integrates with a Power Pole Micro. I looked around the manufacturers websites last night and my short list for demoing is a Hobie Outback, an Old Town Sportsman PDL 120, a Native Titan Propel 10.5, and a Jackson Bite FD. All these are (probably) more stable than what I currently have, go down to about 90 pounds without the pedal drive for carting, and easily rig up a Power Pole. Curious if anyone has any of these boats, if you've compared them, and what you think.

Emailed the guys at Ark about this and this is what they suggested also - think i'm going that direction. Gonna flip some guitars first then take it out. Thanks for the advice everyone!

I usually fish in a lake in Central Florida from a kayak and I've got a MH baitcaster as well as a medium power spinning rod I usually take out. I've been thinking about getting a heavy action rod so I can go after some of the bass I regularly see aggressively feeding in thick Kissimmee grass and lily pads with a punch rig or frogs. Read through a bunch of the threads here already of people asking for setups for this purpose and I was thinking of getting a 8.1:1 Daiwa Fuego CT for the reel - I like my Shimano SLX but having to take off the side to adjust brakes for wind is a little tedious and I want to try a Daiwa for the external brakes - and I've got a handful of possible contenders for rods (Dobyns Fury 765Flip, Ark Invoker Pro 74FHC, Ark Tharp King Cobra or Okeechobee Special, Daiwa Tatula or Tatula XT 7'4" H/XF). Also have a local tackle shop that stocks Duckett, Favorite, 13 Fishing, Dobyns, Denali, and 6th Sense so I'd consider anything from them also. I'm a little budget constricted so I'd like to keep it around 200-250 for the combo and since I'm space-limited on the kayak I'd like to keep it to one heavy cover 50-65lb braid rod. What would you look at for a setup like this?

Cools down a little tonight and I get six bites in an hour and thirty minutes. Fishing is a mercurial mistress. Thanks for the help folks, got some food for thought here.

Appreciate the offer to fish but I'll pass for now, haha. I'm about an hour or two south of Orlando in a much smaller lake. I'm not sure what kind of plants are under the water - as mentioned above there's definitely reeds and lily pads above the surface in the shallows. I do have some questions since you've installed a fish finder in the same kayak: - How'd you install it? In the Flexpod with some gaskets to run the wires? - What led you to Garmin over Humminbird/Lowrance?

Went out for about 3 hours this afternoon/evening and got skunked again. Saw some fish feeding very shallow (3-5 feet) in weeds/lily pads and some jump out where it's probably 20 feet deep or so. Got some frogs on the way to try in the shallow weeds but not sure what would be best to throw deep.

In the 30 years I've had family on this lake I've never seen a bass boat on it - only skiers/wakeboarders. There's a person who has one on a lift but I've never seen them take it out.

I don't have a fish finder yet but I've started looking. I've got a Wilderness Systems Tarpon X - it comes with a removable center pod that can hold the fish finder, battery, and transducer with a bit of drilling. I've had some success in the past just slinging worms straight off the end of the dock during past summers so I think it's possible they're suspended or on some kind of deep structure. The handful of times I've gone out before 6 I came in drenched in sweat and probably a little heatstroked because I wasn't feeling well. Mornings and late afternoon are really nice, around 80. I usually try to go out after I finish working around 6:30-7 for a couple of hours.

I've only ever bank/dock fished throwing Senkos on a spinning rod, but I recently got a fishing kayak and a baitcaster (MH/Fast Shimano SLX combo) and want to get more serious about fishing. I'm currently living on a small, round lake in central Florida that gets to about 60 feet deep in the middle, with plentiful docks, weeds, and lily pads along the shoreline. I can usually catch one or two bass going out in the late afternoon and hitting the weedlines with a Senko until sunset, but I feel like I could be doing better. I'm thinking of getting a fish finder so I can map out structure in the lake and see where the fish actually are as well as putting braid on the baitcaster to toss frogs or Texas Rigs into the nastier parts of the weeds/lily pads, but what would you guys suggest doing to catch more bass/get better at bass fishing?

Ended up getting the President combo from Bass Pro, some Senkos, a popper, and a white spinnerbait. Threw a Senko off a dock towards a weedline and shifted it every ten seconds, felt my rod twitch, and landed my first bass! Was a small one, not bigger than two pounds, but was such a rush. Thanks for the help guys!

I'm definitely going to be focusing on plastics since the locals I've talked to mostly use plastic worms and live shiners/shad to great success - right now I'm grabbing some Senkos and plastic worms for texas rigging for sure. A few of them also mentioned busting out the Rapala when it's hot to hit the schooling fish.

I used to fish a little bit as a kid - caught a few bass and some saltwater fish - and I'm thinking about getting back into it. I don't really have any tackle anymore, so I'm thinking about hitting up Bass Pro this weekend to pick up some things. I live in central Florida and would be casting off docks towards weedlines/other docks (have two specific spots in mind), and my university also has a pretty big bass/general fishing club I'm going to look into joining. Here's what I'm thinking about picking up, based on doing some searching here: -A spinning reel, gonna play with a Pflueger President, a similarly priced Shimano, and the Bass Pro store brand to see what feels better. -A medium power spinning rod with a fast action -Some 6 pound test fluorocarbon -Some Senkos -Some 4/0 EWG hooks -Maybe some other lures to play with - thinking about stuff to Texas rig curly-tailed plastic worms (this is what we always did as a kid, used purple and black Culprits), and maybe a white spinnerbait and a crankbait or two. I'm not totally sure what kind of stuff I need outside of that - obviously I need something to hold all my lures but I'm not sure if I'm okay with just needle-nosed pliers and scissors or a knife or if other tools are useful also. I think I'd set my budget at an absolute max of 200 dollars for everything, and lower than 150 is definitely ideal. If you have any input for other stuff I should look at or just general stuff I should think about, I'd appreciate it as well.