the reel ess

That's a nice boat. But for that money it ought to be electric. And it looks like it really needs a trailer. I feel like I could get a jonboat with trailer, add a deck and trolling motor for less, which is something that becomes more appealing to me as I get older.

The thin wire is just a little tweak. Compared to the blade size and style, the wire has very little effect on vibration. The problem I've found with very thin wire SBs is they wear out quickly. The War Eagle spinnerbait flexes so much the lead head gets loose on it. I've had one break at the line tie during a cast. All I got back were the blades, which of course I kept for future use.

Megastrike's Roland Martin Big Bass Spinnerbait has a closed loop tie. That's because he fishes the land of 10+lb. fish. I like the golden shiner pattern. I switched from War Eagle to the Megastrike Big Bass spinnerbait and have noticed no difference in bites. You can wear a War Eagle out without catching any fish. But they do catch. So do others.

Could you car top yours without major effort? I have enough trouble standing and walking on solid ground.

I'm curious what your kayak weighs. OP is talking about car topping.

Gold, gold and more gold. I caught my PB on a gold War Eagle double willow in golden shiner pattern. I have since gone to the Megastrike Roland Martin Big Bass Spinnerbait in golden shiner pattern. It has an eye tie, the head is on a 90 degree swivel and it's heavier wire. The War Eagle's wire is just too flexy. The head gets loose on the wire and I've even broken a couple of them. I don't want to break one on a big ol' bass.

3 Lew's Tournament MB's. These were discontinued about a year ago. I have three because I liked the first one so much. 1 Lew's LFS 1 Daiwa Fuego CT Also a couple of Pflueger Trion spinning reels. As you can see, I'm a middle of the budget kind of guy. I feel like $100-150 is still a pretty decent amount of money and should get you something you can use for years. I have some others I don't use anymore. All of the Lew's reels blow the Daiwa away. I can't really complain about the Daiwa. It has worked fine for over a year. It's just a noisy reel. A couple of those Lew's are 5 years old and are smoother. I love my Lew's LFS. I have 4 Lew's reels. But that LFS is the best bang for the buck of any I've owned. I got it in 8.3:1 ratio for my pitching combo. As I said in the post above, I also have a Daiwa Fuego CT I bought on the recommendation of others on this board. My experience may not be typical, but my LFS is vastly superior to my Fuego.

I'd question if you need to stand in a kayak. I had one that was supposedly stable enough to stand in. I still didn't feel comfy doing so. It weighed nearly 90lbs. I sold it and bought one that was easier to load and unload and weighed about 35 lbs. less. No regret.

I throw the topwater early and often and until it gets no bites. Then I throw it again late. I caught a bass in Feb on the Plopper.

I have a Cabela's 7'3" H-Extra Fast frog specific rod paired with a Lew's Tournament MB reel in 7.5:1 It's spooled with 50# braid. If I were to buy a new reel for the technique I would go with 8.1:1. You need to take up line quickly when you hook one "in the mat". They will bury down in the weeds and work that hook loose if you don't keep them coming. Ideally you drag them over the mat. Big ones you just drag through the mat. If you already have a heavy 7' or more flipping rod, you have a frog rod. My go-to frog is the Booyah Pad Crasher. You can buy two of them cheaper than one of some hollow body frogs and they're very durable. I'll sometimes use the popping one and sometimes the regular. I don't notice a lot of difference. The popping one does make a sound like a little bluegill taking some food off the surface. You can often see a fish move in the weeds and target it and get a bite. Try to cast beyond the movement and try to keep your line off the surface. I have spooked some with my line or the shadow of the frog on the cast. You can sometimes get a fish that blew up on the frog to bite again on the next cast. I will say I hate the Lunkerhunt frog. It gets bites, but the legs last no time and it will be taking on water quickly. The material is not durable. It can be maddening when you miss a lot of fish on the frog. I suspect this happens a lot more with tiny bass. They're likely biting the legs. Fish will also bite frogs during the spawn. Just twitch it over the beds.

Here's a tip for soft plastics. You need to have the right hook in the right size to rig them. If you're in a store and looking at a lure and wonder what hook to get for it, walk over to the Berkley Powerbait lures of the same type and it will tell you on the back of the bag. Otherwise, just size your hook big enough so that the fish can get the hook point and not wad the bait up on it. I like to T rig worms, craws, lizards and bugs. I use a craw or bug as the trailer for jigs, though I admit I prefer T rigs to jigs. I like to use a worm on a shaky head when the bite gets slow. The split shot rig or a lightweight Carolina rig also work well when you can't buy a bite. I use a heavy-fast pitching stick with 30# braid for heavier T rigs. I use a medium spinning combo with 20# braid for those finesse lures unless I'm in heavy cover. I'll use a mono leader if I think the fish care.

I've had it happen a couple times when I was yanking a jig back for another pitch. It's the speed-up that triggers the fish to commit. But it's not common enough to count on.

Welcome. Yeah, each rod combo type certainly has its place. But I use baitcasting more than spinning by a margin of more than 5:1. I usually take 5 BC and 1 spinning combo. And often, I don't touch the spinning. I took 2 of them Saturday because crappie were spawning here last week.

I also like bright baits for this. Bubble gum, lime, white are good. Really helps to see the bait move. Otherwise you might be watching the line for movement. We don't have crystal clear water here. As for the ethics side of the debate, many of the same people who tell you not to target bedding bass will keep a limit of spawning crappie. Why is one ethical and the other unethical? They'll also haul 5 big bass around all day to weigh and return the all in the same place while telling others not to eat a bass.

It all depends. If I'm casting a topwater to shallow water that drops off quickly to 20-30' deep I don't waste time fishing over the deep water. But if I'm fishing a shallow grass flat, I stay with it all the way back. I caught a bass on a Whopper Plopper right at the boat the other day. If I'm pitching a T rig to a laydown, obviously, the cast is over once you aren't contacting wood. Just playing the odds.

Any plastic that looks like a craw. This type jig will skip very easily with a Rage Bug. When I first started jig fishing I used this head a lot with a Rage Craw, no skirt. I caught some good fish on it. But it's not much different from a pitching T rig setup. And I find the T rig gets hung up a lot less. If I want to use a jig in cover I usually use the Game Changer Trashmaster. It has a screwlock and the plastic is rigged like a T rig on an EWG hook. It is much more weedless than any conventional jig I've found. I've been using the same one so long almost the entire skirt is gone. Rigged with a bug type plastic it skips extremely well for a jig.

Wind out of the south, they bite with their mouths. LOL. I don't think the fish know the wind direction. But they feel pressure changes. I've seen it many times. Fishing reports will be great for a week. A cold front will blow through just before my weekend. Fish that were willing all week are now nearly impossible to catch. Deeper fish seem a little less susceptible to it.

I caught an almost 8 pounder in about 1.5' of water on a Chug Bug in late July. The air was so thick you could drink it. I caught a bass on a Whopper Plopper in February.

We had a lake house in my family from 2 years before I was born until about 3 years ago. My sister and I finally sold it after my dad passed. It seems to me that it was a whole lot of work. My dad would take a couple weeks a year to spend there. We worked half of that time keeping the place up and making improvements. It requires owning two of a lot of things. You need security or good neighbors to watch out for you when you're not there. But some of the best times of my life were spent there. It was just never the same after my mom died. So after my dad passed it was downright depressing to go there. Oh, but to the point, we did fish a lot.

There are some decent lists of "best kayaks in X$ range". My advice would be more about quality than brand. If you buy the cheapest thing you can find, you won't enjoy the hobby much. A stadium seat is almost a must for me. I would try to go with a 12 footer as they generally track better. Getting one made in USA is nice because of better customer service. But everything's on backorder right now anyway.

I work from home and have something of a flexible schedule. But I don't need to get off work as much during DST. So yes, it would afford me more fishing hours all year.

Lizard, jig, T rigged craw or whatever is tied on. But it'll be a lizard. I found lately they'll blow up a frog while on the bed. Topwaters work well when you know they're bedding but you aren't targeting a specific bed. They'll know you're there. And you might spook them. I have sat right over a bed in my kayak and gotten a bass to bite a jig. It certainly knew I was there. I wouldn't approach a bed with a noisy topwater. But if you fail to get a bite, come back to it with something else.

Let's see. My dad started me off crappie and bluegill (and whatever else bit) fishing. We were the bucket brigade. We kept and ate everything. I was out with him and a family friend once and they were using minnows with little success. I was bored and my dad told me to tie a Mr. Twister grub on my Zebco 33. I wore them old guys out that day. These things would catch anything in the lake it seemed. That's my first brand recognition. But they were expensive so we bought thousands of knockoffs and my dad's friend bought a jighead mold. When I was 13 I asked for a Daiwa Procaster 100 Magforce baitcaster because Bill Dance was using one on his show. That reel worked well for about 35 years. I had to replace the worm gear pawl twice. One would think that I would be a Daiwa man for life after such a good experience. But they outpriced me. Other than that, I was fond of Cabela's clothing and own one of their rods. But now that they're really BPS, It doesn't mean as much. The older I get, the less brand loyalty I have.

Look on Lew's site

I always have 50# braid on my frog combo. But I do fish treble topwaters and I would expect them to produce better in open water. I don't catch many bass in open water with a frog. It only seems to produce in or near weeds. Sure, you'll get the occasional blowup on it. Another thing I consider is fishing a treble lure near shallow weeds is that the fish will use the weeds as leverage to spit the hook. I've hooked some big gals that go straight for the lilies or wallow in the bottom weeds. I've been back and forth on the line for trebles. I use 30# braid sometimes. I've used braid with a mono leader. And now I'm back to straight 15# mono, at least for my topwaters. When I do use braid and trebles, the drag is set pretty loose and I'll just use the thumb as necessary.