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Thank you guys. Looks like the paddling of the SW will help in creeks and the length and helix drive will help with small lakes. I already have a bass boat for any lakes that allow that, so I'm not too interested in fishing medium/large reservoirs. I wanna hit waters I can't with my bass boat. Looks like the SW will be the way to go.

What water What waters do you primarily fish? Creeks I assume? Is that an issue with stumps, cover, branches etc, do you find yourself lifting the motor a lot? How "paddable" is it? Would you put an outboard on it?

Thinking about getting into kayak fishing again. I've got a 19 foot bass boat but I miss spelunking small creeks and ponds. Plus if my boat is ever out of commission I wouldn't be landlocked. Pretty much have it narrowed down to these. Any opinions? The Jonny Bass 100 at first glance seems super cool with all the options, but I'm not sure if having an outboard introduces more problems than it's worth. No pedal option, but it does have the steerable trolling motor pod which is pretty cool. The Vibe Shearwater is bigger with more space and storage. They have a "Bixpy" electric motor and you can get a pedal drive for it. No outboard option. Also more expensive. Is the shorter length of the Jonny 100 a real issue? Does anyone have experience with these boats?

This will be my last update, and it's a bittersweet one. I sold the boat last year in September. There was an issue with the engine, it wasn't going past 3000 rpm. I checked the compression and it was good, so I suspected it was a minor issue. But since I had just moved to Greenville and I was still storing the boat outside on a lot, it would be tough for me to work on it if it was a major issue. I decided it was time for me to upgrade in size and technology. I was outgrowing the space the boat offered. I sold it to a gentleman with the outboard in its disabled state, and I bought a Falcon F195 with a Suzuki DF200SS. I still keep in touch with the guy, and the boat is still running great. It turned out that I put in the wrong spark plugs...(off by a letter...doh!). Easy fix, I could've done it in 15 minutes haha. It runs ~55mph like a top. Transom and hull is still rock solid. Makes me think that boat will last forever! I don't regret my decision though, the 19 footer is much wider and more spacious. It fits all my gear plus some. And with the 4 stroke I don't have to worry about cold mornings and finicky starts (knock on wood!!!!). Buying and restoring the Ranger was probably the best decision I made. My mechanical ability skyrocketed by necessity. I learned so much about boating in the span of a year. Gaining confidence with an 18 footer was absolutely the right decision. Doing things the old school way just makes me appreciate my 2018 Falcon so much more. Looking back at my first posts brings a smile to my face, especially reading my trepidation and nervousness. Glad I pulled the trigger!

Interesting, I wonder how much it helps fish survivability. I would think if it was a great improvement most bass boats would have them now. I think on paper the boat looks slick, just waiting for more user reviews.

They’ve been getting buzz, local marine store here has been trying to get a few to sell. the padded front deck is pretty standard now on boats of that price range. The standard 112 ultrex is nice and the livewell system sounds interesting. If they start making more affordable 18-19 footers id start paying more attention. Right now they’re in the 70k price bracket which is way too expensive for most people. I just don’t see the value over a skeeter or falcon yet.

Wait.....before everyone starts dismissing all ethanol treatment, the video DID IN FACT PROVIDE conclusive evidence that for E10 gasoline it drastically REDUCED corrosion. it didn't completely prevent corrosion, but then again we're not storing our motors for 9+ months ( (At least I hope not) like the guy in the video did with his samples. It was only with the E85 gas that we saw no effects of fuel treatment. But if you're running E85 gas in your motor you deserve what you get. I would like to see a video testing different brands of ethanol treatment. If ethanol treatment truly didn't work we would see evidence of that, but there's overwhelming (albeit circumstantial) evidence that ethanol treatment does help. In fact, this video proves it. Look at the E10 example again. So for folks here using ethanol treatment for winter storage, I think you're fine. In other words, carry on

So just to clarify, changing the lower unit oil (besides during regular maintenance) is only for leak detection, correct? The actual cold temperature won't affect the gear oil assuming gear case isn't compromised?

Well I made it to Lake Dardanelle. Took me 3 days to do it. Unfortunately forecast says scattered thunderstorms tmrw, but the day after is clear. I didn't drive all this way not to fish! If anyone has tips for Dardanelle, I'm all ears

FishUSA and another site also carry them, though another site often times has things out of stock. I have an Elite 7'6 medium heavy flipping stick and it's amazing. Check out my Cashion Rod Review post

Some more quick thoughts: - There's all this argument about mega vs lowrance, or panoptix vs 360 blah blah, but I've found out over the course of the years that all that is secondary to a good map card. If you have a good map card and any type of modern depth finding you will be okay. They are essential for narrowing down water. You're not gonna graph the entire lake (unless you have oodles of time and really want to). -The Googan baits drag n drop is the real deal. Not only did it perform on Clear Lake but also on the pressured reservoirs near town. It's an effective changeup from the very popular roboworm. -The Ultrex is worth the money x2, the value added is immediate and tangible -Take your transom saver off before you launch lol. I didn't, and got lucky I only dinged my prop and I could still run. -Keitech crazy flapper is another one of my secrets. It's a pressured water performer. Hula grubs are the go-to popular trailer here, and for good reason, but if you need a changeup, grab a crazy flapper.

Per another member's suggestion, here's my experience and thought processes on fishing Clear Lake for the first time. I posted this on a different forum but maybe you guys will find it entertaining. The date fished was June 29th of this year: I finally fished Clearlake this Saturday. I'm moving out of California and I needed to make this trip and fish it once. Some friendly members here (westernbass.com) gave me some advice. I thought it might be interesting to post what I did and how I went at it as a newcomer. I had only one day to learn and fish the lake, thus I had to split my valuable time graphing and fishing. First impressions....wow what a lake, compared to what we get near San Jose. The defining feature of the lake to me is how abundantly diverse the cover is. There's tules, submerged vegetation, rocks, docks, mats, laydowns, dropoffs, rock walls, seawalls. I don't know if I just came at a certain time, but if there's a type of fishing you like, you can do it. Most lakes have a handful of techniques that work at a particular time of the year. My impression at Clearlake was you could do whatever you wanted and still have some success. You wanna spend all day flipping tules? Go ahead. Drop shot rocks and docks? Sure why not. Crank all day? The world's your oyster. I could go on but I digress..... I wanted to fish Friday night but it was too windy and dangerous. Saturday 6:30am I launched out of Clear Lake State Park. I immediately started flipping tules. It's the first obvious thing you see and very tempting. However, you can waste a lot of time and get trapped doing so. Plus everyone and their grandmother flips tules. It's the basic ***** pumpkin spice latte technique of fishing. I saw at least 8 boats at Quercus Point. There is submerged vegetation now and the fish are dispersed. I saw some people pick off fish here and there flipping shallow but I quickly changed strategies. Remembering the advice about rocks, I looked at my navionics and tried to find some. This is where having a good map card really helps. This particular one had good contour lines and lots of labels of potential spots. Shag Rock really stood out to me. I made the run there from Quercus point and quickly graphed rocks. I tied a dropshot with a googan baits drag n drop, and quickly caught a few 2-3 lbers. I then tied on a Keitech football jig with a Keitech crazy flapper and caught a few more. All healthy 2-3 lbers. The drop shot and finesse jig would be my primary weapons. Having caught all the fish I could around Shag Rock, I consulted the map again. There are just so many viable spots, it was hard to choose. I decided to keep my radius short and made my way to Soda Bay, which seemed to have docks near deep water. Again, having a map card really really helps. I picked off more fish at the docks. Saw a guide and his 3 clients on a boat. All 3 clients were fishing dropshots. Saw them catch some. Caught a few more at the docks then I then graphed around a little more to try and eliminate water. Ate lunch, then went back out, alternating between Shag Rock, Soda Bay, and near launch. Biggest was a nice 3, pushing 4 on the dropshot. Lost one of similar size. Came back out in the evening, the water was white capping and it was dangerous to venture out, so I stayed near the tules near launch. I got a new flipping stick and I was determined to catch some flipping. Managed to hook 3, land 2. Thus ended my trip. I didn't catch an enormous amount, or anything huge, but I learned a lot and made the most of my time. I saw people power fishing, dropshotting, jigging, flipping, all with varying degrees of success. Tips: I don't have any other meaningful tips. Just fish the way you want, you'll probably catch something lol. The only thing that I didn't do much of was fish reaction. If you're at a new lake, use maps, online or a map card. Get good at reading contour lines, have the patience to spend time graphing, have some faith, and just go for it. It's easy to do what you're comfortable with, but what you're comfortable with won't work all the time. Another thing I noticed at at each spot there were a ton of boats. Usually that's a bad sign, but this lake is so loaded with fish, I would catch them side by side with other anglers. I can only imagine what I can do with a small crowd and more familiarity with the lake.

I talked to Bryan Partak, very friendly and informative, and I feel much better about my insurance coverage now. Great group of people I highly recommend.

Hi Tom, haven’t head out yet, I leave July 26, work is making me stay for a couple of meetings ?. We were just at Greenville this past weekend looking for apartments and dropping off the cats. Now we’re back in San Jose waiting for the movers. Most of my preparation is complete. I bought a 2200 watt portable generator that I used at clear lake. Charges the batteries great. I paid money to install a new axle with brakes as the original axle didn’t have mounting flanges. I beefed up my truck suspension. And I bought better tires for the trailer, Goodyear endurances. I tried going up an inch in rim diameter but the tires rubbed. Had to sell those and get another set. Huge headache. Just today I replaced my cranking battery, the old one died on me last week. Glad I caught it. Now I just need to get the trailer tires and spare mounted and I’ll be good to go! ill miss the California fisheries but NC has amazing fishing as well. My final itinerary has me skipping fisheries on the west because of the extreme heat. My first lake is Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas. Then it’s Guntersville, Chickamauga, Lookout Shoals, and Shearon Harris. If I have time I’ll stop by other lakes. Stupid work made me condense my trip Ohh d**n I may need to check this out. I’m not even out of California and I already miss smallmouth. They’re not that common in NC right? They’re definitely not in the RDU area Thanks! How’s the fishing in the area?

Thanks for the advice everyone. Multiple people have told me to skip K Lake. @lo n slo i'll definitely checkout lookout shoals. Many people have told me to keep extra bearings, advice that I fortunately already heeded, I have like 4 extra idler hubs and bearings and 1 extra drum hub and bearing.