Hook2Jaw

I've been fishing around alligators my whole life, and have kayak fished near them for ten years on and off. More often than not, they dive and hide out on the bottom or resurface farther away from you. Those that hold their ground or close distance are avoided. I've also purposely charged alligators in fishing areas to avoid them chasing my frogs or fish, but those are always the smaller variety. In a decade of being close to the water in a kayak sometimes shorter than they are, I've had one instance of alligator aggression and it was a female making a beeline for my boat because there were babies in the area. Steer clear of hatchlings and males during mating season. If you're unsure of your mating season, call the DNR or ask the locals. I wouldn't trust a gun, I once watched two six footers face off before one went completely airborne from a dead stop. They're stupidly powerful, fast animals.

I've had tons of largies rip claws off my craw trailers.

Can you link me to the thread where you talk about this?

I've tried the Z-Man Hella Crawz as a jig trailer, and with my half ounce jig it emulates that scrap posture very well. If that's what you're after, have at it. I think a defensive crayfish is a harder meal than one calmly scooting along the bottom. I've always had better luck with other trailers instead of the ones that look prepped to take a limb off.

VMC Boxer Heads average around $1.25 each and are available in ⅛ to 1 ounce. They've done well for me, and one stood up to a 29" Red Drum on New Years Eve this year. The hook penetrated the hard mouth of that fish without issue and the point did not roll, the shank did not flex. If you want to save more money than that, Big Bite Baits offers the BBJ jig and they're even less. They come with a sharp hook and pretty eyes on a ball head. I've caught tons of bass last year throwing that with a Z-Man Slim Swimz.

This man knows what I'm talking about.

I can rock a 5xd just fine on a Medium rated to ¾, phenomenal little crank.

13 Fishing Medium Fast action rods have been an absolute pleasure for me, I started with a 6'7" MF Fate Chrome. That rod now handles close topwater applications. I upgraded my jerkbait setup to a 6'7" MF Muse Black and a 7 3:1 Daiwa Tatula 100. Most of the spool is braid to keep it light, but then I keep a fresh topshot of 10-12# fluoro on it. The 13 rods have enough backbone to really snap the bait but load up well enough to absorb the fight on #6 hooks.

Berkley Dredger.

13 makes good stuff, their recent hard baits have all been pretty good lures and as for Googan, their baits are doing just fine too. Still, I'm happy to see the hate flow as well.

The hook size of a jig dictates the trailer size for me. My Z-Man Finesse Jigs get trailers in the 2.5" range, my BOSS Finesse flips rock a 2/0 and get 2.75-3.25" trailers, and my BOSS Flipping Jigs get trailers between 3.5 and 4 inches threaded on their 4/0 hooks.

I am very quick to pick up an egg beater if the fish aren't slapping moving baits. Congrats on the revelation!

I like the VMC Rugby head pretty good, but I head back to a ball head when I start getting out of hard bottom and into wood. I can't make any recommendations as far as a round-ball goes, as I use a screw lock for those.

And I vividly remember 10~ 5+ pounders on VMC Touch-Lok Snaps this year, but there's more than one way to skin this cat, so if someone doesn't like snaps tie knots. If you don't like knots tie a good one to a good snap. Use the connection you like.

Hog farming, sir. Awesome job!

I use a VMC Touch-Lok Snap for almost all of my hard baits except my topwaters, for those I use a loop knot barring frogs. I remove my split rings, most stock ones aren't quality anyway. Some exceptions on hardbaits; the 6th Sense Provoke 106 and Strike King KVD Deeps I throw are often inconsistent and may require keeping on or taking off the split ring or the addition of suspenstrips to hang out in the column as well as orient themselves nose down.

Just depth. Jackall Rerange 110s, 6th Sense Provoke 106s, and SK KVD Deeps pretty well all act the same and if they don't I get out the suspenstrips, nail polish them to match the belly, and start trimming them down until I've got a little bit of nosed down suspending action.

You'll enjoy longer casts and more sensitivity with braid, and most braid will stand up to about 150% of it's breaking strength. I think you're assuming you need stronger braid to stand up to the fish on your shakyhead setup, but I believe that to be far from the truth. Sure, your braid can contact cover during the retrieve of your bait or during a fight with a fish and fray, but most of the time your weakest link is your leader line. If you're using 8# leader, I see no reason why you couldn't drop down to 8# braid should your heart desire.

I like the Big Bite Baits BBJ, they hook fish and cost $3.49 for a six pack. They work great with 2.5-3" swimbaits.

I use a Daiwa Tatula XT 7' MLR paired with a Tatula Elite 6.3:1 spooled with Yo-Zuri Topknot 10#. I bought the rod for specifically throwing the Strike King 3XD, but it handles ⅛-¼ ounce Big Bite Baits BBJ finesse jigheads paired with 3" Z-Man Slim Swimz perfectly. I caught quite a few fish testing that jig and head out this year and lost none. I didn't use it often, but when I did it always scored me a fish. You might have different results.

I do. Like the poster above me, I don't kayak to be a minimalist, I kayak to get off the bank. I try to be as flexible as a boater in a smaller package and treat my kayak cockpit just like one would the front deck of a bassboat. Yes, it's an incredible workout. It'll take me about 15 minutes to unload and setup my boat for fishing and then about 15 more for me to break everything down at the end of the day. I'm buying a trailer to cut down on my exhaustion.

I'm much more of a lipped plug fisherman than a lipless, so these are the three colors that I've started transitioning to. I still have a lot of baits in ghost and reflective patterns, but when they're gone all I'll be stocking are shad, green, and red. Since I don't throw lipless except during the spring and fall, American Shad speaks to me. It's gold, silver, and it has a bold blue to it that seemingly works when it's bright, cloudy, or in stained water. If the fish seem to be on crayfish or it's that special spring time of year, red. American shad and red, I keep it simple but just a bit more complicated than you.

Shad colors on a shakyhead. Z-Man's The Deal in particular. I try to keep it simple, favoring green pumpkins, water melons, and black/blue variants. A buddy of mine proceeded to catch a 20+ pound sack, 101", in a tournament I fished this year with a Z-Man Fattyz in The Deal, and that worm in particular has probably caught 50% of my fish this year.

I'll have a jerkbait, lipless, dropshot and a jig tied on for the rest of the year. On days where they're biting I'll probably have a flatside crankbait and a 3XD/5XD on as well. That's about it for me this coming winter.

I feel like I used to be able to participate in threads like these, but this year I really simplified my fishing. I caught a few fish on a spinnerbait, a few on a chatterbait, and a few on a swimjig, but beyond that I really didn't vary what I threw. I did, however, fish the conditions with baits I'm confident in. Jerkbaits, crankbaits, and jigs handled the days where activity was heavy and the shakyhead and dropshot got me limits on days where my fish were more negative. Y'all ain't versatile, y'all confused.