slowworm

I have a wife and children. I owe it to them to come home. I do not want my family to spend the holidays alone and mourning my absence. I wear a PFD 100% the time I am on the water. My Chinook in the kayak or my Mustang Elite self-inflator in the boat. I have a Garmin InReach for emergencies when I'm out of cellphone range. I may not look cool, and I may not be as comfortable as I want, but I am stacking the odds in my favor to come home, whatever happens. And God forbid I have a heart attack or stroke and keel over (I'm at that age), no-one should have to risk their life to recover the now lifeless me. Kind of morbid perhaps, but on this Christmas eve, it seems kind of appropriate.

Is this still available?

Apparently, people do think that, or they have an agenda that makes them say it. The average angler in the US goes into Walmart, Dicks, BPS etc. and buys a combo around $100 give or take, and fish from the banks or docks, or so, at least from the last data I seem to recall. We here at BR are "Elites" very much in the sense that we are all bassheads and are very much "not average." We fish combos running into $400-$600 range. We buy kayaks for $1500+. We run boats that cost many $10,000s and pull them around with trucks. The Pro Circuit are the Hyper-Elites. If anyone thinks that we on BR or those on the elite circuit represent the vast majority of angler out there, I have a bridge in London I would like to sell you. FFS is not going to kill sales of other tackle. Heck, FFS use is very much the minority of people on BR! Hyperbole much?

I wear this Mustang Elite Inflatable PFD | Tackle Warehouse all the time on the bass boat. It's comfy as heck and not overly hot to wear. It only comes off when I'm adding or removing layers, then it goes right back on. I have a previous generation chinook I use in the kayak because pockets are really useful on the yak. Also worn all the time. If I'm going for a swim, it is far more likely I'm going for a swim unexpectedly. A PFD in the yak and not on your back is not much use at that point.

Starlink satellite chain after launch and before they have moved to their final orbit.

Only when you wear mono. Braid has a slimming effect. 🙃

There are 2 types of boaters. Those who have launched without the drain plug, and those who are going to launch without the drain plug. There are no others....

Personally, I would not want to be without the lakes map. As well as allowing me to locate potential angling spots, it's also a safety thing. I'm on Northern glacial lakes, and I can be in 30ft of water with submerged rock pile at 3ft withing 30 yards of me. Having decent maps makes running on plane less stressful. As for touch screen, all the UHD units have a touchscreen.

Because I also use my fishing kayak for wildlife photography. Not that I'm any good at that mind you, but I try! In general, I don't kayak big waters where the boats are. There is one lake I do share with boats, but I fish that exclusively in the no-wake channels and use the kayak to get past the junk into the backwaters where the boats cannot go. There are some deeper areas protected by rocky shoals. On that lake I take either boat or the yak depending on how I want to fish it. Generally, if the boat can go there, I take the boat.

Let the fish tell you what they want. If you aren't catching on a straight retrieve, work the bait. If working the bait isn't catching, try a straight retrieve. If neither is working throw something else. Rinse and repeat with different lures until convinced no fish present. Then move. and start all over again. Fish are animals and they don't behave like us, they behave like fish and will do things differently day to day in response to various stimuli.

Do not wear your PDF in your vehicle when backing down the ramp. If you need to exit the vehicle after attempting to test the amphibious capabilities of your tow vehicle, a PFD is going to seriously hamper your ability to exit via the nearest window. Especially of you are on the chunky side, like me. When maneuvering to launch or retrieve, it's PFD off, windows down and seatbelt off. If I need to bail out I don't have to do anything first.

The bait monkey loses to the bait Gojira, direct from Tokyo...

I'm going into season 5 with the cranking & 2 trolling motor batteries that came with my tracker 175 in 2019. I charge them when I get home and keep them on trickle charge.

^^^ This. I use Devcon 2-ton thinned to a paint like consistency. Though I only do it on the lure blanks I airbrush myself, as the airbrush paint I use is water based and I need to protect it.

I have both a kayak and a boat. I don't really prefer one over the other. And I don't fish the same waters with the kayak and the boat. The boat goes on the bigger waters. The kayak goes on the skinny waters that I could never use the boat for. I find the kayak great for heading out for an evening after work on the smaller waters close to home. They both open up places to fish, just different places to fish. I do know when all I had was a kayak, I wanted a boat. Now I have a boat, I would not be without the kayak.