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I'm usually not too worried about getting lost in the fog, because the fog will lift eventually. It never lasts long here once the sun comes up. But I do worry about getting run over by a motorboat in the fog. I've been out on the lake a few times with heavy fog and power boats cruising at high speeds running around blind. Dumb people are drawn to dangerous situations like moths to a light bulb. Either way, I will use my GPS on my fish finder, and have the GPS on my phone, as a backup if need be. But mostly, I try to stay within sight of the bank unless the fog is too heavy for that or I'm cutting across a small cove. Also, I can usually use sound to keep myself oriented, as most of our lakes have some kind of industry humming or highway nearby. They're all man-made, so they were built with a purpose. You don't need cell service to use the GPS on your phone. But you do need to have the maps predownloaded if you're going to be out of range of a cell signal. The GPS will still register your coordinates, but it won't know anything more than that if you don't have the maps downloaded. When I was vacationing in Europe, where my cell phone wouldn't work without paying exorbitant prices, I used the hotel's wifi to download maps and navigated my way around with the GPS. I just downloaded the areas for anyplace near where I was planning to go the night before. I've done that a few times since when traveling in the back country here. You just have to know you'll lose cell reception ahead of time to plan for that.

They'll get hung up in wood, but not every time. Lots of good suggestions so far. The only thing I have to add is if you're fishing from a boat, they're usually easier to free from a snag than most lipped crankbaits, as they have a bit more weight to them. Just be sure not to bury the hooks into the wood too deep and bring a plug knocker. You'll still lose a few, but you'll catch more bass as well.

I've seen it on casting reels, but never spinning reels. Though the solution, I imagine, would be the same.

I still say this is the reason why they should mandate professional anglers to wear their PFDs at all times. If you see your heroes doing it, you'll WANT to do it to. And that's a lot better than being told you HAVE to do it. At least for most people. Right now, they have the laws set so kids have to wear them, but adults do not. And no one wants to look like a kid, so it's "cool" to not wear a PFD. It shows you've "grown up" and "know your way around a boat", so you don't need that safety net. The system is discouraging the use of PFD's, in a way. Especially these days with the self-inflating PFDs that are so comfortable to wear. There's just not a good excuse. It would be like the sun protection gear. You see the pros wearing those UV clothes and gaiters over their face, which admittedly look pretty silly, but they've quickly expanded into the general population on the lake. The pros made it "cool" to wear. And now we all want to look like sponsored NASCAR drivers on our days off! 😜

I've never seen on in use, other than by a biologist. But our lakes are pretty stained, so it won't buy you much.

Honestly, if you find a good deal on the fish finder you want, go for it. There are usually a few times a year when they have sales on this stuff, but there's not really a "best" time that can be predicted accurately, year after year, to buy this stuff. It all depends on sales and supply. If sales are slowing down and supply is building up, they'll go on sale. If sales are solid and supply is low, they won't. Christmas and Spring are usually good times to buy, as they know this is the two times of year where sales are typically strongest. So they'll discount their products to compete with the others, hoping the volume will make up for the loss in margin. But each year is different. Each fiscal quarter is different. There's no use predicting the future.

Yeah, the straps on mine broke down too after about two years. I kind of forgot about that. But I had strap material and grommets from redoing some outdoor chairs a few years back, so it was like a 5 minute job. I didn't even remember doing it until you mentioned it.

That's the same cart I have. Only I kept the original wheels, as they work fine for me. But I did modify mine as well. My kayak wouldn't stay attached to it very well (it wanted to twist), so I installed a pair of PVC pipes covered in pool noodles across the top, positioned front to back so the two channels in my tri-hull design kayak ride on them. It basically looks like the Malone WideTrak ATB now, only didn't cost me anywhere near as much. It's pretty easy to modify those cheap carts into exactly what you want and still save a bunch of money.

Worm and creature. Brand doesn't matter for me. They all seem to work about the same. It's the bullet weight that matters more, in my opinion. But my favorites are something that looks similar to a Berkley Creature Hawg and a curly tail worm. Though sometimes I'll switch to something more subtle and realistic like a Berkley the Champ Craw or a Yamamoto Senko or Zoom Trick Worm if the bass aren't being very aggressive. It's nice to have options. Though 9 times out of 10, if find the problem isn't what bait I'm using, but how and where I'm fishing it. The cadence of my retrieve seems to be a much bigger factor than what plastic I have rigged.

It depends on what the definition of "fish" is. I fish on my lunch break at work most days, assuming the weather isn't too terrible. So that's probably 200 days a year right there. However, that's only fishing for like 20-30 minutes from the bank. So I don't know how much that counts. Otherwise, I probably average 2-2.5 days a month where I go out fishing for 6-12 hours on a weekend. Some months, I'll go once every weekend, usually in the summer and fall. In the winter and spring (due to the high winds we get in spring) I might only go once or less. I haven't fished at all on a weekend this December yet, and the way the weather's looking I might not get to. So there's another 20-30 days a year. So I'd say I fished somewhere between 20 to 230 days this year.

I've bought a few BPS XPS cranks and have no complaints with them. I have no idea who makes them, but they seem to me to be on the same level of quality as H2O Express, which is pretty good. BPS even has a few unique models that I haven't seen anywhere else, like the Egg. And I really like the Egg. Then again, I'm not too picky. If it catches fish and doesn't break, it's good enough for me. I rarely even switch out hooks unless there's a problem. If they're not sharp enough, I sharpen them. Most of the plastic crankbaits are pretty much the same to me. But I don't buy Megabass, so I don't really know what it's like to use a high-end crankbait. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

I've got a bunch of newer (last 3 years) 3600 boxes from a couple of different brands, including Plano, and even the Elaztech baits don't react with them. They will, however, react with other soft plastics, so don't keep both in the same box. Even if they're not touching.

Rods were invented several thousand years before reels, if that tells you anything.

I have two lakes that I fish regularly. One is a little over 50 acres, and one is about 3,000 acres. Then there are 4 more that I fish several times each year that run between those two sizes. And then there are probably another 30-50 lakes that I'll hit up once or twice a decade or so in all various sizes. I like a healthy mix of familiarity and surprise.

Lots of options. But mostly, I prefer to use cheap or found squarebill and coffin bill cranks. Anything that I don't mind losing, because you will lose a few. And if you're not afraid to lose it, you'll throw it tighter to cover and catch more bass. As for brand and model, I don't know. It seems one day one works best and the next it's something else. Any can get hung up and lost. Some are better at coming through than others, but none are significantly better at that than any others, in my experience. I'm more concerned about the line and rod for fishing standing timber. I like thick braid and a sensitive rod because I can feel (actually, it's more like I'm hearing it than actually feeling it), the braided line rub against the wood. That lets me know I'm about to run into a potential snag before it happens which increases my odds of getting the lure back.

Are you talking about a rod and reel combo in the $80-175 range, or a rod in the $80-175 range and a reel in the $80-175 range as well? Because if you're talking about getting both the rod AND reel for around $80, then I'd highly recommend you push that up closer to the $175 range. But if you're talking about getting a rod for $80-100 and a reel for $80-100, then I'd say you can get a pretty good setup for that amount that will last you a long time. To me, rods and reels around the $100 mark are usually a pretty significant step up form rods and reels in the $50-75 range, and well worth the extra money, if you can afford that. Beyond around $100-150ish, the quality still improves, but at a much slower rate. Getting both a rod and reel together for $80-100 will still get you a decent rod and reel that you can use to catch fish and have fun. But in that price range, they're typically geared towards the "I go fishing two or three times a year", type of customer. When you step up to around $100 a piece for a rod and reel (and to me, $80 is still in that category), then you're buying a rod or reel that was made for someone who takes fishing more seriously, like a hobbyist. This is for someone who identifies as someone who fishes, not just as someone who has fished before and likely will again. And as you get into the $300+ range for a rod and reel, you get into the products designed for people who take the hobby of fishing seriously. Amateur tournament anglers and such. That's my reading of it all, anyway. And to be fair, you can still catch just as many fish and have just as much fun with a bamboo stick and some string. I know. I've done it before. So you don't NEED anything fancy. But it's also okay to want something a little fancier.

I fish some pretty heavily pressured waters and find that the Ned rig isn't working all that well for me. I think it's because too many people are throwing it. And I've tried it in several different lakes, though generally only lakes that have largemouth and spotted populations. Some rocks. Some sand. Some mud. Ranging from stained to muddy waters in lakes ranging from 10-100 ft. max depth. It works in all of them, which is good. But I can usually catch about the same numbers, only bigger sizes, by switching to a shaky head and trick worm or regular T-rig worm. So yeah, it works for me. And there's a lot of different ways to fish it, so it's pretty versatile. But it's not a cheat code or anything. The best thing about them, in my opinion, is those Elaztech worms last FOREVER.

I roll around too much in sleep to sleep on a canoe 😜 But seriously, check your local laws and regulations before going too far down this rabbit hole. It could change your math. Where I live, you don't need to register your kayak if it has an electric trolling motor. But in most states, you do. And it's illegal on most of the lakes I fish to have a trolling motor on a canoe, but not a kayak. It's also illegal to eat or drink on a boat and you must have a PFD available at all times, except in a kayak. AND, it's illegal to swim but not illegal to waterski, which means you better be darn good at waterskiing! Why all of these silly laws? Because who are you gonna vote for? The boring guy that makes sense when he talks or that monkey riding a dog with a saddle? You already know who gets my vote!

My dad would disagree. He says owning a boat is cheap. But he owns an airplane, so he lives in a different world. The best thing about kayaks is once you've gotten over the initial cost of purchase, they're really cheap to maintain. All you've got to pay is registration and license fees and gas to and from the lake (and sometimes lake fees). The only maintenance I do on mine is wash it down and replace the Gorilla tape on the keel once a year.

Well, if you don't mind the work, I'm sure we could give you some pointers and inspiration. You'll probably still run over budget, but maybe not teriibly so. So what I did to access the inside of my kayak was drill the appropriate holes in the hull, tie a steel bolt with the head cut off to some braided fishing line, and then fed that through the hole and either used gravity or a powerful magnet to pull the bolt and braided line up to the front hatch. I then tied on what I needed and pulled on the other end of the braided line to pull whatever back through the inside of the hull and out of the hole I drilled. For the TM mount, I had to make a bracket out of some sheet 304 stainless steel and I soldered (should have welded, but I don't have a way to weld) some SS bolts to it, because you can't clamp the reverse side of the bolt down, so they'll spin freely if you don't. Getting all four bolts on the bracket to come through the holes was not easy. It probably took a good three hours of fiddling before I got it perfectly lined up. Below is a picture of the final assembly. The brackets up top are some SS shelves I found online. Then I used lock nuts to hold it down, as if that bracket ever falls through, I might never get it reinstalled again. But with the large backing plate, it's rock solid. The cables are SS saltwater fishing leaders with a Teflon coating. And they're fed through some Teflon tubing that I fed through using the same bolt/braid technique. I then flared out the ends to hold them in place with a soldering iron. There's a million ways to do it, and that's just what I did. Definitely not impossible, but also not the type of thing most people would waste their time on. But you'll always want to keep a paddle with you. Trolling motors can break or get jammed with weeds or fishing line. And sometimes, it's easier to push off a tree or rock than risk breaking your prop. But yeah, being able to travel a few miles without having to paddle is a godsend, especially in wind or current!

A Garmin Striker 4 is just a little over $130. Still, there's all of the mounting hardware, tools, nuts and bolts, and other little things you have to buy to make it all work. So you might still be in the $600-700 range, all said and done even if you go on the cheap end. One thing I did for the first year I had a trolling motor on my kayak to help keep costs down was I installed my trolling motor off to the side, right behind me. Then I hooked up the battery along the opposite side to balance the kayak, side to side. You lose some speed and a good bit of control that way. It won't go straight unless you turn the motor slightly into the kayak, you can't turn very sharply, and going in reverse is just a mess. But it was better than no trolling motor and allowed me to upgrade to the stern mount method later using the same kayak, trolling motor and battery. It cost a bit more in the long run to do it that way (I bought and made two motor mounts) but made it easier for me to afford by spreading it out. Year one: kayak and fish finder. Year two: trolling motor and battery. Year three: stern mount and a bunch of other little things to make the kayak experience more pleasurable and efficient.

I constructed my kayak setup with what you want for within your budget. All new too. The problem is, it was a LOT of DIY work on my end. I can't say how long it took to get it all together, because I did it little by little, but I added it all up once and it came in at around $1,300, probably not including taxes. Plus, prices have inflated since then, so going the same route I did will probably still blow you budget. But I still believe it's going to be the cheapest route. And not everyone who fishes from a kayak winds up with a trolling motor. A lot of people prefer pedals over trolling motors because unless you get a really expensive trolling motor setup, like one with spotlock and a remote, you'll usually have more control with a pedal kayak. My kayak is a Lifetime Yukon. It was a really good deal when I got it (I think I paid $450 for it) though its price has gone up a good bit since I bought mine (I think around $600-700 now). Then I installed a trolling motor on the stern, which was VERY difficult because there's no access to the underside of the kayak back there. And you have to reinforce the mount from underneath to keep it supported so it doesn't break or tear out the plastic. AND I had to build the mount and reinforcement pieces myself, as there's not an aftermarket solution for this kayak. Then I took a Minn Kota Edura C2 30 and hacked the top off and built a PWM speed controller. Then I removed the original foot pedals, installed new ones (with controls), and installed teflon sleeves and SS wires through the hull (again with no inside access) so I could control the trolling motor. My point being, it's doable, but if you don't buy a kayak specifically designed for a trolling motor (which tend to be pretty expensive), it's not going to be easy to do yourself. But, it's not impossible either. So, if you love making stuff with your hands as much as I do, then there are options. And just about any kayak can be retrofitted with a trolling motor. But, if putting in a ton of work doesn't appeal to you, then I'd recommend saving up your money and buying a kayak that comes with a trolling motor already built in. However, the other good thing about DIYing a trolling motor is that you can buy the kayak now, fish out of it, and then save up more money to install the motor at a later date. Installing a fish finder usually isn't too hard. There are tons of aftermarket add-ons that are fairly cheap and make the process pretty easy. Though really, if you can find a used one, that's the way to go. However, I suspicion that it won't be easy to find a used kayak with a trolling motor already built in. I don't see too many on the lakes I visit and rarely see one for sale for less than about $4k. Though, they're typically high-end setups with tons of add-ons included in that price, so they're still a significant savings over new. They're just not cheap. But hey, I'm sure they come up for sale from time to time, so if you're patient and keep vigilant long enough, one or two is bound to pop up occasionally.

That's me too. I don't know if it's the smart thing to do, but it's my philosophy on life. No goals. Instead, I just follow my fluid curiosity. I've always found the questions more exciting than the answers anyway. Next year I hope is better than this year. But mostly, I'm just interested in building on what I learned and seeing where it takes me. Maybe get a little lost on the way. I like getting lost. Progress doesn't have to be linear. And you'll never discover something new if you follow the paths. Besides, life is a journey, right? The destination is death, and I'm in no hurry to get there.

Definitely. Especially since grease is just oil mixed with what they call "soap". And some greases and oils are "incompatible" and don't react well together. Certain oils can break down certain greases over time. It's probably not a problem you'll run into on a reel, but why chance it if there's no benefit to be had?

Old thread, but here's something I didn't see considered yet. The biggest issue is probably going to be temperature. Most batteries don't like to be charged near or below freezing, as this can damage them. Some batteries (usually some, but not all, lithium batteries), have low and high temperature cut offs to prevent damage from doing this. I would imagine that some solar chargers (and regular battery chargers) might have this function as well. And high temperatures, like in the heat of summer, especially if it's uncovered, can create issues as well. So this will be something you'll want to look into if you plan to use it all year long. Though I imagine it would be fine for most of the fishing year. Also, as noted, don't go with the old trickle charger, as they can cause damage and even fires by overcharging the battery. But most, newer smart charges shouldn't have that issue. But it is something you'll want to verify.