dickenscpa

I came in here last week and searched this topic and found this thread before making a decision this past Saturday. I went to my local shop and brought my fully loaded Hobie PA and played with both. I had a Wilderness cart that I bought 4-5 years ago when I had a Wilderness kayak. Worked great, no problems. With the Hobie it gave me heartburn. Granted I load mine down tournament fishing and I don't want to unload everything but it would never settle right on the bunks and wanted to roll out from under as I let the kayak down. The steeper the ramp the more trouble it gave me. I also didn't get along with the Hobie cart. I know Hobie says a scupper cart is ok for theirs but I load mine down and I just can't see how that's good to put all that pressure in two small spots. Especially two spots that are difficult to repair. It was a hard choice between the Bunkster and Bar Cart. Ultimately for how much stuff I carry and I get a 20% discount at our shop I went with the Bar Cart to spread that weight a bit instead of having four points taking the brunt. If I didn't get a discount I may have leaned toward the Bunkster, I'm all about saving a dollar. In addition the Bar Cart has the ability to turn both runners 90* so if I'm at a rough ramp and having trouble I can just put it on the cart flat and strap it down.

I don't have a problem with MLF making changes to format, 5 or everyone counts, etc. The business, contract law and business ethics I'm required to take each year for my license has a small qualm. The original 80 who went out on a limb for WHATEVER reason were told they had a place AND if they wanted to get out within the first 3 years they had to buy their way out. Wasn't it like $50k? I thought the original 80 had some small percentage of ownership. Of course that didn't help Marty Stone. On the flip side, we hardly get year 3 in our memory as history and they cut 35 of them. The other thing is the first year guys in 2024, like Matt Stefan, those guys are screwed barring a phenomenal year. I wonder if Boyd Duckett will cut himself? Doesn't he finish like 85th out of 80 each round?

I took a treble to the hand from a brand new, fresh jerkbait myself the other day. Boat in the garage and reached into the rod locker for something and buried it past the barb. Home alone and couldn't reach the pliers. Had to reach in with other hand and release the reel, pull line to my pliers, cut off the barb and pull'er out. At 51 and fishing all my life I don't remember ever getting hooked until last summer I posted my little comedy of errors everyone got a kick out of and then a week ago. I guess I'm getting old and careless.

True. I rode Harleys from 1999 until I sold my last one April '21. Cars hit each other all the time and it hurts worse if you're on a bike. I took the beginner rider's course when I got my first bike, and to be honest I only took it for the discount on my insurance. We rode supplied 500cc thumpers and I learned SO much from that course. At the time they also had an intermediate and advanced course. I don't think they offer the intermediate anymore but I learned so much in the beginner I took all three. We were on our own bikes for intermediate and advanced and I rode a big bagger. One thing they taught us was a lot of bikers will say, " I had no choice but to lay her down," and they taught us that wasn't necessarily true. They made us get up to 70mph and lock'em up without going down. You had to do it over and over until you got it. The most important thing was awareness. I got to the point I could be in traffic and pick out the idiot and just know to stay away from them. It carried over into driving a vehicle and on the water. I saw the guy coming in the boat and I knew it wasn't going to be good. I tried to position myself and get away to a certain extent but when they veer toward you, you don't have much of a chance. My son often says his superpower is hindsight, but he realized a few minutes later it didn't help much. LOL! In hindsight I guess I just never dreamed he would come at me like he did. In the future I won't take that for granted. However, I'll drop my scenario from this thread. I kinda feel like I took away from the young lady who lost her life which I feel deep sorrow for her and her family.

Actually yes. The father/son reported him but 5 more witnessed it. He launched at a ramp fairly far away with a traditional boat launch shotgun start. Since I was fishing an open lake kayak tournament I could launch at any ramp on the lake. So I launched at a small cove at the end. This little cove was one way in, one way out by water. So our tournament was on the water at 5AM, lines in at 6AM. I got on the water about 4:30 and only had less than a half a mile where I started under this bridge. I sat there watching the fish boil not being able to throw until 6AM. I submitted my first fish at 6:03 catching one my very first cast. It was so quick I was actually worried they'd think I started fishing early. By 6:33 I had a limit, although not an in the money limit. I have an orange flag with a 360* light, a headlamp, two graphs lit up and two forward facing beam lights on the bow. This guy didn't come thru though until about 9:30 in broad daylight. He for sure saw me because I saw him at a distance and it looked like he was gonna be close. I waved both hands in the air and he waved back and I visually saw him veer closer to me at the last minute. It was 100% intentional. The police came to the ramp I launched at and he was still in the cove. Small cove and the police literally called him to the bank. I followed. He shot himself in the foot because he immediately started raging that my "little kayak" tournament cost him money because I was in his spot and ruined his chances. In reality he cost me because all the hub bub cost me the chance to cull and my day was basically over around 11:30, I had no desire to keep fishing. He made arrangements for someone to pick up his boat and he left in cuffs. Initial court date 6/20/23. I thought they'd confiscate the boat but they didn't. I left early and stopped at Hardees to eat and the guy that picked up his boat was there.

I live about as close to Priest as I do Old Hickory (less than 10 miles) and have only been on Priest maybe 4 or 5 times. I hate that lake and most incidents are almost always on that lake. I broke down and fished a tournament there 4/15 and a guy in a bass boat went out of his way from the boat lane (300' wide) to buzz me because he was mad I got to a spot first. Apparently we were both in a tournament. He was full speed and went on my side of a bridge piling where I had about 25' to the rip rap bank and he had 300" on the other side. Full speed and slammed me against the rip rap. I lost two rods and a net but didn't fall out or flip. Luckily a father and son were crappie fishing close and got his boat number and called the police. Just PURE pettiness that could've killed me.

I almost had the same thing happen to me earlier this year. All my life TN's fishing license ran from 3/1 --> 2/28. So if you paid for a year on 2/27, sorry it was only good for one day. Starting last year they changed it to one year from the date of purchase. So apparently when I renewed last year it expired ONE day before my first tournament in 2023. They sent out a reminder a day or two before the tournament and I had switched over to the TWRA license on my phone deal and I happened to check and caught it. One thing I thought was cool is I renewed about 3 days before they expired and they applied it as if I renewed the day after they expired kinda giving me those extra few days for next year. Doesn't sound like much but I thought it was a nice touch. So if I got a license check on the water on 2/24 and they expired 3/1 when I pulled it up on my phone it showed my current license and also showed that I had already paid for the next year starting 3/2.

Anyone ever had one of these or decent experience with one? I drove 4 hours to buy one in 2021 and they had it listed on their website and I called before driving over and got there and it had sold 3 weeks prior and someone forgot to take it out of inventory. They fell all over themselves apologizing and gave me a HECKUVA deal on a Hobie PA so I took it. They had no idea when they'd get another Bluesky. Now they have them and that's still an itch I want to scratch. Just wondering if anyone had any experience with one or especially a Hobie and a Bluesky. I'd hate to let go of the Hobie and hate myself.

I had something very similar to that happen to me season opener of KBFTN tournament. In February we had some days hit 82*, fairly stable beginning of March. Tournament was 3/18 & 3/19 (Saturday & Sunday). I prefished on Thursday in 76* temps and found them shallow. On Friday it was off the water day but temps dropped to 67*. Saturday morning I launched at 21* with a high of 39*. On Sunday I launched at 18* with a high of 29*. I had a battery problem during this tournament and lost my electronics both days but according to my tracks I'd put in 6 miles each day before losing my electronics. I'm guessing I did 12 miles on Saturday and about 10 on Sunday. My fish here in mid TN just left. Maybe moved to another lake further south for all I know. In two days and approx 22 miles in the shallowest I could go to 45-50' deep I found one bait ball and it was tiny and 13' deep. In one spot I found fish 15-20' deep and drop shot and caught a huge catfish. I'm sure depending on where you are and a blue million other variables they'll do something else but that's what happened to me. Now if you went from 90-65* and it had been warm for a while they'll probably react much differently. So that starting temp less 25* is a big factor.

I'd suggest you keep your current kayak and pick up one of those dollys. You mentioned getting a Bronco and I don't know if your current vehicle has a hitch or not but these dollys aren't meant to tow on the road and FAR from road legal anyway you could actually just jerry rig this thing to any vehicle because it's only meant to pull in the parking lot, up that bad hill, etc. Forgive me I don't remember which one of Greg Blanchards videos it is but he carries his kayak in a truck and his yak has Boonedox landing gear but some ramps/parking lots are STEEP and he has a dolly. Put the dolly in the water and yak floats off. Getting out of the water the yak floats over dolly and pull the rope and pull dolly and yak out of the water. He has one video where the ramp was super steep and the dolly either went on his hitch or he hooked it to the bumper and he backed it into the water with his truck and pulled it out when he left. The other perk to these dollys is you can actually stand erect and pull your kayak. I have a Hobie PA for example with the Hobie scupper cart. I've rarely used it because even though Hobie says their scuppers are reinforced I've seen them crack. Check Alex Rudds YT for example. I can't stand erect and pull it or the back end will scrape. Pulling up a hill all hunched over is even worse. With these dollys you can stand normal. I don't know how much they cost but if they're $300 I'd rather buy one if I liked my current kayak than sell mine for a money loss, buy another and have to change all my crap from one kayak to another.

I learned the same lesson you did. I'm not crazy about a lug wrench that comes with a vehicle or the jack. I have a 3 ton floor jack tucked away and out of the way in my Jeep and I have air wrenches with all the SAE and Metric sizes but I went and bought two separate extra sockets to match my Jeep wheel and trailer wheel and a breaker bar socket wrench with a swivel head all in 1/2" to match my air wrench set. I stopped to help a guy change a tire once, don't know why I guess he just looked like he was struggling. He was a decent size guy and was standing and hopping on his lug wrench that came with the car to break the lugs free. It was a foreign car and I had a VW when I was 16 that had left handed threads. I try one lug he hadn't just overtightened and it came loose. He was embarrassed and when we got to the last two he'd been cranking on they wouldn't budge and his lug wrench just cracked and split. This was before I started carrying my goodies and the lug wrench from my truck didn't fit his.

I'm 51 and been a bass boat owner since I was 16, recently sold my boat because I've become so engulfed in kayak fishing. I do put about 150 mi/week on a bicycle and do two centuries a year though, so pedaling a kayak with no hills to climb seems like a field day. ORIGINALLY I got a kayak to get away from what I perceived as headaches with my boat. As time has went by I think I've actually made my kayak more labor intensive than my boat was, but I really enjoy the kayak and don't think about it as much. I wanted a kayak I could throw in the bed, carry to the office and fish places on the way home. I wasn't pulling a 21' bass boat thru rush hour morning and evening. Of course as things progressed I got very involved in kayak tournaments and added more and more to the kayak. I actually carry more rods and about 5X the tackle I ever carried on my boat. So I defeated my original purpose of getting small and simple and a trailer became just about mandatory. So now if I'm honest with myself I've probably made kayaking more work getting in and out of the water than the boat was. However, most of my bane with the boat was getting in and out of the garage. So, more work getting in and out of the water but in and out of the garage is cake. Like a lot of my endeavors I have one thing in mind and it goes in a different direction. LOL!

We had a tiny break between 2 and 3 and about 3 it started misting. I kept looking at the radar and all was clear so I kept going and the mist got harder and harder until it hit downpour at 5ish. I did cull two in the April month long tournament. They were biting and I was catching, but only two culled. We got stop number 2 this weekend on Priest. I live 7 miles from the nearest ramp on Old Hickory and 8 miles from nearest on Priest and have rarely fished there. I suck on Priest and in tax season so really can't pre-fish it. Probably be a donor.

I fished between the rain showers, kinda, not quite in between got caught about two miles out in the rain. Weatherman said rain gone at 2PM I get on the water at 2:30 and bottom drops out at 5:13. Oh well beat doing taxes and battery worked great. All back to normal. Thanks all for the insight and suggestions.

I haven't had a chance to get on the water yet. I just installed and plugged everything up last night. Had the green light on the charger this morning before leaving for the office. Yeah I agree, if I still have a problem I'll have to look into the unit itself. All the wiring tests out fine. I really hope I don't have a problem with my Garmin. I upgraded from a 7" screen to the 9" summer of '21 and I love the usability, simpleness and the pic quality on the Garmin but developed a problem right off the bat. They sent me a new unit in about a month but I'm out of warranty now and hope that's not an issue.

I picked up an Amp'd Outdoors Lithium and their brand charger. Much to my surprise the Amp'd Outdoor charger actually fit the Yak Power box's charger input perfectly. They both had the squared off SAE end opposed to most SAE ends having that protruded rounded end keeping them from fitting. So that was a nice little bonus and one less thing I had to splice and dice. All I did was cut the F1 ends off a one of the three sets of Yak Power battery wires and splice in F2s. It charged to full capacity and everything seems to be in working order. Just need to get out on the water and make sure I can use my graph all day. If this doesn't fix it then unfortunately I may have to look at my graph closer.

Old Slickory is rough.

I see you live in Mid TN, why don't you take me and teach me how to fish!

I called Yak Power yesterday and first off I left a VM and the tech guy called me back in under 10 minutes. Secondly he was extremely helpful and informative. Anyways I have a battery tester I can use to test under a load and didn't think to use it. I guess I assumed it was car battery only but he told me it was fine for any 12V battery. His advice was one or all three batteries had went bad and he said when I hooked up multiple graphs and ran the battery dead but didn't hook it back to a charger for almost 2 weeks that was probably a death nail right there. I put all three on the tester and all three tested bad. He suggested getting a quality lithium and lithium charger and splice in their end which I already happen to have one. I'll be the first to admit I'm cheap and I cheap out on batteries and it bites me and I go back and do the same thing.

I've often wondered if KVD, Zaldain or Ott's Nitro got a little extra love at the factory to insure it didn't become a nightmare for the world to see on TV. Living in TN and so many pros living in TN I have a lot of them as clients but don't really have the relationship to ask them if their Nitro is the same Nitro the public would get. They're always in salesman mode. I do have one pro and when I was a freshman and QB for freshman team he was a senior and QB for varsity. He wound up playing football in college and I played baseball in college, but we had never spoke. Fast forward 25 years and his Dad builds a house in my neighborhood and asks if I can help his son taxwise. Now for 10 years he's been a client and we're good friends and it's weird - we didn't talk in high school but still feel like we've know each other for 40 years. LOL! He had a boat deal with Nitro for a long time and he really loved those Nitros, He was offered a better monetary deal with Skeeter year before last and took it. One year in the Skeeter he opted out of that deal but did not have a deal with Nitro and just paid for a new Nitro. He loves them.

Unfortunately you're exactly right. I'm really into competitive archery and this is a big deal with bows. Just about every bow manufacturer gives a lifetime warranty to the original owner. Problem comes down to that fine print. The bow companies are all trying to one up each other every year so a flagship model bow might be manufactured 2-3 years. So your usually good 2-3 years after that you'll get the "we don't make that bow anymore or parts" story and you'll get offered a trade in of your broken bow on their new flagship. I've never seen anyone get what I would call a "deal" when trading that broken bow in on their newer flagship bow, but the real caveat is that new bow you just got doesn't carry the same warranty. I get EXTREMELY frustrated dealing with warranties - consumer things I buy, vehicles, etc. I feel way more than often that warranties are thrown out as selling points with no real intent on honoring the warranty and loopholing the crap out of it to get out of it. Obviously there are exceptions. I prefer to buy something at a local store and know who I take it back to and I just tape the receipt to it and hope for the best. The place you buy the item from has WAY more to do with your warranty experience than most realize. The place you bought it contacting the manufacturer and going to bat for you has always worked better for me than me calling them direct.

Yeah I tried each one separately, same result. All three act like they're the same battery all exact readings.

I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. All three batteries are the exact same and same brand/specs but I either bought two and the third afterwards or bought one and then two afterwards so they're not the same age. My Dad owned an electric and plumbing company and I grew up in electricity but it was residential and commercial and I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to batteries. I did check the wiring and feel confident there's no problem there. I let the batteries charge to full and turned the graph on (the big one) this morning and it read 13.7V and within seconds dropped to 13.1 and in under 2 minutes was down to 12.5V. Unplugged that one and plugged in the smaller one and it read 13.1 and dropped to 12.4 almost immediately. Checking the batteries with a multi meter without load they are all three in that 12.6V area, but with a load my meter is all over the place. 12.6 down to 8.4 and almost every number in between. I didn't realize running batteries in parallel was a no no. The Yak Power box comes prewired to run three in parallel. Here's my conundrum - I've got a lot of time invested and of course money wiring everything up with Yak Power and prefer to go to a lithium battery. However, the YP charger is SLA only. The SAE end of the charger looks normal but it is a proprietary SAE end and other brands won't fit. So if I bought a proper Lithium charger it wouldn't fit the YP box port. Every time I charged my battery I would have to remove it from the hull, take the battery out and charge it separately and put everything back. Kinda defeats the purpose of the box. One thing I forgot to add is my three batteries are the Cabela's brand $20 apiece 12V 8ah ones. I have since read mixed reviews on them.

I fished a kayak tournament 3/18 & 3/19 and hooked up two fish finders to one Yak Power box with three 12V 8ah SLA batteries. One battery was about a year and a half old and the other two about a year. I usually run just one graph that pulls .67 and can go forever. The second graph pulls .4 so together 1.07ah. Running both ran all three batteries in parallel down EXTREMELY quickly. Turned off the smaller .4 graph and voltage jumped to about 10.5 and got me thru the day. Got home and backed over charger crushing in-line glass fuse. I had to order the weird sized fuse and it took about a week to get so it went maybe 10 days with no charge. Repaired and fished this past Thursday and went back to just one graph that pulls .67ah. Battery dead and graph shut off at about 2 hrs. Thought maybe it didn’t fully charge. Fish today and when I turned on graph it said 13.3V. Two hours later it was dead. Both days that it died so quickly it could be turned on after a bit and would say 10.4V and go down to 8 rather quickly and shut off. Unless I went to 2D only and it would go 20-30 minutes and shut back off. Got home today and put a multi meter on all three batteries separately and all three read 12.65V, turn on graph and it said 11.5 and dropped within a minute and shut off. If I unplug power cable from graph it reads 12.65V as well. Questions: 1) Are the batteries bad or the unit? 2) Connecting two graphs or going so long uncharged ruin them? I know I could just buy more batteries to “see” but batteries ain’t cheap so I thought I’d ask. Sorry so long I tried to be as detailed as a woman’s mini skirt - long enough to cover the subject but short enough to stay interested.

Water temps went from 55* on Thursday to 48* on Sat/Sun. In Feb the water temps hit 62*, there were even some early spawners in my area. Tomorrow is low of 61 and high of 76. Go figure.