Don Reeves

Fishing must be awfully slow to resort to that outfit. By the way, I was very pleasantly surprised that I could manouevre and propel my Outcast 10IR with fins. IR stands for improved rocker. With the pontoons rockered it makes the craft easier to turn with a fin kick. God Bless, Don

Don't understand that John. On a float trip I let the river take me downstream and I fish as I go. I only use my kayak paddle (yak) or oars (pontoon)while negotiating rapids or riffles.If river depth permits I will slow my drift with the use of fins while in my pontoon. I can't do that and fish at the same time with my yak. In the kayak I often blow right past nice looking eddies and fish holding structure. I will often fish upstream with my kayak. I like to wade and flyfish with my Tarpon tethered to my waist. When I want to make time I sit down and paddle upstream to the next interesting area. When it's time to think about returning to my vehicle I let the current take me back and I attempt to fish the whole way back. However this is much less efficient than drifting downstream in a pontoon because I have to constantly use the paddle to control my drift. It's pretty tough to paddle and fish at the same time. In the pontoon you can control your drift with your fins and should you want to stop and fish you just slide out of the seat and the current holds the boat against you. For river fishing in a river with good current, the pontoon beats out the kayak in terms of comfort and efficiency. It's actually a good thing that I can't row upstream in my pontoon. If I could, my kayaks would only get used on lakes. In my opinion the pontoon excels on rivers if you have a buddy or a shuttle service. The kayak excels in lakes and is a great trolling machine. My pontoon partner and I meet at the takeout. My boat is ready to go on the top of my vehicle. My buddy has his disassembled in the trunk of his car. We transfer his pontoon to my Forester and drive to the put in together leaving his vehicle at the take out. At the put in I load up my pontoon and tether it to the shoreline and drive my Subaru to the take out and park and lock it. There I meet up with the shuttle driver we hired who drives me back to the put in. Now, when we finish the float, we can both pack our vehicles and take off for home. Usually, my friend has his boat pretty much assembled by the time the shuttle brings me to the starting point. The two of us used to kayak the river. At my suggestion we used the toons one time instead and now that's the way he prefers to floatfish. God bless, Don

Creek Company has just come out with an affordable frameless pontoon. God Bless, Don

Yeah, if you don't use fins you can just wear shorts in warm weather. With your feet on the footbraces you are completely out of the water. However with a bungee across the front as a retainer, you can slip right out of the seat to "Wade-fish" a good looking area. So I often wear waders. God Bless, Don

I fish from kayaks, canoes, float tubes and my inflatable pontoon boat. Never owned a motorboat. The float tube is the most efficient becuae of the manouevreing that can be done with fins. However you can't quickly move from place to place in a tube. The pontoon is excellent on river floats but requires shuttling as you can't effectively row against current.One of the pluses for the pontoon is it's ability to be controlled by fihs as well as oars. I absolutely love my kayaks with their ability to go upstream and float back to your vehicle but the pontoon is much more efficient to fish from. You can even stand if you want. Each of my chosen craft has unique advantages but I must say I truly enjoy floating a river with a shuttle partner. God Bless, Don

I was out for a multi day trip far from home so I needed my full arsenal and a supply of food and drink in the small cooler. Had to leave the "sink" behind. God Bless, Don

Float and Fly with a small bucktail jig suspended under an indicator worked for me last week in an Ontario , Canada lake. One of my biggest bass on the flyrod. Ironically this lake is known for quality smallmouth and my buddy got several over 20 inches. Here's me the smallmouth afficianado getting "skunked" on smallies with my back up species. I actually caught two like this. When I dredged the bottom in search of my trophy smallmouth I came up with a 10 pound Northern Pike. Not what I set out for, but I'm not complaining. That float'nfly approach works well this time of year. God Bless, Don

I thought that was a bit of a stretch. I use a lot of jighooks in my tying. I was watching a video of bass eyeballing float and fly tyoe "jigs". They hit most consistently when the fly was fished without motion. Sometimes a little jiggle would make them lose interest but if it dangled in their face long enough they would eat it sooner or later. God Bless, Don

Eric, I live in Ontario and unfortunately we can't even fish bass in my area until the last weekend in June, I do know that that style of fly works really well on all warmwater species and trout like them too. God Bless, Don

Even more of a no brainer is to tie the beadchain om a jig hook. God Bless, Don

Craig, Good to talk to a kindred spirit. I was reading your post on the Bassbugger thread about you confidence in the "Hairy Fodder. Just watched Fox Statdler taking smallmouths with a "zoom lizard" on a flyrod. Got to get myself a passport so I can drive across the border and come South sometime soon. Can you fish for smallmouth all year long in Georgia? How about the stripers? Water gets awfully hard up here this time of year. I'm a retired teacher currently working a long term contract until the New Year. If I could swing it I'd like to go South to fish this winter or early spring. Driving down would give me the opportunity to fish smallmouth in Tennessee, Kentucky or one of the Eastern Seaboard States on the way down. I can see loading up one of my fishing vessels and my camping and fishing gear and getting lost for a few weeks. However my wife's not retired yet; she might think my plans are too ambitious. I originally found out about the wonderful fishing opportunities through the Georgia Kayaking Forum. Any other Alliance members ever go down to Georgia? (My musical background tells me the "Devil Went Down To Georgia.") God Bless, Don

Many, many years ago I developed a passion for tying and fishing small jigs on ultra-lite spinning tackle. Then I started tossing weighted nymphs on 2 pound test.(spinning). Over the last 10 years or so I've done a lot of flyfishing for stillwater rainbows. When the fishing got tough in the summer months I started tossing jigs with my flyrod and was able to catch trout from the ponds more consistently than anyone using conventional flyrod methods. The club I belong to only allows flytackle. I use sinking lines a lot and sometimes cast plastics and even tiny plugs. " (The smallest "Thundercraw" is pretty deadly but I dislike the trebles.) In the past couple of years I've rekindled my love for smallmouth and am on a mission to find "Smallie Hotspots" reasonably close to home here in Southern Ontario. I fish both lakes and rivers but after buying a sit-on-top kayak and a pontoon boat I'm enjoying the river fishing the best. My reference to thinking outside the box refers to my penchant for experimentation and "pushing the envelope". I'm just as likely to be tossing trout flies at bass as I am to be fishing tubes for trout. I am just as passionate about tying jigs as I am about flytying. I'm more of a streamer guy than a dry fly guy but I certainly enjoy enticing bass with my deer hair bugs and balsa/foam poppers. My fishing is pretty much all catch and release except for panfish and I haven't used live bait for a very long time. Interestingly enough Georgia is one of the places I hope to soon visit. Ever since buying my Tarpon 120 kayak I've had the desire to get down there to fish the coastal saltwaters, the rivers that are home to "shoal bass" and some of the lakes that harbour freshwater "stripers". I'm glad to be aboard!

I'm reluctantly packing it in and puttering with my fishing vessels and tying jigs and flies in anticipation of next season. Up here in Ontario, Canada the water is about to get hard and bass season ends at the end of the month. Right now I'm working every day or I would be out checking out the cold water bite in my favourite river. Don

Glad to find a board dedicated to smallmouth fishing. I'm from Ontario ,Canada and I mostly flyfish but I like to think outside the box and often use flyrod tactics and lures that would make the flyrod purists faint. I'm looking forward to learning from the smallmouth experts in this forum. I fish from kaysk, pontoon and float tube and will likely get my canoe back on th water next season so I can spend time with my granddaughter who is 4 years old and loves to fish. She even helps me tie flies.