Mark K

Okay. Clearly, I did not understand the concept behind SOTs. This would not be fun on cold day.

what happens in a SOT if you go thru rapids? Don't you get swamped? wow the kayaks in the videos are awfully cool, but they have to cost some serious coin. Though I prefer the idea of keeping things human powered, I have to admit the battery case is really sweet. If you are going to use a trolling motor taht is the way to goi. The Native pedal motor is neat too.

I own a WS Pungo 120. It's easier to fish out of than any canoe I've ever been in. As I see it now, the only advantage of canoe is the abilty to haul gear- ala camping as you would on a boundry waters trip. Canoes suck to fish out of especially when it gets windy. Granted, you can carry more fishing stuff in a canoe, but I'm of the KISS mentality these days. 1 rod, 1 small box. There is a magazine out these days called "Kayak Angler", I doubt that "Canoe Angler" will ever appear. Echoing John's thoughts there is always a trade off. But i think almost any recreational kayak would do fine for you. I would probably stick to 12 feet as a nice in between size, but 10 would work too. A good strategy would be to find used, any raesonable rec boat to you figure out what you like and don't like, then get something you really like. heck a you can paddle a tandem solo. then you can take another person with. It's easy to make more out of this than it raelly requires. Last thought. as far as ease of loading. Check out a rack system with rollers. I think Yakima calls them "Hully Rollers". I fisher with Eric this summr using his boats. He had two boats loaded, by himself in the blink of an eye. And these were Old Town Tandems. Big boats. All you do is put the bow up on the rollers and push. good luck. You will love the 'yak.

I'll say it.. A Keeper! Congrats! Mark

I don't have a favorite. But one thing that few people pay attention to is the length of the rear grip and where the real seat is. the overall length of the rod is kind of meaningless. It's the distance from the reel seat to the tip. because that is where you are going to hold it, at the pivot point. Rods with long rear grips bug me when I'm working topwaters and rapalas and I have found long grips to be pretty unnecesary for balancing a rod (since today they weigh nothing). Long grips are nice whewn float fishing or drifting but if you are doing a lot of casting, I found they just get in the way. That said, short rear grips are hard to find. Loomis 6 foot spinning rods have very short butt sections, St Croix avids and tournament rods are long but getting shorter. There is also the option of taking a hacksaw to the grip. I am going to have Coren's hack off about 3" off a 6 1/2 foot Loomis. An insanely expensive rod, that otherwise is nirvana. So it will be a semi custom rod.

I had a pair of neoprene gloves. For whatever reason my hands were colder in them than if they were bare. It's like I was not wearing gloves. Probably due to the cold core issue, per M.G's description. I had a pair of 6mm boot foot waders. Those were nice. I used to really be into winter cycling. Those little chemical handwarmers are the bomb.

I forgot about this. There is for sure truth to it. Mythbusters had a show that they talked about this.

Are the less expensive Boga grips any good? I think berkley makes them among other brands. Are Boga Grips easier on the fish?

My hands hurt when they get cold. Litterally burn. i'm not sure why. I need good gloves for fishing. I tried neprene, they don't work for me. Any suggestions? Are Glacier gloves any good? Also I need some in kid sizes.

I did not know him, but someone pointed some links to me. Beyond sad. Tragic. a talented young man. Gosh, 4 years younger than myself and...a father. So sad.

I have used Fireline, Power Pro and all the superlines since they first came out. Knot strength has never been an issue, in fact to the contrary when you get into the heavier stuff- 14lb and up breaking off when you need to can be a problem. the fumes from super glue can also "frost" everything in your tackle box. I'd leave it home. just another thing to make life more complicated than it needs to be. Use a Palomar knot make sure you pull both ends and snug them down good, then fuggedaboudit.

Yes, an interesting thread. I don't thnk there is one answer to all this. Actually there probably is, but it's a really complicated mix of biology and statistics. but i have to agree with Ron on a lot of points (that hurt)and lest no one forget he has an awful lot of nice pics in the reports section. "Nice" being an understatement. There are very small number of guys photodocumenting their catches, all with different opinions but all catching a lot of nice fish. Ron is one of those guys. He can't be totally wrong (for once) . Can't argue with the fact the guy catches a lot of big fish on local streams that get pounded . Them pics command some respect. He must know a thing or two. Nuff said. (Now contemplating self destructive behavior).

Back pain sucks. It's like a giant tooth ache. I hope you feel better. wading in the Kank aggravates my back pain. I always try to find smoother stretches (not hard considering all the sand filling the whole damn river in). vitamin I in large doses works too.

Ha. You guys are on the north side....Of Oklahoma! The south side ends at Cal City. Some might argue 35ths st. Sorry Norm... I'll pencil the next event in my schedule. Sounds like I missed out and it was right in my backyard.

brownie gal. Based on the unique abilty to balance objects while in that position. Leads a little to the imagination. Know what mean, eh? Nudge, nudge... wink wink. Eh Squire?

#4 for me. Maximize enjoyment. If it isn't about enjoyment, I would rather do something else that is. I am into endurance sports I had to laugh at #5. To get a good "cardio" workout. I fish to recover from those. :-) I started smallie fishing partially because of the tremendous fight but more because they live in nice places- like the Kankakee, the Mazon, Quetico, Sylvania etc. If you gave me my choice to hammer a ton of fish or two catcha few in a beautiful place like those listed- Without hesitation I would chose the later. Also the reason I like to do stuff like plantings and clean ups. I'm not as serious about this as I used to be. But i think I enjoy it now more than ever. Since i stopped turning into work. If I catch a couple of fish I'm happy. A big one here and there is a plus. I have to admit- even in the days i was serious as cancer about this- never really did much better than that. yes a great day here and there and a couple of years were pretty darn good for bigger smallies. but I typically walked away happy if I caught 5 or 6 fish in the 12-14" range. Speed is dictated by how lazy I am that day. I'm usually pretty energetic and move around a lot but on occasion I'll just stand around and zone out. Usually tend to cover a lot of water. In either case it what I do is decided 100% by what I feel like doing. Not big on high fast water. And I really like crystal clear water. I usually fish alone, because I'm so damn busy that it's a spur of the moment thing and usually I only have a couple of hours at best. interesting that someone mentioned turning rocks. I do that too. and I'm not beyond using the wee beasties for bait. drifting live bait is uber-fun. So many guys snub their noses at it. Thats okay more helgies for me. Given my choice though- I like to catch 'em on flies or topwaters- with my own deer hair bugs being hands down #1 fave. I don't even feel bad when they get mangled. I'll tie more next winter. I don't usually fish with store bought flies, just ones tied by me or my freinds. And...the beauty of flycasting is if the fishing sucks, you are working on your cast. Thanks for the topic Jeff.

Unless something has changed, we are supposed to to hold two clean ups per year. One with the NIAA, one on our own. If the river is high, we can always get shoerlines, parking lots etc.

Sammies cast a country mile, which can be a life saver on the Kank. They also glide a long way on a pull. The hooks are reasonably sharp. They look great too. It's a damn fine lure. Still to this day i believe they use the price tag as a selling point. I saw the Matzuo bait you are talking about. Thats a nice loooking lure too and I would certainly try it. My favorite overpriced japanese lures are made by Owner. The hands down winner is their popper, the Gobo-Pop. My all-time favorite lure. Their slider is called a zip-n-ziggy. http://www.ownerhooks.com/pages/products/lures/topwaterbaits/zipnziggy.htm A more subtle presentation. I also really like the Skitter Prop and the Excalibur (the name escapes me at the moment) lure. All taht said. fish a topwater a lot and you will catch lots of fish on any topwater.

Likewise- regarding meeting everyone. All quality people and I had fun. Lets do it again in spring on a cool day. I'll make a big pot of chili.

Heard this on NPR today: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112888785

Scale?

Duh. My bad. More realistic- but still an amazing amount of hours.

No kidding! I'm no mathmagagician, but if reading this right, 235 hours for the month of July! Thats an average of 7 1/2 hours a day!31% of the all the hours in the month of July. August not far behind. I don't think I've fished that many hours in the last 5 years! Both of you guys are way out of my league.

So far Max and I are in.

Doing a clean up solo, I don't know. You could launch a canoe or jonnboat upstream, then float down hitting the islands along the way. This is the manner we did it on the Kank years ago. Then you still have to have someone shuttle you back. also if you pull out ceratin stuff (like tires) you will need to arrange to get rid of them. Sad about the hawk. Fisherman leave ugliness in their wake. I went to a bird rehab place in the Keys. Many, many of Egrets and seabirds in rehab. tangled in disgarded line. It was depressing.