Nice, glad you didn't skunk! I was out at Berryessa a couple times out of Capell last month and wasn't getting any hits from trout at slower speeds. Mine were caught in the top 20' between 3 and 3.5mph with speedy shiners. They were definitely spread out, so who knows, maybe it was less the speed of the lure and more that I was covering more water at higher speeds?

I have a Shimano SLX BFS as well as a Kast King Zephyr. The SLX blows the Zephyr out of the water, tolerances, braking systems, castability, in every way it's better and easier to cast.

The SLX BFS is paired with a Major Craft New Finetail TREKKING & TRAVELER series FTX-B46/505UL which I quite like, though it's not as hilarious as a full fiberglass setup. The rod I ordered from https://north-one.jp/ and the reel from https://japanlureshop.com/

The Zephyr was easier to acquire since amazon had them at the time, it got paired with a random UL aliexpress rod (that is now broken).

A friend of mine went a slightly different route and is running an ifishband clamber reel with an ifishband trout magic rod, both are slightly more available and affordable. The reel felt quite nice, though I haven't checked in to see how it's holding up long term. Just casting into my pool it felt significantly better than the zephyr though, maybe even on par with the shimano (though I like the braking system on the shimano better). ifishband gear is most easily found here: https://baitfinesseempire.com/

Hopefully you don't have the desire for a round reel because woooof, those things get even more pricey!

As far as informational youtubers, I've found the most helpful one to be hobie-wan kenobi https://www.youtube.com/@HobieWanKenobi
He tends to keep things in real world terms, instead of testing things outside of their strengths (even if it CAN cast a trout magnet I wouldn't, that's what my UL spinning gear is for).

For local BFS fishing I'll sometimes watch https://www.youtube.com/@Angler216

I can't say I use the BFS rod from the kayak much though! It's usually in my pack next to my fly rod for silly hike in expeditions and explorations.

Yes but smaller

Sold to Tyler and his young beginner!

I ended up picking up a yard- sale square stern canoe and have run out of space for boats so my tarpon 140 has to go.

Full details:
The Bad - I bought it used and it looks like they'd stored it right side up, so there's a touch of english to the keel if you look hard enough. There's also some slight oil canning in the center of the hull (all visible in the photos). The backrest was also cracked when I got it, my solution involved heavy gauge wire and epoxy which has held for me over the last year or so. The hatches on this era of boat also have a tendency to let some water in if you're taking a lot of water over the top.

The Good - It floats! I added flush mount rod holders in the back and replaced all of the bungee with fresh orange bungee cord. I also installed an anchor trolley and some yakattack mighty mounts. While it's not much for standing and fishing, it's a pretty darn quick kayak and I found it to be very stable when sitting. The side handles have been replaced. I've also treated it semi-regularly with 303 to try and keep it fresh.

For NCKA I'm thinking $330 $280 seems a fair price. I'll definitely miss it, but my kiddo just keeps growing and very much prefers the space in the canoe.

Located in the Sacramento area. 

Great to meet everyone and do some kokanee fishing!

My morning trip was uneventful though a bit later than would have been ideal, everyone was already on the water by the time I arrived! Naturally instead of introducing myself on the radio I mostly kept to myself and lurked around trolling.
Call it a shy streak? I managed to catch one koke near the brown-trout-pens very quickly, but couldn't put together a pattern. By noon I had three, each one deeper than the last. I moved from brad's kokanee cut plugs to teardrop dodgers and purple pink hoochies.

Come noon I made my way to the beach, donated to AOTY prizes in a roundabout way and did my best to make friends! It turns out quite a few folks here have reckless motorcycle histories and I had fun reminiscing.

Since I had somewhat limited time I excused myself from camp after lunch and decided I would try my luck at worst-time-of-day fishing. My efforts were rewarded by a 4th and final koke and my first glide-bait fish!

Young bass are so ambitious.



I can't wait for the next one!

Looking forward to the weekend!

Here's hoping the work-week goes by quickly.

Do most of these trails require plated vehicles, or would green stickers suffice?

My "4x4" is basically a minivan, so for any serious offroad I'd have to bring something a bit smokier.