rwp

It has little to do with the speed, it's mostly the resistance. Cranking high resistance baits all day can be tiring or nearly impossible with a high gear reel. I have some musky bucktails that fight harder than a 5 pound bass, even with a power handle it sucks too bring them in on a high gear tranx.

If you aren't fishing salt, 4.7:1 Curado 300, also makes for an awesome slow crawl/hudd/winter reel. Edit, saves you $100 too, for the exact same reel minus salt protection and some other very small differences.

I gotcha. Yeah, that's a pain for sure. You almost need to deliberately scout the area, mark your spots and then start fishing.

I don't use mine to find and single out fish. I use it to find structure, check depths and water temp and see if fish (and more importantly, bait) are around. Unless you have livescope, it's not too likey that you will locate and catch a single fish very often.

I love my Lynx.

You're right, but it's still a smaller benefit (per dollar) on a kayak vs a boat. I run a split screen set up nearly all the time and I can see everything I need too. There's also a lot less to see when you're moving along at 2-4mph a kayak vs the amount of water you can cover on a boat. Obviously if you want side scan, the bigger screen will be better for that because you are looking at more water at the same time. Like you said, it's all about how much you want to spend.

So you only have 2 options with that boat. One, is to mount the transducer inside the hull. You basically glue it to the bottom of the hull. For some, it works great. Others have signal issues. It could be certain transducers or just how it's mounted. The benefit to this is that you can mount it centered and towards the front of the kayak for a more "real-time" photo vs the transducer being under the seat or behind you. Option 2, is something like this. https://www.yakattack.us/cellblok-battery-box-and-switchblade-transducer-arm-combo-clb-1003/ You can use just the transducer arm, or the entire box. The box is nice, because it holds the battery and all the cables. Speaking of battery, go lithium. Nocqua is the gold standard. For the smaller units, all you need is the 4ah battery. If you going side scan 10ah. It's crazy how fast it all adds up. $100 battery, $100-150 in mounting solutions then you have to buy the actual unit. Currently, the Garmin vivid 4cv is on sale for $160. That's a screaming deal and a fantastic unit with down scan. Personally, I don't see a need for a bigger screen than that while on a kayak. You mount it 6" from the seat and you fish. It's not like you're walking around the boat and need to see the screen. Here's my setup, I have the echomap 44cv (exact same, but has saltwater maps). The only limitations with these units is the lack of side scan, but that's not something I would use for my fishing. Another thing that's commonly overlooked with fish finders on kayaks is that you need to be moving in a straight forward direction to get an accurate representation of what's below you. Kayaks get pushed around a lot more than boats do by the current and wind. I've caught myself numerous times thinking "what the..... is that?" Only to realize I'm drifting sideways or at an angle and the picture is all screwed up. These units are taking MRI style photographs, a single slice at a time to put together what you see on the graph. If you aren't moving, or moving the wrong direction, it's a mess on the screen. Good luck!

This is really hard to answer without more information. Do you want down scan? Side scan? Live view? Mapping? Is battery life (size) important? Budget? Does your kayak have a spot to mount a transducer? If so, what transducer? If not, are you going to mount it in the hull, off the side, etc? For the VAST majority of kayak freshwater and inshore fishing you don't need anything more than a simple down scan unit without mapping, which can be had for $200 or less.

How serious are you going to get into musky fishing? Are you fishing from a boat or the shore? Are you using bass lures or will you be using musky lures? Any rod can catch a musky, ND Yak Angler catches them all the time on a 6'6" medium heavy st croix on his YouTube. If you are really going to target trophy musky, especially from a boat, you should get into a real musky rod. Minimum of 9' long, fast action, with the backbone to drive the hooks through their hard mouths.

This is awesome. It's too bad that I fish structure and get broken off all the time, I'd never risk throwing a bait this nice.

The extra fast teramars are pretty underwhelming. Fast action ones make decent jigging rods though.

I'm still waiting for mine. The colors I ordered seem to be taking the longest too show up.

I question those specs, I've owned them both and I don't remember the diawa holding nearly double the line. I also think they are both rated to hold around 200 yards of 30lb braid, if I remember correctly. A Tatula 200 doesn't really compare to a Tranx/Curado 300. I think people underestimate the shimano 300's because the amount of performance they offer isn't utilized while bass fishing. They are the same reel for the most part and I've caught numerous fish over 50lbs on a Tranx, as well as know people who have landed sharks and tarpon well over 100lbs without issue.

Just pre ordered two of these. At the very least it's cool to see something attempting to be innovative. I don't really care if it casts further, but it looks like a good profile and size for the weight. Hopefully they get here for striper season.

Be careful with the Garmins, there's a handful of versions for each model. If you want mapping (like installed maps) there's no striker with that option, you have to buy the echomap 4. 43 has freshwater maps, 44 is saltwater and great lakes. There's other options to, so pay attention, one model has no maps installed, one is for Canada. The "plus" versions have the gt20 transducer (down scan, or clearvu as Garmin calls it). Whatever you get, striker or echomap, I'd highly recommend the gt20 transducer. Striker vivid is the model without mapping. The GPS store . Com has the best prices. They are in NC and ship fast without issues.