Troll with kayak out of rocky river all the time. Run single rod with cranks down to gold coast. Get good numbers of eyes, smallmouth and huge sheephead witch turn the yak around! Also took kayak across on ferry to kellys on memorial weekend and did pretty good doing the same in north bay . Had to wate till saturday on that one till wind let up.I always wear life vest and bright clothing. Haveing a pare of those buda plastic fishing pliars really makes handleing those fish at the boat nice. You wont need net if you have those. Most boaters are cool when they see you. If i am unshure if they have seen me I raise my yellow blade paddle. My kayak is a 12 foot axis dagger. In bigger waves the drop skag on this yak staightens the boat for more controlled trolling. As far as speed I can pretty well tell by rod bend but I do carry hand held GPS witch also has Lake Map witch is great for following a depth line.