Eddie calls me while on the water about 11 am, I've got zip to report.  Bite is slow, not seeing anyone catching anything.  An hour and 15 minutes later,  this beast finds my herring.  I was certain it was a small bat ray that can often fool for a big hali.  When the brown doormat surfaced from the dark green murk, it changed the mood of day quite quickly! Best of the year so far.... 9th keeper.

While I am new to kayak fishing (not to fishing)... I have been putting off testing my "self rescue" skills until today. 

While I have been out 10 times or so, and even caught a few salmon in the delta area, I have been putting off getting wet, cold etc... and doing the necessary prep for a trip outside the gate... crabbing etc.

Ok, so this is how it went down.  Water temp was 56 and air temp about the same.  I wanted to do a full "dress rehearsal".  3 mil wetsuit over a thin poly long sleeve shirt.  Wool sweater over the wetsuit, windbreaker over that.. and of course PFD.  I then just walked the kayak into the water until I was shoulder deep.  I was a bit cold at first, but once water got into the wetsuit I was fine.

I didn't want to paddle out and then jump into over my head water and then find out I couldn't turn the yak over or get back into it.

So the first thing I did was try to get up and into the yak.  I pushed it away from me about 6 feet, then without using the bottom, I got my body level with the water and swam toward it and was able to get my chest up on top of the yak just in front of the seat. I then worked my body counter clockwise lifting my legs up and I was into the kayak without much issue.  A bit of effort, and slightly winded the first time, but easy enough. 

Next was to try the back entry.
I went back into the water, and this time entered from the rear.  I have my wheels mounted upside down through the scupper holes and I was easily able to just grab onto the axle bar and use that to pull and slide myself up upon the tail. I could sit on the tail and it floated well enough for me to be there and not submerge the yak.  A climb over the seat and the wheels, not convenient, but doable. 

So two ways to get back onto the kayak without any leverage from the seafloor. 

Then came the next part.  Flip the kayak itself over and try to get it flipped back upright again.
This didn't go so well as planned.

The plan was (from watching a few youtubes) was to get my body over the middle of the capsized  hull, and grap the handle on the other side, then use body weight to pull it over.  NOPE! Not going to happen.  The hull was so slippery and my Hobie Mirage kayak is 34 inches wide and I could not get my hand anywhere near the handle on the other side. NO WAY!

The second plan was to reach underneath and grab the far handle from under, then pull with that arm and push up with the other. NOPE!  Not with a PDF on... and my arm could not reach that far to get to the underside handle.. not even close!

Solution?

I grabbed the bottom of the Mirage drive...which is obviously in the middle and pulled on that.. and whoalla... it flipped right back over without much effort.  Made no difference if the pedal fins were up or down... piece of cake. 

I then thought about... if for some reason my Mirage drive falls out.... or comes unleashed (mine is leashed) could I still do that?  I went into the shore and dropped off my Mirage drive and then went back out with just the open hole and tried... and NO PROBLEM!  The open hole is easy to grip and flip over. 

Now my Kayak is only 73 pounds (12f) and being 6 ft tall... I weigh about 175 soaking wet.. so I was really glad to know I could get it flipped over without issue.

I then went out and jumped, flipped and re entered 12 times! 
I did it until I felt like.. "ok, this is a total non issue... I got this.. and could do this blindfolded"

Now this whole ordeal had me in 56 degree water for about an hour and 15 minutes.  I never really felt "cold".. but when another kayaker came in from fishing nearby, I spoke with him about what I was doing.. and how he was doing... and I noticed my voice was just a bit shaky half yelling from about 40 yards away.  This did surprise me a bit.  My feet were not cold.  My hands were getting cold as I had no gloves. Fingers getting that pink cold look and some loss of motion...nothing serious.  Arms were slightly cold feeling as I have a farmer style overalls wetsuit....but again, I had been wet for close to an hour and a half in 56 degree water and air.

So taking this all to heart, I feel great about my confidence to self recover.  Not sure if I were to tip over once, would I be able to continue fishing or should I immediately move toward shore at that point?  Not sure if being wet and back ontop of my kayak... I would gradually get colder as time goes on.. or would I stay warm enough to keep fishing/ crabbing etc?

I feel like it would be very rare to go over in my kayak.... as it is very stable.  However, it is very good to know you can manage the situation with confidence before it happens. I hear about yaks going over in the surf... both launching and landing (surf).  Not a big worry there because you are close to shore.. and the waves would push both you and your yak into the beach naturally.  Also hard to imaging getting tipped once past the breakers with just normal ocean swells.

So my recommendation for any "newbies" like me... DO THIS! 
If you haven't purposefully tried your self rescue skills... DO THIS SOON! 
It's also good to do it this time of year when it is cooler so you have confidence in a wider spectrum of situations.  Make sure you can get your yak flipped back up... and that you can get back into it.  It's a really good feeling to know you have 100% confidence this will NOT be an issue for you if or when it happens.  Peace of mind is a good thing!

As much as we think we can trust others to come to our aid... or the red button on the radio... no for sure guarantees there.  Best to know YOU got THIS!