After meeting up with the FishMaster and Ebjaywaygibehreidfkdfjhsdhdjdflkjsdifewrjdslfjsdf (phil)   in SC we headed up through the drizzly fog and arrived at BH around 6AM to an all too familiar scene of NCKA'ers hauling gear down to the water, getting suited up and greeting one another.  Hauled our gear down to the beach and got some good tips on exit/entry for the jaws.  

Launching was a piece of cake, except I thought my rudder was down and I did a full 180 and was heading straight back at the beach!   Kicked down the rudder, and turned back TOWARDS the ocean, and caught up the boys and headed out into open water.  Pretty chilly without any sun light, fog rolled in and drizzled for about 20 mins on us.

I'm on the fence, and want to make a decision about a new boat before buying it this time.  Instead of going to the OutbackAdventures demo day, I went fishing, DoH!  Anyone that lives in the South Bay that would be up for letting me try out their ride, rudder or not, I'd greatly appreciate it.  Can bring my Outback if you want to give it a try too. 

But was a nice day to get out and paddle with my buddy Stoggie!  We launched after tying some riggs and headed out in zero swell glassy like water with sever overcast clouds keeping the sun from hitting us. 

We paddled out around the kelp to the right side of the pier and lazily trolled chovies off the bottom heading twards SC.  I got one brown RF, an underling, 2 octopi, some weird fish I haven't seen before, and one scratched bait.

So, not much to report, but here are some pics!

I went to OutbackSports after the Paradise BBQ to take a look at an X-Factor they had there.  This version I looked at was a non-fishNdive, so no rod holders, and missing the rear hatch.  But it felt way heavier to pickup to me than the T15. 

Online its rated at 62#, vs the Trident 15 at 60#.  But felt a bit heavier than that too me.  I imagine that it would weigh more if the hatch was installed and the flush-mount holders too.

Can anyone confirm if this is its true weight?

For more information and background, please see http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,17965.0.html for the Gimme Shelter III fishing report thread!!!

As I'm paddling back from the red buoy its getting a bit rough for me out there.  Swell and wind were making it hard to make any traction.  I radio that I'm heading closer in cause I am getting beating up out there.  Swells were getting pretty large, some of them breaking next to me.  I've still been in worse conditions, but not on this boat before. Heading with the waves seemed fine, but they weren't pointing twards the launch.

I'm at the point where I decide I need to get to some calmer water as fast as possible, and wait for a swell to pass and aim left to point the yak at the cove.  A wave flushes right over the side of the yak and I roll right out of it and am now in the water.    From here, my details are a lil' fuzzy, cause it all seemed to happen so fast.

After the initial shock and catching a few breaths I saw that I could still reach my rod that was in the holder and my net was floating near me.  Grabbed those and then was able to push the kayak back over with my free hand and get it upright again.  Toss the stuff up inside, and then started hailing that I need some help.  I remembered seeing Bob not too far back as I was paddling and I heard him call out too me.  He pulled up along side and checked to see that I was ok. 

He instructed me on what I should be doing to get back in, and I gave it a shot, but lost my balance and felt like I was going to pull Bob down with me.  Others were on their way so decided to wait for more assistance.  I was reaching for my radio to stuff back in the pocket and felt my camera...  I for some reason couldn't resist, and took a little video of me in the water and the guys helping me. 


With another person helping to balance Bob, and someone giving directions to me from behind (NB?) we gave it another go, and this time it was successful except for when I was trying to bring my knee up in the boat with me instead of laying flat on my stomach.  I got rolled over and just held onto Bob and his Hobie while I caught my breath and let my nerves calm down a bit.  Once I was ready, and tried to thank everyone I set myself on my way back to shore and the others I think went back to fishing.

Coming back in, I felt like I had no balance and ended up having my feet over the side of the boat to help balance me.  I was being cautious, moving slow in the water and only with the waves figuring I'm going to have to head twoards the shore however possible and hope to hit calmer water to turn the bow into and paddle to the launch.   Every time a wave came from behind me it felt like I was having to counter balance it 3-4 times.  But I kept moving, my legs were really cold, but I was determined to get back in under my own power. 

Stoggie came up on me and I told him how the yack was feeling to me, and explained that for some reason I have no balance.  Keeping up the balancing act was getting hard, and for the first time I started to feel a bit afraid of dumping over again.  He looked at me and didn't see anything that looked wrong.  I was still sitting high in the water, and he didn't know what was wrong but stuck it with me all the way back to shore. 

Eventually I came back in without tipping, using my legs to balance, and when I hit the shore I couldn't pull my yak 5ft out of the water, it was heavy as hell!  Tad and Matt were there and some others we opened up the hatch and saw 3-4 inches of water inside.  We flipped it over and it took a WHILE to drain it out, even with most of it flushing out the front hatch. 

Matt gave me some warm clothes to put on, that I was really thankful for and grabbed a smoke from Tad and just kept going over the whole episode in my head trying to figure out what I did wrong.  I really should have expected water in the hull after being flipped, but I was too worried to check it out there on the water, and just wanted to head back in. 

I'm still looking to figure out what went wrong with that scenario ( and the second one...) but I am not sure, but will be doing some testing to find out what I can.  I'm not going to point fingers at problems before having some answers.  Will be posting more on this later...


My Donations made to the "Lost Coast" for Saturday (yeap!) were:

Gaff
Fish smacker
Trevala Med Rod w/ Shimano 301a Cardiff
Scupper plugs (recoverd by AK)
Lip Gripper (Recovered by AK)
Pat's Hawg Trough
Stringer, with a few fish on it
Bait, bottles, etc stuff in pockets
10AA rechargeable battery setup for FF
ICOM Remote Floating Mic (died after the dunk)

Just made it back home from the biggest hookup in NCKA HISTORY! 

Only one word describes the whole weekend for me."EPIC"

This event had everything! Three days of excellent fishing and nights of partying with the NCKA crew!  The food, the beer, the PEOPLE, the fishing, the evenings, sunrises, sunsets, stories, and of course the comradery... 

A HUGE thanks to Eric for putting on this event!!!  I'd say the best part was meeting all the really cool people for the first time and seeing my pals from past hookups.  You guys are all AWESOME and I hope we all get out there and do GMS IV next year together! 

A special thanks for everyone that helped me out there on the water (i'll explain later...) I owe you all a debt of gratitude that will never be forgotten.

Being home sick for the last few days has been giving me the stir crazies. 

So I set out to keep myself entertained in as may ways as I could. 

I sorted tackle, did hook upgrades and tied shrimp flies, etc, etc, blah, blah blah... 

But I needed something a bit more *fun* to work on while I'm sitting at home on the first day of RF season  .

I'd meant to get my Superman Rod rigged up for some sort of bait fishing or something, but hadn't gotten around to it.  Seeing as how I had plenty of time on my hands, figured I'd see what I could do with this puppy.

I began by trying to see if I could separate the rod from the base.  It all looked glued together so I thought, "Hey, why not use a blow torch to loosen that up?" and see if I could get it to pull out.

I'm not sure where yet, but wanna get out on Sunday.  So far have had some interest from FishMaster1, Stoggie, Ebwabberjibjab (Phil=), friend of mine Angel and some possible others.  Lets plan this hookup!  I'm more thinking of staying in the SC area, but for Andy  I would consider traveling!  Was thinking New Brighton for some reason even though there is a $$ to park, it would be fun for cooking n chillin.

Recent outings sure haven't produced much but a beautiful day on the water and good company.  So I don't expect much more than that this Sunday, but I just wanna get out there anyway!