Selling the kayak to help fund a drift boat.  Anyone got one used laying around?  Pontoon?  Inflatable?  Metal hull?  Bare, frameless, all the bells and whistles, let me know if you got something. 

Got hooked on spey casting last year and need to step up my steelhead game. 

$5k max. 

We are selling both of our 12ft kayaks to downsize, so the wife's Jackson Cuda 12ft is also up for sale. 

Jackson Cuda 12, great condition, only taken out in freshwater lakes and honestly probably only 10 times since we purchased it from another forum member back in 2021.  Believe it is from 2016 or something.

31" wide, very fast, cuts the water well, max load of over 300 pounds.  Includes some Scotty mounts, rod holders, etc. 

Located in Sebastopol, CA.  I can bring it down to El Cerrito for a small fee.  Can get better pictures if needed.  Garage stored. 

$600 cash.  Will include free paddle, can't remember the brand. 

Made a trip up to the Hoh River in Forks, Washington to swing my spey rod for steelhead.  No kayaks were involved but figured I'd still share. 

Although not our first trip to the Hoh, it was our first trip in winter specifically targeting steelhead (we've been on the river in summer and fall for trout and salmon).

Legends of the winter conditions and the elusive nature of the "fish of 1000 casts" proved to be mostly true, but didn't deter from the enjoyment; it rained five inches in three days and average day temps did not exceed 42*F with water temps a balmy 38*F!  A combination of premium waterproof gear and massive fleece undergarments ensured we were dry and toasty! 

But despite attacking the river on our own, without a guide and without a drift boat, we still managed to get some of the most action of the entire weekend on the upper river, culminating in an epic battle with a 30" plus gorgeous beauty which, of course, managed to get off on a crazy downstream run after a 10 minute battle. 

No steelhead were landed in the net, no epic instagram pictures were taken, but fish were hooked and fought, lessons were learned, and great fun was had. 

The area is incredibly beautiful and feels like it's far more than four hours away from Seattle, yet the town of Forks has everything you could need, including a large outfitters shop with hunting and fishing supplies.  The vast majority of people hire guides and float the rivers, but daily guide prices average $650-$800 with tip (and they didn't have any better luck than us). 

The logistics of the trip were quite easy; flew nonstop SFO to SEA, picked up a Dodge RAM 1500 at SEATAC airport and met my buddy Joe, four hour drive to our little AirBNB cabin in Forks, Washington.  From there you have super easy access to the Quilayute, Calawah, Bogachiel, Hoh, and a bit further the Clearwater and Queets, and there are even some decent restaurants. 

I converted to fly fishing pretty much exclusively last fall for a variety of reasons; this trip I was exclusively swinging my 12.5ft 7wt two handed spey rod and it was my first ever time ever spey casting in real conditions; it's a whole different animal and like learning how to fly fish all over again. 

This is supposed to be a video, but having issues showing up?



[video]http://youtu.be/bM_EhuPT1_Y[/video]

Although there wasn't much kayaking, figured I'd share a recent fishing trip up to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

I take a 2 week fishing and overlanding road trip up to Washington every year during this time, although sometimes end of August, sometimes mid September; it's incredible to see what just a week or two can do in terms of changing weather, flora, and fauna.  Mid September is always full on rain and cold, but the bounties are endless; earlier is far nicer camping weather, but slow on the collection. 

We were hoping to get some super early river-mouth salmon and steelhead in Olympic National Park and Forest, but the first rains were just starting in the NW area of the peninsula and stuff was still quite dry otherwise.  Tides weren't quite high enough either; right as we left the area, the Hoh River mouth hit +9 ft which is enough to get some good infill. But most of the weather was high 60's and low 70's, sunny skies, and mid 30's at night, and air quality was a dream compared to the 250AQI I had to camp in on the drive up.

Despite the lack of salmon and being way early for the fall mushroom flush, we still managed to forage some initial sample fungi offerings and brought in a ton of gorgeous rainbow trout from a variety of rivers and creeks, mostly wild, including my personal best wild river-caught rainbow, at 20.5" and 2.5 pounds, C&R'ed.  Regulations are tough and rough in the area so we were mostly on single barbless artificial and C&R, and although we put the fly rods out with a ton of different options, small classic spinners were the star of the show. 

Caught my PB on a generic 1/4oz china purple spinner I clipped into single barbless (no pictures of course, too excited and he was a fighter), but 75% of the fish we landed were on a Panther Martin Classic, 1/8oz with a #4 flasher.  The only downside to the little Panther Classic was that the little 6" trouts would go nuts on it, but it also caught some great +12".   

In the course of 10 days of fishing, we literally landed over 120 trout, keeping only a small handful.  Most we caught were gorgeous young wild rainbows under 10" with some young wild steelhead in the mix, only a few Cutthroat, and a handful of decent hatchery that are allowed keep pretty much anywhere.  It was amazing to see how healthy the wild fish stocks were, and even more amazing that at one point we didn't see another human for 72 hours, although there were plenty of bears (they kept their respectful distance). 

This was my first decent road trip on the new truck as well, 2021 Ranger Lariat Tremor, hence a lot of truck pictures, and aside from some odd A/C issues on the way back, it handled the 1500 miles of pavement and 800 miles of dirt with gusto.  Started the trip without much of a scratch, came home pretty dented.  Had an excellent time at the OHV's in the Tilamook State Forest area, crazy capable for a stock truck. 

Headed back up mid October to do some real salmon fishing.

Forgive the potentially silly question but are there regulations prohibiting me from targeting lingcod (and other rockfish), but catching and releasing, during the seasonal closure?  For whatever reason I found it tough to find a definitive answer about this.

Since there is incidental rockfish catch that gets released when going for species that are still open, I sort of assume that there can't really be? 

I'm trying to get my fiance more experienced with jigging from her yak before the season opens back up and I wouldn't mind enjoying some sport, but don't want to push the boundaries or do anything frowned upon.  I would be bending my barbs. 

Thanks,

I've got some stuff sticking around in my garage that I figured I'd offer to NCKA members.  If it's preferred non-kayak gear isn't posted here, feel free to push me in the right direction.  I don't use CL or FB or any other classifieds method.  And all of this will be to pay for new kayak gear.     If you need the network gear for a school or some type of non-profit, I'm happy to donate it. 

Audio/Video Gear :
- Audio-Control Maestro M9 AV/Theater Processor - Over $9k retail, it doesn't get any better than this, equivalent to Datasat.  Atmos, Dolby Vision, DiracLive, etc.  I sold my house a few years back and have downsized to the point that I don't need such a hardcore theater processor.  Asking $6000. 
- Velodyne SC1250 2 channel subwoofer amp, either 2x 650w or 1x 1250w @ 4ohm - rack mounted, beat up but rebuilt - Asking $500
- Sonance VP68R in-ceiling round speakers - 6.5" driver, decent sound for rear channel or as a stereo pair in a kitchen, etc.  Asking $300/pair
- Sonance VP46R in-ceiling round speakers - brand new, never installed, good for a dining room or study - Asking $200/pair
- James Loudspeaker (custom Napa company) 63SA-7 in-ceiling small architectural aperture speakers (3" grill opening with a massive 6.5" woofer in the ceiling, fits between standard joists) - Brand new, asking $800/pair
- James Loudspeaker SX420 pendant or in-ceiling speaker pair - Asking $400
- Audio-Control BLD/BLR audio sender and receiver (sends analog audio signal across Cat5/6 up to 1000 feet) - $150
- iPort Launchport iPad Mini magnetic wall mount (all iPad mini) - $75
- Savant Automation Host - Mac Mini with a full 7.0 License (over $5000 retail), SVR-4500 (non-SSD). - $500

Network Gear
- Cisco 2960X 24port PoE gigabit switch with SFP links, etc - New model, barely used, Asking $500
- Cisco 2960S 48port PoE gigabit switch with 4x SFP links, asking $200 (exterior has smoke damage, but it's been rebuilt internally and working for years since). 
- Luxul ABR4400 gigabit resitential router, did 800Mbps down on my gigabit connection, pretty rare to get above 700 with most routers.  - $75
- Ruckus ZD1200 Zonedirector enterprise wifi controller; I think it still has time left on the license, for up to 6x AP's.  Asking $350
- Ruckus ZD1100 Zone Director enterprise wifi controller; license is expired but works without support, supports up to Wave 1 AC access points like the R500, but not the R510.  Asking $150
- Ruckus AP's : I have a ton of 7372's, R500s, R510 Wave 2, price varies depending on what you want. 

Other Stuff:
- GTOmega Pro Cockpit - racing or flight simulator cockpit, basically brand new, I used it while I was waiting for my main rig to get built.  Retails $260 plus tax and shipping and lead time.  Includes rear speaker mounts, shifter mount, keyboard mount, etc.  I'll take $175 from a NCKA member. 
- CanFan Max EL008 8" Super Inline Fan - $150 (great for creating your own smoke filter)
- 8000 BTU portable A/C, blows cold, works great - $200
- Lutron RadioRA2 Thermostat HVAC kit (brand new, everything to control your HVAC through your Lutron system) - $500

Introducing myself, so here's a bit of background.  My name is Max, I live in both Sebastopol and Emeryville, but primarily North Bay based. I moved back to California this year from the Philippines, where I was a diving instructor and general travel bum since 2018, so I spend most of my time in the water. 

Recently got back into fishing because of COVID and more free time; I had basically zero cold water ocean fishing experience from boat or shore, although I'm not new to trout and bass in freshwater, nor spearfishing in tropical waters. 

It took me almost 6 weeks of shore fishing multiple times a week before I caught a single rockfish; now, many months later, I'm happily catching fish every time I go out.

Kayak was the only next step for me, as storage is quite limited and dealing with a boat is impossible. I'm now completely obsessed, and stunned at how easy it is to hit limits, but still quite new and inexperienced.  Definitely would love to go out with some more experienced people, and also have no friends who fish.  Looking forward to spearfishing season as well during the closure.

I didn't have the funds to step into something with pedals, so I grabbed a Vibe Yellowfin 100 (limited to about 10 feet length due to storage).  Got a little Garmin Striker fish finder and a rudder, and the other normal accouterments.  What I never anticipated was how much I move when I drop a line to jig, even when there is very little current, swell, or wind.  I didn't realize just how helpful having pedals would be. 

What do people do about this?  Accept it?  Kelp anchor?  Looking forward to learning more, and hopefully meeting some people.  Seems like a great socially distance activity!  Looking forward to hearing about any lesser-known places to launch as well, especially north of Bodega and south of Timber Cove. 

Cheers.