Yeah, I'm still in Michigan.  Lots and lots of lm and sm bass in the area with 40-50 fish days rather common.  No shortage of pike as well, which are rather tasty btw.  Anybody heads this way in their travels give me a shout.
https://youtu.be/J_xC3-BnI9c

Yeah the weather is going to suck this weekend, but I have a local club event there with sites reserved months ago.  Does Doran shut down with the government impasse?

It looks like they changed up their website.  I hadn't been on it in awhile but have some friends looking to camp up at Hat creek in November and wanted to see when the general trout season closed up there.  What a cluster shit show they did.  It almost looks like they outsourced it?  Near as I can tell November 15th btw, which seems odd as hell considering it is on a Wednesday.

I'm in a 4wd club that is looking at a group trip on a charter boat from perhaps Bodega down to the Emeryville area.  Rockfish/salmon combination trips or perhaps a combo/crab trip.  Probably set it up for mid May. 

Any recommendations?

Well as a newbie to the ocean in a kayak I'll share my food for thought.  I attended the Simply Fishing event this weekend and went into the salt for the first time with my kayak.  I've bailed on a few other events in the recent past because I lacked a little bit of gear I felt I needed. 

I didn't really hook up with anybody at the event but wasn't exactly alone on the water either.  I believe somebody said there were 82 kayaks on the water.  At times I was within 20-30 yards of another member, and other times there was at least a couple hundred yards of separation.  I've read on here multiple times to never go alone.  With that said, I learned that proximity counts too.

There was a little concern about the water conditions and wind the morning of the event and I was a little bit nervous because of it.  I watched others launch and followed their lead on how to get into and out of the cove..ie wash rock on the left.  I paddled out and followed a small group as they exited the cove and headed North around the point and started fishing once I felt comfortable with my distance.  Being new to this, I had no desire to paddle into the unknown at this point.

I spent a lot of time keeping my kayak pointed towards the incoming swells.  Later, I started watching others and realized that nobody really seemed to pay much attention to the orientation of their kayak.  I'm just guessing, but looking back, I'm thinking orientation didn't mean oblivious.  I found, much to my enjoyment, that I bobbed like a cork even with some of the bigger sets.   I started to become complacent.   

Later in the morning when the wind picked up I decided to call it quits.  I had shifted sideways with my back towards the swell to lash my fishing pole down for the trip back into the cove and the landing.  With that mistake along with a large swell I soon found myself in the water for swimming lesson number one.  It took only seconds to get back into the kayak and right back over the other side for swimming lesson number two.  Once again, back into the kayak quickly but with a little snafu involving the paddle leash.  I was in the kayak but found my legs bound up with the leash.  I thought about just cutting it with my pilot knife but a check at the swell showed I had time to not rush things and the situation was quickly resolved.

I paid a lot of attention to the landmarks around the cove and the location of the wash rock on the paddle out.  Things certainly looked different on the paddle back in and I based my approach on watching somebody else a couple of hundred yards ahead of me.  I cleared the was rock just fine but ran into the complacent, rookie mistake thing again and soon had a swell pick up the back of my kayak, kick me to the side and into the water for my third swim. 

This time I found my kayak capsized, and like an idiot had never tried to right it in practice.  I was at the center of the kayak and tried to reach over the top to flip it a couple of times without success.  I feel that I'm in pretty decent shape but after only a minute or so I found myself already tiring.  I tried grabbing the scuppers to support myself and rest but that really didn't work very well.  I also noticed my paddle starting to drift away and drug the kayak with me the short distance to retrieve it.  At least I remembered to unhook it from the kayak and didn't get tangled in the damned thing.  At that point I was friggin tired and just laid back to rest.  I managed to right the kayak by moving to the front and turning it like an axle shaft.  I  got back into the kayak about the time another NCKA member had paddled out to assist.  Thank you, whoever you are.  With my paddle, net and empty water bottle recovered I was soon on the landing.  I have no idea why, but my rod and reel stayed in the kayak. 

Well for a first trip I think I learned a lot. 

As stated, the buddy system and not going alone but also proximity to those your'e with. 

Being comfortable with where you are at and the conditions doesn't have to mean being complacent. 

Stay within your comfort zone, even if it's a newbie oblivious one. 

Others might not have this issue but at my age and somewhat limited flexibility I found that reaching behind the seat for stuff results in a balance issue while in swells.

Getting my legs tangled in the paddle leash was unacceptable and I'll have to look other options.

I watched from the bluff and learned how others didn't get dumped on the ride in.

My drysuit with the neoprene neck gasket has a cord/lock to tighten it down for a reason.  I failed to tighten it and ended up completely wet on my third swim.  I was dressed underneath for immersion and never felt cold.

I would guess I was in the water for 3-5 minutes or so on my last swim session.  I was in and out very quickly the first two times and never noticed it but I found it hard to breath while floating in the water.  Perhaps a little bit of panic?  I never anticipated that sensation.

That last fiasco was in shallow water and relatively close to shore.  Without a lifejacket I feel pretty confident I would have sucked water right off the bat.  It would have gone south quick with lots of people close by but unable to assist.

I have the base for my sonar mounted but haven't been on the water with it yet.  I need to re-evaluate it's location based on my oh shit kayak re-entry.

I need to find a better attachment point for my radio.  I bought a NRS Chinook and carry only "oh shit" stuff in it for ease of self rescue but the radio is currently not into the water secure.

A whole bunch of stuff I haven't figured out yet.

I'm in the market for immersion protection, ie a wetsuit or drysuit.  I hit up the local dive shop Friday night that was having a fantastic sale on wetsuits, unfortunately in sizes other than mine.  It seems that depending on manufacturer I'm going to need either an xl, xxl or xlt, with the xlt being a rather rare bird. 

I think I've read just about every thread on this forum regarding wet/drysuits and opinions are all over the place.  Drysuits in temps of 50 and below (Calif. big blue).  Wetsuits from 3mm-7mm.  A wetsuit and drysuit used in conjunction.  Wetsuit with paddler pants and jacket etc etc etc.  The interesting thing is once you start looking at adding the paddler jacket and pants to supplement the wetsuit, you are getting into the drysuit price range.  To lower that price gap even more is the neoprene gasket drysuits.  Surprisingly there isn't much on here about latex v neoprene gaskets.

Does the neoprene make an effective seal to keep water out comparable to latex?  Durability of one versus the other?  It seems like the neoprene would be less prone to damage.  Does one "choke" more versus the other?  General opinions?

Seipel (if you can find them) on the low end at just over $300
Stohlquist ez at around $500
Supernova for about the same
Hydrus and latex for another $50
2 piece FJ under $200 and another $150 to a lot for a paddler jacket/pants

On the plus side: registered my plb with the NOAA yesterday

I've read this over and over again on this and other forums.  It seems everything is a compromise.  Primary stability, secondary stability, freeboard, rocker, standability, tracking, turning, weight, speed and the list goes on and on.

It's got me thinking about the negatives more so than the positives for a particular use.  I'm a new member here and don't even have a yak at this time.  I was going to head over to Lodi to test paddle a few and also look at Adventures sports in Sacramento but back spasms have me sidelined for now.

As stated in my new member intro, I'm planning to primarily fish the delta.  Yeah the wind can really whip up and going against a tide can bring on some nasty rollers.  With that said, the delta certainly wont be the only location I plan to fish.  I'm looking at a couple of btb trips every year, lakes such as Berryessa, Englebright, and Pyramid but also a few rivers such as the lower Yuba, high flow sections of the Feather and the Sac below Redding.  Punching into the tulies with a shotgun and a dozen decoys has crossed my mind a time or three as well.

Yeah I still need to paddle a few but right now I've been researching the Cuda14 and the Kraken 13.5.  Initially I was looking hard at the OC Prowler big rig 2 simply because of storage and load capacity.  So the main negative concerns...

Kraken--does the narrower bow cause issues in transport for things such as decoys or crap nets/traps?
          --In a river setting is the turning ability lacking to the point of unpractical? 

Cuda14--is it  going to hold its own btb?  Way too slow?  With high primary stability does it suffer getting hit broadside to the point of tipping v rolling?

Is it really going to make a lick of a difference?