A few folks have expressed interest in seeing how I rigged my fish-n-dive for navigation lights.  I used standard equipment for a small boat.  I got it from Bass-pro and spent about $150 for the parts, wiring, battery and charger for the battery.  The wiring is standard marine romex-type wire from home depot with silicon stuffed marine wire nuts for most connections.  The power cables for the bow and stern lights were run together with a T off to where it joins with the power cable for the fish finder.  Both have independent fuses and join together into one connector for each side of the battery.  The battery is a computer system back up battery and weighs about 4 pounds.  I can run the fish finder, with backlighting, and the navigation lights for at least 8 hours.  I have been using the same battery for almost 10 years now and it still lasts all day.  I don't remember where i bought it, but the batery was only about $30 bucks and the charge was a little more than that.  I put a switch in line for the lights so that I can turn the lights on and off without disrupting the power to the fish finder.  I used a trolling motor puck transducer and epoxied it to the inside of the hull, it has also stayed in place for almost 10 years.  roughing up the spot where you will put it and resting a weight on the transducer while the epoxy dries makes for a good seal and pushes out any air bubbles in the epoxy, which is critical for good sonar readings.  I found a zip up lunch bag which fits the battery and i just strap it to a scupper post in the hold of the kayak with a bungie.  Doesn't move and again, has worked well for almost 10 years.  During that time, I have had to clean the contacts in the fuse holders and replace the connectors to the battery every few years because of corrosion, but other than that, no problems.  Let me know if you have any more questions, lots of pics below.

Norm

As the wind was still blowing at the beach and the hordes of Memorial weekenders were out in force, we resolved to stay within 10 miles of the houst this weekend.  On Saturday, Drew and I hit our top secret local LMB honey hole (not really that secret) just outside of Windsor.  As usual, we were the only boat on the lake all morning, not counting the solo float tuber who was there also.  We did the usual damage there, 15 LMB's to 2 1/2 and Drew also fooled a mess of bluegill and green sunfish. 

Sunday we talked Mom into hitting the river with us.  We launched on the south side of Healdsburg and paddled up stream for a few miles.  We found a few willing SMBs and an aggressive squawfish that ate a drop-shotted worm.  Until the summer dam goes up at Veterans, the holes are not quite as deep and slow as they really like.  But, we did manage a few and the weather was great.

A successful weekend close to home!

Drew and I headed up to Lake Sonoma early Saturday morning to do some early season recon on the hard fighting landlocked steelies who live there.  We trolled for about two hours for one hookup, which turned out to be a big one.  It was Drew who caught it of course, and it was our biggest steelhead from the lake ever at just 5 pounds.  Drew got it trolling a shad rap on 6 pound, which made for a great fight.  It did not want anythign to do with the big grey kayak and made 5 or 6 long hard runs each time it got close to the boat.  Luckily, it was well hooked and we landed it.  Fished bass for about 30 minutes after trolling and got one nice fat 2 pounder on a shakey head and 6 inch worm near the Yorty Creek Ramp, and that was it.  We were off the water by 10:30 or so.

We ate the steelie for dinner last night and it was awesome.  Drew was very proud of the fact that he provided Sunday dinner for the family....

Water was still pretty clear and low, so the recent storm action has not had much effect yet.  Next big storm system should get them in the mood for love and then they should start congregating in the creek arms.

Norm

My wife had a business thing going on in Angels Camp this last weekend, so Drew and I took advantage of the free room and board and tagged along. 

Having never been there, I asked the NCKA folks for intel and was pointed to a good source at New Melones.  We checked things out and found the bite had been tough but there were some fish to be had.  Back at the resort, the local manager turned out to be a flyfisher, so he gave us some alternatives, one of which was running right under the bridge at the end of the town, Angel Creek.  We hit that Friday afternoon and managed some fiesty brown trout and one nice rainbow on the ultralights.  Should have brought the fly gear, but the ultralights were a fun way to coax the smallish fish from small water. 

The guy also gave us some intel on some lakes up highway 4 in the Sierra, so Saturday morning we headed up the road and Drew was so excited to fish, we hit the first lake we found, White Pines.  It was a descent spot, not big, but lots of willing fish.  We ended up with two rainbows, about a dozen stunted LMB's and some really aggressive bluegill.  All but a few came on small jerkbaits which was fun for Drew. 

All in all, we did well for a kind of last minute trip.  We also hit the new Bass Pro Shops down the road in Manteca.  That was cool, but I think I agree with Drew and my wife (Sandy), that the Cabela's in Reno was better overall.  I thought I somehow got a parking ticket on the way out, but it turned out to be a hello from a fellow NCKA brother, BrianG.  I guess he made the "pilgrimage" as well......

Norm

I went exploring with DaveW and Amphibian, and Dave's son Dillon and a friend of Dave's from work (Nate on his maiden sea kayak fishing adventure) on Sunday on the south side of Pt. Arena.  We had done well in the general area a month or so ago and there was a weather window to give it another try (kind of).  The swell was not bad, but as soon as we launched at 9 the wind started to come up and it just kept getting stronger.  I managed a mixed limit of rockies (china's, blacks, gophers, one blue, one greenling and one nice red) and one nice ling, but it was not an easy mission.  C&R on a few 24" zone lings to be safe and for karma's sake.  Even with a drift sock and two clips of fish in the water, the wind was pushing me between 1 and 1.5 mph according to my GPS.  It made fishing swimbaits a challenge with a 3 oz head, but when you could stay close to the bottom, there were biters.  Lots of short bites and long line releases shortly after hooking up for some reason this time out.  I had at least 4 or 5 swimbaits come up missing the end of the tail.  Everyone caught a few fish at least, but the wind was not our friend.  The paddle back to the beach with a side wind from the North was less than fun.  There were some interesting wave rides into the beach, but everyon made it without any garage sale action, so it was a success overall.

Sorry no pics, my camera was out of juice.........

Norm

 Thinking of hitting Mendo on Friday morning for some striper and bass hunting.  Plan to get in the water by 630 or 7.  Let me know....

Norm

This is a few days late as I had to travel down to the smoggy, crowded hole that LA has become, so I didn't have a chance to post until today.

Based on some previous intel from Mike 'mickfish' (thanks Mike!), my son Drew and I decided to give the river a shot on Sunday before Labor day.  It didn't take long to figure out where the fish were and we ended up finding and fishing 3 holes that all had fish that wanted to bite.  We fished for about 5 hours while Momma paddled along near us and picked ripe berries from the bushes along the bank, bringing a few over to us every once in a while.  How good is that, you get to catch fish and have fresh blackberries delivered to you on the water!!   Sandy also volunteered to be our photographer for the day and got some great pics of Drew slaying the bronzebacks.  We ended up with 12 fish for the morning with at least three pushing the 14 plus inch and 2 pound zone.  If you have not caught smallmouth that live in moving water before, the first 12 incher you hook will have you believing it is at least a 3 pounder and maybe more.  These fish are very strong and fiesty....too much fun.

Drew was so wound up about the good fishing, he him me up on the way home to go again on Labor Day.  Being a good father, I decided to "sacrifice" my plans to work on my backyard project to hit the river again.     Yes, I know, I am a giver...

Momma had to work, but we talked our neighbor Mike into going with us and he was not disappointed.  He caught a good number of fish and one over 2 pounds that had him laughing and hooting as he battled the little bronze monster.  Between the three of us, we ended up with just over 20 fish for the day, all released of course.  I even managed to catch a few hand size green sunfish on the rubber worm which was a surprise. 

Bass are tasty and everything, but if you do fish the river for them, please release at least most of them as this resource is too valuable to eat and could be easily impacted by anglers with skill.

We launched up in Healdsburg and paddled up river each day for 2 1/2 miles or so.  A few portages over shallow riffles, but even with Drew in the front, we were able to scrape through them on the way back down.  Enjoy the pics....

Norm and Drew.

Just got back from a two week, 3,462 mile road trip with my wife Sandy and my boy Drew.  We first went down south to visit some relatives and then up to the Grand Canyon's South rim to camp a bit, simply amazing and awe inspiring.  We then traveled around the canyon to the North rim and up into Utah.  Spent the next day driving to the top of Utah through Zion and then on to the Grand Teton's the following morning. 

We camped at Signal Mountain on Jackson Lake.  I got out early the next morning and found the weather a bit on the foul side.  15+ knot winds and whitecaps by 0830 with a good amount of rain.  I hooked one cutthroat on the troll with a small pointer jerk bait, but it came unbuttoned next to the boat before picture time....

Did some more yaking with the family later in the afternoon when the skies cleared and the wind died a bit.  The wind came back up shortly after making our jigging for mac's difficult so we headed back to the sheltered lauch and Drew began to slay the juvenile chubs in the shallows.  I even managed to get a few on the fly rod and a pheasant tail nymph. 

The weather was still poor the following day, so we headed up to Yellowstone to explore as none of the three of us had ever been there.  We did all of the typical geothermal tourist attractions the first and part of the second day.  I did manage to get out with my flyrod and waders the second morning for 3 hours and had good luck on a few browns and rainbows, mostly on the dry fly during the mid morning caddis hatch.  Great fun, and not being an accomplished fly fisher, it boosted my confidence a bit.     All of the fish I caught on that morning were on the Gibbon and Madison Rivers, which are all barbless, fly only.  Needless to say, I think I only landed about half the fish I hooked as even the smallest wild trout in those warm, thermal-feature-fed rivers thinks it is much bigger than it is. 

The next day we went up into the far northern parts of the park and Drew and I fished some of the creeks that feed the Gardner River and parts of the Gardner itself.  This is the only drainage system in the park which allows the use of any bait, and that is limited to just worms and you have to be 11 or younger.....  As Drew just turned 11, this was his last opportunity to dunk the worm in the park, and he began to go on the full Brooke Trout attack.   He was fishing an ultralight spinning set up with 4lb and using a large fly fishing indicator float for a bobber.  I managed to get a few to rise on the dry fly in the area as well.  Though there are other species in this drainage, all we found were Brookies.  Not complianing, as they were very aggressive and put up a good fight for their size. 

I really hoped to get the kayaks out on Yellowstone lake, but the Kayak gods hit me with big winds again whenever I had it worked out with the family to go.....   As it was mainly a family adventure, I didn't push Sandy and Drew to head out into the chop after the looks of concern and trepidation were flashing accross their faces when I said, "here we are".  That's okay though, I have the big water of Yellowstone Lake to get me back up there on another trip sometime in the future to try and find some of those big Yellowstone Cutthroats that live there. 

We headed back on the road home from there, through Salt Lake and spent two nights in Reno.  Though I didn't get to fish the Truckee, I did get to do some shopping.     Just kiddinng, it was the fun kind, we went to the Sierra Outfitters Outlet store and then spend 3+ hours in the Cabela's store.     It was very cool indeed!!

Even though the kayaks did more riding than paddling on this adventure, the experience of the whole trip was amazing and priceless.  It had been quite some time since the three of us were able to spend that much time just having fun together.  I'm sure Drew will remember the things he saw and experienced many years down the road as I know that I will.  I took about 150 pictures on the trip and here are a few that I hope you enjoy.........

Norm