Hey I may have finally carved off a few mornings to fish my kayak over Turkey-Day-Week, and I'm trying to time it to the tides and sun, but all I can find about Port tides is a tide table for the Sacramento River near I street (totally different water system.) Can anyone give me any idea if there is a rule of thumb for calc'ing tides based on Sacramento ( +1 hour or -1 hour?) All of the forum searches I have tried are dead links or links from 5-10 years ago and don't seem to apply? Any help would be appreciated, thank you! 

OK, the virtual yard sale continues,, I have a full size brinkman, electric, stainless steel smoker, with a bunch of extra racks, for sale or trade for $75.

It's a nice clean unit, I didn't get a chance to use it too much, (stainless steel is really easy to maintain) and I bought a ton of extra accessories for it to try and maximize how much meat I could stuff into it in one smoke run. Normally you can get two full trays in the smoker (each tray about the same size as a standard weber grill,) but I added a legged tray that sits over the first tray, and a fish basket that sits over the second tray, effectively doubling the capacity on shallow items (like filets)so you can get a crap-ton of salmon in there (my favorite.)

I wore out one steaming bowl, so I ordered a new one, a new one came dented, so they sent me a second, so you will have two steaming bowls.. And I think there might even be another standard rack floating around?

I bought it and used it back in PK-times (Pre-Kid) and since then I have had a combination of not catching enough fish to use it, or not having time with soccer season going on the same time as salmon season >.< I've also had issues with my outdoor circuits, and had planned on converting this to charcoal (ie stuffing a charcoal tray under it) but just never got around to it, and now the wife looks at it, and then at me, with a decidedly cranky look...

My loss, your gain, these stainless brinkman cost $210 new, and I have probably spent another $120 on racks, bowls, etc. it would be a great way for someone to get a whole smoking setup to play with for under $100. I am asking $75 and will accept full or partial barter for exceptional fishing/hunting gear, rodbuilding parts/equipment, lapidary equipment, metal detecting equipment, and good cigars/accessories (all easier to hide from the wife than a smoker..... just sayin...)

Here's the CL link https://sacramento.craigslist.org/fuo/5200431619.html

This is also listed on Craigslist for $600, but I will cut that to $500 for an NCKA’er and accept full or partial trades for exceptional hunting, fishing gear, rod-building equipment, metal detecting equip, lapidary equipment,  fine cigars &  accessories.

This was the kayak I bought when I didn’t know if I liked kayaking, and I didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars finding out. I’ve since found out that I can’t live without fishing off a kayak, and I wish I knew about it 20 years ago..

But, I’ve got three kayaks at my house, and I can only fish one, and the wife is getting cranky about the storage (and poverty) situation, so this is the perfect chance for someone else to explore kayak fishing without going bankrupt, with a nice boat that has been fitted for fishing.

Here’s the description from Craigslist;

14' Perception Prism Backcountry SOT touring kayak w/rudder outfitted for fishing - $600 (with loads of extra features!)

This kayak is 14' long, tan-to-green heavy plastic with black trim, features include;

Two flush mount rod holders

Rigged for QRAS anchoring system (comes with set line and cleats, you supply the anchor)

Installed foot-controlled rudder system ($180 value!)

Installed Lowrance X-4 fish finder with hull-mounted transducer ($100 value!)(you supply the battery)

Padded seat attachment (a black nylon 4-point seat)($40 value)

Drink holder

Four self-draining scuppers

Custom cork-polymer scupper plugs (yeah wine corks with duct tape. . ...)

Crossfire sportsman's deck bag ($60 value!)

New side carry handles w/paddle leash ($20 value!)

End carry handles

Generous storage hatches

Stern-end drain plug

Hull-mounted fish measuring device

Deck mounted Scotty Baitcaster rod holder (perfect for trolling!) ($20 value!)

*******************************************************************
Does NOT Include items below:

Paddle

Battery for Fishfinder

Anchor (I am including the rigging and the rope portion of the quick-release that is fixed to the boat, an extremely safe and effective way to anchor in a current and be able to very safely and quickly detach your anchor bouy from your boat (to be picked up later) in case some debris floats downstream, or your boat turns in a bad way, essentially it prevents you from turning into a big downrigger. . . I can show you very quickly how to take $18 worth of parts from Wal-mart and make your own buoyed anchor to complete the system.)

It has the normal wear and tear you would expect in a gently aged boat, but she is not roughed up up by any stretch of the imagination. When I got first got it I did have to strip out multiple clumsy attempts at a repair of a hole in the stern, I repaired it solidly and properly, and I have fished the heck out of it since then and have had no water intrusion at all.

I also had to fabricate a Teflon block to repair the rudder (the same event that made the hole I assume) and the rudder, well the rudder has flat-out spoiled me for other kayaks, I have no urge to ever own a kayak without a rudder now I have used one, you can turn, even a 14' boat, on a dime with a rudder it is amazing. This is already a pretty swift kayak, it runs low in the water but it tracks like an arrow, and is a real straight, fast paddle.

I have spent most of my time fishing it out on the deepwater shipping channel, so slow water without a whole lot of swells, and even me(I'm a big guy) kept pretty dry until the windblown waves started cresting over the bow (it was a pretty decent wind blowing whitecaps) even then I dragged more water into the footwells by hanging my feet over the sides (and bringing them back wet to drip into the footrests) than came over the side from waves. The one time that I did fill it with water (I had a disagreement with a dock) it was barely affected, and paddled/floated just fine until I could bail it out with a sponge.

The Perception Prism Backcountry has a good mix of uses that you can put it to, it is a super fishing vessel for the delta and lakes and (if you are braver than me) some rivers, but you can also easily take the pole holders off, stuff the hold with a sleeping bag and tent and it is a sweet touring kayak as well

I'm not in a real rush to sell this (my daughter loves this boat,) and I don't get on this forum as much as I used to, so if you are interested, hit me up through CL and note that you are an NCKA'er  https://sacramento.craigslist.org/spo/5200189156.html

Thank you!

Crazy Aussie!

http://vitaminl.tv/video/1559?ref=fbs

Music from my youth done by a bunch of amazing kids from 10-16 years old

Dream Theater - Pull Me Under


Tool - 46 and 2
(drummer is astounding)

Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
haunting opening done by a child...

If you make it to the end of all three of these, I warn you, searching Aaron Okeefe on YouTube will make you wish you lived in Ohio....

WTF is with all the "cameron" references? Had someone yell it near me at a recent tournament, came very close to tossing a can of peaches at him, and yes, I do often respond to things I don't understand with flying objects..

So, long story short, I took my buddy out for his first trip on a kayak, fishing at the Port, and my kayak sunk out from under him….

Aww who am I kidding I can’t tell a short story..

My buddy Martin has occasionally fished with me here in Cal for salmon and stripers, and showed an interest in going on the kayak with me for salmon. It’s been a real crappy fishing year (for me) with schedule availability and actual fish being in the port, so by the time I got him out there, it was last Sunday, half way through November, and, as I pointed out to him on the way out there “huh, what do you know, the water temperature is a full 10 degrees colder than last time I was out here!”

So Martin, like me, is a member of the big-mans club, and as charter members, we can’t just jump onto any piece of plastic (like you genetically-blessed skinny nervous folk, and tiny-men) and expect to float.. Stability is a huge issue for us, I took my best friend John out a few weeks earlier, and ended up swapping kayaks with him, gave him my new Ride because my loaner kayak was too unstable for him to want to even leave the shore. Before we went on the trip John had planned to come back in two weeks, he even talked of buying a kayak, after, I haven’t seen him for 2 months… So I made some preparations for Martin..

I put him on the tandem Ocean Kayak Malibu Two that I THOUGHT I had repaired **cue ominous music** I even bought some crab floats, some PVC, a pair of scotty rod holders w/bases, and fabricated a pair of pontoons, and installed them onto the Malibu the night before. I had everything all set up for this to be a safe, stable-as-hell platform for Martin to fish off of and not have to worry about balance.

After the last failed trip with my best friend, I realized that half of the tension of being on a kayak (for a newbie) is losing your stuff if you fall, so I also told Martin “don’t bring anything but your rod and reel, I can carry anything else.” Martin, being a scuba diver, had the foresight to bring very little gear, but what he DID bring was in a dry sack, which turned out to be fortuitous..

Before I go any farther, I have to give you a little backstory on the Malibu2..

I got it off Craigslist for like $125, mainly because it was a former rental that they had beat the crap out of, sun-faded, had cracked scuppers, giant dents in the hull, utterly no accessories and it looked (I sh*t you not) like a beaver or a squirrel had spent a few leisurely hours chewing away on the side of the hull for some reason… So, about as soon as you say “cheap,” of course,,, I am all over it.. I wanted to know how to repair a kayak, so I fixed the dents, started melting sh*t to try and “fix” the scuppers, cut a hatch in it so I could at least SEE the inside of the hull, added some pad-eyes for accessories, added handles, tow rope on the front, etc, etc. I had fun jerking around with it, thinking I was doing something worthwhile..

Well LAST year, I decided to take the Malibu out for a test, I went fishing with a few buddies, one of the guys didn’t yet own his own kayak, so I lent him the Malibu (he was one of the aforementioned skinny nervous guys) he fished the damn thing for half the day with NO issues, right up until lunchtime when we traded kayaks.

Everything seemed fine.

So I paddled it for about an hour, when I noticed that it seemed a lot more tippy that I thought it should be?? Imagine my surprise when I opened the hatch I had installed, and noticed 6” of water filling the hull (yeah we were about a mile and a half from launch..) When I finally got it back to the shore, I tilted it up to drain the water, and could hear hissing from one of the scupper “repairs” I thought I made… So when I got home from that trip, instead of jerking around with trying to melt plastic again (I had a real hard time because OK plastic is so damn thin that I came very close to sagging it…) I said F*ck it and got out the JB weld.. The JB weld cracked a few days later, and I went over it AGAIN with JB weld,, and thought everything was cool…

So, back to the Port, Martin is out in front of me fishing the Malibu, I looked at the Malibu, thought it was riding a touch lower, but not horribly low considering Martin is a big guy, and the pontoons were sitting about perfect in the water, and I paddled past him and anchored to the dock, I fished for about maybe 15 minutes before Martin said something to me that I couldn’t hear, just about when I turned around to ask him to speak up, a guy next to us in a boat said “Dude I think your kayak is sinking” I look back and the back half of the Malibu was juuuust about under the water line, with the front end poking up in the air… I’m like “uhhh Martin, we need to head back!” To his credit, Martin is a diver, and not afraid of the water, and had my PFD on and had neoprene on, and can swim like a fish, so, we got about 10 feet, with him paddling, the nose of the kayak pointing farther and farther to the sky, before he calmly told me “I think I’m going in, hold my fishing pole.” Which I did, shortly before he did…

So now Martin is floating in the water next to my half-sunk kayak, I am doing what Patrick McManus called the “modified stationary panic” fumbling for the tow rope, throwing my bilge pump to Martin, when the boater who spotted the sinking vessel first said “you guys need help?” I’m like “YES!” meanwhile Martin is calmly pumping the bilge while treading water…We got just enough water out before the fishing boat got to us (honestly it would have only been about a 30 yard swim to get Martin on shore, but why chance it if you don’t have to right?) before the kayak seemed safe to remain floating, and I grabbed the tow rope and started paddling to shore while the boaters so very kindly helped Martin to the shore..

So we get to the boat ramp, and I spend the next 30 minutes alternating between “I’m so sorry!” and “F*$&#^*-ing kayak!!” while Martin just laughs and says “no big deal man!” I can’t find any hole or area in the bottom of the kayak that comes anything close to justifying how fast that thing filled with water??

At this point I am thinking, I ain’t going to let this ruin our day, I get everything loaded back up in the truck, drive it back home, offload the kayaks (Martin puts on dry clothes) grab lawn chairs instead of kayaks, some bait, and head back out to the deepwater channel to fish from shore..

Meanwhile, we spot a WS Ride 135 (maybe a ’09-10) on Craigslist for $400 and Martin calls the guy about it (I’m thinking, I’m never going to see him again when I ask him fishing, and Martin starts looking at kayaks?)

So, we start shore fishing, everything is calmed down (OK me, I’m calmed down,,) and we got the lawnchairs, the cooler, cigars, and we start soaking bait in the beautiful sunny day.

Martin gets a nibble, tries to pull the line in, and gets snagged, but manages to pull his gear out of the snag. He ends up casting the same place all day, snagging every single time, but he keeps on getting bites and ends up catching one schoolie striper out of the snag.

His second fish might not have counted.. He gets a nibble, pulls in the snag, but this time catches some line, the line slowly reveals itself to be a giant snagged tangle about the size of a softball with 2 sinkers, 5 swivels, 7 hooks and a freakin LIVE catfish (caught on one of the snag-hooks, NOT caught on Martin’s hook) hanging off the side of the snag by a sliver of cheek-meat! We let the catfish go, after that kind of catch, we figure he earned his freedom..

I ended up catching a little Largemouth Bass, and two small stripers, (one REALLY small) for the day as well, so at least after Martin’s swim he didn’t get skunked.. I would rather catch a bunch of small anythings some days than wait all day to maybe catch one big one.. This was definitely one of those days..

And to top it off, Martin got through to the Craigslist guy with the Ride135, I went over with him to North Highlands, and offered him $350, and went home with a nice new (to him) kayak! So it was a long freakin day, but it was really nice that even through all that misfortune, Martin was cool and low-key and laughing about it, it ended much better than it started, and hopefully I get it right next time!!

I’m taking another new guy fishing next Sunday, with a different kayak, hoping like hell that I don’t sink him too…

Just getting my coffee and heading out the door to Lake Amador, if anyone gets the urge to get out da house, look for the fat guy on the camo Ride, if I can figure out the radio (that came last night) that might be on too!