Art (Hippy Killer) is gonna love this:

1) I broke my arm Paddle Board surfing!

2)  When I got out of the cast, I broke my knee on a mountain bike and had surgery.

3) The company I worked for was selling out, so I changed sides and now work for (hippy conservationists) The Nature Conservancy.

So anyhow, after all that I haven't thought about kayak fishing for a long time--but now I'm stoked to get out there again.  I'm stoked to be on the board again too.

Medium to Small Wave Dave

My friend Larry alerted me that the diving conditions would be epic today, so we took off from work and dove right out at Noyo harbor entrance.  I just recently bought a surf SUP and have been trying to learn to surf it, which is way harder than I thought.........so, I've been out of the hunter/gatherer thing for a while.

Man, the conditions were epic.  No swell at all and near 50 ft viz........and still I couldn't shoot a Ling.  I put down my gun for a second to pry up this big ab, and that's when I saw the only one.  Dang.  Oh well, I got a 10.25, a 9.75, 9.25 ab....and a limit of various cabs and rockfish, so no biggy about the lings.

I must say there are some big abs out there right in front.  You just got to get down deep enough.  At the end of my session, I was limited out (except for Lings) and practiced my deep diving.  On the south edge of that channel running up the Noyo there are scads of big abalone at 45 -50 feet.  Really amazing.  Once again, it's just anecdotal information, but man it seems like there's a lot of those critters.

Anyway, I'm just stoked.....a great dive in awesome viz, and I'm just about to turn 60 and I can still hit 50-60 feet........one foot per year.

The pic is what it looked like out there just before we dove.......it was lake.

Sincerely,

Dave

Hey Jim or anybody,  Do you guys have a good, inexpensive wrist depth gauge you'd recommend?

I've got one on my scuba console, but I'm I think I'm gonna take a break from hook and line fishing and concentrate on spearing again.

I'm sure I have attention deficit disorder, bouncing from one thing to another.....good thing they didn't know what it was when I was a kid.

Sincerely,

Dave

On Wednesday (9/17) several of my friends were chased out of the water by a GWS at Virgin Creek, a popular surfing site on the north side of Fort Bragg.  Coincidentally, I was surfing a few miles up the coast from there at Chadbourne Gulch (Blues Beach) on the same day.

It's not as interesting as arguing about Annie's Mac and Cheese, but I just thought I'd let folks know--like anyone looking to dive around there.

I went down to Albion yesterday and briefly met Dan from Headwaters Kayaking and tried out his 575, which I'm seriously considering buying.  Here's my impressions:

The good:  Before even talking about the boat, I have to remark about what great folks the Headwaters people are.  Dan was on his way out on a tour when I showed up (he was already in his boat).   He asked his mom to unstrap the boat from the truck and let me use it.  They really had no idea who I was--other than I'm some loudmouth on the Norcal site.  Anyway, I paddled the boat for over an hour and no one kept track of me to see if I was bashing it into the rocks or whatever.   It was great--and, no, no rock bashing occurred.

The first thing I noticed about the boat was how stable it was.  Everyone has said, "watch out" because the boat is only 24" wide.  I regularly paddle a T-160 and this boat did not seem any more unstable than that.  I pulled some hip snaps, and the boat stayed up on edge easily.  I could balance it on edge fairly easily, which I can't do on the 160.  I climbed around on the boat, sat sideways, pulled a few self rescues and the boat really was as good as my T-160 (or better) in all those respects.

This boat is pretty fast.  There were many regular ocean kayaks out there with really fancy boats.  I tracked myself against them and felt I was easily keeping up or passing them, which I don't think would be true in my 160.

It's funny though, the boat doesn't feel any faster than the 160 until you gauge it against something else.  i didn't realize how fast it was until I started surfing it in the small, gutless rolling waves by the beach.  I starting out paddling for waves the way I usually do, which is matching speed with them well before they break, so as to be surfing them early.  So I see the wave come up behind me, face my head forward and start paddling fast, waiting for the wave to catch up.  The first time I did this I was nearly to the beach and still hadn't caught the wave.  I took me a second to realize that I was actually out-paddling the wave.  The boat was faster than the wave.  That's never happened to me before.

Once I  slowed down, the boat surfed really well.  With the rudder thing, you can even steer the boat in a wave without the paddle.  At the end of the wave, I'd turn the boat and do the inside brace, and the boat tipped up into the whitewater and was very stable.  Mind you these were not formidable waves.

The fish compartment seemed good, with lots of room.  I know most boats are now set up with the compartment between your legs, but I'm still paddling the old style 160, so this was great for me. 

All in all, the good is that this seems like a great, lightweight seaworthy boat that someone could paddle for many miles to some remote fishing site--which is what I like to do.  It also seems way more comfortable in the surf than most SOTs.

The not so good:  The first thing I noticed that I didn't really like was the lack of back support.  I don't need one of those big seats, but I do like having some support for my lower back. I'm sure this could be rigged up.

The next not so good thing I noticed is lay-out: Where do you mount your gear?  I like having a small fishfinder and a pole holder in front of me.  If you mounted them on the actual hatch then they'd smack the deck every time you opened the hatch.  If you mounted them on the deck in front of the hatch, then they'd be far away and you'd smack them with the hatch top every time you opened it.  I'm sure there must be some answer to this that I don't know about--but it's something I need to know before buying.  I forgot to mention that there's four poleholders in the aft, which is great.  This boat seems to set up for side-seat fishing, which due to the stability, would be easy.

The other thing I was scratching my head about is the rudder thing.  It just sticks out from the bottom of the boat, which is a problem when you're coming in to shallow water or just laying it on the beach.  You can't kick the rudder up.  I'm not a big fan of rudders anyhow, so I'd probably like the boat better without one.  Too bad bad they don't have that option.  It seems like a weak point.  I have to say though, that I was pretty charmed by how well it worked in the surf.

The other minor thing was the storage, or seeming lack of it.  Although to me this did not feel like a big boat, it is over 18 ft, and it seemed like there should be more storage.  I was thinking about diving out it, and while the hatch between your legs is pretty generous, everything gets stuffed way up to the front, with no other access.  There's a little screw top hatch in the back that you could put, like, safety gear in, but really all main storage is in one compartment.  Honestly, I don't know it that's problem or not.  I'm used to my two hatch 160 with tons of storage room.

My overall impression of this boat is I really liked it.  It's the best SOT I've ever paddled--and it's light!  I carried it by myself back up to Dan's truck, which something I couldn't do with my 160.  I think I'm going to buy it, but I've got to get the rigging questions figured out before I do. 

So with all the great reports about catching Threshers, it occurred to me, how are they doing?  The answer, according to NOAA, is pretty good:

Sustainability Status:

Fishing Mortality – Based on analyses of productivity, CPUE, and catch data, fishing mortality is estimated to be below the rate that would produce maximum sustainable yield; thus, overfishing is not occurring (PFMC 2010).

Biomass – Biomass is estimated to be above that required for maximum sustainable yield and the stock is reportedly not overfished (PFMC 2010).

Bycatch – Thresher sharks are taken incidentally in the swordfish DGN fishery. Historically, there have been concerns about the level of bycatch of marine mammals and turtles in this fishery; however, after changes in fishing practices to minimize interactions with protected species, NMFS believes there is currently only a remote likelihood of incidental mortality or serious injury to marine mammals based upon the most recent information.

Life History and Habitat (see PFMC 2003 and Smith et al. 2008)

Geographic range – The geographic range of common thresher sharks in the Northeast
Pacific is from Goose Bay, British Columbia, Canada to the Baja Peninsula, Mexico and out to about 200 miles from the coast.

Habitat – The SWFSC annual survey and electronic tagging studies show habitat separation between juveniles and adults. Juveniles tend to remain over the continental shelf in shallow water while adults are most common in deeper water but rarely range beyond 200 miles from the coast. Both juveniles and adults are often associated with highly productive or “green” water in regions of upwelling or intense mixing.

Life span – Estimated range from 19 to 50 years; additional research is necessary.

Growth rate – Approximately 30 cm per year over the first 5 years. Maximum size – 550 cm total length for U.S. West Coast.

Maturity – Approximately 5 years old and around 166 cm fork length for both sexes. Reproduction – Aplacental ovovivaparity and oophagous: Eggs are deposited into one of two uterine horns and developing embryos are nourished by feeding on other eggs. The typical litter size is 2-4 pups and gestation is thought to be around 9 months.

Pupping season – Pupping is thought to occur in the spring off southern California. Mating is thought to occur in the summer.

Nursery ground – The nursery grounds for pups is over the continental shelf in waters 90 m or less, primarily from Point Conception, California to San Vizcaino Bay, Baja California, Mexico.

Stock Structure – Genetics, catch, and tagging data suggest a single homogenous west coast population of common thresher sharks.
 
Migration – Seasonal migrations are thought to be linked to temperature with north-south movements between Oregon/ Washington and Southern California/ Baja Peninsula, Mexico.

This beast from hell got "best new boat" and "best in show" at ICAST (whatever that is).  I'm sure it has 666 tattooed to a bullhead.  So you can "kayak" without paddling.

Shoot, just chuck out that funny looking stick with the two wide parts on it.  What the heck is that thing anyhow?

I 'm sure this argument has been had here before, but I don't at all get where we are going.

It needs to be exorcised.





http://www.austinkayak.com/blog/2014/07/best-show-old-town-predator-xl-kayak/

So, being a T-160 paddler, I was looking through youtube about them, and I came up with this.  Look at all the stuff on this boat!

I'm not a gear nut.  I still run my rod under my leg more often than not, even though I have a rod holder.  I can't imagine doing this to a kayak, but I'd like to hear what others think--especially the gear heads.  What am I not getting here?