I received a bargain cave brochure from Cabelas in the mail today and they have an Eagle Cuda 350 sonar/gps combo unit for $169.99. Just in case anyone's looking for one on sale. They normally go for $200.

I finally ventured out into the big blue for some RF via party boat in HMB. It was my first time and I did have a blast. Caught around 8 RF and an undersized ling (only 1/2" and it'd be legal). Some big swells out there. I actually did get a lil sick when we started drifting. So.. some questions I have in mind:

1.) How far do you guys venture out there? and..
2.) I don't suppose you guys go to those areas with big swells where boats go to do ya? I am not sure what our yaks can handle.

I'm not yet prepared to head out to the ocean in a yak myself, but maybe in the near future. The swells did bother me a bit though even after taking some Bonine (anti-emetic medicine) I ended up chumming the water.

I never thought I would post here, but here we go..

It was an ok day at SPR. I was with a friend in a pontoon. It was windy and the water was a bit choppy. 15 mins of fishing (for bass) with nothing biting and I was like, wait a sec, let me tether my paddle to my yak. I grabbed my tether from my supposedly lockable milk crate but which  I left unlocked afterwards. Reached to my left side to clip the paddle. I think I leaned too much towards my left as I was having a hard time clipping my rope. The water/current/wind was pushing me from the right and next thing I knew, I was hanging for my dear life for about 3-4 seconds and down I went.  For a few moment, I was in panic mode. I'm not a good swimmer and I've never practiced self rescue before. All the contents of my crate were all over the surface. It took me 3 tries to flip my yak back and another 3 to get on it. Thank god to all those self rescue videos i've seen from Youtube. Lost 3 rods in the proces, a net, my Hawgthrough, and a knife.

I've always put a floater on my rods but for some reason I didnt this time. I figured Ive been to this lake a lot of times and nothing like that has ever happened to me. I guess, I got a little too over confident and lazy. I did manage to save a rod and end up catching a couple of bass. I guess I can put this on my hall of shame. It sucks when you learn the hard way. What a loss.

I see a lot of suggestions, but has anyone done it?? The scratches on the underside of my yak are bothering the heck out of me. Eventually in the future it'll lead to holes so I'm trying to do some preventive measures now.