Going on a family deer hunting trip in Modoc National Forest (here to be exact https://tinyurl.com/ycq2t7ob) and will be camping along the banks of this beautiful reservoir with some of the best trout fishing in the area, according to a park ranger I spoke to on the phone. well, I can't leave the yak behind so it is going with me. My question is, I haven't ever really trout fished when I wasn't trolling from a boat, I'm not really set up to troll from my yak, and I don't have a fly rod or know how to fly fish. What should I be doing? Just a bobber and a grasshopper? anybody have any tricks or tips for sitting in the middle of a reservoir in the mountains and just floating?

So my scupper cart put a hole inside my scuppers which caused me to sink last weekend. Contacted OK and  they sent me a bunch of plastic rod and yellow plastic to patch. Bought a plastic welder at Harbor Freight and went to work. It wasn't too hard and I put a lot of plastic on there. I figured if some is good more is better. It's ugly, but it's smooth and passed the hose test. Hopefully conditions along the Sonoma Coast are good this weekend so I can give her a test....with my new pump handy of course.

Warning: May Contain Bad Language

So, just to address any questions before they start getting asked, that was me who sank outside of Stillwater Cove Saturday morning.

Now that that is taken care of, I figured I would address the community because I'm a little embarrassed to sink and need to be rescued the first time out rock fishing. So I thought it would be best to just let everyone know what happened so that way people can learn from my mistakes. 

I was a Boy Scout, Scout in the Army, Volunteer Firefighter, and I am the Environmental Health and Safety Manager (OSHA Dick) for the company I work for. I take safety extremely seriously, and have most of my life. I have plans for many different emergency situations, and can't be bullshitted into unsafe situations. Last night while I was getting everything ready I triple checked that I had everything and that my gear was in good order, including checking the hull of my yak. I got to Stillwater this morning at about 6:15 and met Gabe from Napa, I didn't catch his NCKA Name. After bullshitting and talking to him for a little I launched and headed  North a little and fished around the point.

 At about 9:30 or 10, I realized I was sitting a little low in the water and the yak didn't feel right. I opened the hatch to look in the hull and shit myself. The water was nearly to the top! I started paddling like fuck back to the beach, but I had about 3/4 a mile to go. I asked a nearby fishing buddy if he had a pump, no. I asked another guy I passed if he or his buddies had a pump, no. I radio'd on 69 if anybody in the area had a pump, no. I radio'd on 9 if anybody had a pump, no. Shit started getting serious. I have a Nalgene bottle that holds about a quart of water and I started bailing like a mofo, but the damage was done, I was swamped. What really sucks or is fortunate depending on your outlook, is because I take safety so seriously, I have almost every damn thing on the list and lists pinned at the top of this forum topic. But I didn't have a pump, and nobody else did either. Now, I don't think I was in a life or death situation ( I had a wetsuit, PFD, radio, and wasn't too far from shore), but I was definitely in a serious one and I haven't been as scared as when I had to call the Coast Guard on 16 in a long time.

To shorten this already long story, Joe with the State Parks, jet skid to my rescue and even went back and towed my swamped yak back to the beach. I ended up only losing my gaf, fish grips, my paddle, about $75 worth of lures and jigs, and I'm not sure if my FF is toasted or not yet. But, I didn't lose my life. So yea, pretty shitty opener for me, and I didn't even catch anything. Shout out to Beachmaster for talking me through where to park and launch and what not, and to Gabe for giving me a nice Ling as a condolence gift.

Oh! So after I got home and cleaned up my yard sale, I filled my yak, an OK Trident 13 up with water to try and figure out where the water was coming from. I have a home made PVC beach cart that goes through the scupper holes . Well, I'm not sure how, but a hole about the size of my thumb got punched INSIDE of one of the scuppers! Any tips on repairing? Also, I used the mist function on my hose to rinse my reels well and added a mist of gun oil. Any tips to keep the saltwater from fucking them up since they were submerged?

Hey guys I made Mendocino and Sonoma County state Controlled Areas overlays  http://www.mediafire.com/file/bsbyzm6eaima6q7/Mendocino_Sonoma.RAR

So as an insomniac, I often lie in bed and think about hunting and fishing. This year I want to get out and get some rockfish, salmon, and lingcod, but as someone who has never really fished in the ocean, I was completely horrified at the amount of state controlled areas. It seems you need a law degree to go fishing and spend your whole time reading the regs instead of fishing  . So I had a great idea, I'll make GPS overlays so I know when I am entering a controlled area. After thinking about it and how to do it for a couple of days, I did a lot of reading and called Humminbird to answer a couple of questions. This morning, again, I couldn't sleep and decided to try some things out. You guys, I think I did it. Download these and check them out and let me know what you think. Please be sure to read the ReadMe file in the download. Right now I only have Mendocino and Sonoma Counties, but just doing these took me 8 hours. I used the GPS coordinates provided by DFW in this years Ocean Sport Fishing Regulations, so hopefully there won't be any issues. I spent a ton of time on this so feedback is welcome, and maybe if I hear good things I'll work on the rest of the state.

Edit for clarity: The download includes files for Humminbird, Lowrance, and Google Earth. Use the Google Earth files to create usable files for your GPS unit (brief instructions in the readme).

Hey guys, where is a good place to buy a wetsuit in Sonoma or Solano county? I know of a couple of places in Sonoma County, but they don't have any online stores. I would obviously go try on anything before buying, but I want to at least see what they have to offer before dragging my carcass out to them. I work in Solano County and it wouldn't be hard to get look at some over my lunch break, but a Google search didn't provide me with anything. Any ideas on where to buy or tips on what type of wetsuit I should be looking for?

Hey guys, new member here. A lot of you guys have a;ready helped me a lot and I'm looking at different setups and deals I can find on the 'Ol Craigslist. Found a guy selling a new Tarpon 100 and was wondering if 10' is adequate for fishing along the Sonoma coast. is bigger better or is 10' safe enough?