Finally! New Cuda 14' ventures out

As I sit here polishing off the last of the bottle of wine I will do my best to share my weekend with you. On Saturday morning I decided to make the haul from the South Bay up to Headwaters in Lodi to check out the Jackson Cuda 14'. All summer I have been doing the 24hr rental from MBK and borrowing a buddies Perception just to fulfill my NEED to stick them lips with something sharp and enjoy what the big blue has to offer as far as the scenery and the camaraderie with fellow enthusiasts. Ive been doing much research on what sled will suite me best and had been leaning torwards the Cuda for at least the last month.
As I arrived at Headwaters I was greeted by Jayson. A really nice guy and might I add a great addition, in my opinion, to the Headwaters team. There was another gentleman on the phone which I assumed was the owner, Dan. As the phone call ended fairly quick the gentleman introduced himself as Dan and all I heard in my head were the bells that ring as you would here at the Kentucky derby. I was so damn excited to finally get the opportunity to invest in my own kayak. To not have to rely on someone else or rent the night before and sleep in the 4 Runner just to get on the water at a decent hour. Now, I went to Headwaters with full intentions of purchasing the 2013 Cuda in a custom color and get it around Janurary to have it be a winter time project but it didn't work out that way at all. I started to look at the last Cuda he had on the floor and couldn't resist. I had to get her. She called out every time I walked by her. I had the guys do some upgrades to her before my GF and I left. Ended up with one Jackson Cuda 14, Aqua-Bound Manta Ray paddle, Pod insert, one Mighty mount, Yak Attack Trac and Dan kicked me a used PFD. I haven't been playing it too safe over the summer and he caught wind of that on Saturday.  Hence the kicker. As I left with my new ride the GF wanted to swing by and check out some Russel pups just up the road. After leaving the farm the GPS told me to take a different way home.. as if it was meant to be. About a mile down the road and a bridge popped up. As we crossed it I realized there was a small parking lot and a park host. I knocked on his door and told him I just bought this kayak and I would like to launch it for about 10 mins to see how she does. The host was accommodating and told me to pull around his trailer and drive down the driveway and pull right to the waters edge. Boy was I stoked! I paddled up the Mokulame  about a quarter mile and saw tons of suckers and quite a few salmon lurkin. A few guys asked for some help because they forgot their keys in their vehicle up at the hatchery about 5 miles up river. Did you say HATCHERY?? Well of course I would give you guys a ride up to your second vehicle. Man that hatchery was plum full of salmon and it was good to see that again.
Sunday I couldn't help but get her out on the ocean. I left the house in MH about 5:45am and launched at MBK. I think I made it to the second can before I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to drop some lead to the bottom and get some blood on her QUICK. About five mins into it I hooked a baby octopus. Thought about using it for some ling bait but decided against it. I do well every time with plastics and my old school buzzbombs. I picked up and paddled out to the hotel. Found "the" hole and started pullin lings. Half way through my morning I got a hard hit and let me tell ya I thought I had hooked a ghost on the ol plastic. Odd. Didn't take long to realize that a sealion had got hooked right in the back by my lead. Felt bad for a min until I went to get another one of those plastics and realized that was the last of the twin tails I had. Kept one ling and one copper. Threw a few olives back and bunch of misc rockies. On the way back in I got to meet Sirus. He was nice enough to snap a pic of me and the new ride. I loaded up and drove over to stillwater to check out the future launch site and tried one other spot north of Lovers Point. Cant remember the name of it but it was pretty rough. 6' + swells and a side chop to boot. As far as the Cuda handling the rough stuff.. well my 2 cents is its more than capable of tackling rough water. I felt very secure and very stable throughout my whole day. Btw I was the only one out at 4:30 North of Lovers. Thinkin the average guy would've said heck no to that kind of chop. I was able to rig up a nice spot in the garage for the Cuda to rest while I'm working during the week. Here's a few pics from my day out. I'm not sure what kind of fish that all the sealions were feeding on today but they were everywhere and poor things bitten into and left to flap around on the surface. Kinda looks like a trigger fish.

Congratz on the new yak. Camo looks pretty cool. Nice ling! 

Glad you love the boat. That was a really cool Ling. good work Matthew.

The unknown fish looks like a mola-mola (sunfish).  Was it dead?  Usually they have tall fins (can't see them in the picture).  Way to go!!!!

Congrats on the new boat. Very Cool

It does look like a Mola Mola. I think what the sealions were doing were nippin off the fins so they were helpless and then eat at their own leisure. I mustve seen fifty of them layin on the surface. The furbags were sure having fun rippin and tossin them all over yesterday. Thanks guys

Congrats on the new ride and great write-up. Have fun

Great looking boat!  You can be sure fish will school to you.