Stillwater cove - Sonoma Coast 4/4

I was the one who was flipped at Shelter Cove. The experience pushed me into getting a Stealth kayak where everything can be stored inside the hull. Following is my posting about it shortly after the event:

Well I’ve been out with Eric four times in the past, and I have another trip booked later in the summer. Eric has told me over, and over to not let the fish dangle in the water on the clip. He says keep them in the back under burlap.

Well today I didn’t take his advice, and had 1 nice ling & 2 nice rock fish in the water. My son and I were alone but Alex was off in the distance, and a group of kayaks a ways off.

I had a nasty line tangle I was dealing with when all of a sudden a sea lion grabbed my fish and instantly flipped me over. The sea lion started swimming away with my fish, and kayak.

Alex noticed me floundering in the water and headed right to me. I grabbed on to the side of his boat and then he went to retrieve my kayak.

By this time there was a swarm of kayaks ready to offer help. Alex flipped my kayak back over, and I jumped back in. Eric showed up, and untangled my rod for me.

Super grateful for all of the help to get back to fishing. I lost my net, slow pitch rod, box of jigs, knife, and pliers.

Lesson learned the hard way…..tomorrow I will be keeping my fish under burlap in the back of my kayak.

I will bleed fish on the stringer for short periods of time - maybe just a few minutes. I will occasionally re-dunk them . Wet burlap works well and doesn’t take up the room of a large fish bag. A year and a half ago, alone in the fog in HMB, I had to put my stringer in the water to make room while I measured and then released a decent cabezon. After I saw some fins making a commotion about 20 yards away, I pulled up my stringer and a 9’ to 10’ white shark passed sideways next to my kayak near where my stringer was, making eye contact. A lesson learned without consequences.

Cool!

Watch out for running those stringers of fish behind you like that - you're literally drift-trolling for sealions or sharks like that.  It's happened and been reported here in the past few years that someone has been flipped and had their kayak hauled away briefly by the offending sealion.  This was about 1.5 miles from shore at Shelter Cove, and an NCKA brother powerboat assist was key in minimizing the emergency and outcome.  I'll say though, the guy who this happened to handled it well and I think all would've been OK with just us kayakers present.

Anyway, my advice is to make a plan to put your fish on your boat under/in burlap, in a fish bag or cooler, or in a hatch (watch out for the repercussions of that!).  I can tell you from a lot of years in this sport, almost no one hangs their stringer in the water while fishing.

Looks like you definitely have the Madness.   

Hey Eric, thank you and i appreciate your concern. I had assumed I was reasonably safe using this method considering how prevalent it is. I had also assumed I was ahead of the game for merely pulling all my fish in the boat during transit to save energy and go faster. 75% of the kayaks moving spots or heading back to shore were dragging 20lb sea anchors made of rockfish that day.

I am ALWAYS open to improving my safety and fish retention methods and you're right about better options existing. Like the burlap bag. That would work really well in conjunction with my hatch and might finally solve the years long frustration I've had with storing fish in the hatch.

Washing out the hatch doesn't bother me much, takes a few minutes but I do not love fish sliding under the footwell and wiping out my FF transducer mounted in the hull. So I usually throw the whole stringer in, and pinch the rope in the hatch so it won't slide too low. The downside here is: now the hatch leaks a little.

Where are you getting your burlap bags? I would like to avoid buying lifetime of rice or birdseed all at once just to get one.   

I was the one who was flipped at Shelter Cove. The experience pushed me into getting a Stealth kayak where everything can be stored inside the hull. Following is my posting about it shortly after the event:

Well I’ve been out with Eric four times in the past, and I have another trip booked later in the summer. Eric has told me over, and over to not let the fish dangle in the water on the clip. He says keep them in the back under burlap.

Well today I didn’t take his advice, and had 1 nice ling & 2 nice rock fish in the water. My son and I were alone but Alex was off in the distance, and a group of kayaks a ways off.

I had a nasty line tangle I was dealing with when all of a sudden a sea lion grabbed my fish and instantly flipped me over. The sea lion started swimming away with my fish, and kayak.

Alex noticed me floundering in the water and headed right to me. I grabbed on to the side of his boat and then he went to retrieve my kayak.

By this time there was a swarm of kayaks ready to offer help. Alex flipped my kayak back over, and I jumped back in. Eric showed up, and untangled my rod for me.

Super grateful for all of the help to get back to fishing. I lost my net, slow pitch rod, box of jigs, knife, and pliers.

Lesson learned the hard way…..tomorrow I will be keeping my fish under burlap in the back of my kayak.

Thanks for the work on the video Fitzcarraldo, subscribed!

Love the Prowler 13 it's so light and and easy to transport plus you can stash as well as retrieve rods from the hull for rougher surf launching/landing.

Edit: Also I would recommend not keeping your fish in the water after you catch them it has been known to attract sea lions and sharks.

Edit again: Looks like Eric had the same response.

I also appreciate you guy's concern.

I agree with Tsuri, the Prowler nails the basics. Light, good in shitty weather, front hatch is awesome.

I do think about Stealth kayaks a lot though... they're just gorgeous, simple, clean rigs. I suspect there's a Stealth in my future someday... but its gotta be yummy yellow

I get my burlap bags at the local coffee shop where they roast onsite.

+1  Yep - hit up the coffee roasters.

I was the one who was flipped at Shelter Cove. The experience pushed me into getting a Stealth kayak where everything can be stored inside the hull. Following is my posting about it shortly after the event:

Well I’ve been out with Eric four times in the past, and I have another trip booked later in the summer. Eric has told me over, and over to not let the fish dangle in the water on the clip. He says keep them in the back under burlap.

Well today I didn’t take his advice, and had 1 nice ling & 2 nice rock fish in the water. My son and I were alone but Alex was off in the distance, and a group of kayaks a ways off.

I had a nasty line tangle I was dealing with when all of a sudden a sea lion grabbed my fish and instantly flipped me over. The sea lion started swimming away with my fish, and kayak.

Alex noticed me floundering in the water and headed right to me. I grabbed on to the side of his boat and then he went to retrieve my kayak.

By this time there was a swarm of kayaks ready to offer help. Alex flipped my kayak back over, and I jumped back in. Eric showed up, and untangled my rod for me.

Super grateful for all of the help to get back to fishing. I lost my net, slow pitch rod, box of jigs, knife, and pliers.

Lesson learned the hard way…..tomorrow I will be keeping my fish under burlap in the back of my kayak.

Was a memorable moment. Remembering you hanging on to the side of the boat, me not knowing what had fully happened. I see your kayak moving away from us as the sealion was towing your kayak by the stringer of fish.He let go quickly knowing a boat was tailing him. Great teamwork by all. Unfortunate about the gear.

Super fortunate I think that you were so close, Alex. Our group was not far further and we jammed over to assist, I was in the red X. Glad we were there to show some strength in numbers and hand over gear which didn’t sink.

Super fortunate I think that you were so close, Alex. Our group was not far further and we jammed over to assist, I was in the red X. Glad we were there to show some strength in numbers and hand over gear which didn’t sink.

  Amazing how quickly we responded to a friend in need.    I don't kayak much in the ocean nowadays but am usually nearby in my aluminum for assistance. 

Alex’s only repayment for help is he’ll ask if you wanna go for a long walk..

Alex’s only repayment for help is he’ll ask if you wanna go for a long walk..

Promises, promises. 

Still waiting to see those secret perch stops you got over where your at. We could kill two birds with one stone. Long walk........   

Alex’s only repayment for help is he’ll ask if you wanna go for a long walk..

I this point I owe him an awful long walk. Rescuing me which I’m super grateful for, plus tuna, and squid gifted over the last few years.

Alex’s only repayment for help is he’ll ask if you wanna go for a long walk..

I this point I owe him an awful long walk. Rescuing me which I’m super grateful for, plus tuna, and squid gifted over the last few years.

Your self-rescue is excellent. Just helped out with a pesky sealion. And a big one at that. lol

Ha! the least i could do. All the tuna info and gear you, Art and Johnny abalone helped me with on my 1st tuna trip made it one to remember.. I binged on youtube info as well. Not to mention all the redbulls. I landed 9 tuna in two nights. Me and one other guy were tied at nine for the trip.

Sorry for the thread jack, Fitz.

I'm not bothered,  nice tuna btw. 9 in a day is crazy work.