I only lurked a little bit, then I joined

Hello brother and sister yakers.

I joined last week but don't think I ever really introduced myself. My name is Rich, my screen name is rangerben... thats a long story...

Anyway, I've been fishing out of Santa Cruz for 30 years mostly for Salmon, but in a pb.. I sold the pb last year because it was just sitting in the driveway as I changed careers 5 years ago and have been consumed by building up this company.

After a high tech sales career for 25 years, I walked away from the disk drive industry and went to work as GM for a chip manufacturer. Now some of you might be thinking "oh, like Intel, or AMD".. But actually I run a company that makes tortilla chips. So my career went from high tech chips to "low" tech chips.

I'm doing my best to fight the aging issues ( I'm 52), so last year my wife and I bought OK yaks from Kayak Connection. I have a P13, she has a Venus11. And we love them.I figure any and all physical activity I can get will help fight the good fight.

Jonesing for fishing now that I've got this company running well, I'm rigging my yak for da ocean... Almost done, am trying to get the FF in this weekend.

I've already gotten a great deal of advice and suggestions for rigging, fishing, and I wanted to thank all of you for making me feel welcome..

Looking forward to hooking my first yak fish.. and  my wife is freaking out after hearing about our fellow yaker at Bean with the big grey fish.....

See ya'll on the water.

Rich

Dude! First mistake was telling the wife about Mr Whitey's attempt to join our club! Its kinda like "The first rule of Fight Club is you don't tell anybody about it." Well, the first rule of NCKA is you don't tell the significant-other about shark attacks.
Just messing with ya....thanks for the intro/info. Especially the part about the low-tech chip manufacturing LOL! Guess you're a chip off the old block. Or just a really chipper guy. Hopefully I'm not getting too chippy. Anybody else wanna chip in?
PK

Sin,

Thanks.... Chip off the old block...jeez

And if you've eaten chips under the Trader Joe's brand, or Whole Foods 365 brand, you've eaten my chips.... don't go there Sin.....

Rich

Hi and Welcome Rich (and Spouse),

Ben Lomond is nice; I used to go there a lot as a young-un.

I'm 51, up in Mendocino and started kayaking about six months ago, paddling, pedaling and sailing a little Hobie.  Great exercise and great for the mind too, being out on the water fishing, crabbing, etc..  My stamina has improved a lot and I've just taken up diving too.  Wish I had started doing this years ago. 

You'll find this a great group with great and helpful folks.  Cheers,  -Matt and Mariko

Matt and Mariko,

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Donna and I totally agree about the peace and relaxed nature of kayaking. We spent a lot of hours last summer paddling along the coast out of Santa Cruz Harbor. After so many years of powerboating with all the noise, vibrations, smell, we were yak hooked in about 15 minutes.

Best,

Rich

Welcome Rich and Donna it is indeed a great sport great people and a great site for info, all are more then welcome to share, looking forward to meeting you all on the water some day .

Pat R

Welcome aboard and to the madness. Sincoast that was a sin on the puns....

 Also welcome to the over fifties brigade and don't let the kiddies on this board miss with you we have experience versus auditory noise .But all a great bunch of folks that truly care for their fellow paddlers/peddlers. As a wise man once said." To bad that youth is waisted on the young". 56 and still paddling Frankfishng, "Gotta love this sport".

Rich-

Great intro... you guys picked a great time to join up. Rockcod opens next week and there are a lot of guys here with the fever to get some. I'm sure you'll have no problems hooking up with a bunch of great people and you'll get your first yak fish in no time. Get that FF mounted and your set.

Good luck to you.

Freddie

Thanks everyone!!

I guess a true sign that we are in our fifties is that our FF's are big screens, so we can see the freakin fish!!!! I just opened my Humminbird 535 box that the nice UPS man left on my doorstep. Now thats exciting!!!

Now I know what I'm going to be doing this weekend. Along with wrapping two rods that I had reel seats put on 30 years ago.


And yeah, yeah, yeah, you youngsters. I know for many of you these fiberglass blanks are older then you are... don't rub it in....

There will come a day where you will appreciate the fact that a hot tub is ALWAYS a follow up to yaking the blue..

All the best,

Rich

Nice timing for sure! Welcome to the madness.
PS Ive been called Ranger Ben 35 years ago because of my subscription of Ranger Rick Magazine, so when I saw your first posting, it seemed oddly familiar!
Ben aka guitarzan

Rich, Welcome to NCKA, I'm cutting carbs so I won't get to try the chips!! Hope to run into you sometime!----Doug

Thanks Doug,

You can still have some of our chips. Try the Trader Joe's Soy and flax or Spicy Soy and flax. They net out at 9 g. of carbs as opposed to 20-25g for regular tortilla chips.

See ya on the water!!

Rich

Looking forward to hooking my first yak fish.. and  my wife is freaking out after hearing about our fellow yaker at Bean with the big grey fish.....

Welcome to NCKA. I would tell her you are fishing San Gregorio not Bean Hollow. Then she won't have to worry. It will be our WAF secret code.  See at the San Gregorio in June.

Scott

Scott,

Thanks for the suggestion. I told her that they only bite yellow and red yaks. Mine's blue...Not sure if she bought it, but her's is blue too!!

Then she heard about the hit at Fontana so nothing is safe....

Rich