Saying hello

Hi everyone,

First post, just joined but I've been checking out this great site for a while now.

I started dunking powerbait years ago for trout with my buddies, sometimes we'd have a few brews while we were at it.  It was fun, especially when I'd hook up but it wasn't that involved.

After a while I bought a float tube and started getting into bass fishing.  I've done that for a few years and have been having a great time doing it.  A couple of months ago, my tube sprung a leak.  I patched it, but it still wasn't holding all of the air.  Obviously, I missed something.  Anyway, after a few years with the tube, one of the straps had broken and it was getting beat up so I decided it was time to get a new one.

I went to the Sport Mart in San Mateo (where I bought my first one) and looked around a bit.  I saw they had the pontoon style floats and thought about that also.  I thought the pontoon might be a better way to go, but it has its disadvantages.  I started heading back home and decided to stop by REI on the way.

I don't think REI has any float tubes, but they did have some kayaks.  The thought had crossed my mind before, but I hadn't seen anyone fishing in one and after browsing a while, headed out the door.  Well, right outside the door I couldn't help but notice a new store (Aquan) across the street and there were some kayaks outside the building.  I went in, chatted a bit and someone there mentioned that a lot of people were using kayaks for fishing and I should check it out online.  I found a couple of sites, east coast, So Cal and of course this site.  There is a ton of useful information.  Before I forget, I want to thank all of the people involved with this site, its a gold mine.

I was trying to figure out what kind of kayak to get.  Since I am married and I wanted to make sure I could take my wife out once in a while for a joy ride I was thinking of getting a Fish N Dive.  There was a fishing derby in HMB about a month or so ago and the Cobra crew was out for that event.  I came down that day just in time to see some of you come back from the derby.  I took out the FnD and a couple of others for a test spin and bought my FnD a week later.  I know it’s slow, but I wasn’t going to buy one just for fishing and a tandem to take my wife out on the rare occasion.

Since then I've been busy rigging my yak.  Before I bought my yak I gave my wife what I thought was an inflated ceiling on what I was going to be shelling out.  Boy, was I wrong.  I'm still not done rigging my yak, but have most of it taken care of.

As mentioned, I've been bass fishing for a while.  As far as ocean fishing I'm a complete novice.  I've bought a few things for rock fishing, thanks to info on this board.  I'm sure I'll need input on other rods and tackle for salmon and striper fishing.

I've got to stop this long winded post or I won't have time to go fishing today.  So far, I've only been taking it out in lakes, will probably head out to coyote today.  Didn't see the mendo derby going on, or I would have tried to make that.  I've got a few questions on some of the things I still need to do before my first ocean outing, but I'll save that for another post.

Hope to hook up with some of you in the near future.