No Butts and a self rescue.

Hit OP Sunday with Shannon, launched around with wonderful conditions, well, except for the muddy off color water.
The plan was to head out to 20' and work our way back in (note to self, stick to the plan).
Had one hook up of a bat ray, man, that was fun!  Drug me all over the place.  Pic below, for reference, that is a 4" hoochie.  Released the ray and kept going.
drifted back into shallow.  with the nice weather we decided to head back out deep as the water looked a little better.  Got to around 15 foot and like a light switch the winds kicked in.
This was brutal, the wind had nice waves and white caps everywhere.   If you stopped paddling you lost more distance then you made.  Decided better reel in the trolling line.  the 4oz weight i was using caused the boat to turn as I was reeling in,  that in combination of my paddle that was resting in my lap had dug into the water int he opposite direction and a nice 2ft wind wave hit it causing the kayak to dump over.  Flipped the boat back over and was back in the saddle in probably less then a minute.  Yeah, my first self rescue was a success! 
Kept trudging along back towards the ramp.  It literally took 30 minutes to go from the center of OP pier to the wind surfer launch ramp.  Did i saw it was sucky conditions.
Took inventory back at the ramp and the only things lost in the dump was my VHF radio (ordering the Standard Horizon floating model now)  and a can of sun screen. 
The day (all things considered) was fun and a learning experience.

Good stuff, S.H.!

Those types of days are good because it gives you the confidence that you can handle yourself in those types of situations. Glad you got back in your yak and back under way with no issues.

sorry about the radio, but at least that is all you lost, another reminder to practice self rescue, cameron

I will start by saying I am glad you are still with us.  Secondly, that is a HUGE ray, congrats brother!  I am also glad you did not loose all your gear.  My first flip resulted in loosing two rods, a tackle box, net, and a lunch box.  I did not have leashes then, but I learned to tie everything down.  Fighting that wind sux, but at least you got a good workout, and built strength for your next run.  I try to get off the water, but like you said, it can change like a light switch.

Great job on the self-rescue, but why didn't Shannon get any pics of the event?   

Cool fatty ray too.   

the life vest did it's job very well, it was kind of funny as my hat did not even get wet.  Second, I am very happy that I wear a wetsuit and not waders.  That helped a ton as it is light.  Shannon (even though she does not want too) is going to try on wetsuits this week.  She was thinking and that if any water got into her waders, she might not be able  to pull herself up.
We did buy leashes for everything.  That was a ton of help.  The can get in the way, but I am not buying new fishing gear at least.

wind blows! Literally! Way to get some practice in.

Great job on the self-rescue, but why didn't Shannon get any pics of the event?   

He he, i had the camera in my boat.  Glad we bought the Olympus 1030Sw.  It worked.
Plus, if she had stopped to take a pic, she would have been blown back out past the pier.  

  great story, and great job recovering so quickly!  My wet suite is still waiting for me to actually put it on!  I thought I would wait for my first voyage on the mighty Pacific, but another couple of stories like this and I will be reconsidering! 

You guys should go over to the rockwall sometime.  The bite was on fire sunday at the wall for about 45 minutes in the afternoon.  One guy and his buddy landed 4 butts and a striper, and the boats had a good showing too.  I got one take down, but no hook up, on a live shiner from mike's.  Good to hear that your safe and got a lesson from it too!

P.S. Did you pull up a hippopotamus?

Keith 

You guys should go over to the rockwall sometime.  The bite was on fire sunday at the wall for about 45 minutes in the afternoon.  One guy and his buddy landed 4 butts and a striper, and the boats had a good showing too.  I got one take down, but no hook up, on a live shiner from mike's.  Good to hear that your safe and got a lesson from it too!

P.S. Did you pull up a hippopotamus?

Keith 

Hey Keith, we should do ARW sometimes, but our thing now with OP has become personal, until we land a butt there, we are going to keep at it.

Hippo eh?  Funny stuff, it does kind of look like one.

I am very happy that I wear a wetsuit and not waders.  That helped a ton as it is light.  

She was thinking and that if any water got into her waders, she might not be able  to pull herself up.

lemme help you bust those myths real quick.

Z

I am very happy that I wear a wetsuit and not waders.  That helped a ton as it is light.  

She was thinking and that if any water got into her waders, she might not be able  to pull herself up.

lemme help you bust those myths real quick.

Z

Hmm, well, I seem to recall a pic that was posted here showing a surf landing crash and the dudes waders were totally full of water.  I'll have to see if i can find it, besides, most waders don't have a relief zipper and my bladder is about the size of a peanut. 

I think Jim could've gone one step further and filled his waders FULL of water. If you noticed, the waders he was wearing were very snug against his chest (they may have had a drawstring). Alot of waders being sold are the neoprene version (cheaper) which alot of people have.
One of earliest cost saving measures getting into kayak fishing is to use your waders, combine this with a newbies inability to hop up quickly on their kayak is a recipe for disaster.
I was knocked down by a wave wearing my waders w/o my belt and almost drowned (not really) but I could see someone panicking and losing it.
I still think that waders are a death trap and want to see a video of the other side = waders FULL of water.

With a dry, or paddle top, no way water is getting in your waders.