Imitating the Titanic at the Port...

So, long story short, I took my buddy out for his first trip on a kayak, fishing at the Port, and my kayak sunk out from under him….

Aww who am I kidding I can’t tell a short story..

My buddy Martin has occasionally fished with me here in Cal for salmon and stripers, and showed an interest in going on the kayak with me for salmon. It’s been a real crappy fishing year (for me) with schedule availability and actual fish being in the port, so by the time I got him out there, it was last Sunday, half way through November, and, as I pointed out to him on the way out there “huh, what do you know, the water temperature is a full 10 degrees colder than last time I was out here!”

So Martin, like me, is a member of the big-mans club, and as charter members, we can’t just jump onto any piece of plastic (like you genetically-blessed skinny nervous folk, and tiny-men) and expect to float.. Stability is a huge issue for us, I took my best friend John out a few weeks earlier, and ended up swapping kayaks with him, gave him my new Ride because my loaner kayak was too unstable for him to want to even leave the shore. Before we went on the trip John had planned to come back in two weeks, he even talked of buying a kayak, after, I haven’t seen him for 2 months… So I made some preparations for Martin..

I put him on the tandem Ocean Kayak Malibu Two that I THOUGHT I had repaired **cue ominous music** I even bought some crab floats, some PVC, a pair of scotty rod holders w/bases, and fabricated a pair of pontoons, and installed them onto the Malibu the night before. I had everything all set up for this to be a safe, stable-as-hell platform for Martin to fish off of and not have to worry about balance.

After the last failed trip with my best friend, I realized that half of the tension of being on a kayak (for a newbie) is losing your stuff if you fall, so I also told Martin “don’t bring anything but your rod and reel, I can carry anything else.” Martin, being a scuba diver, had the foresight to bring very little gear, but what he DID bring was in a dry sack, which turned out to be fortuitous..

Before I go any farther, I have to give you a little backstory on the Malibu2..

I got it off Craigslist for like $125, mainly because it was a former rental that they had beat the crap out of, sun-faded, had cracked scuppers, giant dents in the hull, utterly no accessories and it looked (I sh*t you not) like a beaver or a squirrel had spent a few leisurely hours chewing away on the side of the hull for some reason… So, about as soon as you say “cheap,” of course,,, I am all over it.. I wanted to know how to repair a kayak, so I fixed the dents, started melting sh*t to try and “fix” the scuppers, cut a hatch in it so I could at least SEE the inside of the hull, added some pad-eyes for accessories, added handles, tow rope on the front, etc, etc. I had fun jerking around with it, thinking I was doing something worthwhile..

Well LAST year, I decided to take the Malibu out for a test, I went fishing with a few buddies, one of the guys didn’t yet own his own kayak, so I lent him the Malibu (he was one of the aforementioned skinny nervous guys) he fished the damn thing for half the day with NO issues, right up until lunchtime when we traded kayaks.

Everything seemed fine.

So I paddled it for about an hour, when I noticed that it seemed a lot more tippy that I thought it should be?? Imagine my surprise when I opened the hatch I had installed, and noticed 6” of water filling the hull (yeah we were about a mile and a half from launch..) When I finally got it back to the shore, I tilted it up to drain the water, and could hear hissing from one of the scupper “repairs” I thought I made… So when I got home from that trip, instead of jerking around with trying to melt plastic again (I had a real hard time because OK plastic is so damn thin that I came very close to sagging it…) I said F*ck it and got out the JB weld.. The JB weld cracked a few days later, and I went over it AGAIN with JB weld,, and thought everything was cool…

So, back to the Port, Martin is out in front of me fishing the Malibu, I looked at the Malibu, thought it was riding a touch lower, but not horribly low considering Martin is a big guy, and the pontoons were sitting about perfect in the water, and I paddled past him and anchored to the dock, I fished for about maybe 15 minutes before Martin said something to me that I couldn’t hear, just about when I turned around to ask him to speak up, a guy next to us in a boat said “Dude I think your kayak is sinking” I look back and the back half of the Malibu was juuuust about under the water line, with the front end poking up in the air… I’m like “uhhh Martin, we need to head back!” To his credit, Martin is a diver, and not afraid of the water, and had my PFD on and had neoprene on, and can swim like a fish, so, we got about 10 feet, with him paddling, the nose of the kayak pointing farther and farther to the sky, before he calmly told me “I think I’m going in, hold my fishing pole.” Which I did, shortly before he did…

So now Martin is floating in the water next to my half-sunk kayak, I am doing what Patrick McManus called the “modified stationary panic” fumbling for the tow rope, throwing my bilge pump to Martin, when the boater who spotted the sinking vessel first said “you guys need help?” I’m like “YES!” meanwhile Martin is calmly pumping the bilge while treading water…We got just enough water out before the fishing boat got to us (honestly it would have only been about a 30 yard swim to get Martin on shore, but why chance it if you don’t have to right?) before the kayak seemed safe to remain floating, and I grabbed the tow rope and started paddling to shore while the boaters so very kindly helped Martin to the shore..

So we get to the boat ramp, and I spend the next 30 minutes alternating between “I’m so sorry!” and “F*$&#^*-ing kayak!!” while Martin just laughs and says “no big deal man!” I can’t find any hole or area in the bottom of the kayak that comes anything close to justifying how fast that thing filled with water??

At this point I am thinking, I ain’t going to let this ruin our day, I get everything loaded back up in the truck, drive it back home, offload the kayaks (Martin puts on dry clothes) grab lawn chairs instead of kayaks, some bait, and head back out to the deepwater channel to fish from shore..

Meanwhile, we spot a WS Ride 135 (maybe a ’09-10) on Craigslist for $400 and Martin calls the guy about it (I’m thinking, I’m never going to see him again when I ask him fishing, and Martin starts looking at kayaks?)

So, we start shore fishing, everything is calmed down (OK me, I’m calmed down,,) and we got the lawnchairs, the cooler, cigars, and we start soaking bait in the beautiful sunny day.

Martin gets a nibble, tries to pull the line in, and gets snagged, but manages to pull his gear out of the snag. He ends up casting the same place all day, snagging every single time, but he keeps on getting bites and ends up catching one schoolie striper out of the snag.

His second fish might not have counted.. He gets a nibble, pulls in the snag, but this time catches some line, the line slowly reveals itself to be a giant snagged tangle about the size of a softball with 2 sinkers, 5 swivels, 7 hooks and a freakin LIVE catfish (caught on one of the snag-hooks, NOT caught on Martin’s hook) hanging off the side of the snag by a sliver of cheek-meat! We let the catfish go, after that kind of catch, we figure he earned his freedom..

I ended up catching a little Largemouth Bass, and two small stripers, (one REALLY small) for the day as well, so at least after Martin’s swim he didn’t get skunked.. I would rather catch a bunch of small anythings some days than wait all day to maybe catch one big one.. This was definitely one of those days..

And to top it off, Martin got through to the Craigslist guy with the Ride135, I went over with him to North Highlands, and offered him $350, and went home with a nice new (to him) kayak! So it was a long freakin day, but it was really nice that even through all that misfortune, Martin was cool and low-key and laughing about it, it ended much better than it started, and hopefully I get it right next time!!

I’m taking another new guy fishing next Sunday, with a different kayak, hoping like hell that I don’t sink him too…

love that little fish

Love the story.  Way to make lemonade our of lemons!!!

Sorry about your Malibu but that's a great story. Martin sounds like a good buddy
I think I'm going in!

tom

Great story. "I'm going in" had me ROFLOL!!!


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Use that thing for target practice.

Awesome story.  What a day.  Sometimes  Murphy's Law rules!  Nice way to end the day with fish caught, disaster averted, and a new kayak owner.  Well done gents.

Good report, Dude.   

Great report. Striper picture is classic.

Matt

 Dude nice story, your friend truly a warrior. Will contact u in a couple of weeks. We will hit the Port and get some rods to bend.

Dude nice story, your friend truly a warrior. Will contact u in a couple of weeks. We will hit the Port and get some rods to bend.

Anytime man, headed out there this sunday?? salmon won't be there that much longer?

Hell of a story. Glad it ended well.

Your buddy is quite the trooper & even though that kayak you loaned him is a true POS it still managed to hook him on kayak fishing anyways. That's hella cool dude.

Thanks for sharing the story.  Glad your buddy is OK. 

Superb Story, Dude...

And though you paint volumes with your words, a picture would have have been priceless...

xoxo