Phil. W Kayak Fishing.: August 2014

The newest Wicker!

Grandma with the newest Wicker

Congratulations to my little brother Matthew and Sara on my new nephew and their son Lennon 7 pounds 19 inches! Thats an awesome catch little brother! Wish I could have been there and cant wait to meet the newest member of the family!

With an awesome weather forecast I have been distracted at work and the weekends havnt been long enough. Between the croaker and bluefish I was out of my favorite style/color of lure. Luckily for me PowerTeam Lures was having a discount on pro-packs, so I put in an order for some jp hammer shad and 4.5 grubs. Placed on Monday and received by Wednesday! The quick shipping and awesome customer service is one of the main reasons I like using PTL. The tackle box stocked back up and nothing holding me back I was ready to put some time in out on the water.
My trip out with BB was eventful but not very productive. My first cast after launching I managed to hook up on about a 19 inch bluefish unfortunately he unhooked himself in my lap and began flailing around so I tried to grab ahold of him and keep him from flipping around and he decided to latch onto my hand. After he attempted to dismember me he flipped over the side and got away anyway. After he swam away I noticed there was blood all over my kayak and I was thinking I didnt gill hook him since he was barely lipped when I noticed the blood wasnt the fish's but my own. My left hand was covered in blood so I quickly splashed water from my water bottle over my hand and I was surprised to see bone on my index finger and a large chunk of me missing! I quickly wrapped it with a wet wipe and a ziptied over to keep it from bleeding until I could get the proper bandage. I have a first aid kit but it just so happens I had taken it off the kayak before this trip.* Wont be making that mistake again.

I got a boo boo

I suppose the bad luck of catching a fish on the first cast is true and it continued the rest of the day. As I paddled around the rocks looking for fish I came across a very large dead redfish. I couldnt tell how it had died but it is a shame to see a fish that big dead. Then just a few yards from the dead red there was a large dead sea turtle. I called the VA Beach Aquarium and reported the turtle and they came out and removed it from the rocks.
I did manage a few small fish but nothing worth putting in the cooler and bringing home.

I woke up late on Saturday and headed out solo, BB wanted a day to relax and catch up on tv shows and sleep. I loaded up the kayak on the jeep and made my way to the HRBT to try for some flounder. I got on the water as the tide was coming in and started my search for the flatties using bucktails and shrimp. After a few short strikes and oyster toads from around the old docks I moved closer to the pilings. There was huge schools of small silver baitfish in the 1-2 inch range but all too small for the holes in my cast-net. I started fishing under the bridge but didnt manage any bites. Something was making the bait scatter and jump so I switched to a jerk bait and managed to catch a few Bluefish and made sure not to make the mistake of getting my appendages anywhere near the teeth. I used one for live bait trying for a shark (it is shark week after all.) Besides blues it didnt seem anything else was around the bait or wanted to play so I switched over to a silk chartreuse PTL grub on a jig head and worked my way out to deeper water and away from the pilings. As I worked my way towards the channel I felt the tap and pull of a flounder and set the hook. After a quick fight I netted another short flounder. Even small ones are fun to catch and theyre one of the coolest looking fish. I kept working the deeper water near the channel and as I got around the rocks I hooked up on a bigger fish. Its an awesome feeling when your lure doesnt hit the bottom and instead you see your line jerk as a fish nabs it on the fall. After a good hard fight pulling line from my reel I landed a nice 25 inch slot redfish. Theyre a blast on light tackle! I had found a small school of them and had fun reeling in slot sized reds. The PTL grub and jp hammer was bringing them in. Unfortunately I had forgotten to clear my memory card in my camera and didnt manage any video. I didnt manage to find anymore flounder or any keepers but I did catch a few more blues and a small grey trout that decided he wanted a 4.5 grub.

On Sunday me and BB decided to paddle out again and see if we could find the school of reds. Unfortunately we never did find any fish other than a few small croaker and seabass. We did get surrounded by a large pod of about 60 dolphins who decided to put on a show for us which was pretty awesome. It was great to see that many of them all at once flipping, splashing, and jumping. Several came right up to the kayak and we stayed with them for about 30 minutes until a bunch of large tourist boats came up and they swam off.

Video of the dolphins below.
Dolphin Video 1
Dolphin Video 2

I have been trying to find ways to get BB out on her kayak more. She enjoys being out on the water but she is from the desert of Arizona and it is all new to her so she gets uncomfortable on rough and windy water. After looking up several DIY and marketed outriggers I couldnt find anything that BB liked or I thought would be stable enough or work for her kayak. I knew that if she didnt like how it looked, or felt comfortable using it then it would make her not want to kayak more, the opposite of my intentions. I had almost given up completely then I seen a Facebook update from YakAttack that said they were toying with the idea of releasing somthing. I was pretty excited because all of the products that I have used have been excellent quality and very easy to mount and customize. I waited anxiously for more news or pictures to see what would happen.
The first photos posted were awesome. A collapsable/modular system that mounted using geartrac and two pontoons that looked to be very sleek. Then I thought I hit another snag, after looking at the components I knew it wasnt going to be cheap, but then again what hobby is? I got the break I was looking for however because Luther announced a demo run of the outriggers. Ten demo sets were up for 175.00$ so I jumped on the opportunity and three weeks later I got the box in the mail.
Right out of the box I could see why the final price will be as high as announced. Every component is already available on the market for various installs of rod holders and accessories. The assembly was pretty straight forward even without instructions. The hardest part was finding where on BBs Hurricane Phoenix 120 we were going to put it. We finally decided on a spot right after the rear stoarge well and mounted the 4 inch geartrac. BB wanted lime green so I went with the GTSL90. I believe the GT175 would be a more stable platform. The mounting plates are slotted so that if you have angled geartrac it will still slide in which came in handy during this install.

On her first trip out BB was very happy with how the kayak handled and how stable it was. She was more comfortable on the water and therefore stayed out longer and went more places. She even braved boat wake sideways without any fear of tipping over. She stood up in her kayak and moved around, although the Phoenix isnt really made for standing and the thinner plastic was bending the kayak itself was stable and nowhere near close to flipping. While she paddled the pontoons cut through the water and waves very easy. BB's favorite part about the install was how cool it makes her kayak look, and thats always a plus right? If your looking to add stability to your kayak check out YakAttack when they release the outriggers. Dont let the price scare you, this setup is built with quality components. This is only a demo set, its gonna be tough to improve an already awesome setup. Just make sure you place it where you can make a full paddle stroke without making contact with the pontoons.