Paddle, fish, eat, sleep

Thursday afternoon I drove down to Corpus Christi to get in some fishing before the cold front arrived early Saturday morning. My cousin had planned for us to fish a few spots in the Laguna Madre from our kayaks. It would turn out to be a long day.

We got started around 8am fishing along the JFK bridge that spans over to North Padre Island. I picked up one keeper trout and the occasional "dinker". We paddled for almost 3 miles around the bridge and just not finding any decent fish. We were also dodging showers and towards the end of the morning I could see a whiteout on the opposite side of the bridge so we anchored underneath the bridge just as a small squall passed through with some heavy showers and rain. We decided to load up and drive to a different spot once it cleared.

This other location had some deeper holes as well as lots of oyster shell and looked much more promising plus no rain in sight anywhere. No sooner than we got there, we picked up a few undersized redfish. Moving along to shallower water, I later picked up a 21" redfish, lost another and then before leaving caught a 23" redfish. I thought I was going to lose that last one as it made a run under my kayak, the line wrapper around my paddle. As I struggled to undo that lifting the paddle with one hand while still fighting the fish with the other, I got it free and then the line got wrapped up with the stringer I had the first redfish tied to. Luckily the second redfish reversed direction and somehow got untangled and I directed him to the starboard side of the kayak where I finally netted him. Victory! One interesting feature of this redfish was the spot on the tail looked sort of like a heart shape which you can see in the photo. BTW, the rechargeable batteries in my digital camera no longer hold a charge worth a darn so I had to take these photos with my camera phone.

Later that evening with fished near Bird Island Basin and I was only able to pick up a couple of keeper trout. We were so tired that we were done by 10pm. Almost 14 hours fishing off and on that day.

On Saturday, the cold front came through as predicted bring rain, high winds and colder temperatures. In a way, I was glad because I don't think I could have paddled around and fished all day again. So, we had a good breakfast, cleaned the fish and as we got back to my cousin's home we saw this old 20s Ford at the end of the street. One of my cousin's neighbors restored old Ford's and he had a couple of beautiful ones in his garage that he was working on. I never knew that.


On Saturday evening after I had gotten back home, I went over to my brother-in-law's home and prepared the redfish on the half shell on the grill and we had that for dinner before watching the Manny Pacquiao / Antonio Margarito boxing match on pay-per-view. It was a great evening. Later in the week, we'll have some of the trout for dinner as well.

As always, I had a great time with my cousin and his wife and hope to see them again soon.

I own a fleet!

OK, a fleet of plastic boats but a fleet nonetheless.

I met Roland from Lakeline Watersports at the shop this afternoon and he kindly installed the extra Scotty rod holder mount I had and also the anchor trolley system I bought from him.

The anchor trolley is something I am really glad to have purchased since it will allow me to face in the direction I want when fishing regardless of which way the water current is flowing. This was always difficult with the old setup I had since I had a pair of cleats in which my anchor line was wrapped so I was sort of limited to the position in the current.

I got home with the new kayak and showed it to the family. My wife likes the brighter yellow of my old kayak. I admit that the golden yellow sort of looks like baby poop yellow color but I still like it.

My son came over and sat in "his" kayak and one of our dogs came over to congratulate him.

I have a fishing trip to Corpus Christi late next week where it will receive a baptism in saltwater and hopefully some speckled trout slime.

I may also take it out this weekend in Lake Travis if the weather cooperates.

A kayak with character and memories

I was out by the shed out back where I keep my kayak trying to figure out how I am going to stow two of them now. While planning out how I would screw two by fours to the wall to stack them, I took a good look at my old kayak. The thing has character.

The bottom of my kayak is a series of scratches. There are a few deeper gouges here and there but otherwise the hull is sound. That polyethylene plastic sure is tough stuff.

Even then, I had to repair the keel a couple of times as it had worn thin from dragging it on concrete, oyster shell, and limestone rock. It looks pretty bad but should be fine for a few more years.

The cockpit has a few blood stains here and there that don't ever seem to come out. The bungee cord is weathered and doesn't stretch much anymore. The hard plastic pieces here and there have cracked and the bungee that holds my seat back has broken.

The interior has algae from where water occasionally still gets in it. The reflective tape on the stern that my cousin added five years ago so he could spotlight the dark to find me at night is barely there.

The rubber cup behind me that holds my C-Light for night fishing is crumbling apart.

I don't think I can count the number of speckled trout I have caught in this boat. Hundreds. Maybe more. Lots of bass, too.

All my kids have paddled in it with me from time to time.

It's been a good boat and I am going to miss paddling that kayak but will try to still get in it from time to time. It is a nice thought to know that my son will be paddling it alongside me sometimes.

Buying a new kayak

My wife went out of town with my son to visit her parents this weekend so I stayed to take care of our two girls. Even so, fishing wouldn't have been possible anyways given the high winds. Instead, I took this opportunity to take a look at some kayaks that I was interested in. In particular, one was the latest 2009 version of the Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120 that I have owned for the past 6+ years. The other was a very similar boat by Native Watercraft called the Manta Ray 12.

The new Tarpon 120 has had many improvements to it. This topic on the texaskayafisherman.com forums provides a good review of the '09 models. It describes major upgrades to the hatches, improvements in the seat, gear packets, and paddle holders as well as other improvements. It is a very nice kayak and I got to see a couple of them at REI (I wouldn't purchase it from them but it was the closest place that had them).

The second kayak, the Native Manta Ray, was one that I had been reading about for a while now. It is a boat that a lot of folks really like. It has a comfortable seat, tracks well, well thought out storage options and so on. I wanted to see this one at a shop since it reminded me so much of my own trusty Tarpon 120 except a little nicer.

I wanted to stay with a 12 foot kayak. The 14 foot ones are roomier and tend to track better, are more stable in choppy water and paddle faster but are not the best choice for small rivers. Rather than have one boat for lakes and the bays and another for the rivers, I wanted another general boat like my Tarpon 120 since the Tarpon was going to my son.

I went over to a nearby small kayak shop called Lakeline Watersports and spoke with the owner, Roland, about this model. He was very helpful and he mentioned he had two new 2008 models on closeout at a reduced price. One was red and the other yellow. My current kayak is yellow. I like high visibility colors like orange and yellow as opposed to colors that blend in to their surroundings. I do this so motorboats can spot me easily as well as when part of the kayak is hanging out the bed of my truck, it can also be seen by motorists behind me.

While I would recommend to anyone to paddle a kayak before purchasing it, the Tarpon 120 was already familiar to me and I had read the Manta Ray was very similar to the Tarpon. I did want to try the seat out and after adjusting it, it seemed quite comfortable. So, I pretty much committed to Roland that I would take the Manta Ray and for him to hold it for me. I just need to wait until my wife comes back tomorrow to get a Scotty rod holder mount out of my truck so that he could install it and also rig up an anchor trolley to it and I would pick it up on Monday or Tuesday. The price was just too good to pass up. While the new Tarpon 120 is very nice, I really couldn't justify the $150 to $200 extra cost. With the savings, I decided to order a new Stohlquist Fisherman PFD from REI that should get here next weekend. I'll review it after I get it but it is the type of fishing PFD that I have been looking to get for a long time.

So, I am pretty excited about this new kayak. My current Tarpon 120 will become my son's kayak. He already has a good Stohlquist kayaking PFD and a Carlise paddle that I had as extras for it. I hope it serves him as well as it has served me.