What do you get when you mix 30 kayak anglers, a starter battery, an amplifier, an electric guitar and musician Trip Rogers? A National Anthem launch to remember!
The 1st Annual Hardcore Kayak Fishing Team Tournament rocked from start to finish on Saturday, October 3 in the upper stretches of Lake Wylie, just below the Mt. Island Lake dam. Plenty of water was covered and plenty of fish were caught, including the 5-fish tourney winning CPR limit by YakN (no easy task when none can be within an inch of each other...).
I have a pretty good deal going at Cane Creek reservoir near Carrboro, NC. GanzAndere (Joel) fishes throughout the season, finds and patterns the fish, then I show up one Saturday in August and let him guide me to his spots and share his secrets. Shallow crankbaits have been working this year as this 5lber confirmed. It wasn't a historic day by Cane Creek standards, but a fine day of catching.
I spent Wednesday afternoon in Fayetteville, visiting the John E. Pechmann Fishing Education Center. The occasion was one of their Wounded Warrior/NC Handicapped Sportsmen/Military Family fishing clinics. I'm no fly-fishing expert, but Al K allowed me to come down and be part of the volunteer staff.
Not a huge turnout of guests on this warm afternoon but a handful of families took advantage of the open gates and got a chance to "Face the Giants" in the hatchery ponds. See Al's report here for the official summary of the event. I got to poke around and take in what the the JEPFEC has to offer - details of my adventure are on the next 2 pages.
I paddled out of Upper Barton Creek this morning on a lazy, late launching trip with a short window of time before I had to get back for work. The primary purpose was to check out some re-work I had done on the fishfinder, which had started acting up this season. Glad to report that the re-seated transducer is working perfectly - no imaginary underwater forests, no problems finding the bottom, no problems finding fish. Ran into NCangler member "Kayak Fisherman" as I was launching. Was able to trade some tips and suggestions about the lake as it was his first time launching there.
NCangler sponsor GetOutdoors put on their 2nd annual kayak fishing tournament this weekend in Greensboro. We hoped for cooler weather and more fish than last year. We got both in abundance. Temps in the high-30s and a constant rain made for a challenging day, but many fish were measured and the competition for prizes was fierce. [see page 2 for details]
Skooteri and I got up in the wee hours for a Halloween run to Bath for more of the slam action he had been working the last 2 weeks. Not the greatest catching report, but its always a good time to see some kayaks on the home page! [See Page 2]
A good guide and a good photographer are invaluable tools in any angler's arsenal. GanzAndere (Joel) showed me around Cane Creek Reservoir on Aug 9, 2008 and got some really good pics of my battle with this 6.75lb largemouth. Thought I'd try to string them together here.
See page 2 for the play-by-play... [click for page 2]
This week's adventure for the kayak crowd was the 2nd Annual Kayak Fishing Meet & Greet at Fort Fisher, hosted by Druminator, and featuring his dad on the grill! I'd estimate somewhere between 30 and 40 kayak anglers made it out to the Fort for meeting, greeting, fishing, eating and checking out the other boats.
I put a bunch of NCangler faces to names out there, but its a bit of a blur right now. Here's an attempt to list the ones I had not met or fished with before - Druminator, NCMalibuEx, Straps57, Moseyak, Ebogdanski, 69corps, CarolinaFly, Erayyak, Nraycroft, RouseD, NCPierMan, Mulletman, Cody (Yak4fish Jr.). Repeat offenders were Lefty, me (JeffONC), Mikefromsa, Skooteri, Yak4fish. I'm sure I missed a handful - if I missed your handle, let me know and I'll get your attendance recorded! (Have seen posts from Fishgent, Eric6708, Meatloaf1991, Buckeyejoe, Flyr6105, EastCoastYak, Redneck Paddler, Msgdan from SC/KFS - don't recall formally meeting you guys,... [Read More]
It was a big day of firsts at the inaugural Get::Outdoors Kayak Fishing tournament on Lake Brandt in Greensboro today. First kayak fishing tournament for most of the participants, me included. First time for most of us on Lake Brandt. First time meeting the Hardcore guys face-to-face. I'll try to let the pictures do most of the talking and save the chatter for the forums...
(Done: 6:15pm)Trying something a little different today - a live blog event. I'll be updating this entry with pictures and commentary as I go along. Hopefully I'll have a working reel when I get done. Feel free to comment during or after.
I've got an Abu Garcia 4600KC3 casting reel that I dedicated to salt-water fishing last year. I gave it good faith hose-rinsings after every trip, but time and abuse got to it. The thumbar depresses, but won't re-engage with the turning of the handle and the spool won't spin.
On hand I've got some reel oil with teflon, some reel grease for the gears, toothbrush, screwdrivers, pliers, q-tips, WD-40 and PB Blaster for cleaning parts.
Step 1: Open the thumbscrews and remove the sideplate. Thumbscrews were balky and required screwdriver. Gave them a little dabbing with the PB Blaster and wiped up.
On the inside, of the sideplate and spool housing, I notice a lot of moisture. Not good - this reel has... [Read More]
I did not set out to become a kayak fisherman. I never envisioned myself on a kayak at all. I'm not the size or shape for agile craft and small spaces. And I just want to fish - I'm not looking for joyrides and not interested in paddling myself and my gear miles into the backcountry to camp and fish. If I'm in the water I want lines in the water.
I'd seen touring kayaks on TV - long, thin, tippy looking missles with people zipped into them with watertight skirts, legs trapped in the tube. Nautically, they're beautiful with the long lines and the silent glide. But not the kind of thing you'd ever be able to stuff me into. I'd seen whitewater kayaks on TV - short, tippy looking things with people zipped into them with watertight skirts, bouncing off boulders in a river. They might have appealed to me 25 years ago, but my golden days as a teenage daredevil are long gone. I'd also seen the eskimo roll - where the kayak flips upside down, rider underwater then he flips... [Read More]
I wanted to share a couple things from this Christmas that made it a memorable "Ten Dollar Christmas" for me.
$10 doesn't go very far. Two people can get filled up at certain fast food restaurants for $10. You could get small bag of groceries for $10. Or a little more than three gallons of gas. Or, to put it in fishing terms, 1 bag of Gulp and a handful of jig heads.
Here's two $10 Christmas gifts that showed me how $10 can be worth a lot more than we usually think.
My grandmother is in her 80s, lives halfway across the country and I only get to see her about every 10 years or so. But she never fails to squeeze some kind of Christmas gift out of her fixed income budget. This year she's stopped driving and instead of shopping she sent $50 to my Mom here in NC and asked her if she could do something for each of the "kids" (5 of us - grandkids and great-grandkids from teenagers to... [Read More]
This is NCangler member "yak4fish" (Philip) with a December 8, 2007 drum caught from kayak in the Haystacks area near Beaufort.
I met up with yak4fish and GanzAndere (Joel) in hopes of finding drum and/or trout. We found several reds in the 14-20" range to go along with this 7.25lb, 25+inch beauty, and one decent trout. We had good weather, light winds, good company and some fish - what more could you ask for on a December Saturday?
I made it a day trip from Raleigh. Alarm at 4:20. on the road before 5am. Coming through Havelock, I saw the "Open" sign at Lews Rod & Reel (NC Sponsor Angler - luremaker) on main street so I made a quick stop to meet Lew and pick up some darker plastics. I chose the Slurp 4" sea shads in what I think is their version of new penny - sort of a root beer underbelly, with a flaked green pumpkin topside. (I also picked up a few other necessities - snacks for today, crankbaits for another day!). The Slu... [Read More]
This is the view from my seat, "close to the water". The majority of my fishing right now is done from a fishing kayak. I'm close to the water every time I go out as the water is only a couple inches away on all sides. Being that close helps you connect to the water and yet it also shows you how truly small we are in comparison. Being able to put the kayak into almost any body of water has given me a chance to get closer to many of NC's diverse waters - ponds, rivers and lakes in the Triangle, along with inshore saltwater creeks, bays and marshes from Beaufort down to Wrightsville. I've seen some amazing places that my trailered fishing boat just wasn't able to take me (and I sold it).
I've gained an appreciation for North Carolina's waters as a sustainer of life, a source of recreation, and a precious resource to be stewarded and passed on to our children and their children and the generations to follow. Getting this close to the water has led me to become acti... [Read More]
10-04-2009 09:52 AM
. Ran into NCangler member "Kayak Fisherman" as I was launching. Was able to trade some tips and suggestions about the lake as it was his first time launching there.
