Wake Reservoir today

[ebogdanski]

Went fishing for a few hours today in my Kingfish kayak, cold and rainy compared to last weekend when I was installing laminate flooring! Had raingear on and still got a bit wet!
This is my third trip out there. No fish, no bites using jigs or spinnerbait but I did learn a few things about my rig/setup.

The PirhanaMax 220 depthfinder again failed to work thru the hull mounted with a hard foam holder and vaseline. It worked fine when outside the hull. My next effort will be a 4" PVC cup fitted/gooped to the V near the front scuppers, filled with water. I'll let you know. If I hadn't already drilled the hole and fabricated a plug for the power/transducer cable I'd just make a bracket to attach to my Scotty bar. Maybe that will be the final answer.

The water depth was up to 25-30 feet in one spot, and remains deep (8') fairly close to the long bank on the (west?). The water depth in the 2 bays at the far end are 4-5 feet right now. Saw a small batch of fish on the finder above the 30 foot mark. Too wet and cold to care at that point.

A 10 foot steelhead rod is too long as any lures that tangle at the tip require the rod to be broken down to reach the tip. Back to 6-7 foot rods.

Straight up rodholders in the fishing crate are great for open water but don't work under willows/trees close to the bank.

I am on the far side of 55 and not as flexible as required for reaching back for rods, lure box, and anchor/line in the crate behind me. Possible but difficult!

I put an anchor trolley on but attached it with steel snaps to the front and back carry handles rather than drilling more holes in the boat. It works ok but the lines are too long and can tangle with other items on deck. I will probably install pad eyes and line guides to prevent that. More holes!

I built an achor line holder out of an empty plastic spool used for electrical wire at the Home Depot in Wake Forest. A piece of 1"PVC with end caps makes a holder that fits in a rod holder and keeps the line from tangling. I don't know if it's the yellow poly line or the air trapped in the PVC tube, or both, but it floats, I checked. Nice if I needed to move quickly.

Sorry, this has turned out to be less about Wake Forest Reservoir than my rigging issues, but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed rigging and writing about it. Kayaks are GREAT FUN, especially for do-it-yourselfers!!