Kayak fishing

[Chris]

Went Saturday and set a chum slick about 4.5 miles out. Drifted towards land about 1mph.

Raised one pelagic Ray  and 3 makos. Landed one baby mako and the other two took off (two babies and one in the 80lb range that might have gone home)

Sunday went on a 6 miles round trip paddle where the threshers were holding Friday and Saturday. Water was really dirty and bait was scarce. Amazing how conditions change over night.

One hit that made the clicker sound but no hookups and no teeth marks on the bait. (Tail slap or something ran into the line).

Going for mako at night next time. Not sure if I’ll launch at midnight or before sunset. One 4 gallon bucket of chum seems to last about 4 hours.... maybe I’ll haul out two and some extra meat. 

[BenCantrell]

What kayak do you have?  A pelagic ray and a mako is a pretty awesome session.

[Chris]

What kayak do you have?  A pelagic ray and a mako is a pretty awesome session.

An old aquaterra swing. 13ft dive kayak. It’s pretty fast but doesn’t hold a lot of weight and I can’t stretch my legs out flat. I need a seat too, but it’s been giving me a good core workout.

[BenCantrell]

That sounds like fun, and hell yeah to getting a good core workout.

Too hairy dealing with the ray and mako boatside to take pics?  Sounds like you'd need both hands to deal with the fish.

I have my eye on the Ocean Kayak Trident 13.  Looks fast, has the center hatch for storing full length rods, and the new seat is supposed to be comfortable. I'm concerned about dealing with threshers and makos though, because that's what I really want to target.  It would be cool to get a medium sized thresher across your lap for a photo, but the Trident (or pretty much any paddle kayak) doesn't look the most stable for doing that.

[BenCantrell]

I've been looking on Google images for "kayak thresher shark" and "kayak mako shark", and it looks like the only way to get a photo with the shark across your lap is to gaff it and kill it.  I'm not the biggest fan of taking big predators home to eat (I've done it with one soupfin, took me 15 months to work through), but I'd probably be willing to do it once for each species.

[Chris]

I didn’t hook the ray, it was the first to come up in the slick though and came right up to my yak and stared at me for a good minute.

I got a pic with the mako, it’s just a small one and didn’t feel like uploading it to imgur. I would feel comfortable with a 6ft fork length of either species across my lap. It’s fairly easy to wrangle them, people just get gaff happy and are afraid to touch a shark but have no problem trying to hook one so it can become interesting for them.

[Chris]

There, I added a pic.

[BenCantrell]

I would feel comfortable with a 6ft fork length of either species across my lap. It’s fairly easy to wrangle them, people just get gaff happy and are afraid to touch a shark but have no problem trying to hook one so it can become interesting for them.

Good to know. I'll PM you if I get serious about buying a kayak. I'd like to talk shark handling strategy a bit more.

There, I added a pic.

Thanks!  Haha, that's a perfect size one. 

[vdisney]

Went Saturday and set a chum slick about 4.5 miles out.

Damnnnnnnnnn Dude, that's a 9 mile round trip paddle.  Chu da Man   

[Chris]

Went Saturday and set a chum slick about 4.5 miles out.

Damnnnnnnnnn Dude, that's a 9 mile round trip paddle.  Chu da Man   

I didn’t calculate that one. It was about 4.5 miles from shore but further from the launch and we drifted in, then reset about a mile after the small mako and ended up drifting south a bit before heading in.

Furthest I’ve done straight paddling is about 22 miles. Could almost make it to Catalina.

[Latimeria]

Those are like the ones that Squatch and I were catching last year!  Damn cute little chain saws!!!!

Cool pic.

[Latimeria]

Not sure I'd be out there chumming for makos at night in a yak....  titanium balls. 

[Chris]

Those are like the ones that Squatch and I were catching last year!  Damn cute little chain saws!!!!

Cool pic.

They’re so vicious! Lol. He was a fighter for sure. I was expecting it to stick around after the release but I guess it was too much for the little guy.

[skrilla]

That sounds like fun, and hell yeah to getting a good core workout.

Too hairy dealing with the ray and mako boatside to take pics?  Sounds like you'd need both hands to deal with the fish.

I have my eye on the Ocean Kayak Trident 13.  Looks fast, has the center hatch for storing full length rods, and the new seat is supposed to be comfortable. I'm concerned about dealing with threshers and makos though, because that's what I really want to target.  It would be cool to get a medium sized thresher across your lap for a photo, but the Trident (or pretty much any paddle kayak) doesn't look the most stable for doing that.

I just upgraded to the newest OK Trident 13 ( old Prowler 13 currently up for grabs ). Center hatch is the thinnest yet, yes thinner than the previous model. Really gotta shoehorn things down in there. Has 2 removable bins... with the bins in there isn't much clearance from the bottom of the bins to the hull. New ACS2 seat is nice. Stability is still ok, like it was ever that great anyway. Takes a bit of effort to stand. But with the thinner center hatch you do gain leg/foot room. As far as laying sharks across your lap... just keep your head over deck. Everything else is your typical awesome Trident design and performance.

[BenCantrell]

I just upgraded to the newest OK Trident 13 ( old Prowler 13 currently up for grabs ). Center hatch is the thinnest yet, yes thinner than the previous model. Really gotta shoehorn things down in there. Has 2 removable bins... with the bins in there isn't much clearance from the bottom of the bins to the hull. New ACS2 seat is nice. Stability is still ok, like it was ever that great anyway. Takes a bit of effort to stand. But with the thinner center hatch you do gain leg/foot room. As far as laying sharks across your lap... just keep your head over deck. Everything else is your typical awesome Trident design and performance.

Cool, throw up some reports when you take it out!