Flyfishing Kiddoroosters

The kids got their new Kiyotaki rods from www.tenkarabum.com today - Chris S is awesome to work with and has the best customer service ever - if you are interested in tenkara, give his site some love. The kids were pretty excited and stoked to get their own appropriately sized flyrods. I had them practicing and within 5 minutes they had their casting strokes down and they were consistently hitting their targets. I tied on some flies and they were off! Noe hit one of the small Bass on her first cast! I had to cut their fly lines down to size (they were picking up too many 'wind' knots) and then the real action began - Noe whacked a medium sized bluegill and she was giving herself kudos for getting a huge bend in the rod!!! I resized Marlon's line too (if you're reading this and want to get the same setup for your kids, cut the lines to just a hair longer than the rod - their casting was perfect after that modification) and he caught three bluegill. I don't know who was more excited - the kiddoroosters or me!!!

Kayak Work on Columbus Day

So on this latest iteration of Columbus Day (I'm still not sure why we get the day off, but I'll take it), the final project I worked on was installing the bungee net holders on the sides of the rear cargo area. If you are looking to do the same (the kayak does not come with these mesh panels - order them from the Jackson Kayak website), use a 3/16" drill bit and get yourself a good rivet gun. There are four impressions on the inner lip of the compartment - find those and drill your holes. 10 holes and 10 rivets later and your done! Slippers, soda cans, small tackle boxes, mosquito repellent and other quick grab stuff now have a home.

Bow and Stern Anchors

3 pound grapple hook up front (deployed from the starboard beam, locked in at an appropriate length for the wind and depth, then shuttled up to the bow by the trolley - which is on the starboard side - storage issue for me, you can put it wherever you want), 2 foot drag chain out the stern (the boat is moulded with a chain channel and side handles sized to drop in a small Flexi dog leash). Can you say "two point mooring"? I can!

Better Blocks for the Anchor Trolley

So I didn't feel right about the last block I had used for the bow end of the trolley. I went to West Marine and grabbed a cheek block that gets screwed down. Using a 9/64 inch drill bit, #8 1" stainless steel screws, 1"x2" cuts of cutting board (for backing) and the new Harken block and fairlead, I now feel absolutely confident in the trolley. Now I just need the sun to come out so I can take this out on the water.

Third Arm for Picture Taking

So I'm looking through the pile of 'convention' stuff we got at the boat show and I see this refrigerator clip. With a little sticky back velcro, I now have a way to hold my rod while I'm getting my picture taken with my catch (or making adjustments to something that I may be around when fishing - anchor lines, whatever). Don't underestimate the convention stuff.

Small - Smaller - Smallest Large Mouth Bass

Cool temperatures, overcast skies and a slight drizzle - but Marlon and I went fishing anyways. He landed a small bass and a bluegill - I got one bluegill and a bunch of bass including this decent sized one. On the other side of the coin I got a few of these tiny guys as well. The water is starting to cool down and the bluegills are retreating to the deeper parts of the lake. I'll take what I can get for now - I'll have to research what kind of fishing I can do and where once the temperature really drops. Or I'll have to figure out what else I can do to tickle my adrenal gland...

RAM Mounts on and Anchor Trolley for the Big Tuna

Here are a couple of pictures of the RAM mount balls in place. Pretty useful (nice tiedown point for the paddles during transport). Turns out with the fairleads on the kayak, you only need one of the 1/4" pulleys. I used a heavy duty carabiner for the accessory interface (where I'll lock in an anchor line, stake pole or drift chute). I placed the trolley on the starboard side since this side of the kayak is stored up when I have it in the garage (this will prevent the carabiner or the pulley from getting damaged or scraping the side of the kayak). If I haven't already said it - modifying kayaks is really cool -

Saturday Fishing with Friends in Maryland

After the show, we were going to take the kayak and SUPs out, but the weather didn't clear up until late in the afternoon. We did get a chance to go fishing and this was Marlon's first time fishing in brackish water. He caught a spot and a few sunfish. I caught a couple of sunfish and we saw a huge school of shad. As always - a great time had by all!

Sailor Pub

Nothing says "Nautical" like a dolphin throwing down an ale. With all the people at the boat show, there was no way we were getting in here - maybe next time.

Annapolis Sailboat Show

So this was one of the reasons we went to Annapolis yesterday. We are scoping out the live aboard catamarans to see what we would like to target in the future (3-10 years from now). We also checked out the Island Packets - nice boats all around! Between La and I, we didn't converge to a singular solution - she loved the Leopards and I had a leaning towards the Antares; but there was no question the Gunboat 66 was the sweetest boat at the show. I'm pretty convinced the Farrier 44SC is still the boat for us, but being able to get a feel for the size and space of others did help answer a lot of questions for us.

Fully Loaded

We loaded up the truck and hit Annapolis yesterday. The Darby Extend-a-Bed worked fine - no rattling or shaking at all. I loaded La's SUP, the ULI (not inflated), the kayak and all the paddles, lifejackets and kayak accessories - I think I could have put on another SUP and some boogie boards.

RAM Rod Tubes and 1.5" Mounting Ball

If you check out the walk through video on Youtube for the 2013 Cuda (Jackson Kayaks) you'll see that they have placed #10 screw mounts in areas where you would want to attach accessories (like RAM rod tubes and GoPro cameras that use #10 screws through conventional GoPro mounts). Well - I checked on Jackson's website and they sell the 1.5" ball mounts and the 2008 model RAM Rod Tubes - and the inserts that support the high seat mounts on the Big Tuna also fit the 1.5" mounts. That means you can use these same tube/mount setup that comes on the 2013 models on your 2012 (but you are limited to where the seat holders would be). Next I'll start looking for the inserts (Lowes or Home Depot) and see if I can install them in other spots. Or I'll just save myself the trouble and install yakattack GT90s. We'll see what works better.

Darby Extend-A-Truck Rack

Trying to lift the Big Tuna on to the Thule top racks can be easy, but not necessarily the best option if I'm going to carry other things at the same time (like long SUPs - since they are wide, there isn't enough room to place the kayak and SUP side by side). So I ordered this option from Austin Kayaks (great place to order from if you are looking). I'm going to add trailer lights and reflective red tape for enhanced visibility, and a rack pad so it could slide on and won't bang against the cross rail. We're headed to Annapolis again this weekend - primarily the Sailboat Show, but also to paddle/fish/eat out. I should have the rack decked out tomorrow - check back to see the final product.

Ronstan Blocks for Kayak Anchor Trolley System

We stopped in at West Marine while we were at Annapolis. I bought these Ronstan Line Blocks (pulleys for you land lubbers) to serve as the two ends of an anchor trolley system I am going to install on the kayak.

Annapolis EOM Swap Meet

We got up early yesterday and loaded up the truck with the boards/stuff we didn't need and made a run at selling them at the East of Maui Windsurf/Surf Swap Meet. La loves yard sales and true to form she had fun at this one too. We sold four boards and a bunch of equipment everything but one windsurfer - this made a huge dent in displacing the cost of the Big Tuna Kayak we bought about a month ago and opened up the space for the kayak. La actually got reminiscent when some of the boards were sold - parts of our lives together leaving our grasp - enough mushy talk. Funny how the finite space in a garage can drive your weekend activities - not the fun part necessarily, but the reorganizing, the procurement and selling of equipment. I have literally spent the entire last four weekends either organizing the equipment in the garage, sorting through what boards to keep and what goes on the culling block, driving interstate to buy and sell stuff and going back home to rearrange again. I think we are very close to steady state now. With all that action going on, we did find a couple of hours to go fishing yesterday - on the kayak. We caught two - only two. A front was moving in fast and I think the barometric change had something to do with the activity level. All in all a great fun day!!!