2/28/12 EVENING TRIP

Launched at my usual spot around 330. Got to my flat around 4. After piddling around i finally found the reds. I spooked a bunch, but then they settled down. First red of the day

not 5 minutes later in the same spot

2 casts later i manage this little guy

15 mins later i pick up his twin brother but he was bleeding so i quickly revived him and released him.
I hit the top side of an island casting to a drop off and i get a solid hookup. Big snook! he eventually does his cirque de soleil flip and tosses my jighead at my forehead. Oh well, back at the reds.
another smallie

The flats calmed down as the tide came to a hault and the sun started to get lower on the horizon so i decided to go to the interior spots. A few more snook jumps and a couple landed trout i find myself chasing a wake. Not sure what it was so i throw my lure at it. Blammo!!

Not a bad day on the water. Total was 7 reds, 3 snook, 2 trout. 3 hours on the water and done. Note to self: no seeums and skeeters are back, bring bug spray next time :)


KEEP IT HARDCORE!!

Night snookin

Friday night 2/10/12 myself and my brother in law launched in an undisclosed area around 10:30pm. It was raining like crazy, winds were howling and the docklights were illuminated. The range of depth fished was from 8-14 foot. My lure of the night was a 1/8 oz mission fishin jig head and a doa glow and silver paddle tail. My brother in laws bait was a doa night glow shrimp. This would be a nice test for that lowrance fish finder/ gps as this spot is new to me with a ton of cuts. Made my waypoint and off to fishing we went.

We hit the docks hard. It was a challenge to get a good angle to cast by and under docks. The wind was just blowing us downstream. We come around a bend and my brother in law says to me " two good casts under that dock and I can guarantee you a snook" I made my first cast and it bounced off the dock and fell right in front of it. Nothing. Second cast was made right on the money. Halfway underneath the dock retrieving the lure in front of a pylon. 2 bounces of the paddle tail and THUMP!! FISH ON!! A short tug or war later and a close encounter with the nearby bushes I landed a nice little snookie. My first night time dock snook.

We kept working more docks with not much more luck. I found a really nice mangrove shoreline with a nice cut in that was pitch black. A textbook ambush spot. Depth was 4 foot, with an adjacent 11 foot dropoff. I told my brother in law " that's a really nice snook spot, a really nice one." One cast in there inches from the shoreline...bounce, bounce...blamo!! Fish on!! After I set the hook I knew this was a really good snook. I had my drag really tight and this guy made my stradic ci4 3000 sing. Down the mangroves he went, up the mangroves he went, in the mangroves.....nope...palmed the spool, turned his head and he comes towards me. Whew...the rest was easy. Landed him in deeper water. Estimate size roughly 28-30.

We hit a couple more bends and I picked up 2 more peckerheads and my brother in law picked up a few more. By 330am the winds picked up to about 30mph gusts and 20 mph constant. We decided to head back. We really wanted to hit the major solunar, but we were cold, wet and our hardcore mojo was running out. Made our way back to the waypoint and it was dead accurate. AWESOME!! Total for the night for me was 4 snook and my brother in law was 4 or 5 snook. What a great 5 hours on the water. Can't wait to do it again.

Keep it hardcore!!!

Hobie pro angler Lowrance Elite 5 Fish finder install

So i have been doing alot of research on fish finders lately. Plain and simple, i did not want 2 separate units. I wanted to get an all in one combo. This year i will be hitting wrecks, reefs, channel ledges for grouper, goliath grouper, finding bait for kings and poons. etc... That covers the fish finder side. My other thoughts were about exploring new areas with mazes. Perfect example, the land of OZ. I wanted gps tracking with course tracking and of course way points. With all that being said, I called Richard Booze over at tackle shack in st pete who pointed me in the right direction. After weighing out the pros and cons of different models we decided on a unit and it was in stock, the Lowrance Elite 5. After work Friday i went home, picked up the PA, and made a drive to tackle shack where Richard was ready to start the installation. The battery was charged, all the hardware laid out and organized and the fun was about to begin. 

I will try and go through detail the best i can of the steps involved

Step 1
Remove coffin liner and sand down the areas of the hull where the battery foam holder and transducer foam will be glued with marine goop.
Step 2
Apply a small amount of acetone to a rag and clean the hull.
Step 3
apply marine goop to the transducer foam and lay behind the sail mount in the hull. Adding weight to the top of the foam will help or duct tape. Allow goop to cure
Step 4
Same with the battery box foam, apply the marine goop to the sides and place foam in desired location. In front of the sail mount works well. Allow goop to cure

Step 5
Since we decided to go with a Scotty flush mount as the base you would start by marking off your holes after placed in desired location. Drill the holes out, rivet or screw in 3 of the 4 sides. Reason being is that one of the sides will have an additional eyelet to aid in cord keeping on the underside. Place eyelet over rivet and do not snug all the way down because this will limit the movement of the eyelet.

Step 6
Drilling the hole for the cords. Determine the location where you want the cords to come through. Highly advise drilling the hole as high as possible to limit water seeping into the hull from waves, washing, etc... When you drill the small holes for the tiny screws make sure you do not lose your positioning. These holes are tiny and you don't want any more holes than required. After the small holes are drilled, carefully install the screws ensuring each is aligned properly and not overtightened. When you run your cords, you may have to move/remove the gray foam support block to feed the cord through.

Step 7
Install ram mount and Scotty combo into flush mount and attach head unit

 

Step 8
Run your cables before Installing transducer. Running them after can potentially fudge up the goop job on the transducer. Installing the transducer takes a little patience. Slightly rough up the transducer with fine grit sandpaper. This will aid in bonding with the marine goop. SLOWLY apply marine goop to the inside of the transducer foam ensuring you do not get any air bubbles in it. Don't fill it all the way up.
Step 9
Fastening the cables as high as possible to the sail mount to avoid water contact if there was ever water to enter the hull.

Step 10
Connect battery pigtail to battery cable. Fasten pigtail same as step 9 as high up as possible. Install battery, make sure all fittings are secure. As you see in the pic, jimmy steps in and gives Richard a hand

Step 11
Connect cable to back of the the head unit and power on. Adjust your settings and enjoy

Hope this helps anyone who ever decides to have an install on their PA. If i have gotten anything backwards please let me know. The guys at Tackle shack are awesome, I have to give props to them. Every employee helped out where they could and they did a fantastic job. I love that store. The sweet part of the deal was that Lowrance is offering a $100 mail in rebate. Now i just have to tinker with the thing and get it dialed in and learn all the cool features.

Prefishing for the Feb 18 HKCAC tournament

Monday Feb 6 2012 I launched with a fellow kayaker to do some prefishing for the upcoming tournament. Redfish and trout were the target. Not many early in the morning, but as the sun stayed up and the water warmed i was able to fully sight cast my first RED! Most of the time its usually a tail, a wake, or even a pothole that i cast to. This guy i saw the whole thing happen. He was cruising with some sheeps and i made the cast over him to intersect his path. Well, he saw it as soon as it hit the water and clobbered it. Nice fat boy 26.5"

I managed 8 reds for the day and 4 trout. I didnt get too many pictures because i was focused on trying to find the fish. Here is a nice 23" red that was really pretty and had a beautiful blue tail.

As the storm approached that later blew me off the water, the trout bite kicked up and i landed this healthy 20" trout.

I should be heading out Saturday Feb 11, 2012. More blogs to come and i will have some Kayak fishing gear, as well as fishing clothing reviews soon. Stay tuned.