Post by gui on Dec 1, 2020 11:47:17 GMT -6
Here’s another Texas saltwater report.
No explicit food content
, but a kayak modification story.
It was a debated trip, but eventually we decided to take the drive and spend Thanksgiving at my wife's family in Victoria TX, as we usually do each year.
This time, I brought with us our hard shell single-person kayak with the idea of doing some solo saltwater fishing. Port Lavaca bay is only a short 30 mins drive away from the family's house. We’ve kayaked in the Lavaca bay a couple of times with our tandem inflatable, but have never dedicated some time for serious fishing.
The hard shell sit-in kayak was given to us for free by someone who ended up not using it. I was curious to test out a modification that I made so that I could add a spray skirt on it.
It's a recreational kayak intended for calm waters and originally it is not designed to support a spray skirt. Essentially the lip around the cockpit doesn't have a groove and therefore cannot hold a skirt in place.
Thinking about ways to install a skirt, I went a poor man's way and screwed on a garden hose all around the cockpit using well nut screws in order to create a "lip" that could keep the skirt on.
I found a generic nylon spray skirt on the internet that fits the cockpit dimensions. It seemed to be working out pretty well and hold the skirt in place, at least on dry grounds.
Now for the field test. And a bit of fishing.
I fished Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in the marsh area around Placedo Creek, which is near the closest public access point from Victoria on the Lavaca bay. There's a parking lot, a boat launch, a small fishing pier and a few tables at this access point (6 mile beach boat launch).
Putting in around 8 am, there was already some wind, especially on Tuesday, and the water from the boat ramp was pretty choppy and muddy.
At first I intended to fish the area where the creek dumps into the bay, thinking that it would be a good spot with cut-offs, different currents and a source of food for predator fish.
Once on the water and paddling across towards the creek, I was happy to find out that the skirt was holding well and was useful since a lot of water would have definitely come in without it in the choppy water conditions.
As far as the fishing, well, I quickly realized that fishing from the kayak was not the easiest thing...
First, I was sitting really low on the water, which makes casting and double hauling difficult.
Second, there was a lot of stuff on which the fly line could get tangled during casting, including the paddle, the net in front of me on the dashboard, etc...
Add to this the wind constantly pushing me against the shore, and by the time I would manage a decent cast with some line out, I would have drifted onto the grass or out of the target area that I wanted to fish.
I wasn’t fishing very well and I did not get any hit.
I had brought with me a mushroom anchor and attached it to the rear of the kayak. Dropping the anchor helped to at least stop the constant drifting and throw a few decent casts down wind. Unfortunately, one issue there was that I could not reach and pull the anchor back into the kayak in order to change spot. The rope and where it was attached at the stern of the boat was just out of reach behind me, being stuck inside the cockpit with that skirt.
It was kind of possible to reach the rope with some contortion, but also a perfect recipe for tipping over.
Tipping over would not have been fun, so instead, I would paddle backward quickly towards the anchor and then grab the slack of rope by the side of the kayak before it would sink or get tension again.
Definitely not ideal.
My next mod on the kayak will have to be installing some sort of anchor system so that I can deploy and retrieve the anchor from a siting position.
With the wind being an issue, I went deeper into the river system and found some side channels protected from the wind.
I tried different flies and eventually caught my first fish on a white & chartreuse Clouser. It was a small flounder, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, no picture here because at that point the battery in my camera was dead. I forgot to check the camera battery before the trip. Shortly after, I caught a small seatrout and a small redfish, both about maybe 12-14”.
Things were still pretty slow and eventually I decided to step out of the kayak and fish wading or standing on the stable grounds that I could find.
Fishing on my feet allowed me to be more in my comfort zone for casting and to fish better overall. Things like slowing down the fly in seemingly deeper areas were now possible. Water visibility was very low, so I was in no way sight fishing, just focusing on “fishy” spots near the grass.
This strategy paid off as, all of a sudden, I felt a bigger tug. After a few good runs, I brought to hand my first decent Texas red.
I took my phone out for a few pics of this one.
It was already about time to head back, which was quite the workout with the wind blasting against me. That wasn’t easy, but definitely worth it!
I came back the next morning and this time went directly into the creek. I did more exploring this time too. From some recon on Google Maps, I knew that there was a network of “lakes” or flat open areas connected by small channels aside the main creek. Exploring these meandering channels was fun and mostly protected from the wind.
I did not fish much in the channels, despite seeing a good number of “torpedoes” shooting off the reeds as I was approaching.
Instead, I focused on fishing the lakes/open areas, this time parking the kayak and wading in the knee-deep water.
Wading wasn’t the easiest thing though, because of the layer of mud at the bottom constantly sucking in my sandals.
Note to self: I need better mud wading shoes next time.
Nevertheless, fishing these flats ended up pretty good, at least to my saltwater beginner's standards.
I caught I think 4 small reds that looked similar to these guys.
At some point I connected with a bigger one which was similar in size to my best fish from the previous day, or maybe slightly bigger, at about 20” I believe.
I think that I’m now “hooked” on these fish. They are actually pretty looking I think, with the black dot on the tail, the big reddish fins and the copper-bronze coloration. Their head shape is pretty cool too. Kind of stubborn looking.
And the best of all might be the big tug that they put on the line when they take off.
This definitely was a fun couple of short fishing trips.
I’m happy with the added skirt on the kayak, which passed the field test. At the end, fishing outside of the kayak was more productive than fishing from the kayak. But still, the kayak got me to the spots where I fished and caught fish. Also, the skirt has a zipper, which makes it convenient for stepping in and out of the kayak.
Aside from the anchor pulley system, one improvement that I see for the skirt is to attach some shoulder straps to the skirt, like the ones on waders. There is a Velcro that is supposed to keep the tube of the spray skirt up on the torso, but it always ended up sliding down pretty quickly. Which then leads to water pooling around the waist in the slack material. Eventually, some of this water will come in.
Straps with quick release attachments should be an easy fix for that.
No explicit food content
, but a kayak modification story.It was a debated trip, but eventually we decided to take the drive and spend Thanksgiving at my wife's family in Victoria TX, as we usually do each year.
This time, I brought with us our hard shell single-person kayak with the idea of doing some solo saltwater fishing. Port Lavaca bay is only a short 30 mins drive away from the family's house. We’ve kayaked in the Lavaca bay a couple of times with our tandem inflatable, but have never dedicated some time for serious fishing.
The hard shell sit-in kayak was given to us for free by someone who ended up not using it. I was curious to test out a modification that I made so that I could add a spray skirt on it.
It's a recreational kayak intended for calm waters and originally it is not designed to support a spray skirt. Essentially the lip around the cockpit doesn't have a groove and therefore cannot hold a skirt in place.
Thinking about ways to install a skirt, I went a poor man's way and screwed on a garden hose all around the cockpit using well nut screws in order to create a "lip" that could keep the skirt on.
I found a generic nylon spray skirt on the internet that fits the cockpit dimensions. It seemed to be working out pretty well and hold the skirt in place, at least on dry grounds.
Now for the field test. And a bit of fishing.
I fished Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in the marsh area around Placedo Creek, which is near the closest public access point from Victoria on the Lavaca bay. There's a parking lot, a boat launch, a small fishing pier and a few tables at this access point (6 mile beach boat launch).
Putting in around 8 am, there was already some wind, especially on Tuesday, and the water from the boat ramp was pretty choppy and muddy.
At first I intended to fish the area where the creek dumps into the bay, thinking that it would be a good spot with cut-offs, different currents and a source of food for predator fish.
Once on the water and paddling across towards the creek, I was happy to find out that the skirt was holding well and was useful since a lot of water would have definitely come in without it in the choppy water conditions.
As far as the fishing, well, I quickly realized that fishing from the kayak was not the easiest thing...
First, I was sitting really low on the water, which makes casting and double hauling difficult.
Second, there was a lot of stuff on which the fly line could get tangled during casting, including the paddle, the net in front of me on the dashboard, etc...
Add to this the wind constantly pushing me against the shore, and by the time I would manage a decent cast with some line out, I would have drifted onto the grass or out of the target area that I wanted to fish.
I wasn’t fishing very well and I did not get any hit.
I had brought with me a mushroom anchor and attached it to the rear of the kayak. Dropping the anchor helped to at least stop the constant drifting and throw a few decent casts down wind. Unfortunately, one issue there was that I could not reach and pull the anchor back into the kayak in order to change spot. The rope and where it was attached at the stern of the boat was just out of reach behind me, being stuck inside the cockpit with that skirt.
It was kind of possible to reach the rope with some contortion, but also a perfect recipe for tipping over.
Tipping over would not have been fun, so instead, I would paddle backward quickly towards the anchor and then grab the slack of rope by the side of the kayak before it would sink or get tension again.
Definitely not ideal.
My next mod on the kayak will have to be installing some sort of anchor system so that I can deploy and retrieve the anchor from a siting position.
With the wind being an issue, I went deeper into the river system and found some side channels protected from the wind.
I tried different flies and eventually caught my first fish on a white & chartreuse Clouser. It was a small flounder, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, no picture here because at that point the battery in my camera was dead. I forgot to check the camera battery before the trip. Shortly after, I caught a small seatrout and a small redfish, both about maybe 12-14”.
Things were still pretty slow and eventually I decided to step out of the kayak and fish wading or standing on the stable grounds that I could find.
Fishing on my feet allowed me to be more in my comfort zone for casting and to fish better overall. Things like slowing down the fly in seemingly deeper areas were now possible. Water visibility was very low, so I was in no way sight fishing, just focusing on “fishy” spots near the grass.
This strategy paid off as, all of a sudden, I felt a bigger tug. After a few good runs, I brought to hand my first decent Texas red.
I took my phone out for a few pics of this one.
It was already about time to head back, which was quite the workout with the wind blasting against me. That wasn’t easy, but definitely worth it!
I came back the next morning and this time went directly into the creek. I did more exploring this time too. From some recon on Google Maps, I knew that there was a network of “lakes” or flat open areas connected by small channels aside the main creek. Exploring these meandering channels was fun and mostly protected from the wind.
I did not fish much in the channels, despite seeing a good number of “torpedoes” shooting off the reeds as I was approaching.
Instead, I focused on fishing the lakes/open areas, this time parking the kayak and wading in the knee-deep water.
Wading wasn’t the easiest thing though, because of the layer of mud at the bottom constantly sucking in my sandals.
Note to self: I need better mud wading shoes next time.
Nevertheless, fishing these flats ended up pretty good, at least to my saltwater beginner's standards.
I caught I think 4 small reds that looked similar to these guys.
At some point I connected with a bigger one which was similar in size to my best fish from the previous day, or maybe slightly bigger, at about 20” I believe.
I think that I’m now “hooked” on these fish. They are actually pretty looking I think, with the black dot on the tail, the big reddish fins and the copper-bronze coloration. Their head shape is pretty cool too. Kind of stubborn looking.
And the best of all might be the big tug that they put on the line when they take off.
This definitely was a fun couple of short fishing trips.
I’m happy with the added skirt on the kayak, which passed the field test. At the end, fishing outside of the kayak was more productive than fishing from the kayak. But still, the kayak got me to the spots where I fished and caught fish. Also, the skirt has a zipper, which makes it convenient for stepping in and out of the kayak.
Aside from the anchor pulley system, one improvement that I see for the skirt is to attach some shoulder straps to the skirt, like the ones on waders. There is a Velcro that is supposed to keep the tube of the spray skirt up on the torso, but it always ended up sliding down pretty quickly. Which then leads to water pooling around the waist in the slack material. Eventually, some of this water will come in.
Straps with quick release attachments should be an easy fix for that.
