Spring Maintenance

OK - For those of us who DONT fish year-round the last few weeks may just have been the first few trips out fishing from our Kayaks this season.

If you are like me this last month, I found any number of small things to take care of before the season began.  AND then a few more in the first few days on the water.

Here was my spring maintenance (and surprises!) in a nutshell.
Regular stuff:  Check drive unit, clean, & lubricate.  Check seals and gaskets.  Apply protectant to hull.  Lube the zips on the dry-suit and check the neck and wrist gaskets.   All good so far.

Move the ball mount for the fish finder, and wire to forward hatch for better battery placement.  Re-dress cables, and check seal at penetrations.   Found corroded battery spade connector, replace.   Still good.  (Side note, the Cabela's 8amp-hour battery I use held charge really well, fished for over 11 hours over two days and it was still reading over 12.1 volts.)

Take a trip out on the water... and on my return to the beach get swamped when a wave throws a crazy-Eddie spin on the 'yak.  Only lost a few small items such as a flasher and planer, but broke my scotty rod holder clean off (no hull damage or pulled screws).   Inspection when I get home shows that probably I missed a step - should have checked tension on rudder cables, and centered it up - rudder was off by 15 degrees... probably didn't contribute much to my misalignment on the beach, but should have checked it first!    Turns out the other spade connector at the battery was also bad - it came off in my hand disconnecting the battery yesterday, and so I ended up replacing that as well today.

I am sure I am missing something else in the season preparations - open to any advice here on what other common fails or 'should check' items need to be on my spring list!

AKRider, get some Dielectric grease for your battery and finder connections that should slow down the corrosion after I started coating my fittings I have not had any problems. Use the grease liberally on the the battery terminals but very lightly on the finder fittings as it does not compress and will monkey up the water tight connections. I got my gear  lube and nozzle from Amazon and got the bottom drive unit spanner wrench for AIH locally, I still looking for the top spanner wrench but with the grease port I don't think that is a big issue at this point. I have really trimmed down what I put in the yak. When I started last year I had tackle for every fish species and multiple spare of those but now days I limit what I pack to the location. I did break a prop last year on the Spit on a pretty routine landing I thought until I tried to pull the drive up and discovered that a length of Bull Kelp had wrapped around the drive and I could not pull it and a wave smacked me down on a rock at just the right angle and snapped half of the prop off. It took me about 2 weeks to get another plus a spare. I pack a hex wrench, pin and  spare prop with me just in case. Really not much to worry about to keep a yak running.

OK - For those of us who DONT fish year-round the last few weeks may just have been the first few trips out fishing from our Kayaks this season.

If you are like me this last month, I found any number of small things to take care of before the season began.  AND then a few more in the first few days on the water.

Here was my spring maintenance (and surprises!) in a nutshell.
Regular stuff:  Check drive unit, clean, & lubricate.  Check seals and gaskets.  Apply protectant to hull.  Lube the zips on the dry-suit and check the neck and wrist gaskets.   All good so far.

What is this "protectant" that you apply?

Here what I do for spring cleaning of the kayak.

http://www.kayakfishingmagazine.net/articles/102-current-issue-featured-articles-on-kayak-fishing/1574-cleaning-your-fishing-kayak.html

-Allen

OK - For those of us who DONT fish year-round the last few weeks may just have been the first few trips out fishing from our Kayaks this season.

If you are like me this last month, I found any number of small things to take care of before the season began.  AND then a few more in the first few days on the water.

Here was my spring maintenance (and surprises!) in a nutshell.
Regular stuff:  Check drive unit, clean, & lubricate.  Check seals and gaskets.  Apply protectant to hull.  Lube the zips on the dry-suit and check the neck and wrist gaskets.   All good so far.

What is this "protectant" that you apply?

303 protectant - it takes a couple ounces to do it up. 

Thanks Allen. 

I was a bit unsure of using a pressure washer - but may see how that works for me. 

[emoji106]

I recently started using a pressure washer on my kayak and it works great. Thanks for the ideas/tips.

Yah, I bought a cheapo elctric pressure washer and it works great...when I use it.....

I recommend getting a hobie repair kit.  Its a little pricey but twice I have had issues that could be a day killer but ended up being a 5 minute fix.  I'd have at least one spare fin and a spare rudder pin at the very minimum.

Sounds like you use your rudder for surf landings,  I'd recommend not doing that,  as it could likely break it loose.

Lee:   Yeah early season mistake, I had the rudder down, but I used it up to the last because of the wind and funky wave break.   Will have to prep for a breaking surf landing a bit better next time.   

Really it was right on th beach at mid tide so reasonably shallow,  I likely could have dropped off the yak sooner to tow it in also. 

Do you do surf landings on the drive only? A paddle is your best friend in the surf. Most people I know pull up the drive well before the beach and paddle in.

I typically leave my drive in. I know it's not probably good for it but 75% of the time it's no issue.   I probably should pull drive out. If you do, you better leash it!  Whiskey gulch is a weird spot. The surf literally break on shore.  I would recommend pulling drive for people who don't abuse  their gear. But 75% or better I land with it in. Much better control in the last seconds.

I typically leave my drive in. I know it's not probably good for it but 75% of the time it's no issue.   I probably should pull drive out. If you do, you better leash it!  Whiskey gulch is a weird spot. The surf literally break on shore.  I would recommend pulling drive for people who don't abuse  their gear. But 75% or better I land with it in. Much better control in the last seconds.

I leave my drive in and hop out in 2 1/2 -3 feet of water. Never had a problem doing it this way. When I launch, I wade out to about 3 feet, put the drive in, pop the rudder down, hop in and go. Never had an issue.

As for Spring Clean-up, I also use the pressure washer and 303.  Makes it look like new.