Something's missing here

OK, nobody caught it in the first post (disappointed)...what's missing in this picture?

Rudder!

Did I win? What's the prize?

Haha.

Rudder!

 and open rear hatch  no paddle...no pole....no fisherman....  what else

No beer on the cleaning table.

No beer on the cleaning table.
[
  How about no knife or blood either ??

Wow, that didn't take long...the beer is there just outside the frame. sorry Alex, no prize but I will share the story...

So as I said I was pitching jigs up into the shallows and got a bit close trying to free a snag . As water from a swell washed out I saw a big ole rock appearing from down under and made a quick turn and tried to get away but my rudder snagged that puppy and snapped the whole thing clean off right above the top row of screws...I guess since the force was vertical rather than horizontal the shear pin didn't...shear.

From the "cockpit" I couldn't really tell what was up at first but I definitely didn't have any yaw control...luckily the old girl decided she wanted to turn away from the jetty rather than into it (a great thing). Once I got sufficient water between me and the jetty I retracted "the stump" and had an "aha" moment.

I was already done fishing and was about halfway back to halfmoon bay so I just busted out the paddle and used it as a rudder as I pedaled back to the beach...in a semi-straight line.

Got a new rudder assembly on the way from Austin Kayak...those guys ship FAST by the way.

Anyhow, the morale to the story is DON'T GET TOO CLOSE TO THE ROCKS out there...things that are well under water have a habit of just appearing out of nowhere at the worst possible times.

 

That's a nice haul for Westport!! Seems like the better fishing is always perilously close to the jetty out there. Glad to hear your rudder was the only injury!!

Glad to hear your rudder was the only injury!!

Yeah, all things considered, it could have been much, much worse!...and, the rudder assembly is a surprisingly cheap component to replace ($68)

The other thing missing is ME looks like a nice haul glad you didn't get rock washed.