OVER CONFIDENCE ALMOST DID ME IN

OK I'll say it before you guys do. (stupe is stupe does) But I did learn a lot from this experance. I've been fishing all life from crawling under piers on seaweed covered pilings at 12 years old catching perch and small lings at SF where I grew up to duck hunting in a small scull boat in the south bay to going out in a 14' car top boat at half moon bay and never ended in the drink.
I've had my 14' sik pungo for about 1 1/2 years going out acouple of times a month. I felt really save in it. HA  This happen in Jan.
 I had been fishing up at Applegate lake for most of the day. I caught my limit of trout 12 to 16 inches took pictures of them. I decided to try for some bass. When I reached for my bass rod behind me which was in a milk crate way to far back I leaned to far and I started to tip I leaned back the other way but over corrected
and flipped into 40% water. I was about 50 yards from shore. The water was so calm that day I didn't put on my pdf. (STUPED IS STUPED DOES) The first thing I did was grab my pdf and put one arm threw it. I found out that you can not put on a pdf in the water with out maybe traping your arm behind you. I tried getting back into the kayak but it kept rolling than it started to sink because I only had the factory floats in the front and back. I now have pool noodes in it. The only thing that saved  the yak was the air pocket in a coverd hatch in the back
Now this was on a weekday with nobody on the lake except one car top boat. So here I am in the water for around 30 min. trying to swim and push the yak to shore and not getting no ware when the other boat came around the point and saw me. I was to weak to get in their boat so they had to pull the yak and me to shore. I really shouldn't be alive. I had no wet suit on or waders just a whole lot of clothes on for the air temp. not water temp.
I lost 3 rods and reels,one camera,2 boxes of tackle, blew the FF, binoculars even lost the stringer with the fish on. SIK yaks are all most impossable to get back into.
I know poop happens but his happen so fast I still can't figure out how i got into that 40% water. My advice don't let over confidence get you like it did me. My wife told me if I don't make my yak saver she was going to up my life insur. and get a young stud to take my place. So I put outriggers on it. She said I almost became fish food so thats why I have troutbait as a tag. I have to get a sot yak. Know anybody that wants to trade a sik for a sot yak.
notice where the pfd is.

Dude!  Awesome story.  Glad that it had a happy ending.  Experience comes from many places, and it sounds like this taught you a lot.  You seem to know what went wrong, so I'll omit the obligatory lecture.  Congrats on living through it.

Right on for sharing that story Troutbait.  And right on for establishing a no lecture precedent for this string Andyjade.

Oh, and if you're in PDX, I may have a rod/reel that you can have.  I know it sucks to rebuild the arsenal.

Thanks andyjade but luckly I still have a pretty good supply of rods and reels. The thing that really sucks is all the bass and trout lures I lost. Those $2.00 to $5.00
lures really add up.

  I suppose your attaching leashes to everything you wanna keep now?  Big believer in them, since I lost my fave trout rod trolling and hit a snag. Pop! out it went from one of the back built in rod holders on my OB.  I turned just in time to watch it sink.

Thanks for sharing your experience, troutbait.  I know it may feel embarrassing to put this kind of stuff up, but it is an invaluable resource for those just getting started in the sport.  There is lots to learn from this experience.


BTW: you can get a life jacket on while in the water, but it takes time to figure out the right way to do it and practice.  It's best to just have it on all the time though and save yourself that time.  That way you can spend more time practicing a self rescue with your kayak. 

I put pictures of before and after.

Yes I do have a paddle leash now. My tackle bag with 3 plano boxs in it, are now
straped to the yak. I only carry 2 poles now and they are locked into the pole holders. Need to get 1 pole leash for the one that I use for fishing.
My grandson had a great idea of going back to the lake and recreate the dunking
I took to get some real cool pictures. I guess you no what I told him. That water is still around 48% from the snow melt.

Thanks for sharing the story.  It does take guts to share our foibles.  Got a dry or semi-dry suit now?

While shopping at cosco I seen breathable chest waders for $70.00 couldn't turn it down. next is a splash jacket. I seen that video where a guy at a pool shows how fairly safe waders are.

  One of my early posts on this board on the same theme....

10/22/2007

Let's see how many potential problems I ignored today to do a bit of yak fishing....

beautiful, wind-free day....good
learning new fishing equipment and technique...always good
dressed for water temp not air...check

paddling solo...personally preferred but...

Willamette river running high, fast, and brown....not so good
rental kayak (SINK) designed for calm, flat water...not so good
kayak not providing much freeboard with me in it...hmmmm
Joe's sent their PFD's back so none with rental...duh!

1o minutes into the paddle, getting lure out into the water, I turned look over shoulder and began taking on water, fast. Rather than tip the yak and lose all my gear, I decided to take a bath in the middle of the channel. Saved all the gear and began towing yak to shore. Oops, the river is about 3-5 feet higher than usual, no real shore. I found an opening between trees and dragged my soggy bottom and yak onto the mud. Looked back at yak and noticed my rod and reel fell out somewhere while swimming...darn. I drained my waders and took a few minutes to catch my breath.

Time to paddle upstream and back across to the launch. I decided to stick close to shore to minimize current. Paddled as hard as I could for 10 minutes, caught an eddy and my breath, then continued like this 3 or 4 times. I finally got upstream of the launch a bit and took off across the river. 

Lessons learned....many. Luckily, only rod and reel lost. I stayed warm even though soaked completely.

Stay safe,
Jay

While shopping at cosco I seen breathable chest waders for $70.00 couldn't turn it down. next is a splash jacket. I seen that video where a guy at a pool shows how fairly safe waders are.

Sportsmans warehouse, had some splash jackets on sale a few days ago for around 50.00 they looked pretty nice.

Thanks for the post---GLAD it had a happy (ish) ending.  Could have been much worse, this from an old Sit-in convert.  Hobie rules! 

yea james I seen them splash jackets on sale about 6 weeks ago. I'm going to run over there this week to see if they have one that will fit a 220# frame.
kallitype
Love to have a OB but on a fixed income it's hard to talk my wife into letting me have a $1700 yak. Have my sink on CL so I can buy this FD I have my eye on.