Nothing like a little humility...

   I figured I would start a thread to reassure myself that fishing is hard. I'm very green to kayak fishing, and the only salmon fishing I have done has been from the bank.
   I decided to go out today to try my new depth finder, the elite 4 hdi. I launched at chinook landing feeling somewhat confident. Well, that changed soon enough. With 20 boats in a hog line, and 15 others scattered about, the sole kayak was the sight to see. Everything went well trolling around at first. Until, trolling 35 yds above the hog line I snag. I don't just snag, I snag my main line in heavy current, and on top of that My main line wraps around my rudder! I had to abruptly chew my line in half before I drifted into the boats.
   With my tail between my legs I decided to go to the far end of the hog line and anchor up with the circus. More or less i could have anchored much sooner but peering eyes tend to make things tangle more easily. I Successfully anchor up and drop my new tied rig in the water to make sure it's running right. Well it wasn't. I watched my brand new k15 lure float down river. I forgot to tie it to my swivel on the main line!!!
   I'm now actually fishing again, but thought maybe one of you could make me feel better. What are your stories?

   Cheers,
MrEgg

I've been there my friend. Not in my kayak, but years ago when I owned a powerboat.
I had a 16 foot fiberglass fishing boat with a 50 horse Merc outboard.
I was trying to squeeze into a hog-line for some summer hogs. I had been boating around 2 years at that point and thought I was hot stuff.
I  launched solo for this trip, and having deployed anchor by myself before I figured it would be a snap.
It was around 4:00 pm and the current just above I-5 was ripping. I idled into position about 200 yards above the hog line and left the wheel to slowly deploy my anchor as my boat drifted slowly backwards.
As I eased the anchor toward the bottom, my boat hit one of those current vortex spots that flipped my boat around 180 degrees in 2 seconds.
I had zero time to react, but when it flipped me around, (bow facing downstream) my anchor line went slack for a brief moment and wrapped around my idle propeller. The vortex continued to flip me around one more time wrapping the anchor line around the prop one more time.
Now I was stuck. I couldn't throttle because the anchor line was wrapped around my prop, I couldn't pull my anchor up because it weighed about 35 pounds and was free hanging being pulled by the heavy current and it was almost impossible to pull up, and on top of it all I was rapidly floating bow first towards the hog line and all of the anchor lines.
Instinct and stupidity took over, and instead of cutting my anchor line I pulled the outboard out of the water, locked it into place, and straddled the outboard (hanging half on, half into the water) and with one hand miraculously untangled the line from around the prop.
I only realized after the fact that I was not wearing a PFD, and had I lost my grip I would have quickly been either swept away from my boat or pulled under by the vortex. 
Once my line was free I pulled myself up and tied the line on to a cleat, ran to the captains chair and gunned it for all it was worth. I was no more than 8 yards away from hitting 2 boats by that point, and I'm still not sure how I avoided their anchor line.
I throttled to the middle of the river, pulled up anchor, and went home. I wasn't even in the mood to fish by that point not to mention embarrassed out of my mind. The boats in the hog line had a thing or two to shout at me as well. 
I never anchored solo from then on, and my life jacket was pulled from the storage hatch regularly.

Long story short, you're not alone Mr. Egg.

sounds like something i`d do. how did u like ur f.f.? 

The elite 4 hdi seems to be a good companion to my hobie outback. Good size, much more responsive than my older lowrance ff that I had on my old PB. Honestly even with the troubles and steep learning curve, I'm happy to say I kayak fish instead of just motoring around. I wish I could have made it to the last springer clinic at next adventure, but summer is almost upon us and there is no substitute to time in the water.

Last fall I was trolling past a small hog line in tidewater when I hook up with a fish. I assumed I'd drift back the way I came by with the fish on. Not to be . A couple of extra paddle strokes on the left would have avoided the problem. I ended up jammed between boats #1 and #2 with fish on. It turned out to be a coho jack and the season wasn't even open yet. They had a right to cuss me out but everyone was quite nice/amused by the whole situation and helped me get loose from ropes and get me out of there. Not my finest hour as a kayak angler to say the least. I hope to never repeat that.

Thanks guys. Being anchored here for a while reading some good tales while sitting in the rain has put me a much better mood. I know there are more members with equally crazy stories though!

Oh , an on the water report...get'em Mr.Egg!

Went out on the water without a drain plug, that was interesting...I was rafting up with a buddy and I noticed that my kayak was starting to roll like a log. At first I thought it was my friend messing around with me. Then I opened a hatch and saw quite a few gallons of water inside. I pumped out some water and went to lightspeed to get to shore. Ending up plugging the opening with a Gulp! grub body and pumped it out with a bilge pump, but yeah that was well uh interesting.

LOL, Just one of a few... I was gonna fish the Rogue river for Springers which is an anchor up in the current and fish bait on a rogue rig type fishery. drove up to the willows hole, about 5 miles up from the bay one cold early morning and got all geared up in my best cold weather gear i had at the time and got ready to fish. To get to the spot where i launch there you have to cross a small diversion of the river which is nothing more then a foot deep pool of almost static water, go over a little hump of gravel and your at the main river, simple as it gets. Well... I crossed the diversion and as i dragged the yak over the hump and down to the river i tripped over a root and pretty much dove head first into the river, by the gods i was able to grab the handle on the rear of the outback and keep it from shooting past me into the current and floating solo down to the hog line which almost blocked the river a hundred yards below me...

Of course i jumped up and pretended thats what i wanted to do the whole time, quickly jumped in the yak and got on anchor to fish. Of course i was soaked and bitterly cold so i didn't last too long.

When you have been doing this as long as i have, of course there are other stories, but i will save those for when someone else needs cheering up.

"I jumped up and pretended that's what I wanted to do the whole time" that is priceless. I believe we all have been in a situation where we jump up and try to strut away with that same feeling. Thanks coosbayyaker.

Micahgee. Good to know my Berkeley gulps are dual purpose!

I know the feeling that you experienced.  Last year I was trolling for salmon in the Columbia. There were quite a few boats around.  I had a new to me downrigger and I had an 8 pound ball out as the current is pretty swift where I was fishing.  I was trolling along with my line out and low and behold my downrigger ball hung up on the bottom.  It wouldn't have been that much of an issue, but the down rigger line jumped out of the sheive block. I tried to crank it up , but it was bound up.   I had to pull the line up by hand.  It about killed my hands.  I didn't want to cut my line.  I think I kept everyone entertained that day.

This weekend I had my line wrap around the front handle of my outback. I inch forward straddling the kayak.  Very minimal waves but it sure didn't feel so good.  I abort as I near the front hatch.  I try every which way to free it but no dice. I slam my rod down in disgust as I search for my knife.  Rod bounces once off my kayak, I grab it and watch miracle unfold as somehow the action flips my bait around the handles perfectly and it frees up.  So it ended well but if anyone was watching, they'd have had a laugh or two watching me trying to balance in the middle of the ocean.  Out of curiosity, does anyone access their front hatch while on the water?  I'm not gonna!  Lol.

But the worst time was when I flipped my kayak in Alaska and learned about the necessity of a drysuit.  Happened in front of a dozen folks or more and luckily got immediate help from a landing craft. Water temp was amazingly tolerable but good thing I accepted the boats help because I weighed a ton.  No chance of re boarding. Had I made it to shore about 30ft away, I would have probably had to ditch my kayak and strip most of my clothes off to shed the weight to scramble up the rocks.  As it was I got dropped off in the harbor and got a ride to my car, and slinked away without having to face any of the spectators. 

I have only accessed my hatch once while on the water on my Prowler 13. It was in really snotty conditions and I wanted to stow everything below deck. Serious pucker factor but the rest of the slog home was much less stressful with a completely clean deck.

Last fall I snagged up at the mouth of the klickatat. the wind was blowing a good bit.I was blowing up river through about 15 boats trying to unsnag.bobbing and weaving I reached for my knife and I was about to cut my main line it popped loose and paddled like a mad man to the sand bar to cool off and check my gear.that day I learned It can go to hell fast.