the forgetful, the fun ...and Aquaman

So, decided to hook up with paul "Nomadic", who is in town visiting his in-laws to go up the Umpqua and do some SMB fishing. It's been windy as hell here, so it was good oppurtinity to get a new specie on the board and find some warmer weather to boot. loded up my gear , picked up my buddy Ralph and his gear and headed out at about 1PM. me and Ralph, the other Roy "royg" and paul were gonna meet 16 miles up highway 38 at Scottsburg Park and caravan to the river launch. As we were leaving my cell phone rang and it was Paul, he ended up right behind me by chance and as i had to stop at the store to get some earthworms we got our introductions out of the way and he followed me as we made our way to the meeting spot

After we swerved around some hay lost by some ranchers and we swerved out of the way of a cop car with flashing lights, a few miles before Scottsburg Park i realized that i had forgot my locomotion(my pedals) Damn!, now i'm gonna have to paddle.

met the other Roy at Scottsburg Park and proceeded to follow him down the dusty dirt road to the launch site. Minutes later we were on the Umpqua paddling  to the fishing spot. We all caught quite a few tiny SMB and i managed a fiesty 11.5 inch fighter. they were digging the worms, but i didn't have much luck with jigs and spinners. It was alot of fun and the weather and river was beautiful. It was good meeting another Kayak fisherman.

Well, near the end of the day, I was parked against a rock just peeking out of the water so i wouldn't drift off my honey hole and i had set my paddle on the rock. The wind started to push me away from the rock and i reached out to get my paddle and splooosh!! i capsized and ended up in the drink!! At the bottom of the river in 7 feet(luckily only) of water was my small tackle box, my tape measure, some jigs and my non water proof camera.  had two poles, one in my hand and one in the tubes attached to my crate. Held on to the one in my hand and the other stayed in the tube, somehow.

Some more stuff was floating around.Ralph and Paul retreived it as i was diving to get my deep sixed stuff. My cellphone was in the back pocket of my seat and it's toast,! my wallet was in the pocket and it's all wet. Camera, toast! luckily the memory card wasn't ruined so i got my pics of my catch. Sort of an expensive learning experience but thats how it goes. My first capsizing, now i know the limit. still a fun day

Here's a pic of one of royg's monsters


and the little guy i caught(stand on yer head), the big one is on the AOTY page:


I'm pretty bad at remembering to take pics so thats about it for the pics. All in all a good most of the day..

Thanks for the report Roy.  Sorry to hear about the "yard sale".  I'm slowly getting bumped back down the AOTY leader ladder.

Well Roy, you know what they say about ...the worst day fishing..

Rob.

Bummer about the gear- I feel for you. Over the years, I've fried 2 cells and 1 cheap digicam, while wading. All of them have fallen out of a pocket while bent over a fish. The cam was leashed, but the cord was too long!

Nice fishing with you Roy, Roy, and Ralph.  I had a lot of fun and have the sunburn to prove it.  Hope to meet up with you guys in the future.

Uh oh!  Now that you've paid some heavy dues you're bound to be shooting up the AOTY ranking.  I'd better get out fishing!

Nice report!  Sorry 'bout your losses but you'll have a great campfire story now.

Great story!  Driving along 38 last week on the way back to PDX from Charleston, I was sorely tempted to take a "rest break" that involved launching the kayak on one of those big slow sections and paddling upstream, then fishing back down.

Bummer on the swim.  In whitewater rafting we have a saying, "rig to swim!"  These guys are worth their weight in gold:



I put my wallet, cell phone, keys, etc... in a small one and keep it inside the front hatch while I'm on the water.

These guys are worth their weight in gold:



I put my wallet, cell phone, keys, etc... in a small one and keep it inside the front hatch while I'm on the water.

I'll second TWs comment.  I picked up one of these a couple of weeks ago and realized that it should have been one of my 1st purchases when I got a yak.  They're easy to store and easy to access and you can clip the closure to any webbing or rope to accomodate quick access.  Wish I'd had this when that baby whale popped up next to me.  I'd have definitely gotten a picture.

I always carry my wallet, keys, cell phone, fishing license, and camera in a small dry bag.  This bag is small enough that I can stuff it into my hull via the small round center hatch (good for launches and landings in the surf).  Once I'm out in calmer water I pull out the bag and clip it somewhere onto my kayak for easier access. 

Sometimes I take a larger dry bag with me so that I can hike down the beach in comfortable warm clothes and shoes, then I change into my wetsuit on the beach and store dry clothes in my drybag in my kayak.  When I land I immediately change back to warm clothes. This is so much nicer than running around in a wet wetsuit, especially if you have a long hike back to your parking.

Brian

I agree w/ 3W and Spot, a dry spot on the yak is a necessity. Alternately to the dry bag, you can get the Hobie gearbucket which fits in the 8" hatch right infront of you for easy access and locking. I use it for all my dry stuff since it's got a tupperware-like lid and held shut by the hatch. All the dividers are removable to customize the layout. $15





Z

I got the dry bag that came with the hobie.Of course it's in my closet unused and i also have the gearbucket but i have a tendency to have the lid off and the hatch ajar. I have learned my lesson and i will now take better precautions to avoid ruining my electronic gear and losing stuff in the future.

If you only knew how much stuff I've donated to the sea ... 

And it's not just me.  I remember one Sombrio trip that Charles paid the dies to the sea gods so that the rest of us could catch fish.  He lost a VHF and a rod/real combo that weekend.   Ouch!

Myself?  Knives and pliers seem to go over every now and then.

-Allen

Coosbayyakker, I hope I can learn from your mistake. I will not forget to leash my paddle! I need to make some rod leashes, and get a better and smaller tackle bag than the large surfing wet/dry pack I am now using. I'm going to dry bags for anything I don't want to get wet. I already have a couple of good medium sized ones.

Sometimes I take a larger dry bag with me so that I can hike down the beach in comfortable warm clothes and shoes, then I change into my wetsuit on the beach and store dry clothes in my drybag in my kayak.  When I land I immediately change back to warm clothes. This is so much nicer than running around in a wet wetsuit, especially if you have a long hike back to your parking.

Brian

Yep, the way to go. I remember that frigid 300 yard walk back to the parking lot at the Jetty in the winter after surfing until hypothermia drove us in. That would about drive the last nail into the coffin. On those cold, high pressure offshore wind days, frost on the beach, perfect waves, wind cutting like a knife.  I would wear rain gear over my wetsuit just to cut the wind chill, if I had to walk very far down the beach to surf some good shorebreak peaks.

Of course, living so close to the break, we would often just layer some beach towels on the seat and drive home in our suits and get out of them before showering.

 I used to put 6 two-liter jugs full of hot tap water in an old cooler, covered with an old wetsuit for additional insulation. Good for road trips, and anytime the surf was so good you didn't want to cut your session short to shower before work. When done surfing, I would pour a couple of them down my suit thru the neck for a hot flush before stripping out of the suit and then rinsing off with the rest. Warm ya up and rinsed off the "suit juice" so you wouldn't stink so bad heading into work barely on time.

Even after 10 hours or so (Westport to Cape Flattery- 4 hours) surf a remote reef for a couple of sessions, climb back up the cliff at the end of the day, water still warm enough to do the job.

Even after 10 hours or so (Westport to Cape Flattery- 4 hours) surf a remote reef for a couple of sessions, climb back up the cliff at the end of the day, water still warm enough to do the job.

That wouldn't happen to be the sweet but sketchy left reef off the island would it?  Man that place freaks me out!

I kept a 5 gallon jug full of hot tap water in a styrofoam cooler before they put hot showers in Seaside.  I've since broken the cooler and popped the 5 gallon jug.  Hmmmm I really need to replace those!

Since my Caper isn't the most spacious kayak out there, I use my vest as a tackle box. I use two small boxes that fit in the pockets. I am able to fit everything I need into them, including a small swiss army knife with scissors, and a hook file. These small boxes are two sided. I also have a small clear box that is deeper for the bigger tackle. For pliers, I use a pair of hemostats attached to a small leash that I made from a cell phone charger cable. Bought it at the dollar store. It's attached to the vest, and keeps the hemos handy. I also made a paddle leash out of a curly phone extension cable, also just a buck.