Retrospective: My first huli/yard sale

2016 has been my sixth season fishing from a kayak and never previously have I even come close to flipping my kayak, not even once. I'm bringing this up since there seems to be more and more people taking up kayak fishing and I always see all the brave things everyone else is doing out there while I take a pretty cautious approach. I have preferred to stick to fairly calm waters. Additionally, my wife has also started fishing and last year we finally got all set up to fish in the ocean with dry suits, flags, radios and have been using the buddy system for all of our four trips total now. Last September we met up with Tinker down at Port Orford and he monitored the conditions and picked a pretty ideal day to go.



We were fishing away and catching a few fish along the way. My wife broke off a jig and since she is still new, I have to tie all her knots still, so I had one of her rods on me as well as all of my stuff. My modest stringer of fish was behind my seat where my tackle box usually is and the box was way in the back well, a bit out of reach. Normally, I carefully balance and turn around to grab things out of the back but, for whatever reason, I just tried to lean back and reach over my shoulder for the box. A wise saying I heard on this forum is that " your butt follows your head" and I am here to say this is true. I went over sideways in a split second and was looking up through the water at sky and kelp thinking "I'm going to die!" A second later I did pop up and the kayak was upside down. I hate to admit how long it has been since I practiced a self rescue but there seemed to be some muscle memory from the last time and I flipped it back up and got sprawled across the top in no time on the first try. At that point I realized most of my stuff was gone and I was grabbing for whatever was floating. In all, I lost two Ugly sticks with some cheap reels, a Gerber knife, pliers, hands full of jigs, I ruined my non-waterproof camera. So the economic loss was way over $200. I tried unsuccessfully to dredge the bottom with a big jig to recover the rods but it was no use.

A few things I learned was that the gaskets on my suit really do keep the water out. I am rethinking the importance of leashing the most valuable items that I never did before. My Velcro paddle leash gave way during the huli and my paddle floated away from me. My wife had to retrieve it. So I am wondering about how effective those types of leashes are and will probably start taking a spare paddle below deck now.

I think I had become pretty complacent prior to this. I never have liked swimming so it's kind of remarkable I am even a kayak fisherman in the first place. It was great having my wife and Tinker there to back me up. I had one rod that didn't fall out so I was able to keep fishing although somewhat shaken by the event. I was glad to affirm that I could self rescue and that my dry suit did its job. So, new guys, take heed of all the safety advice because it can happen and indeed your butt follows your head.

Thanks for sharing!

Probably the most common way to fall off your rig aside from wave action. Unfortunately we've all done something similar, or will if it hasn't happened yet. The important take away IMO is you were prepared to self rescue, and wearing the propper gear for the conditions. That's a huge step in building confidence and reconfirming/reestablishing what your limits are. The donation to Poseidon was just a $pendy lesson learned. If you're not willing to lose it, it better float, have a leash, or both!

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I flipped mine in the Willamette crawling around screwing with the anchor while Shad fishing. The guys in boats were very entertained, lol. Ruined an IPhone 6 that day


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The way to avoid those embarrassing flips is to turn sideways in your seat and hang your legs in the water when you need to get something out of the rear cargo area of your kayak.

The way to avoid those embarrassing flips is to turn sideways in your seat and hang your legs in the water when you need to get something out of the rear cargo area of your kayak.

Or my system which basically says nothing I need is farther behind me than the builtin rod holders. Tackle, bait, bonker are all in front of me. I can sling a crab pot behind me no problem to reach it. Big game hook is tethered just behind the seat so I'm grabbing that line and pulling it from the back.

I can confidently slide myself forward in the kayak and reach stuff up front. I don't twist or do big turns to the rear.

Know your limitations and have a plan.


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Thanks for the share. It sucks that you lost and damaged gear, but at lease you learned from the experience. Ive had some really close calls reaching for gear without adjusting my body. Im surprised to hear about the velcro leash, I would have never thought that is would be a problem.

The way to avoid those embarrassing flips is to turn sideways in your seat and hang your legs in the water when you need to get something out of the rear cargo area of your kayak.

Yes, I know. That, plus avoiding bonehead maneuvers.

Other details I left out were that the water was 52 degrees and the fish stringer was the only other thing leashed to the kayak. I could have swum a few strokes to get the paddle but my wife and Tinker were headed over and I was frantic trying to save my tackle box which was filling up with water and just barely floating and barely in reach.

Yeah, that Velcro leash, I'm not sure what to think about that. It sure didn't hold that time and I have one for each of of our four kayaks.
 

The way to avoid those embarrassing flips is to turn sideways in your seat and hang your legs in the water when you need to get something out of the rear cargo area of your kayak.

That's true.  I maneuver crab pots exactly like that.  Big, bulky, awkward, and behind me.  No problem.

Reaching behind you is an extremely common spot to go over.  Might as well practice doing it because you never know when you are going to have to reach all the way in the back for something.

Glad you got it all right side up and you are safe.
Been there done that. Even though I normally go side saddle I was out for the first time since the fall and I had all my front rod holders too far back preventing me from easily getting my legs over the side when I was trying to get a rod out from behind me that was partially stuck somehow in the holder. It happened in the blinking of an eye. I didn’t feel I was unbalanced that split second before I was swimming.
Again glad you got it all right side up and you are safe.

I'm glad you kept your head about you and got back on that kayak!  I'm glad this event didn't deter you from wanting to go again.  I get complacent on leashing and tend to grab too many things behind me - I'm hopefully learning from your experience.

Thanks for sharing, C-Run.  What you're describing is very common, everyone does it sooner or later.  I'm glad you only had to learn some relatively painless lessons from the event. 

Something that I have learned to accept (I fish out of a Revo16, which feels about a mile long sometimes), is that sometimes I just have to take advantage of my immersion gear and go in the water on purpose.  It's not very often, and most of my gear in the tankwell is tethered so I can pull it towards me if it has floated to the back, but I occasionally need to reach something that's just a little too far for comfort.  If I feel like I'm going to over-reach and compromise my stability, I just go in the water, do what I need to do (usually untangling gear), and get back in.  It's way easier than reaching too far, turtling the boat, cleaning up my yardsale, untangling the bigger mess I created, and dealing with the gawking crowd of power boaters.  Sliding in the water on purpose also keeps the water out of my neoprene neck gasket, so I stay fully dry instead of mostly dry. 

Thanks for sharing, C-Run.  What you're describing is very common, everyone does it sooner or later.  I'm glad you only had to learn some relatively painless lessons from the event. 

Something that I have learned to accept (I fish out of a Revo16, which feels about a mile long sometimes), is that sometimes I just have to take advantage of my immersion gear and go in the water on purpose.  It's not very often, and most of my gear in the tankwell is tethered so I can pull it towards me if it has floated to the back, but I occasionally need to reach something that's just a little too far for comfort.  If I feel like I'm going to over-reach and compromise my stability, I just go in the water, do what I need to do (usually untangling gear), and get back in.  It's way easier than reaching too far, turtling the boat, cleaning up my yardsale, untangling the bigger mess I created, and dealing with the gawking crowd of power boaters.  Sliding in the water on purpose also keeps the water out of my neoprene neck gasket, so I stay fully dry instead of mostly dry.

Have you tried straddling the boat backwards? I also fish from a rev 16, and from an Adventure before that. If I straddle my seat like the cool kids in an 80's movie, I can reach anywhere in my tankwell. Since this puts my center of gravity far lower with my legs in the water, I can comfortabley stretch pretty far. Anything past the tankwell like the rear hatch or rudder are still out of reach though...

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Thanks for sharing, C-Run.  What you're describing is very common, everyone does it sooner or later.  I'm glad you only had to learn some relatively painless lessons from the event. 

Something that I have learned to accept (I fish out of a Revo16, which feels about a mile long sometimes), is that sometimes I just have to take advantage of my immersion gear and go in the water on purpose.  It's not very often, and most of my gear in the tankwell is tethered so I can pull it towards me if it has floated to the back, but I occasionally need to reach something that's just a little too far for comfort.  If I feel like I'm going to over-reach and compromise my stability, I just go in the water, do what I need to do (usually untangling gear), and get back in.  It's way easier than reaching too far, turtling the boat, cleaning up my yardsale, untangling the bigger mess I created, and dealing with the gawking crowd of power boaters.  Sliding in the water on purpose also keeps the water out of my neoprene neck gasket, so I stay fully dry instead of mostly dry.

Have you tried straddling the boat backwards? I also fish from a rev 16, and from an Adventure before that. If I straddle my seat like the cool kids in an 80's movie, I can reach anywhere in my tankwell. Since this puts my center of gravity far lower with my legs in the water, I can comfortabley stretch pretty far. Anything past the tankwell like the rear hatch or rudder are still out of reach though...

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Not possible with my downrigger set-up.  The most I can do to change positions is sit sideways out the left side of the boat.

I guess my point is that it's a good thing to be comfortable enough leaving and re-entering your boat on the water that it's not a big deal to do it if you need to, and to use that skill as an alternative to turtling the boat.

Example; earlier this year I paddled out a bait for a shore-bound halibut angler. His line got tangled in my rudder when I deployed it, and I didn't notice until I was well off shore and ready to drop the bait. Instead of trying to troubleshoot it from the cockpit (I don't even know how that would have worked) or turning back to shore, I slipped in the water, untangled the line, dropped the bait, and re-entered.


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