Another ocean window this Saturday!

That was one long day! 

DB parking lot was completely empty when I pulled in at 0520 this morning. 
By 0630 the lot was pretty much full.
By 0715 the lot was buried.  There was a line of boats ready for their turn to launch going all the way up to the highway. Many trucks with trailers had park up on the highway after launch.

Perfect launch conditions for a newbie to experience.  And yeah the conditions got sporty with the south wind churning up the swells in every direction. Not a fun experience coming in with that nonsense.

Both Lil INSAYN and I brought home a ling each and chose to only keep a pair of blacks each.  I didn't want to be cleaning fish for hours if we both limited out. 

We decided to head out to deeper water to target flatties.  Lil INSAYN kept catching the dreaded sculpin out there, but I was able scratch up a tiny 10" petrale sole on a DIY flounder rig.

Good times, Good times! 

what a great day/weekend!! was awesome seeing alot of yaks out of depoe today< we got lucky as it even died down after awhile, at first thinking it was going to be too early of a day with the wind already kinda starting, it was 630 when i launched. after  limit of blacks and ond barely legal ling( after 4 shorts) ling action just did not seem to be very much, especially after last couple weekends. bass were easy pickings. bass action and ling action totally reversed. was going above a few yaks and saw 2 together so thought i`d say hi on my way past and turns out it was clayman, nice to meet u and ur buddy, felt bad for him flipping and was glad he was able to recover and yet still keep on fishing after, hope he ended up with some nice fish. well since we were talking i drop down as i was going abit further and work way back WHAMO! thing hit right when i hit bottom. 22lbs on my new lucid grips which by the way i do not like because the jaws don`t open wide enuf for me. so back to my plastic grippers. clayman cool picture of me doing what i think about most of the time thank you and was good to have met ya. hope all made it in ok the slot was a bitch today but kinda fun surfing in. also until this weekend i found the whales to be nonexistent- had a couple close encounters today very cool.

Glad to hear that you guys were able to get out and take advantage of the slim window yesterday - so looking forward to my first trip of the year!

It was definitely a good day out on the ocean.  With this being my first trip out in the ocean, I couldn't have asked for better conditions (although it was getting a little sporty out there on the way back in).  I didn't Chum the fish, I didn't go for a swim, and I got some fish.  It was a win!

...

I'm ready to go again!!! 

  Awesome!!!


-Sam

Thanks for the reports and pictures. Glad everyone made it back in safe and sound.

New Vantage seat - ouch! Hope that was a real good friend! 

New Vantage seat - ouch! Hope that was a real good friend! 

He offered to help pay for the new seat, which was very nice of him to do.  Normally I would say no, but those damn Vantage seats are expensive so I'll likely take him up on his offer to cover some of it.  I have a pro deal with a kayak dealer in CA (Kayak City), so I'm going to see what they can do to help.

The full story was he decided to put his rod in one of the flush rod mounts for a bit while we drifted.  Not a big deal in itself, except he kept his bait near the bottom when he did this.  Of course, the bait eventually snagged the bottom.  Then when a sizeable swell came in and lifted the kayak, the rod doubled over so hard that it flipped the kayak.  He learned this lesson the hard way: if you're putting the rod in a holder, reel it up several cranks so you won't snag bottom!  I was very glad he was able to self-rescue and get the boat upright.  After it happened, I told him I'd have no problem heading right back to port with him (I already had my ling limit anyway), but he wanted to keep fishing even without a seat!  Pretty cool that he kept up the positive attitude after the fact.

The entire ordeal made me reflect on my own safety equipment, and I realized I've kept it skinny for all these years.  I'm going to rig an extra clip to my seat to ensure it doesn't sink into the depths, as I never really trusted those lame button-clip safety catches on these seats and now I DEFINITELY don't trust them.  Then I'll add flotation to the rods, utilize ALL the pockets in my PFD for gear, and stuff my hull with pool noodles for additional flotation.

I'll add that if you're going to fish the bottom with your rod in a holder on a drift (which I do frequently) that you can set your drag lighter to help keep yourself out of trouble.

Awesome that he kept his good attitude. I can tell you I wouldn't want to pedal very long without a seat back!

You Oregon guys have all the fun, sure wish it wasn't such a trek from Puyallup.  Would love to get out there with you all some time.

  I'm going to rig an extra clip to my seat to ensure it doesn't sink into the depths, as I never really trusted those lame button-clip safety catches on these seats and now I DEFINITELY don't trust them.

Unfortunately, this doesn't help with the lost seat, but after the vantage seats came out in 2015, Hobie changed the retention clip with this:



See this thread for details, including warranty information if you want to replace the button clip/keyhole:
https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=52987
 

We will also be offering a seat/kayak update kit free of charge for users who would like to install the new system into their kayaks.

Please request update kits via warranty through your dealer.

84507822 – VANTAGE CT SEAT CLIP UPGRADE

I agree, very lame initial design, and I replaced mine as soon as the clips became available.

-Sam

Well, I finally got the time to go through the footage from this past trip and here is the video.  Its kind of a long video at around 15 mins but there was a lot of fish action.  I didn't even put it all in here.  A couple of the first fish I forgot to hit record on the camera I was so excited.  At the very end of the video as we are heading in as I pass under the bridge you can hear me leave out a sigh of relief because it was so rough coming back in (even though it don't look that bad on the video).  I also uploaded the same video with out the audio overlay because some of my excitable moments when I'm reeling in fish is kind of funny but be warned, I do leave some F-Bombs slip.  I wont put that one on here but it is on my channel.   
Enjoy!  I can't wait to do it again!

Well, I finally got the time to go through the footage from this past trip and here is the video.  Its kind of a long video at around 15 mins but there was a lot of fish action.  I didn't even put it all in here.  A couple of the first fish I forgot to hit record on the camera I was so excited.  At the very end of the video as we are heading in as I pass under the bridge you can hear me leave out a sigh of relief because it was so rough coming back in (even though it don't look that bad on the video).  I also uploaded the same video with out the audio overlay because some of my excitable moments when I'm reeling in fish is kind of funny but be warned, I do leave some F-Bombs slip.  I wont put that one on here but it is on my channel.   
Enjoy!  I can't wait to do it again!

Great video...thanks for sharing!


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Great video and a day of fishing Ray!  I especially like the footage of your hands shaking with excitement on your first fish!  Let's get out there again.

That's was fun to watch! You got a lot of footage and still had battery life on the way back in! You must have brought extra batteries?


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Great video and a day of fishing Ray!  I especially like the footage of your hands shaking with excitement on your first fish!  Let's get out there again.

I don't know if it was excitement from the fish or nerves from being out there for the first time...


I'm ready!  Let's do it again!  All the Ling meat is gone already.  It was very tasty.  I need some more.

That's was fun to watch! You got a lot of footage and still had battery life on the way back in! You must have brought extra batteries?


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All of that footage was with one camera and one battery.  It was all shot with my new Hero 5 Session.  It died right as I passed under the bridge a few seconds after where the video ends.  After talking with Cosmo and figuring out how to get the sound working it picks up voices pretty well which I like.  I'll be using that more in the future (as long as I can keep my potty mouth under control).

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I don't mind a potty mouth. Cool video. Thanks for sharing that. Good job and keep it up.

I just spent about $65 on Big Hammer swimbaits so I'd be ready for the next trip.   
I stuck the only 2 big ones I had to the bottom and the smaller ones were just too light.  They seemed to take forever to get to the bottom and they usually drifted way behind me by the time they hit bottom.