Ccnpp 3/19/12

[Capt Brady Bounds]

Mothership Update

Conducted sea trials this past Monday, transporting "ictalurus" out to nearby the CCNPP, and launched him from shallow water. We had departed Solomons Boat Ramp earlier 12.8 miles away and had him fishing on site in 45 minutes.. The launching, recovery and kayak cradles all worked , exactly as planned and it was a great day to be out. We discovered that it was much easier to get into and out of the yak and the guideboat than I had thought, even in deep water.

Took some Pictures which will eventually get posted here.

Of course the stripers did not cooperate, mostly because they were not there in abundance. Saw Bill catch a few. I caught a 24" while watching.

BTW, Bill staying on the edges and in the seams of the outflow without any appearance of concern. As it was a diminished outflow, because the Plant is down for maintenance, it is particularly favorable for small craft until around April 5th, when the discharge is returned to full operation.

Stayed to our schedule, returned to Ramp at 12n , where the kayak was left on the guideboat as it was trailered to Bill's truck, where it was easily moved to Bill's preferred carrying position in his truck.

Note: The CCNPP is hit or miss right now. Stripers are moving into the discharge , stay briefly, and gone again. Some mud shad there and so your fish finder lights up and dupes you into spenting time on them. About the biggest striper so far has been a 32". However if you are there when the bigger fish roll in, it's pretty impressive. About the only way to get'em is to go.

Also Bill moved around the discharge in the Hobie, quite effortlessly to my observation. More later....

Also have open dates of availability out of Solomons for the rest of March, and on the Suquehanna Flats out of Northeast Md first week of April.

[ictalurus]

Everything about the trip was surprisingly easy. The yak racks on the boat are really secure, and my yak didn't move even when we hit some chop and boat wakes. The racks are nicely cushioned, so hitting the chop wasn't any different than driving down a gravel road at 20mph. There was no oil canning or scratching of my hull.

I loaded my yak before putting it in the water. In hindsight, it would probably be easier to put the yak in the water first because having my crate on the back made things a little more awkward even though I was traveling light.

When we got to the area, we went into a shallow beach area to offload the yak. I got into my yak from the water rather than risk taking a header off the boat. However, I climbed back into the boat from my yak at the end of the day when it didn't matter if I got wet. It was no harder climbing into the boat than it is to climb onto G-dock from my yak. If you're worried about that part of the process, you can perfect your technique at G-dock or any other surface that's about 18" above the water. I'd be willing to try a deeper water entry on a warm day without any hesitation if there wasn't too much chop.

Fishing the discharge was a piece of cake, at least at this flow level with calm winds. In fact, I've been more worried fishing the inlet at St. Jerome's Creek in the past. Since yaks are relatively short compared to most boats that fish the discharge, it was easy to get my yak to stay put in an eddy (at least at this flow level). In fact, that was kind of a problem because I wanted to drift down the discharge. Actually, fishing the discharge like I would from a boat wasn't very productive, so I had to think like a kayaker rather than like a boater. I worked my way up the discharge rather than drifting down it. It was fairly easy to hold my position by adjusting the rudder and occasionally pedaling. Most of the time, just using the rudder was all that was needed to my position. I caught both my fish (one striper in the 16-18" range and another smaller one) by casting up the discharge and bouncing the jig back to me. This was the easiest way to maintain contact with the jig. I missed about half a dozen other strikes, most of which occurred as I tried to drift down the discharge. I would approach it in the same way you guys jig the pilings at the Bay Bridge. However, Shawn Kimbro discussed a technique for bouncing a jig back down the discharge that might be productive while parked in an eddy. Unfortunately, I didn't know to try that at the time.

Later in the morning, the breeze picked up a bit, and some chop developed on the windward side of the discharge. This water was pretty confused, and it was difficult to maintain the angle and orientation I wanted. The water was much flatter on the downwind side of the discharge. I saw lots of marks along the seam of the confused water, so that would likely be a good area to cast to.

When the flow goes back to normal, I think it will still be fishable from a kayak as long as the wind had a westerly component. Fishing close to the discharge might not be easy or time well-spent, but there were plenty of eddies farther back from the discharge to park in. I would also fish the downwind/downcurrent side of the discharge to stay in the smoothest water.

Unfortunately, I thought I left my camera at home, so I don't have pics, but George of Specialized Baits was fishing with us and took lots of pics. I'll post them when I get them.

Anyway, thanks to Capt. Bounds for taking me on the trial run cruise. I'm looking forward to when it's time to fish the Honga.

[mmanolis2001]

This is excellent news It’s good to hear everything worked out as planned with out issues.

[medicyaker]

Glad to hear everything worked out well. This indeed is good news for our potential future endeavors with HOW. Thanks for the report Capt. Hope to talk to you soon now that we have the official Maryland Chapter. Good job to you too Bill, Thanks for being the Guinee Pig so to speak. I'd like to see pics of the Yak Racks on the Mothership. This opens up so many possibilities for extending the fishing areas, especially for those of us who go old school and use a Paddle and not the Hobie specials. I sure cant paddle that distance and I doubt many of the Hobie guys could peddle that far either. I WILL BE IN TOUCH CAPT!!! Thanks for doing this. Think of the Possibilities. Anyone up for some big game like Shark or Tuna???? LOL

[Splitscreen]

i will be in touch capt!!! Thanks for doing this. Think of the possibilities. Anyone up for some big game like shark or tuna???? Lol

hah!

[Redfish12]

Sounds like a good deal!

[kevinfry]

PICS???? An Ictalurus trip with no pics???

[ictalurus]

Pics from Monday

George of Specialized Baits sent me the pics he took from the maiden mothership voyage. Not only does he make sweet lures, but he takes nice photos, too.

Preparing to launch:


Launching, step 1:


Launching, step 2:


Launching, step 3:


Launching step 4:


Ready to go:


It looks like I'm contributing to the launching process, but I was really getting in the way more than anything. I thought the yak would roll around more on the gunwale, but it really didn't. However, I think I would still load the crate after the yak was in the water.

Now for some shots of the discharge at reduced flow.

Approaching the discharge:


Really smooth water (Walleye Pete's boat in the background):


Fishing the discharge:




View of the rig from the dock:


There was plenty of room in the boat for my kayak, all my paraphernalia, George, George's stuff (a few rods and a tackle bag), a cooler/seat, and Capt. Brady. There would easily be enough room for two more yaks, another person, and two more crates. The boat ride is smooth, the engine is surprisingly quiet, and the boat can get into really shallow water. It's a pretty cool set up. I'm looking forward to hitting the Eastern Shore with my father later in the summer.

[kevinfry]

now that's what i'm talking about!...Way different set up than I expected! the pics really help.

[daddyg]

Will it handle a PA...

[jffoley]

Very good stuff! Nice job all around.

Capt Brady Bounds, you have a PM.

[Capt Brady Bounds]

What's a PA ?

Will it handle a PA...

What's a PA ?

[Capt Brady Bounds]

Notes on the photographs

Thanks to George at www.specializedbaits.com for the photographs. When you are looking at them remember; it was the guys on this forum that helped me enormously in bringing this project to where it is now.

If you look closely at the pixs, notice that the carrier is a Swiss Cargo 3in1 which also carrys two yaks on their sides. I read the reviews on this carrier, and made modifications to it to adjust for problems reported in the reviews and so far these appear to work ok.

Future plans are to replace the powder-painted steel tubes with aluminum and widen it a tad.

Now I wait. Inquires are trickling in and Spring fishing is picking up. Hoo yah !

[daddyg]

What's a PA ?

A hobie pro angler...Its wider and heavier

[Capt Brady Bounds]

PA = Pro Angler

OK, now I understand the question. When we planned this kayak cradle, I used the dimensions of the Pro angler in my planning just because it is a rather large watercraft.

As yet, I have not stacked double pro anglers on the cradles but I have made a visit to my local Hobie Dealer, BluHaven Piers about six miles from my home and we are soon to do a photo shoot with Hobie kayaks. So I'll be posting those pixs at some future date.

I think Ictalurus has discovered a gem of observation, which I intend to incorporate into my launching procedure; put the yak into the water, then load the gear into it.