POST What was your single greatest day on the Kayak in 2013

[ILV2F5H]

I have 3 highlights from this year:

1 - Was fishing on the Piankatank and after a few trips my wife finally hooked into her first keeper Red. It was also a tagged fish which she received a t-shirt for reporting. It's awesome when you know the fish are at a certain hole and you let her make the first few casts and she hooks up and she tells you how she worked the lure to trigger a bite. Love it!

2 - Had a few slow days down at the OBX in regards to catching keepers(reds, specks, flounders). We were still catching but expectations were high on keeper fish. Because of how resourceful this forum is I was able to catch about 30 sheepshead off of one pylon on the second to last day of the trip. It was defintely a morale booster and really made our trip.

3 - We all know how expensive our fishing trips are in regards to time, gas, food, bait and frustration. After a few unsuccessful trips to OC and DE from NoVa. I caught my first keeper tog in DE at 21".

Definitely trips to remember.

[docirv]

Okay, everyday out in my kayak is a best day for his old fart, but here is the video of my first trip out in 2013... Was it the best day, what do you think? https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=708850955794669]

[Mark]

Thanks for sharing.

I've never tried my kayak as an ice crusher but I can relate to getting my lure stuck on the handle up front.

Also, I've gotten it stuck to the handle in the back.

That's very annoying, especially when I'm far from shore.

Raptor rescued me on-water from that condition when we were far out at Greenbury Point.

[Darryl330]

My best day is pretty simple, but memorable. It was my second or third time out on my kayak. Just a couple of rods and lures with me, I launched out of Mariner point. Paddled past the RR bridge to a cove on the left. I noticed a few bald eagles were there. They like fish! I began fan casting a rattletrap type bait.
Something hit it hard, battled for a bit and then got off. I was very disappointed!

I kept at it though and got bit again. This time I landed a very healthy 17 inch LMB. It was my first kayak caught fish! And then, will I took a picture and unhooked the bass, I picked my rod up.
The lure was in the water while I was dealing with the caught fish. As I picked it up, I felt weight. Bottom or weeds I was thinking. Then the drag started and line was peelling out. A powerful surge. In the murky water, the first glimpse I thought I saw lines on the side of the fish. BUT, the second glimpse, I saw the big scales. It was a huge carp. Landed.
A pretty good day, for the rookie!
There were many other enjoyable days. I'm very glad I'm involved in this sport.It's a blast!

[J.A. Veil]

And then, will I took a picture and unhooked the bass, I picked my rod up.
The lure was in the water while I was dealing with the caught fish. As I picked it up, I felt weight. Bottom or weeds I was thinking. Then the drag started and line was peeling out. A powerful surge. In the murky water, the first glimpse I thought I saw lines on the side of the fish. BUT, the second glimpse, I saw the big scales. It was a huge carp.

I had a similar experience last spring on the Flats. I was trolling a large Storm shad and some other plastic paddletails. One of the lines went down hard. I fought the fish for a few minutes expecting a large striper. But it turned out to be a 30" carp. I did not snag the carp -- the lure was in its mouth. I had never heard of carp hitting large plastic lures.

[Stephen Slotwinski]

hitting my first 10 mile mark ( a few short shore breaks to give the butt a rest), but still did ten miles. not too bad for a big guy

[KenY]

My greatest single day on the yak in 2013 was not as great as some of y'alls trips. But, it was great to me.

It was the day I caught my first keeper Togs on the yak at CHSP/Inner Wall. It was frustratingly wonderful.

https://www.facebook.com/fishboyken/...9017075&type=3

[dsiekman]

2013 was nowhere near as good as 2012 for me. However, I'd say my first keeper rock on top water was probably it. Either that or fishing with my father in-law at DCL.

[NukeMD]

First time at Mattawoman

My best day was my first day at Mattawoman Creek fishing with my buddy, Larry. There was a tournament on (no surprise there) and all the glitter rockets were crowding around us when I brought in a 5lb. LMB. Also caught my first snakehead that day (even though it jumped out of the yak and took my net with it). Caught about a dozen LMB that day, 1 Snakehead, a carp and lots of perch.

[kayakjoe]

Oh man that's a hard one, so many good days its hard to choose. The Tkaa tourney was good to me and i was in good company with ravensdfense and we caught so many reds it was hard to come in!
The cca tourney was a good two days too, caught my first spec since I was a wee lad, in good company once again with ravensdfense, slobber bob and hemmingway. Had a few memorable omes solo too, got an inshoreaa grand slam in 3 fow at rt90 28" red, 22" spec, 26" rock, and a nice 21" flattie, all shalllow all on home turf which was amazing, won't forget that one! Then going solo on a shark fishing trip to assateague and 20 feet from shore before I beached to pull the yak to the ocean i stumble upon the biggest school of tailimg reds I've ever seen. Needless to say, I never pulled the yak over the sand to shark fish Hahah then a few weeks ago with hemmingway after getting skunked at kipto then headed a bit south and got into red almost every cast just. Awesome year with awesome people and I wouldn't change a single thing!


As for most " memorable " and I'm sure hemmingway will probably agree on this one, it wasnt the best day exactly just memorable. It was our trip to oyster, once again if you're considering it, well, seriously reconsider, the two other kids that were launching at the same time didn't even make it out to the islands, me and hemmingway did, and we regretted it, nothing like unforcasted winds on the es, they kill. 6 miles home in fiveish hours. But that's yak fishing!!! That's why we do it and everbody else thinks were crazy. I love it Hahah

[Pinch]

Kevinfry asked me in my most recent CBBT report thread to recount some of the memorable fish that I caught over this past year. I thought about this for a long while and to be honest it was not the fish that made the memories for me this past year. There was no "single" day that seemed to shine over the rest. The best kayak experiences I had over this last year are mostly comprised of experiences fishing with good friends. I remember a pre tournament weekend up in Jbay with Slap catching upper 30'' rockfish all night in 3-5' of water on shallow plugs. It was a blast! It ended abruptly when the sun rose with a police car loud speaker yelling at us to vacate the area or be shot. I have very fond memories of eating pancake wrapped burgers and drinking beers surrounded by friends after a long day of fishing the JBAY tournament making jokes about the Canadian and his "Doormat EH!" and trying to figure out where Chimo had run off to. Live Lining spot in Rudee inlet and catching a 35'' Blue in Virginia was pretty epic. Learning how to catch Tautog on Jigheads from Redfish12 at Cape Henlopen. Fishing with Justin Mayer and helping him land his first 30'' Speckled trout. Early this year having a blast with Rob Choi taking pictures of the Striped bass that helped him earn his Virginia Master Angler award this year ( we crushed it on cows that day catching 4-5 40'' fish each). Fishing so hard and so long that you become nauseous and start hallucinating ( Slap and Grilled know what I am talking about) Remember that time I swerved off the road because the street lamp pretended to be another car hell bent on a head on collision?) Fishing with Grilled and catching so many flounder in one day we literally were getting bored of catching them. Same thing happened with Slap but it was Specks and there were 3 or 4 times over the last year where we had caught so many in one night we did not want to catch anymore.

If I had to narrow it down and just pick my "best day" It would be back in the spring at Cape Henlopen. I went out in the middle of the week, no other yakers, no boaters and caught the most Tog ive have ever caught in one day. The average size was 17-20'' with the biggest going 22''. I completely ran out of bait, the weather was perfect and I even landed the kayak at high tide which made my walk to the truck just a little bit shorter.

[Fishinfool]

Great thread! Here is the link to the pic and text to the post of my best day kayak fishing in 2013. It was July 28.

http://www.snaggedline.com/showthrea...ht=fishin+fool

"Perch are my default fish, and I was tired of paying almost $8 for a bag of razor clams at Angler's, so I caught my own perch bait; grass shrimp along the grassy shoreline and bulkhead in the creek, just using a small bait net. It's actually better bait for perch because you'll get more hooked fish as opposed to the perch just Bogarting the clams right off the hook. I did not try the cast net for peanut bunker as discussed in another thread.

High tide was due at @ 10:30 am. I launched by 7:00 am from a Severn creek upriver from the Rt. 50, and trolled out of the creek to a couple of weak hits with a 1/8 oz jig head and a chartreuse gulp. I saw a few breaking peanut bunker balls, so I also cast and/or trolled a Kastmaster metal that I've had some luck with near topwater. I set up near a pier and caught a nice croaker on the gulp, and a few perch in the 9 inch range bottom fishing under the pier with the grass shrimp. When that action slowed down, I headed out of the creek as the tide was starting to come in.

Following some advice from Mark in another thread, I worked some rip rap and bulk head close into shore maybe within 50 - 60 feet and started getting good perch strikes. I was out in the river, moving away from the launch site, then back in for about the last 2.5 hours. I had a nice strike from a 12 inch perch, and stayed in that same area, near a pier and this time about 30 - 40 feet to shore in about 3 - 4 feet of water. I was keeping my kayak parallel to the shoreline while making casts as advised.

Soon after the big perch, I had a huge hit maybe 10 feet from the boat, and within @ 40 feet of the shoreline. He bent the rod pretty good; light spinning tackle, a wire leader attached to @ two feet of 50 lb leader, on 10 lb braid, and the 1/8 oz jig with the chartreuse gulp. I was retrieving it slow to medium speed and stopping it with slack now and then. I had a small landing net, but it was up by my feet at the point, and I didn't want to chance trying to one arm him while I reached for the net. I got lucky and got him in the boat and measured him at 18 and a quarter inches.

I wasn't sure how to keep him fresh since I didn't have any ice on board. I just put him on the stringer with the other fish and he was alive and kickin' when I got back to the launch site @ noon.

I ended up with 5 keeper perch @ 9 +" including the 12 incher, a nice fat 11 inch croaker, and the keeper rock. All in all it was one of my best fishing days ever. I had caught keeper rock off charters, but this was the first one on the kayak, and it was a great thrill.

And thanks to John V., Mark, Andrew, and all the others for all the great advice!"

Happy Holidays and Happy Fishing in 2014!

[Southerly]

i had a lot of fun fishing trips that were fun/memorable for different reasons. which makes picking one, an 'apples and oranges'-type situation. definitely high on the list of good experiences was the opportunity to meet and fish with a couple of new people.

[mytmouse]

I didn't get out that much this past season now that I think about it... and that sucks. LOL But my best day by far was later in the year out in the Eastern bay for Stripers. Metroman and I had went out a week or so earlier with Redfish12 where HE was slaying them. Metroman landed one and I hooked up with one had it come off, re-casted hooked up, and my knot failed. Lost the fish and my Rat-L trap. UGGGH. So we were scheduled to meet up again and this time Foursteps24 was joining us and we decided to launch from the same spot but try a different area. Now we didn't kill them, but we hooked up with NICE quality fish. Foursteps24 and Metroman limited out and I caught just one but it was the biggest of the group! I need to work on my handling skills though because after trying to put it in my tank well it slipped loose off my fish grips. SMDH.

But what I loved most about that day is we picked an area where we thought they were, we each fished the way we like to fish and still had a very productive day. I have never had huge success catching Rocks from my yak. So it felt great to get a nice one... and redeem myself after having my knot fail the previous week!

[kevinfry]

Kevinfry asked me in my most recent CBBT report thread to recount some of the memorable fish that I caught over this past year. I thought about this for a long while and to be honest it was not the fish that made the memories for me this past year. There was no "single" day that seemed to shine over the rest. The best kayak experiences I had over this last year are mostly comprised of experiences fishing with good friends. ............If I had to narrow it down and just pick my "best day" It would be back in the spring at Cape Henlopen. I went out in the middle of the week, no other yakers, no boaters and caught the most Tog ive have ever caught in one day. The average size was 17-20'' with the biggest going 22''. I completely ran out of bait, the weather was perfect and I even landed the kayak at high tide which made my walk to the truck just a little bit shorter.

thanks Pinch. What an awesome year!