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Went to Fenwick Island for the weekend and hit the surf on
Saturday morning. Weather was looking pretty rough and the surf was pretty intense. Some waves were taller than me it seemed (6'1'') but we decided we could do it if we just timed it between sets.
I got a new cart (paddleboy from REI or something) and it was awesome on the pavement, felt like a plow on the sand. Good to know now I guess though.
We put the rods in my rodpod and launched with a minimal amount of gear, no crate, no fishfinder, no tackleboxes (except what was in the tray under the hatch), and pretty much nothing else besides a paddle. I think I might go that way more often, much easier. Anyway, I see a break in the set and I run and drag my yak behind me, paddle in left hand get knee deep and jump in my kayak and paddle out as fast as possible. Great timing! I was pretty happy with it for my first surf launch in less than ideal conditions.
My buddy jumps in behind me and gets out as well. He'd gone out on Thursday and got distracted after coming in, wave crashed and broke his nice paddle... woops. So after a quick trip to the kayak shop, he had a new carlise magic paddle or something. Seemed to work fine.
We fished our faces off for about 3 hours and couldn't catch a thing. On Thursday he said there were a lot of bluefish and had a couple of sharks come inspect him... nothing doing on Sat. We saw a few fish that we thought could have been blues, but we never got anything to bite. I tried drifting for fluke, but we were moving way to fast in the current and the wind so ended up just casting and trolling for blues with no results. All in all it was a fun day playing in the waves.
When we were ready to come back in we stowed everything in the rodpod and then decided to practice ditching. I wanted to see how easy it'd be to paddle my trident standing up in 4+ foot waves. Not easy. I got a few strokes in and then started to loose it. I ditched early with hopes of keeping the kayak upright... it worked. I got back in with out much effort and was back in the saddle. Now to try surfing... picked a smallish wave and started paddling... got picked up and immediately had the feeling of oh s*** what did I get myself into! I leaned back as my rear end started to rise, as the wave broke it tried to kick me to the right so I dug hard and leaned into it....
Success. Put the nose right on the beach! I don't think I'm ready for West Coast launches or seas much higher than we had, but it was at least a successful surf practice.
Pictures to follow.
Saturday morning. Weather was looking pretty rough and the surf was pretty intense. Some waves were taller than me it seemed (6'1'') but we decided we could do it if we just timed it between sets.
I got a new cart (paddleboy from REI or something) and it was awesome on the pavement, felt like a plow on the sand. Good to know now I guess though.
We put the rods in my rodpod and launched with a minimal amount of gear, no crate, no fishfinder, no tackleboxes (except what was in the tray under the hatch), and pretty much nothing else besides a paddle. I think I might go that way more often, much easier. Anyway, I see a break in the set and I run and drag my yak behind me, paddle in left hand get knee deep and jump in my kayak and paddle out as fast as possible. Great timing! I was pretty happy with it for my first surf launch in less than ideal conditions.
My buddy jumps in behind me and gets out as well. He'd gone out on Thursday and got distracted after coming in, wave crashed and broke his nice paddle... woops. So after a quick trip to the kayak shop, he had a new carlise magic paddle or something. Seemed to work fine.
We fished our faces off for about 3 hours and couldn't catch a thing. On Thursday he said there were a lot of bluefish and had a couple of sharks come inspect him... nothing doing on Sat. We saw a few fish that we thought could have been blues, but we never got anything to bite. I tried drifting for fluke, but we were moving way to fast in the current and the wind so ended up just casting and trolling for blues with no results. All in all it was a fun day playing in the waves.
When we were ready to come back in we stowed everything in the rodpod and then decided to practice ditching. I wanted to see how easy it'd be to paddle my trident standing up in 4+ foot waves. Not easy. I got a few strokes in and then started to loose it. I ditched early with hopes of keeping the kayak upright... it worked. I got back in with out much effort and was back in the saddle. Now to try surfing... picked a smallish wave and started paddling... got picked up and immediately had the feeling of oh s*** what did I get myself into! I leaned back as my rear end started to rise, as the wave broke it tried to kick me to the right so I dug hard and leaned into it....
Success. Put the nose right on the beach! I don't think I'm ready for West Coast launches or seas much higher than we had, but it was at least a successful surf practice.
Pictures to follow.
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