The only thing that got me through the week long heat was thinking about my Sunday fishing time. After reading all the posts about the topwater action close to the dam, I decided to give it a go. I arrived at Fisherman's Park at 4:50am, plenty of fellow yakers were assembling down by the ramp. They knew exactly what to do and wasted no time doing it. I was going to get on the water first and introduce myself later. Unfortunately, my OCD yak rigging delayed my launch(setting my rig up before launch has to be perfect) and the morning party was long gone and out of sight.
The ramp to the water is quite steep and wheeling the kayak into the water was a challenge. At the water's edge, my yak flipped sideways off the cart and everything went spilling in the water! In addition, my battery case slid inside my kayak and ripped off all my termination points. Okay, no FF...no problem...then I noticed a joint in my rod holder was busted and deemed useless. That's okay too, I will use Hobie's sorry excuse for rod holders. Finally, on the water and still pitch dark. All alone, I drifted down river straight into a minefield of boulders. There was no escaping, I tried removing my mirage drive but the damage was done. My pedals took a shot and a rod went through one of the fins. Defeated I PADDLED back to launch, aggressively packed up and ventured home.
Decided to repair everything in my garage and was able to re-launch on the Susquehanna River at the lapidum launch. My feelings were not hurt for long after I caught a smallmouth trolling a LuckyCraft sp100. I was originally trying to target perch, but they were not home. I decided to troll two additional rods with shallow diving crankbaits. One of which was a cheap Excalibur on sale at Dicks for $2.00. The Excalibur out produced everything...in the end I caught 9 smallmouth and returned home a happy camper. Worst morning so far with my kayak, but surely not defeated!
The ramp to the water is quite steep and wheeling the kayak into the water was a challenge. At the water's edge, my yak flipped sideways off the cart and everything went spilling in the water! In addition, my battery case slid inside my kayak and ripped off all my termination points. Okay, no FF...no problem...then I noticed a joint in my rod holder was busted and deemed useless. That's okay too, I will use Hobie's sorry excuse for rod holders. Finally, on the water and still pitch dark. All alone, I drifted down river straight into a minefield of boulders. There was no escaping, I tried removing my mirage drive but the damage was done. My pedals took a shot and a rod went through one of the fins. Defeated I PADDLED back to launch, aggressively packed up and ventured home.
Decided to repair everything in my garage and was able to re-launch on the Susquehanna River at the lapidum launch. My feelings were not hurt for long after I caught a smallmouth trolling a LuckyCraft sp100. I was originally trying to target perch, but they were not home. I decided to troll two additional rods with shallow diving crankbaits. One of which was a cheap Excalibur on sale at Dicks for $2.00. The Excalibur out produced everything...in the end I caught 9 smallmouth and returned home a happy camper. Worst morning so far with my kayak, but surely not defeated!
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