CBKA Tournament 2013

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The 2013 Chesapeake Bay Kayak Anglers tournament was held this weekend.  This is the only tournament that I planned to attend this year, and I didn't register because I'm a great angler and felt confident about being able to land a prize-winning fish - I hadn't even fished the bay bridge or any area near Kent Island at all this year.  I registered because it's a big kayak angling party with other like-minded people who gather to fish, have fun before fishing, share stories, and help two great organizations.
 

The Bay Bridge from Camp Wright

The event began for me Friday afternoon when I arrived at the camp around 4PM.  The captain's meeting wasn't until 7, but I decided to go early to beat traffic and to just hang out with whoever came early.  I arrived to find the CBKA staff busy finishing up preparations for the tournament with registrations and captain's bags.  There is a lot of work involved in coordinating a tournament, and I just got a small glimpse of it - those guys deserve a lot of thanks for the hard work they put into it.  There were also a handful of other familiar faces hanging out and talking about fishing, which I joined in on.  

As more people slowly trickled in, we continued to just lounge around and talk while some anglers set up their tents to stay the night.  I borrowed a 1-man tent from a coworker this year, which was kind of exciting because I haven't slept in a tent in years!
 

Rockfish and Speckled Trout Masgouf!

We finally had the captain's meeting around 7 where we went over the rules, and Shawn Kimbro also made an appearance to wish everyone luck and to share a quick fishing report from his experience.  After the meeting, we all just hung out and shared more stories and some people participated in a potluck dinner this year.  That was a pretty fun time...a bushel of crabs, shrimp skewers, a masgouf demonstration from Mustafa, and a bunch more food.  These guys know how to put together a potluck!  I hear the festivities went on through the night, but I retired around 10 to get some rest for the next morning.

I had been watching the weather forecast for the day of the tournament the entire week before the tournament, and I knew it was going to be pretty windy.  Not as bad as last year's winds, but still enough wind that would make fishing the bay bridge miserable for a paddle yak'er.  So I spent a couple nights studying the charts and decided to try Eastern Bay, figuring Kent Island should block the winds well enough to make it manageable.  So a little after 6AM, I launched out of Shipping Creek to try live-lining on some of the ledges in Eastern Bay.

The sun rising in front of me as I paddle toward Eastern Bay

I paddled out in search of some shallower water to try to fill up my bucket with some live spots.  I soon found them in about 4 feet of water, and quickly picked up about 6 or 7 on fish bites blood worms.  I even caught a tiny croaker in between the spots - it was too bad that there was not a "Smallest Fish" division this year!

I used the GPS on my Mark 4 fish finder to try to paddle out toward some water around 15' in depth that would fall down to 20'+.  While searching out these ledges, I trolled a deep diving Yo-Zuri Crystal minnow to try to pick up some fish between live lining.  I caught a striper and a perch in between fishing holes on the crystal minnow.  Neither fish was large enough to be competitive in the tournament, but I was glad to not be skunked!  Live lining did not prove to be any more productive...I didn't get any hits from any stripers that may have been in Eastern Bay.  The wind was also much stronger in the middle of the bay than it was in the channel, so it was hard staying in position to let the spot swim around freely.  I was even drifting at up to 1.5 mph from the wind.  

Rather than snapping pictures of fish, I was taking pictures of the scenery... look at that sky!

The highlight from live lining was probably when one of my spot got completely ripped apart, which was probably the result of some bluefish, but I didn't hook up with anything.  The 5 or 6 other spot were really lucky, as I let them go after several trips down to the bottom of the bay.  I gave up live-lining after the last spot and trolled some more to see what I could snag up.  I probably paddled about 8 miles in the wind, and finally gave up around 1PM.  I headed back to the launch ramp to weigh-in early and just rest.

Raffle Prizes!

The dinner and banquet started around 4 or 5, which is always a good time of raffling and eating good food.  I actually did well in the raffles this year and snagged a couple of cool items - there were a couple big ticket items, but the most exciting prizes for me were a pair of fish grips (I've always wanted one...) and several of Woody's feather jigs (he's closing shop)!  Some representatives from the two organizations (CCA and Make-a-wish) that the tournament benefits also gave some presentations.  A video was played about a recent make-a-wish grant for a boy who wanted to meet RG III - he got his wish and much more!  That was really cool... the evening went on until around 7:30 or so, after which we all went our separate ways.  I stuck around a little to avoid the madness of the rush out, and to thank the organizers for another great tournament.  This was a great event, and I will be marking the date on my calendar as soon as next year's tournament date is announced!

Jonas Green Perching

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I've been out of commission for the past month.  I hurt my back while picking up my younger son, and have been going to a chiropractor for the past 4 weeks.  The first day after the injury was the worst - I couldn't get out of bed and had to take off work.  The rest of the week, I had to walk hunched over and slowly like a 90 year old man.  One of the biggest worries on my mind after the injury was whether I'd be able to kayak again!  Almost every visit to the chiropractor I asked him when I'd be able to lift a kayak over my head again, and he finally gave the okay last week!  I was eager to get back on the water, especially since the CBKA tournament is only a few weeks away now - I haven't fished any water near the Bay Bridge at all this year, and I also haven't fished in over a month...I wasn't even sure how if I'd be able to paddle around well enough to fish after my injury.  Now that I've got the doctor's permission, I had to make a trip.

 A friend of mine has been fishing from shore and piers a lot this summer, and I offered to take him on one of my kayaks before the summer ended.  Summer's just about over now, so I invited him out to a trip to Jonas Green in Annapolis.  It's not quite as big water as the Bay Bridge, but fishing will probably be pretty similar to what I'll be doing for the CBKA tournament.  I also haven't kayak fished Jonas Green in a really long time.  Kind of like how my Ocean City trip was special, Jonas Green holds a special place in my heart because it is the first saltwater body of water that I've fished in from a kayak.  My first year of kayak fishing, I made several trips to Jonas Green because it was relatively calm, and also close to home.  I think this is my third year now, so I was eager to see how different it might feel....
 

First fish of the day!

 I met up with my friend, Seong, at 7AM  in the Jonas Green parking lot.  The parking lot was especially crowded, I guess because it was a holiday weekend.  I had to park in the upper lot, but that was no problem because I had my kayak cart with me.  I just had to make two trips up and down for both kayaks.  Seong and I hit the water around 7:45 or so, and immediately paddled to some of the piers next to Jonas Green.  We were hoping to get some perch today, but the fish were not really cooperating.  After checking out two sets of piers, I suggested that we cross the river to some rocky shoreline where I had caught some perch before.  Seong was up for the challenge of crossing the river, so we headed over.  The paddle across the river actually felt a lot easier than I remembered.  I remember being exhausted halfway through, and also being afraid of the boat traffic.  Boat traffic was pretty light today, so that wasn't a problem.  I also felt like the paddle across the river was a cinch.  What a big difference 2 years makes!

Seong's first fish in a kayak.

 Once over, Seong and I jigged in front of the rocky shoreline and hooked up with a couple small perch.  The fish were not as active as I had seen them, so that was a little disappointing.  We still avoided a skunk with at least one fish each.  After a little while, my friend wasn't feeling too good, so he had to head in and take a break.  Meanwhile, I decided to explore some areas that I had not fished before while trolling an X-Rap.  I hoped to hook up with some stripers, of which I caught 2 on the X-Rap.  They were both rather small, and I also wanted to practice some jigging with BKDs, so I headed back across the river to try jigging the bridge wrecks in front of the pier, and some hard shell bottoms that I knew about in front of the restaurant by Jonas Green.  Neither place produced any fish, and I was getting hungry, so I headed back to the launch area on the beach, and met up with my friend.  We packed it up and headed home.

He was ambitious!

Must be an older brother...

A croaker on a feather jig??

Well, neither of us got skunked, and my back wasn't in pain at the end of the trip, so I would call it a success!  Though my back didn't hurt, it was very sore by the time I got home and packed everything back up.  I really hope I can strengthen my back enough before the tournament. 

Ocean City Meet & Greet

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Saturday was the July Meet & Greet for the MKF forum members.  It was held in Ocean City, MD and the target species was flounder!  This fishing trip was special for me, because my first saltwater trip was here, as well as my first fishing trip with the forum members 2 years ago.  I was very much looking forward to the trip, because I don't get many opportunities to fish in real saltwater, and also because I hadn't fished with my buddies from the forum in a while either.  An added bonus to the day would be if I could bring home some flatties for dinner!

Paddling out into the inlet area.

We all met up bright and early at 6:30AM at the Lucky Angler Bait & Tackle store, a block away from the Sunset marina that we were going to launch from.  The shop owner was really helpful with giving us tips and her daughter took care of me with some huge live minnows that I was going to use as back-up in case the gulp + bucktails didn't work out for me.  We chatted a little in the parking lot about technique and tactics, and headed to the marina to start our day.

First fish of the day!

A few of us headed out first, and slowly paddled out as we waited for the others to rig up and join us.  When we got to the opening to the inlet, we slowly dabbled with our jigs around the piers and rocks to see if we could get anything early in the morning.  I had some good luck vertical jigging gulp by bridge and pier pilings last time, so I tried that around some of the pilings by the opening.  I managed to pick up a tiny black sea bass in about 10 feet of water on my gulp mullet.  It wasn't huge, but I was still happy to see a live fish! 

Now that my jigging hand has gotten warmed up with a fish, I started venturing out into the inlet.  It was still early enough that there were no boaters in sight, and the fog still hadn't lifted from the water yet.  The water in the inlet was also very calm, which allowed me to check out some deep areas by the inlet where I thought there might be some flounder.  I had heard from others that deep drop-offs and holes are good places to jig for flounder.  As I paddled out toward the inlet, I was surprised to find a drop-off that went very quickly from 8-9 feet down to 30 feet.  Perfect!  I quickly sent down my 1.5 oz white bucktail with a 4" chartreuse gulp mullet.  It was kind of hard to maintain my position, and I could read from my new-to-me fishfinder that I was drifting at about .5 mile to 1 mile per hour.  Still, I had a couple hits on the gulp, and lost a good fish near the boat within the first 30 minutes.  I kept at it for a while, but ended up losing several rigs due to snags as I drifted out of the hole and toward the rocks.  I really wished I had a hobie...

My first keeper flounder!

I eventually snagged all of my bucktails that were heavy enough to hit bottom, which was no problem because I had my bucket of minnows!  I brought along a bunch of tog rigs that I had left from my Kiptopeke trip, which I thought would probably work for flounder.  I baited up the largest minnow I could get a hold of and sent him on down.  Within a few minutes I had a fish on!  I was hopeful that it would be a keeper flounder, and sure enough it was an 18" flounder.  My first keeper flounder ever!  I stuck around the inlet area for a while longer, but didn't have any luck.  All the big flounder boats were also coming out to play, and it was actually getting a bit crowded, so I decided to head over to the route 50 bridge.

Ocean City from the water

The bridge area was not anybetter, and the water was actually very murky.  There had been some very strong storms in the area the day before, and I guess it really muddied up the water behind the inlet.  Several other kayakers were by the bridge as well, and no one really had much success, probably because of the low visibility.  I moved on to head back toward the inlet, while fishing along the docks on the ocean city side.  The water was actually much cleaner here than by the bridge.  With an incoming tide the entire morning, I guess the cleaner ocean water was making its way in.  I hoped that I could pick up some more fish in this cleaner water, but for the next several hours I didn't catch another thing.  The current had really started to pick up too, and I was drifting at 1-2 miles per hour.  That got kind of tiring after a while so I headed back towards the marina a bit away from the inlet.

Couple other kayakers by the jetty in the inlet.

I decided to take it easy, and just drifted around in the bay area while casually eating some snacks.  I was surprised to be getting some hits on my minnow as I left my rod to rest over the side of my kayak.  Maybe there are some fish here too?  I quickly finished up my snack and picked up my rod to try a little harder to catch something.  After a few drifts I finally hooked up with another flounder.  This one gave a bit of a stronger fight than my first one, and it turned out to be another 18" fish.  My second keeper!  Now I was happy with the day's catch and would be content with going home with 2 flounder.  Not much later, the others in the group were chatting on the VHF about getting hungry, so we all headed in and packed up to head to Pizza Tugo's for lunch.  We had a good time sharing stories and enjoyed some food... These Meet & Greets are great not only because of the fishing, but also the relationships that we build from the lunches afterwards. 

Dinner for 4

I considered going back out to fish some more after lunch, but my wife texted me saying she was having a rough day with the boys, so I decided to head on home.  That was okay, because I caught more keepers than I had hoped for, and it also left time in the evening to prepare one of the fish for dinner.  I haven't really been too fond of frozen flounder from the store, but fresh flounder is actually really tasty!  I baked one for dinner Saturday night, which was enough to feed my family of 4, and I filleted the other one to have with my in-laws who were coming in a few days to visit.  We ended up having sashimi with that one, which was also very good.

Chomp Chomp

This was another successful fishing trip.  Everyone caught fish, with maybe half of us going home with keepers.  No one turtled this time.  And I didn't get any bad sun burns.  I need to live closer to the ocean...

Point Lookout Family Picnic

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 My fondest childhood memories are of days when my family and I would go on long drives to go fishing on the bay.  My dad taught me how to bait hooks, cast top & bottom rigs, unhook fish, and many more.  I remember fishing with my dad, but I don't remember the last time I fished with him - it has to have been over 7 years ago... Well, my parents are in town for a few weeks, and I took the opportunity to share my joy of kayak fishing with my dad.  I took the day off on Monday to take the family to Point Lookout for a picnic, some fishing, and hopefully a fish dinner at the park.  

Caleb looking for bugs, while the adults prepare lunch.

We got to the park around 10:30AM and started out by spending some time on the beach and preparing for lunch.  The picnic/beach area was pretty vacant, so we were lucky to get the picnic table right next to the beach. Dad and I got the grill going while Mom and my wife prepared the table, and the two boys played in the sand.  It was fun watching the boys play in the sand and get their feet wet in the water.  My older son, Caleb, loves bugs...he spent most of his time foraging for crawling things in the sand.  And we learned today that my younger son is a neat-freak - he does not like to get his hands and feet dirty.  

After our steak and salad picnic we packed up and drove over to the bay side of the park.  The water looked a little choppy on the Potomac side, but the bay side was smooth as glass.  That's the nice thing about Point Lookout - if the wind is in a east-west or west-east direction, you can always fish on the side that's blocked by the trees and land.  My dad and I unloaded the kayaks and carried them down to the south-side pet beach for launch.  My oldest son begged to go, so I thought we'd bring him along - grandpa would love to spend more time with him, after all.  Based on my experience with the stability of the Tarpon 100, I thought my dad could handle paddling it with Caleb in front of him.  The plan was just to paddle and fish for a little bit with Caleb and to bring him back for his nap shortly after.

Wake up!  Note that we all had our PFD's on...Safety first!

Well, my dad and Caleb did great!  My dad looked pretty comfortable, and Caleb was definitely comfortable because he fell asleep on the water!  When we got to water about 10 feet deep, we rigged our top & bottom rigs with cooked salad shrimp and started fishing.  I tried to help my dad by rigging for him, and at one point I forgot that I took his tackle box.  Everything was going perfectly until that moment...as my dad reached over for the tackle box, he leaned over a little too far and PLOP!  He and Caleb turtled right in front of my eyes.  It felt like it all happened in slow motion.  The surprised look in my dad's eyes as the boat slowly rolled over will never escape my memory... 

Luckily everyone had their PFDs on, and no one got hurt.  My dad quickly got Caleb into my boat, and I talked him through the process of how to right the kayak and how to get back in.  I have never experienced a turtle myself, so I had to actually go off of what I had heard people share on MKF.  If it wasn't for the experience shared by the great guys on the forum, I don't think I would have known how to help my dad.  The only casualty from that fiasco was a lost rod and reel with an X-rap on it.  That's okay, because the most precious cargo was safe and sitting in front of me.  We then proceeded to get all the floating tackle boxes out of the water, and luckily one of the rods I gave my dad to use was leashed to the holder, so he was still able to fish.  As he reeled the line back in, he actually had a croaker on it - he caught the first fish of the day!

My wet dad with the first fish of the day.

After letting Caleb play with the fish a little, I asked my dad if he was okay, and if he felt comfortable being on the water alone.  He said that he's not afraid of a little water, so I paddled Caleb back to shore for his nap.  He actually fell back asleep on the way in, and woke up just as we pulled up to shore.  My mom and wife had watched the whole turtling scene, but were surprisingly calm about it. Thank goodness!

The norm for the day.

I paddled back to my dad and asked if he had caught anything.  He said he caught 3 small ones that he let go, which was disappointing to hear...but then he pulled the stringer out of the water with 4 or 5 croakers.  He caught enough for dinner before I even caught one!  I quickly dropped my rig down, and started a fun day of pretty consistent croaker action.  The largest one I caught was 13 inches, while the majority of the fish were in the 8 to 10 inch range.  There were a lot of throwbacks.  I've said it before, but I think croaker are pretty strong fighters for their size.  Many atimes I hooked up with a fish, and was hopeful for a 13 to 14 incher, but was greeted on the surface by a puny 8 incher.  

Dad hooked up with a skate. "Woah! I got a huge one!"

Around 5PM the wind picked up on the bay side, and we wanted to grill some fish for dinner at the park before heading home, so we decided to head back in.  We quickly packed up the van, and went to the fish cleaning area by the boat ramp.  I loved the fact that they had a place to clean fish on site!  My dad and I scaled and cut the fish while my mom washed them out with water.  The job went pretty quickly with the three of us working together.  I wanted to try a style of preparing fish that Mustafa from MKF shared, which is to cut a fish in half like a butterfly from the top to the bottom.  It was actually easier than I thought, and resulted in a clean cut fish.

Everyone's excited about the catch!

I want my kitchen to be like this.

We finished cleaning the fish and the fish-cleaning area, and headed to the picnic area where we had an hour left to grill and eat our dinner.  We ate our dinner, the boys played on the playground a bit, and then we packed up to start our trip back home.  Today was a most memorable day that I am sure I will never forget.  A delicious picnic on the beach with my family, a turtle experience with my dad and son, a banner day of catching fish with my dad, and a delicious grilled fish dinner as the sun prepared to set over the beach.  I look forward to having many more days like today in the future.

Mattawoman Meet & Greet

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On June 8th, I attended the June Meet & Greet for the MKF group.  This time I took my friend JC along to give him some relaxing time on the water after some major changes he went through, including a move with his wife.  The weather for the scheduled M&G did not look promising, but we went anyway - after all, weather forecasters don't have a good track record for predicting the weather correctly. 

JC by the launch area.  
This creek is one of my favorite places, for its scenery.

We arrived at Slavin's ramp early in the morning and saw plenty of other kayakers from the group unloading.  We quickly unloaded and hit the water, eager to get into some nice snakeheads.  Well, the excitement kind of wore off after the first several hours of not catching anything.  I did catch a feisty 13 inch largemouth bass while trolling a white chatterbait, but that was it for most of the morning.

My only bass of the day.

The water was pretty high from the rain a couple days earlier, so there were a lot of submerged areas in the lily pads that I could explore.  I even got so bored I thought I'd try fishing while standing up in my kayak.  I was pleasantly surprised by the stability of my 10 foot Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100.  I did spend a good bit of energy and mental power trying to keep my balance instead of fishing, so it wasn't too effective...but it was nice to get off of the seat for a while.  I am liking my Tarpon 100 more and more each time I go out with it - it's light, it's easy to maneuver, has decent speed, and now I can add its stability to the list of advantages.  Now if I can just figure out how to keep it still in current and wind while fishing it'll be perfect.

It was neat to see drops of water on top of the lily pads.  
They looked like sparkling gems from a distance.

Lunch was schedule for noon at Grinder's Seafood, so I stopped my snakehead hunt around 10AM, and anchored up to do some catfishing.  I got to meet a new MKF'er, Jeremy, as I fished next to him.  He was actually the only one to catch a snakehead in the group that I fished with that morning.  I soaked some cooked shrimp in the water while we chatted some, and pulled in several catfish of various species - channel, blue, and some other catfish with an abnormally large head.  A little while later, I met up with JC and we raced back in to beat the rain that started.  We lost.  The forecasted rain finally came, and we were drenched by the time we got back in.

JC and I didn't catch our targeted fish, but we still caught fish.  I caught a largemouth bass and several catfish, while JC ended the day with a channel catfish and a largemouth bass.  We quickly packed up and went to Grinder's for some good food and fun storytelling with the group. It's always a fun time hanging out with the fishing buddies at MKF.

Susquehanna Flats

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After I had my successful trip to the Susquehanna Flats last year, I told my friend Trey that he had to come and join me this year to catch some Chesapeake Bay Rockfish.  He's more of a freshwater angler, typically hooking up with Largemouth Bass in the local lakes by his home in western Virginia.  He has never fished for Striped Bass before, and I wanted to share the fun and excitement of reeling one in with him.

The calm Susky Flats

So for a whole year, we waited in eager anticipation for catch and release season to open on the Flats.  We  had a couple schedule conflicts in the beginning of the season, but finally settled on a date when both of us were free to make a trip to Havre de Grace to fish.  The year-long wait was finally over. Unfortunately, the weeks leading up to the trip only yielded poor reports of Rockfish in the Susquehanna Flats, and I was losing confidence that we would actually hook up with any Rockfish.  I let my friend know about the reports, and suggested some other alternatives like fishing for Catfish, or maybe even joining the Mid-Atlantic Kayak Bass Fishing tournament.  He was okay with the odds of not catching anything, so we stuck with our plan and made preparations to launch from Millard Tydings Memorial Park at sunrise on Saturday April 27th.


We got to the ramp at exactly 6:00AM, and met fellow MKF forum members DaveFX35 and Yak Fish.  They have had a couple trips under their belt already this year, so we chatted a little to talk about our plans for the day and to discuss what techniques we would try.  It seemed the name of the game for kayak fishing the Susquehanna Flats was trolling jerkbaits.  The Flats is a huge body of water, and the fish are typically schooled up in small areas, so trolling is just the easiest way to cover all that water to find them.

Trey's all set and ready to go.

Trey and I were lucky to get a parking spot immediately next to the ramp, so we just carried our kayaks and gear down to the floating dock and rigged up there.  Within the next hour we were on the water and ready to paddle into the big expanse of water known as the Susquehanna Flats.  We stuck with Yak Fish at first, and he suggested that we spread out to cover more water, and we could call each other up if we hooked up with any fish.  That sounded good, so Yak Fish went further north, and Trey and I headed straight east from the marina.

White Perch on a crankbait.

I trolled a Rapala XR-10 in black and white on one rod, and a silver Rattle Trap on a second rod.  Trey trolled 2 shallow-diving crankbaits that he uses for Largemouth Bass fishing.  We started zig-zagging across the water, while heading South when I saw a group of boats gathered together on the East side of the Flats.  I suggested to Trey that we check it out, so we started paddling over.  At one point we hit some water about 4 feet in depth, and Trey said he hooked up with a Shad on one of his crankbaits.  I don't think I've ever heard of Shad hitting crankbaits, so that was interesting.  Trey got the skunk off him early, and apparently the fish was pretty decent in size (I didn't get to see it) so he was happy to have caught a fish at all today.  He wanted to see if he could catch any more, so he started casting his crankbait and working it in that area, and he started hooking up with some small white perch!  I couldn't believe it...it hasn't even been an hour yet and he's out-fishing me 3-to-0! 

28 inch beauty.

After snapping some pictures of his micro-catches, we continued on toward the group of boats when....I heard my rod bouncing up and down!  A fish on my rod with the X-Rap!  I took hold of the fishing rod, and fought for a good couple minutes to get the fish in.  When I caught sight of it, I knew it was an active, decent sized Rockfish with 2 treble hooks on its lips.  I've watched videos showing how to extract hooks from your flesh, but I didn't want to ever have to try it out on myself or anyone I know...so I was in no hurry to get the fish on board.  After a couple good drag-pulling runs, the fish was calm enough to get on the boat.  A nice, fat, 28 inch Rockfish.  My biggest fish ever!  From shore, pier and boat.  I took a couple pictures of the beauty, and Trey also took a couple pics of me and her together, then back to the water she went.  Luckily the fight didn't wear her out too much - she swam right off as soon as she got wet.

17" Bass on an XR-10

Look at all those holes on its lips.  This guy does not learn....

 Excited about the catch, I called Yak Fish and DaveFX35 to let them know about the conditions of the catch.  4 feet of water, paddling east, on an XR-10.  Hopefully with those facts, they can catch some fish too.  Unfortunately, for the next 5 hours we trolled all over the flats from 4 feet to 10 feet and not another Rockfish was caught by anyone in our group.  However, it still was not a bust.  Trey and I actually hooked up with a combined 5 Largemouth Bass in the middle of the flats!  Each time I hooked up with one I was hopeful that it was a Striped Bass because of how hard the initial hits were.  Susquehanna Bass are very stocky and can give up a good fight.  What was interesting was that all 5 of them were 17 inches long.  No shorter, no longer.  With the non-existent Rockfish, the Largemouth Bass were welcome by-catches of the day.

Trey's 17" Bass on a shallow-diving Crankbait.

We called it quits around noon, and spent about 30 minutes paddling back to the launch ramp.  We loaded up the gear and went to the outdoor grill that they have next to the park and marina.  The food was pretty good, and the atmosphere of being in the sun by the water with lots of people enjoying the day was great.  Though I wouldn't say the trip was a success in terms of catching loads of Rockfish, it was still a successful day in that neither of us got skunked, neither of us turtled, I got my personal best fish ever, and Trey is now a fan of Kayak Fishing.

I love pit beef, and I love hush puppies.

Kayak Son Fishin'

The weather's been getting warmer, the days have been getting longer, and I've been itching to try taking my 3 year-old son, Caleb, on my kayak with me.  I had plans to go kayak fishing on the Susquehanna Flats with a friend of mine this weekend, and he has never fished from a kayak before.  We thought it would be a good idea to get his feet wet by taking him to a small lake in my neighborhood the evening before.  Since it was going to be a quick trip to a small lake, and the weather has been nice, I thought it would also be a good opportunity to take my son out on the water with me.

Future Kayak Anglers

Right after work I hurried home to load up my kayaks and to pick up my son to go kayaking.  My friend arrived shortly after I finished loading up the 'yaks and we made our way to the lake.  He's a bigger guy than I am, so I gave him the Prowler 13 to fish in, and I took the Tarpon 100 with Caleb.  The Tarpon 100 is a great small water kayak!  It is light, quick to set up (the seat is permanently attached, so you don't have to rig it in when you are setting up), tracks decently well, and it is super stable.

Safety first!  Caleb in his brand new PFD.

I sat my son in front of me as I paddled along, and he had a great time.  He helped me paddle the boat, helped me reel in fish (a Crappie and a Largemouth Bass), and even took my picture for me.  As the sun started to set, we packed up and headed home for dinner and some nice rest for the big day that my friend and I had coming up the next morning.

Why is there a lemon juice bottle in the picture, you ask?  I'll explain in a later post...

A crappie!

You can always tell when Caleb takes the picture...his fingers show up on the edges.