[Mitchw123456]

Copy and paste from another site, so thats where all of the names are from... I can't wait until July when I go searching for tuna out of the yak!

Things started out very slow on a nasty foggy morning. You could barely see the ships in the channel when we launched. After a small wait I finally hooked up a BU.

End result:

This fish got me good, as I leadered him and threw in in my lap his dorsal spine stuck me in the calf I didn't know it until lastnight, but some of it broke off in the leg. A little Chloroseptic (ya know the throat stuff) and a razer knife i hd it out in about 15 minutes. Anyway back to the fish..

Soon after I got him in and released I heard Warrens (Big Perm) clicker going off. AFter a looong paddle over to him I got a pic of his his BU. This is odd Warren and myself never catch fish together, and we are the only ones to catch a fish as of now.

A few minutes later I hooked up with a heavy fish that took two tried to flip him in the boat.

Things slowed waay down again and Mike, (Mythman) caught me in the act of sleeping, again. I've been sick here lately so thats my excuse for testing the stability of the x factor
[]

Everyone, except Barry (pawpaw) paddled in about noon with only the two fish caught. As I was standing on the sand not really wanting to go home I looked out and saw this:

That was enough to convince me to paddle out and fish for awhile. Emmedmed1 (Jorge) paddled back out and snapped this pic for him

This was an entertaining battle as he came off his anchor and this BU drug him almost a comlete circle around a boat.

After that I decided to paddle back out and no sooner than I got clipped on my anchor barry was hooked up again

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1367.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1369.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1370.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1373.jpg

Then as soon as I got back on anchor I landed one myself
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1374.jpg

And then it was Barrys turn again
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1375.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1378.jpg

I just thought this pic was funny, I wish I could have gotten the 30' Grady adn the mini Sportfisher that was anchored up within a 100 yards of us

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1382.jpg

Ohwell, it was back to barry after about a 5 minute wait..
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1384.jpg

I wish I wasn't bouncy around in a wake on this pic but i could get it centered. Look in the background and you can see a crew boat wake breaking. If you think the tugs an ships through big wakes on the dike, you haven't seen anything compared to these big crew boats!
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1387.jpg
And barry fish
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1390.jpg

Barry paddled in to help his coworker that was fishing from the sand. I decided to stick it out a little longer and I'm glad I did. As soon as he hit the sand I found this little guy
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1391.jpg

As soon as I got this one released the next bait out found another BU
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1392.jpg

No sooner than he was released I had a bull red make an appearance http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l68/Mitchw123456/hsc%203-14-08/IMG_1393.jpg

Things slowed bck down and I paddled back in adn had the truck loaded at 2.

 

[Bellyups]

That must be a lot of fun!!

 

[MrBill]

Very nice report. That's something I've never done. I don't anything about yaks. A few questions for you.

1) Is it uncomfortable sitting in the yak for a period of time?(back hurt)
2) What is the width and length of the yaks?
3) Have you ever tilted the yak over?
4) Can you paddle if you are kneeling?

 

[Mitchw123456]

Very nice report. That's something I've never done. I don't anything about yaks. A few questions for you.

1) Is it uncomfortable sitting in the yak for a period of time?(back hurt)
2) What is the width and length of the yaks?
3) Have you ever tilted the yak over?
4) Can you paddle if you are kneeling?

1. The longest I have sat in mine was about 10 hours when we paddled to some nearshore rigs and I'm almost always comfortable. I do, however, have a fairly pricey high back seat in my yak. They are much more comfortable than you would think.
2. I have a Malibu X Factor, and it is 14'4" long and 33" wide. My other yak is a Malibu Mini-X is it only 9' long and is also 33" wide. Malibu just released another yak called the X13 that is basically just a shorter narrower version of the X factor. I will probably buy one of these also when they get on the market and use it as my bay boat as I believe it will be much faster, but ofcourse it won't be as stable. The only other yak that is wider than the x factor is the Cobra fish and dive. I believe it is 12' long and 36" wide. I hated that boat though as it tracked horribly and paddled like a bathtub.
3. I have only flipped one time unintentional (knock on wood!) and that was because I was trying to paddle through NASTY 4'-5' breakers. Its a pretty interesting expierence to look up at a wave and then have it knock your glasses and hat off, and then all you can see is blue sky. Next all you see is water breaking, and then blue sky again. Its definetly fun. Anyway, many kayaks are much more stable than alot of people think. I like to stand up and pole my yak andsight cast to reds on the flats. I'm knocking on the door of 300lbs and if my big ass can do it I'm fairly certain some little skinny guys should be able to do it!
4. I'm sure you could but it would be more difficult. You are raising your center of gravity by kneeling so you could rock a bit more. More importantly though yaks are designed to let you use your legs and back muscles to helkp you paddle. you do this by rotating and pushing off your foot pegs every other stroke.