Just when I thought I was safe

[rossman]

Over the past 12 years of kayak fishing the ocean has given me a survival instinct. The equipment that I carry on my yak is either the result of common safety sense, or as a response to what the ocean has dealt me in the past. As an example; Early in my yak fishing career, I was rolled in the surf at Aliso Creek beach and lost $800 worth of Trinidad outfits. My response was to think that maybe rod leashes might be a good idea during launch and landings, and maybe I should check some surf reports that might tell me if an eight foot swell might be building in the late morning.

Fast forward to this past Thursday. I launched at 4:45 from Doheney. No wind and patchy fog. Set a course for to a waypoint near the red buoy off the headlands. By the time the sun came up, the fog got real serious. I was no more than 50 ft from the buoy and could barely make it out. I could hear it, but not see it. Well I'm prepared for this with a combo sonar and GPS with Navionics chip. If that fails I have a compass. I could hear the Dana fog horn so I was confident I could get back even without electronics, and since I felt the sun would burn this stuff off, I stuck it out. I was having a hard time finding bait so I was moving around quite a bit, from waypoint to waypoint. It is amazing how fog can mess with ya. If I took my eyes off the Steer Arrow for more than a few strokes, I was way off course. I was finally able to find a couple pieces of Sardine and sent them down on a dropper loop. More about that later.

Then came the experience that I was not prepared for, By around 7:00 the fog was still pretty bad but not at it's worst. I decided to have some breakfast which today was going to consist of a coke, a doughnut and a Snickers bar. As usual, I was wolfing this down between casts. I took a bite from the snickers bar and somehow, part of it went down the wrong pipe, and I started to choke. I could not draw a breath, literally to save my life. It was panic city for me. My mind raced through the options that I had. VHF! Nope, I cant talk. Whistle!, Nope can't blow it. Wave my paddle back and forth to try to get someones attention! Nope, I was sure that no one was within 100 ft of me and beyond that it was hopeless. Self induced Heimlich Maneuver! Well maybe, but I'm wearing my PFD with zippers and buckles. I came to the point of believing that "This is it. This is how it will end". I could hear friends and family saying " Well at least he died doing what he loved". Well, thankfully what was blocking my airway was probably a piece of chocolate, and probably started to melt because I was slowly able to get some air into my lungs at least cough a little bit, which made it easier to draw the next breath. If this whole episode lasted a minute, it would surprise me, but it felt like an eternity. Looks like I have to start taking my home tracheotomy kit along with me on my trips.

Anyway, as far as fishing goes, I was only able to make the two sardines and a few larger macs for bait. It was really scarce out there. I managed to get a halibut on each of the sardines. Both barely legal, and both released.

DFG was out there in their Zodiak later in the morning, checking most of the boats but ignoring me and the other two yakers that I saw.