Your stupidest mistake kayak fishing?

[JohnMckroidJr]

Always confirm that the kayak seat is well fastened to the kayak. Once flipped in 200+ft of water and the Hobie vantage seat came off.... attached to it was my VHF radio, dry bag with brand new phone, wallet and car keys.

[BenCantrell]

Ouch, there are some painful ones here.

My only oopsy was paddling hard into the wind one day, and every few strokes my paddle would brush up against the handle of one of my spinning reels. Didn't realize I was slowly working the rod butt out of the rod holder. After a while I noticed I wasn't hitting it any more, so I turned around to look, and sure enough there was an empty rod holder. Ugh.

[GTboosted]

The first day out on the new outback I dropped a $500 set up straight into the water.



I was fishing on a Pro angler before the outback. What I would do is lay the rods on the side between the seat and raised lip of the hull. Well there is no such space on the outback. I laid it down, looked away for a second and went to grab it and it was gone.

[Hypersion]

Overloaded the back of a tandem cobra with me (250+lb) a crate and some rods. Forgot to check the drain plug and the back was filling up with water. I realized something didn't seem right and I paddled back to the docks. Flip about 20 feet from the shore. Cell phone got wet even thought it was in a water proof bag and lost some plano containers filled with weights.

[Gflann]

Coming back in on a Cobra Fish N’ Dive. Thought I had tied everything down for the surf. Poor timing got the best of me and I found myself frantically steering down the face of a wave with my paddle. Knocked the only non tied down rod/reel into the water, and stared in that direction to try and get a good location in my memory to swim back out to it. Ended up rolling on the wave and a large yard sale ensued.

The LJ tourists enjoyed the show.

[shawny]

Wow!! This thread really made me feel better Some expensive and pride-crushing mistakes y'all experienced..

But if kayak fishing's taught me anything, it's to always stay humble and err on the side of caution no matter experience level..

Keep the stories coming!!

[Newyakfisher]

Originally Posted by Gflann

Coming back in on a Cobra Fish N’ Dive. Thought I had tied everything down for the surf. Poor timing got the best of me and I found myself frantically steering down the face of a wave with my paddle. Knocked the only non tied down rod/reel into the water, and stared in that direction to try and get a good location in my memory to swim back out to it. Ended up rolling on the wave and a large yard sale ensued.

The LJ tourists enjoyed the show.

Ditto!!

Reading some of yours made me feel better too!
I got one story for the book of kayaking screw ups.
I went out to the big lake in castaic and paddled out about 1/2 a mile when some youngsters in a speed boat flew pass me and created some massive wakes.. now at the same time I had just put on a $20 dollars led lighting recharging bass lure.
And set my pole down to grab a drink out of my cooler..
when the waves hit.. the kayak rocked hard and my pole, reel, and new lure went over board and slowly sank to the bottom of the lake! Now I invested in a leash and some nicer rod holders to save me the embarrassment in the near future.