It was a sad day: Newport

[YakAttak]

It all started about a month ago. I was having nothing to do and was surfing on BD then found the kayak sub-forum, which led me to this forum. Then a week later, a friend who has 2 kayaks asked me to join him for a kayak and fishing session in Long Beach bay. It was fun, my friend caught a lot of croakers with mussels, I was throwing swimbait and picked up quite a few spotted bay bass, couple legals, and some short halis. I was hooked and spent a lot of my free time here on BWE reading and researching. One week later, with the limitted buget, I bought my first kayak, an Ocean Scramber, used, but good enough to be rigged up for fishing the bay I guess. I was happy and excited. Spent 2 weeks gathering stuffs spent all the time I had during those 2 weeks rigged it up with 2 flush mount rod holders, added a egg crate with a custom "bucket" bait tank with all the needed plumbings and 4 rod holders, running all the wires and added a hummingbird 595ci FF. Waited day by day until Sunday for the grand opening of my kayak. Saturday night, I put everything on the kayak to get used setting it up so I would have to spent less time at the beach and more time to fishing. Everything is completed. I arranged stuffs in different bags so I have an easier time locating them.

Sunday, arrived to Newport kid beach @ 5am, set up my kayak and realized I must had left the bag with all the leashes in the backyard. Figured it couldn't be that bad with out the leashes in the bay, so I proceeded and launched around 6am. It was windy with offshore winds but it was a nice day with full of expectations on my new little toy.

And the most depressing day of my fishing life began.

While paddling out to the bait barge, as we were about a hundred ft away I switched on the pump to fill the baiit tank with water. Mettered a lot of fish on a spot that we just passed through so I turned to the left to talk to my friend of coming back here later to fish. It was right then I got hit by a sideway wave from an open-party charter boat and flipped over.. My first instint was to grab my gears but everything went by so fast, and I could only grab my tackle box. By the time I flipped my yak back and got back on it. I wanted to cry, all my rods were gone, galf, landing net, battery, anchor, everything, just gone. There was something extremely uncomfortable stuck at my chest, my heart sank looking at my empty kayak with I spent weeks hoping, dreaming and rigging. The gears which I spent countless time researching and saving to get, all were my favorites which I selected to accompany me to my first kayak trip. GONE. Only my sabiki rod is left

I can't quite imagine why I would flip too easily in the bay, not on open water. I had been on rental kayak and my friends kayak many time and had never flipped so easily. Maybe it was the way my yak was built? I have no knowledge in yak design, but the only thing I noticed was my Ocean Scrambler's width is significant smaller than my friends' no-brand yak and others that I saw at the launch that day. Was it the smaller width with the added bait tank half full with water, or was it me? I mean I don't have experience with yak in open water, but I've been on one many time in the bays. I don't know and kept asking myself why did I flipped so easily. I said easily because 30 mins later of my initial I was sitting next to my friend fishing with my sabiki rod, I got flipped again.

After that, I just got discourage and didn't feel like fishing anymore, plus the cold was kicking in with the wind and all the wet clothes so I went back to the landing beach. While at the beach, I met and chatted with a nice guy who also a member here on BWE. His name is Wes, and he was on a red hobie (forgot a model), who offered condolence and asked for my phone number and said he'll give me a call in case he snag any of my gear while trolling for halis. Thanks Wes, no matter if you run into my gear or not.

Total lost was around a grand of long time savings and collecting.

New Landing net, bait net: $40
New Galf: $30
Carrot Stick spinning w/ Abu reel: $150
Carrot Stick Gold 7'10 & Shimano 201 TE: $500
Abu Garcia Volatile & Daiwa Lexa 300: $300
Battery & Box: $90
Anchor & Rope: $25
Pliers: $10
Sandals: found 1 , the other drifted away
Filet Knife
Sunglasses


It was a sad and depressing day indeed. I spent over an hr try to snag my gears with a trebble hook and sinker but didn't run into them. Maybe the current drifted it somewhere else in the bay. Maybe someone with a food down imaging FF might be able to locate them and have some use of them.

I'm sorry, I was lurking and reading on this forum for the last couple weeks, and was really looking forward to post my first report here with a nice catch but not, something caught me .

[makobob]

Yes it is depressing. Now take that empty yak, put on your life preserver and learn all you can. Play with it empty, fill the bait tank, play with it full. See what it takes to flip it. LEARN the boats limits and yours, learn how to take a wake. Get to know your machine. Then go to your local OEX dealer and ask questions and demo. Find the boat that is right for you. Look used, look for demo deals. You know this will only make you a better yaker. Good luck, you are still safe! And remember this lesson, tye things down, it was an expensive lesson. My lesson was in the surf, I thank god survived it.

[dorado50]

[QUOTE=makobob;161092]Yes it is depressing. Now take that empty yak, put on your life preserver and learn all you can. Play with it empty, fill the bait tank, play with it full. See what it takes to flip it.


He just went through all that!!!

[jorluivil]

someone once asked me, "why do you have so many f-en leashes on your yak"

[Raskal311]

I flipped on my first trip out too and lost about $800 in gear. I flipped after turning back reaching for my game clip 30 yards from bait barge. I was surprised how easy the cobra flipped. my center shifted and in I went; it was that easy.

[Poxy Boggards]

Dylan,

It was nice meeting you even though you had just gone through the ringer.

I didn't manage to find any of your gear after several drifts through the area you mentioned.

Keep your chin up, and take this expensive lesson for what it is worth. Much better to lose some replaceable gear then to get hurt or end up dead. I second the recomendation to take out the yak and get more comfortable with it before heading out with a bunch of gear again.

It was pretty choppy out there by the barge, and the cattle boats don't ever seem to follow the 10 MPH rule and kick up huge wakes, especially out near the entrance to the harbor. There were a couple of times when I was turned around getting a bait yesterday that I felt that balance shift happeneing but I was able to correct in time.

Keep at it and don't give up! This is just a speed bump on the way to killer fishing for you!

[lowprofile]

dude, that sucks! i did my first surf launch in samo and took a beating, broke a rod and almost lost another. my leash even broke on it.

Originally Posted by jorluivil

someone once asked me, "why do you have so many f-en leashes on your yak"

definitely invest in leashes! i'm terrible about this but I just got new material to make all new leashes.

[dorado50]

A sad day indeed, I feel for ya bro.....Just remember the ass is the center of gravity 100% of the time!!!

[ful-rac]

sorry to hear you lost all your gear...well live and learn, when you fill your bait tank/bucket that can really screw with your stability. When that swell hit you and if your bait tank was filled too high, it could possibly pull you over. Get back on your kayak and try again. Your not the only one that has lost gear.....

[skrilla]

Scrambler owner here. It is a slim hull, fairly stable... but not stand-on-it stable. That's why I leash everything down and am prepared to flip at any time. Learn to keep your head above the yak at all times. The second you lean over to see what's in the water is the second you fall over. Also with wakes try and hit them perpendicular. A good wake if hit dead on sideways will rock you no matter what yak you are on.

[JeffB]

I feel for you. It's the worst when you spill out in open water. I have done it twice. Once last year while lobstering south of bird rock in LJ during the red tide and the second time when I tried standing up in my Revo to look at some action going on near me, epic mistake, lol! I was lucky enough to recover all my gear however.

I have a custom made Phenix rod that is killer, I will give you a super special price on it if you PM me. Does not apply to anyone else....

Sneak peak of part of it....

[alanw]

Aww man that really stinks. I hope you can get help recovering some of it.

If you can, sell or trade the yak for a more stable (wider) one. It can't be much fun fishing if you're worried about flipping all the time.

I know how much you were looking forward to having some great kayak fishing adventures, but I hope you don't let this stop you from getting back out there and landing some fish.

[easyday]

First time ever on the ocean in a yak, and me a buddy decided to launch at San Onofre beach on a 4-5 foot day. Got rolled to many times to count lost about 500 worth of stuff and a rod my father in law had given me. I feel your pain. At least you live to tell the story.

[YakAttak]

Originally Posted by easyday

First time ever on the ocean in a yak, and me a buddy decided to launch at San Onofre beach on a 4-5 foot day. Got rolled to many times to count lost about 500 worth of stuff and a rod my father in law had given me. I feel your pain. At least you live to tell the story.

Thank you bro. I'm sorry to hear you were in the same situation. I thought I was ready, but now I realized I still have so much to learn .