Next week I’ll be on Lake Harding, Georgia, beginning my pre-fishing practice for the Georgia Kayak Tournament Trail. I’ll be joined by Mark, Adam, and other crew from YakAngler.com. I can’t wait. I’ve already shipped my rods and some gear, and will be taking the rest in my luggage. I might have found a source of live bait near the lake, but am fully equipped with a handful of swim baits that should help. Thinking out of the box, I’m probably going to bring a couple salmon lures, just to see what happens….

This week a participant list was posted. We’ll be fishing with some popular names in the Kayak Fishing world including Kayak Bass Fishing author Chad Hoover, Stan Laughlin of Capt. Dick Enterprises, and more.

I did find myself on a fish the other week though. I was invited by another local kayak angler to do a little bass fishing while he was test, um, peddling in a Hobie Outback. We had just a couple hours on the water, but I picked up the first and only fish of the day early on. It was a 16.75″ Small Mouth Bass which hit on a blue/chrome lipless crankbait.

And there was a little bit of live video to go with it. Here’s the recording:

by the way: you can be alerted immediately when I’m broadcasting live video from the kayak by following me on twitter or facebook.

We’re just 20 days from the Georgia Kayak Tournament event at Lake Harding. I’ll be on the lake the day before doing my pre-fishing and hopefully hooking up with some of the first striped bass of my life. I’m looking forward to the event, and have been gearing up as much as my meager budget allows. We’ll be camping on Lake Harding, and I’ll be fishing from an Ocean Kayak Trident 11. This will allow me to keep using my custom rodpod lid, but I think I should get my own T11 on the water for the first time to get used to the differences it has with my usual T15.

The sturgeon season for 2010 has been announced and it was a grim as I expected it to be. I’ll only be fishing for them a few more times this year.

I’m starting a new job in two weeks. Actually, its the same job I’ve had for most of the last year, but just at a new location (same company), with a new title, and a bit of a pay bump. It does change my days off, and I’ll now be working every day of sturgeon retention.

That’s all for now, see you next time I’m on the water

I’m going to try and find some steel reinforced webbing to make new ones.

Whoa.

While the event is 6 weeks away, I’ve been scrambling. I have never been to Georgia, let alone fished there. In fact, I’ve not fished anywhere further east than the Weber River in Ogden, UT (and that was a single day attempt at fly fishing). We’ll also be fishing for fish I’ve never even fished for.

The three target fish are:

I’ve not fished for any of these since they’re not found in Oregon, and Striped Bass are high on my “Much Catch” list. Right up there with Tarpon, Dorado, and Halibut. So, needless to say, I’m definitely excited at the possibility. I’ll hopefully find myself on the other two as well to complete the Slam at the tournament.

I’ve been working hard at finding all the information I can. Unfortunately that information is fairly elusive. There’s a ton of information out there on catching Stripers in the salt, but very little about freshwater. There doesn’t even appear to be any good bait/tackle shops within a close vicinity of the lake we’re fishing at! This is going to be a very harrowing experience.

I’m also looking forward to the new gear! New rods and reels that will help me fight these monsters. It comes at a good time, as my return to the PacNW will see the onset of the Spring Chinook season, and I’ll need the same gear!.

At this point I’m leaning towards an Okuma Baidarka kayak rod or two, and an Aba Garcia Ambassador 6500 conventional reel. I have a couple Ambassadors right now, but they’re smaller 5500 series. From what I have read, the larger 6500’s are a much better way to go. . I’d love a Revo Toro 60, but I really can’t justify that price tag.

Since live bait is an option, I’ve also toyed with the idea of getting an Okuma baitfeeding spinning reel. It MIGHT be useful when I’m plunking for sturgeon, so it would have a use outside of Georgia. But since there’s no live bait use in Oregon, it’s hard to say. It would probably be useful salmon trolling too.

That’s all for now. Time for me to get back to research and daydreaming!

So, lets get started.

There is, obviously, the difference in length. The Yellow T11 is, as told by OK, 11′5″ in total length. The Orange T15 is more than four feet longer at 15′7″. If you have a rudder, like I do, the total length grows five inches to end up at an even 16′ (I think OK kinda planned that one). The T11 is also an inch and a half wider than the T15. A fact the door leading from my garage to my basement can attest to. Its a tough squeeze to put my 29″ wide T15 through the 30″ doorway, and impossible to put the 30.5″ wide T11 though without going in sideways. This extra width gives the T11 a similar stability to the T15, and a superior weight capacity when compared to other kayaks in the 11-12 foot range.

Starting at the cockpit area, since this is where you’ll be spending most of your time, there isn’t a whole lot of noticeable difference. But, the differences they do have are important to note. First off is the length of the cockpit. Measuring from the seatback to the end of the footwell, we find the T11 is actually longer at 52″ vs the T15’s 50″ space. I think this measurement surprised me more than anything else. In either case, there is a lot of room. Even my 34″ inseam doesn’t take up all the room the T15 has to offer, let alone the 2″ extra on the T11. The T15 also has the misfortune of having molded footbraces. This does make for more work on getting things setup just right. With molded footwells you setup the seat based on where you’re legs are most comfortable. On the T11 and T13, with their adjustable foot braces, you setup the seat at the most comfortable position, then you can set up the foot braces as needed. It is most definitely easier to set the seat comfort without having to worry about food placement at the same time.

I almost didn’t notice the difference in the seating area. The T15 has a smaller seating area as well! From the seatback to the front lip of the RodPod is only 15.5″ compared to the T11’s 18.5″ area. When measuring other areas of the boat, its easy to see that OK placed the RodPod slightly forward on the T11. The raised area between the seat and RodPod would be good for a shallow cupholder, especially if you make your own RodPod like I did.

Working our way forward, you’ll see the one think the T11 lacks when compared to the other two Trident kayaks – A Sonar Shield. With the length limitations of the T11, there just isn’t a way to get a Sonar Shield installed without making the front hatch and the Rod Pod completely different than the rest of the Tridents. Fortunately there is plenty of real estate between the RodPod and the front hatch for as many as four rodholders. While you don’t NEED that many up there, you could easily get a mount for your fishfinder plus another mount or two for fishing rods.

Beyond that there is no design differences, other than length. The front bow hatches are both identical and 25″ long. The T15 has more of a nose at 25″ forward of the hatch compared to the T11’s 14″. An interesting internal note: On the T11 and T13s, the OK factory battery bag is fitted forward of the bow hatch, whereas the T15 has the battery back installed aft of the hatch. Why? I dunno, but it is something I noticed long ago.

Working our way to the aft of the Ocean Kayaks, we see more similarity with very slight differences. The biggest difference here is the rear tank well. The T11’s shorter length also gives it a shorter 30″ long well. The T15 is outfitted with a 33″ well. Not a whole lot of difference, but it something to notice. The T11 and the T13 are also outfitted with molded indentations that will hold a 5gallon bucket – a favorite of East Coast style rigging. The T15 does not come with this molded area. All of the Trident kayaks have the molded insert for Plano Marine Boxes (this is my least favorite feature), and all tankwells are 16″ wide. Beyond the tankwell the T11 has a modest 14″ stern deck where the T15 boasts 33″ of real estate.

So, looking from above, there are your differences.

But, wait, there’s more!

What more could there be?

Well, to start out is the side profile. Now, I don’t have cool ways to measure all the side profile of upsweep and whatnot, but I can make little notices of the little things that matter. The first thing I noticed was that the RodPod sticks up higher than the side of the kayak. When I threw the T11 on top of the car for the first time, the bow was held up on the RodPod. I had to slide the kayak back so that my crossbar fell between the RodPod and the bow hatch to secure the kayak while it was on its gunwales. This isn’t the case with my T15, so I took a few more measurements. First off measuring only the front left scupper the T11 is a thin 2″ when compared to the T15s 3″. The footwell measured a whole 5.5″ up to the area between the RodPod and the front hatch (i suppose i should have measure the gunwale here too) with the RodPod sticking up another 2″ above that. Now, on the T15, the footwell-to-space fore of the RodPod is only 4″, with a RodPod height of 1.5″. With the kayak upsidedown on the water, the T15 will not take on water if the RodPod lid is not strapped down (don’t ask me how I know), since the RodPod will end up above the waterline. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case with the T11, and the kayak will likely take on water.

While the kayak is upside down, its as good of time as any to point out the two differences under the kayaks!

Both kayaks, being Tridents, have the Hummingbird transducer compatible scuppers. Interestingly enough, the scuppers are slightly different, I noticed the T11 has a few dimples than the T15 does not. I would imagine that these would help the T11 drain faster, but cannot, nor do I wish to, confirm that theory.

The two Tridents also show different hull design. The longer T15 is made for the long haul, and with its larger size is more prone to wind cocking. I’d imagine its slightly different design will help keep it holding a true course.

So, what does all this mean? Not much of anything. Just me with two kayaks of the same model, but different lengths, side by side, to see what the differences are And we’re not talking much. All the excess aside, there still isn’t a lot of difference. From the end of the tank well up to the front hatch the T11 is using 109″ of kayak, while the T15 is using up 129″ of space. Take out the space used by the Sonar Shield, and there’s just about 8″ difference in the user space of the kayak. Now, its entirely possible that I need to remeasure most of this. “Measure twice…” they say, and I certainly didn’t. I was mostly interested in exactly what the differences really were in the end.

For a couple weeks in August, however, all of that changes.
Much more than a day of fishing, McKim will be guiding multi-day remote excursions into Misty Fjords National Wilderness and Foggy Bay. Here anglers will be able to fish for halibut, salmon, rockfish, and plenty of crabbing as well. Photography will be plentiful with bears and eagles roaming the area. I know the second week of fishing is already booked solid, but rumor has it there is still a spot or two available for the first week

I’m dying to get into that first week.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like the budget is going to work out. We just bought new car which has pretty much wiped out funds that would have gotten me to Alaska. I’m still thinking I should go ahead and make a deposit, and try my best to get funds together before the trip.

But

Yes, but…

There were a couple items that I came across that I had to share.

The first thing I found was from On The Water Sports. Robert Dinubilo not only brought a tricked out NuCanoe to the Portland Boat Show, but he also brought along some Stow-B-Low Crab Pots. I’ve seen these online before, but never in person. The Stow-B-Low is a PVC framed collapsible crab pot. It has a rather ingenious design that gives it an umbrella-like folding function, so it folds up, and sets up, in very quick fashion. It comes with its own carrying case too. Folded it would be easy to get a half dozen pots in most kayak rear tank wells! 6×6x30, all folded. When open it has a LARGE 34″x34″ foot print. Being PVC it’s very light weight, so you do want to get some weight in there to help it fight the currents. But its pyramid shape will hold well, and likely better than square traps, requiring less weight than your average trap would require.

If I could change this product, I would put the weight inside the PVC. Nothing to have to remember when setting the pots once that is accomplished. It’s still a great device. Find out more info at http://www.onthewatersports.com or http://www.stow-b-low.net

Another great product has been around for over 15 years, yet I don’t think I’ve ever noticed it before. Perhaps I only noticed because I now fish from a kayak so religiously…

American Outdoor Coolers are the best soft-sided cooler I have EVER seen. They’re thickly insulated, and completely water/leak proof inside and out! A video I saw earlier today doing a bit more research on these coolers shows one survive a 120+°F day in Death Valley. I would consider the 24 Pack the ideal size for kayak fishing. At this size you’re looking at a cooler that is 17″x10″x12″, small enough to only take up half of your tank well, but big enough to keep a case of beer, um, I mean, all your bait, lunch, and catch cold for a whole day of fishing.

The AO Coolers also ofter great attachment points to keep your cooler secure. I’m just going to have to talk them into getting my color though. Find more at http://www.aocoolers.com

But

Yes, but…

There were a couple items that I came across that I had to share.

The first thing I found was from On The Water Sports. Robert Dinubilo not only brought a tricked out NuCanoe to the Portland Boat Show, but he also brought along some Stow-B-Low Crab Pots. I’ve seen these online before, but never in person. The Stow-B-Low is a PVC framed colapsable crab pot. It has a rather ingenious design that gives it an umbrella-like folding function, so it folds up, and sets up, in very quick fashion. It comes with its own carrying case too. Folded it would be easy to get a half dozen pots in most kayak rear tank wells! 6×6x30, all folded. When open it has a LARGE 34″x34″ foot print. Being PVC it’s very light weight, so you do want to get some weight in there to help it fight the currents. But its pyramid shape will hold well, and likely better than square traps, with less weight than your average trap would require.

If I could change this product, I would put the weight inside the PVC. Nothing to have to remember when setting the pots once that is accomplished. It’s still a great device. Find out more info at http://www.onthewatersports.com or http://www.stow-b-low.net

Another great product has been around for over 15 years, yet I don’t think I’ve ever noticed it before. Perhaps I only noticed because I now fish from a kayak so religiously…

American Outdoor Coolers are the best softsided cooler I have EVERY seen. They’re thickly insulated, and completely water/leak proof inside and out! A video I saw earlier today doing a bit more research on these coolers shows one survive a 120+°F day in Death Valley. I would consider the 24 Pack the ideal size for kayak fishing. At this size you’re looking at a cooler that is 17″x10″x12″, small enough to only take up half of your tank well, but big enough to keep a case of beer, um, I mean, all your bait, lunch, and catch cold for a whole day of fishing.

The AO Coolers also ofter great attachment points to keep your cooler secure. I’m just going to have to talk them into getting my color though. Find more at http://www.aocoolers.com

Broadcasts are usually only 5 minutes long, but have run up to 10 minutes. The live feeds are a significant drain on my battery, so I’m usually not on for too long. I usually fish on Wednesdays and/or Thursdays

Here are some videos from last week.

Live from Walter Wirth This is why I usually don’t go hand held. I think I had hit the start/stop button on accident. Not sure.

Live from Smith & Bybee 1

Live from Smith & Bybee 2

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