The one and only Jeff McGovern produced these two new kayak fishing movies.
In the first one, Jeff shows a nice sea trout (a keeper), which is his first catch of this year.
In this second movie, Jeff has a guest on board: A Redfish he thinks he recognized from a previous kayak fishing movie he made last year 
This is a new kayak fishing report, and a movie that Jeff shot from the cockpit of his W fishing kayak while he was scouting for fish in low tide near the I-95 206 bridge, in Florida.
Jeff is paddling his fishing kayak carefully between the partially exposed oyster beds, so as not to risk scratching it:
And this is Jeff’s report:
-”Yesterday was finally a day where I actually caught fish to eat. It was all flounder and I ended up catching 14 of them with three of legal size to keep. That many fish made for a great meal here at the house last night. The final dish was a Mediterranean flounder baked in the oven, served with asparagus spears and mashed red potatoes on the side. There were no left overs, the meal was outstanding. Eating like that I think I’ll start considering bringing home fish more often. Flounder are so easy to clean it’s like they were designed as food.
So far as the fishing day it started off almost with a disaster. I had taken the W kayak down the stairs at Shady Oyster and then noticed the huge tug heading toward the 206 bridge. Thank goodness it was not full high tide or the resulting waves would have washed me right back up the stairs. I’ve attached pictures of that tug and the resulting waves heading toward the launch.
It was a beautiful day just a little chilly in the morning but it warmed nicely. The water was very clear and you could see the flounder fighting a good five feet under the W kayak as they came up. Although I changed out lures a bit before I found what they wanted once discovered it was a blast. They ended up wanting a 1/8oz Cotee jig tipped with a Gulp shrimp or a Redfish Magic with a paddle tail in clear green sparkle. As I caught ones that were legal they were just unhooked and tossed into the hull behind me. With a wet rag on top of them they stayed nice and fresh till cleaned then prepared. So goes another successful trip in the W kayak.
– Jeff”
This is another instruction movie from Jeff McGovern, who revisits the same oyster beds in his W fishing kayak, this time at high tide:
Beginning kayak fisherman are warned about the potential damage that shellfish can do to their fishing kayaks. This is especially true with oysters, who grow in shallow water in large communities called ‘oyster beds’.
This movie that Jeff McGovern shot right in the midst of a vast field of oyster beds examines this issue from a close distance:
And since you can’t mention oyster beds without talking about scratches, this blog post might be useful to read.
Going with your kayak over oyster beds, shells, sharp rocks, broken glass, metal debris and even concrete ramps can get its hull scratched. In most cases such scratches are negligible, and you need not pay attention to them. However, if you want to avoid getting your kayak scratched you’d better watch out for signs of such potential hazards in the water – especially if you’re fishing or paddling in shallow water. Needless to mention is the fact that fishing and paddling from a higher position than ordinary kayaks offer you can help a lot in detecting potential problems in the water ahead of time, that is before hitting them. This is yet another advantage the W Kayak offers you, and W Kayak paddlers and fishermen indeed stand up in their boats from time to time to look at the water around them.
When it comes to repairing scratches in polyethylene kayaks the methods are similar and depend on how deep the scratch is.
For superficial scratches we don’t recommend any treatment, but if you insist on doing something you can just flame the scratch using a hand-held, propane blow torch. You should apply the flame over the scratch slowly and cautiously until it disappears or diminishes considerably, while being careful not to overheat the area so as not to cause a local deformation. In any case, flaming alters the color of the polyethylene to a darker hue.
For deep scratches or ‘grooves’ it’s better to heat the end of a metal spoon and apply the hot tip gently and cautiously along the scratch, thus ‘welding’ the surface. Here too, you need to be careful not to overheat the area you’re working on since this would cause the polyethylene to deform. You’d need to protect your hand that’s holding the spoon with a thick glove since metal conducts heat and you might get your fingers burnt.
Keep the work area free of any flammable materials and make sure you’re not accidentally directing the flame at yourself or at other people. Don’t allow children or pets nearby.
If you’re not experienced in working with a propane blow torch you may want to reconsider such a project because it can be dangerous.
As for cracks in a polyethylene kayak, those are rare, and they must be properly fixed. Just flaming or welding won’t be enough to fix a crack, and you’d need to patch it – preferably with an internal patch that you’ll weld over the entire area. This is necessary since even if welded the hull in the cracked area will be weaker than in other places, and it could reopen while you’re paddling your kayak or fishing from it – with dire consequences. If the crack appears above waterline you can reinforce the patch with rivets, but we recommend not to use rivets when making repairs below waterline because we think that drilling holes in the hull below waterline is simple too risky in the long run.