By the way Friday night I flipped the W500 over for a full bottom assessment after the last few oyster bar encounters. Wow, thank goodness you shared that torch heated spoon welding technique with me last year. Took about 20 minutes to seal up all the cuts and hack marks all over the bottom of the hulls. Talk about quick and easy I even pulled down Nina’s kayak and fixed up hers too.

When I went in around one I was checking out schools of bait fish and ended up standing so I could see better. So for the entire distance in it was a standing paddle all the way back to Genung’s from the west side of the intercoastal. It’s not far I just went along the south side of the 206 bridge maybe 100 yards from the bridge itself. Anyway got into Genung’s packed up and stopped just down the street a couple of blocks on A1A at the quick mart. Figured a fun day deserved a snack for the drive home in the manner of two nice loaded hotdogs. Came out to the truck to find a folks standing around the back checking out the W500. Two families from Michigan that had arrived for a week of Florida vacation. They had seen me paddling the Wavewalk when they were on the bridge and had stopped for gas right when I pulled into the store. Gave both sets of parents the website info and a quick tour of the boat. The older of the two men said just what you had mentioned on the phone the other day. He hated getting wet and liked boats where he was warm and dry. They lived up near Grayling Michigan, let me know if any orders for boats come from there soon, both men seemed very interested. However both wives commented in the classic manner ” you already have enough boats and canoes you don’t need more”. We’ll see who wins that argument.

Florida fall fishing is set to have a great start. In the next few months it should be wonderful.

Jeff

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

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 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.