WAVEWALK FISHING KAYAKS BLOG » oyster

Gary’s Latest Kayak Fishing Trip Report, Florida

W kayak — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:50:19 +0000

Slow fishing yesterday but the full moon and rising sun made for a great day on the water.
Got a few small trout and one nice one.
I added to the many scratches on the bottom of the hulls by stopping on an oyster bar for lunch and a stretch, but the W remains leak-free.

Gary

Jeff’s First Florida Fall Kayak Fishing Trip

W kayak — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:09:03 +0000

Got a few hours in yesterday fishing as always it seems from Genung’s Fish Camp. Can’t complain about the numbers of fish so the little Qualia spincaster got loads of action from one of the Emmrods. I wanted to send over a few shots of some of the fish out there.
The needle fish are little speedsters tearing into anything that hits the water. They were swimming right along the surface so if your bait hit the water they nailed it first. Many times of course with that narrow snout they missed. Once the bait sunk just a little the jacks would cream it. The biggest were maybe 20 inches but that is enough for a battle royal. If the bait somehow made it to the bottom the pinfish went after it. Wish I had brought some big hooks for them since they are an excellent bait themselves for really big trout.
The day was planned as further experiments with the spincast outfits since they represent the simplest gear for kids and many folks use nothing but them. I also wanted to be able to have follow up for the monthly articles I’ve been writing for Country Life a local newspaper in my fishing column. I did a spincast article recently so I needed more subject material.

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

Kayak Fishing and Oyster Beds

W kayak — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:59:13 +0000

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.

How to Avoid and Repair Scratches in Your Kayak

W kayak — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:14:45 +0000

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.