Happy “Sunnie” Labor Day

By Jill Toler

Due to a host of things; such as an infection, a tree on my house, storms, and heat indices that hovered somewhere near “pit of hell”, it has been a while since I have been on my W700. That was all remedied today with a trip to Upper Broad Creek with my other fishing buddy, Marla. Marla knew that I had been kayak fishing and thought she might want to get in on the action so, one day she purchased a kayak from a friend. She needed a maiden voyage and now that Hermine had finally left town, today was the day.

We got launched and Marla was looking comfortable so I pulled out my fly rod and tossed a popper towards a little stump. The water was very high and the wind had kicked up pretty good but, it only took a few seconds before I had a strike. And a miss. Okay, let’s try this again. Get in position, sling about 40 feet of string to the right of the stump, and SWIRL! Another miss. Really!!! Nothing to do but change the popper. I chose a smaller popper in the same chartreuse color and tossed it at the very edge of the reed grass since I figured the high water would have the fish up in the grass. SWIRL, STRIKE, and TIGHT! Hot diggity dog, I caught a fish. A very cute little pumkinseed.

I checked on Marla then started working a stretch of bank that had reed grass, stumps, and some downed timber; in other words, sunnie paradise. Toss, strip, FISH! That happened a whole bunch of times and I was very happy. Most of them were very photogenic and agreed to pose for a quick pic. I fished a little cut out of the wind and landed one of the biggest sunnies I ever caught. She was nice and chunky and pulled like a souped up John Deere. Just fantastic.

Marla and I had a great afternoon of kayak fishing and more than once she said how awesome my W700 looked and how much she liked it. Next time I might ley her try it out. When she does there just might be a two owner, green, sit-in kayak for sale here in Eastern North Carolina.

the-fishing-ground
Upper Broad Creek

fishing-buddies pumkinseed-fish (1) pumkinseed-fish (2) pumkinseed-fish (3) sunfish sunnie-sunfish W700-tips

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Wavewalk 700 skiff with 2 motors – first lobster grabbing trip

By Capn’ Larry Jarboe

Yesterday, I launched the W700 with both motors installed to go to a secluded creek far into the mangroves.
This run included a trip through creeks, over the ocean, and across extremely shallow flats.
In past years, I could catch my recreational limit of six here in my secret spot, or at least dinner.
After using multiple power options including paddle pushing across shallow bottom with grass on the surface and powering with both engines in the ocean, I arrived and started putting on my gear. Then, I realized I forgot to put my lobster gloves in the Wavewalk. Aargh!!!
I had purchased a special camera holding mask for this event. Maybe, some GoPro footage might save the day?
Following entry into the creek and spotting quite a few undersized lobsters, but no real obvious legals, I did not feel so bad about leaving those gloves behind. While filming, I realized that the GoPro camera was going out of the water slapping the surface. That’s why there are light flashes in the video.
So, I set the angle down which definitely does not give a real view of the snorkeler’s perspective but the camera stayed submerged.
In 63 years on this planet, I never grabbed a lobster in its hole without gloves. Imagine trying to pull up a rose bush without hand protection. But, there is a first time for everything…
I only wish the video footage was better.
Today, I bought a GoPro camera extension arm to fix that angle issue.

Tomorrow, another Wavewalk adventure!

More fishing adventures with Capn’ Larry »