Wednesday 17 June 2015

Third Time Lucky!!!!

Well now where do I start with this one?

Last year on two adventures to Donegal I aimed at targeting Tope!!!
The first attempt I did not feel confident anchoring up in very strong tidal flow, and the fact that I had a migraine headache did not help the situation so I retired just before the Tope came on the feed......Very disappointing as there was no shortage of fish caught that day.
 A month or so later I was back up there for my second attempt!!
"Up there being Graham Smiths back yard", accompanied by some of Ireland's finest kayak anglers we set off on our days fishing. There was a good variety of fish caught through out the day but the only Tope hooked and landed was by Mike Henry as far as I can remember.


   On Saturday night I received a message from Graham at around 11pm, the message was that he was heading out at 9am on Sunday morning with Mike Sherwood to target Tope and that I should take a run up!!!!! I hesitated for a minute or two, then the boss said if you want to go tear away.
PANIC stations as you can imagine I was running around like a mad man getting organised, last minute packing and preparing rigs, tackle and bait etc.
Home and into bed around 1am it felt like I just dosed off as my alarm sounded at 5.30 awaking me, dressed and into the van I was not long getting to Donegal, stopping along the way for a bit of breakfast. 
I arrived at the launch point to meet Mike preparing to head out and shortly after Graham and his son Craig arrived. A quick chat while getting organised and we where on the water on a pleasant paddle out to the mark. Anchors down, chum deployed and rigs baited the waiting game began.............................................................................................
It wasn't long before I had some interest a few bumps on the end of the rod so a struck........... nothing there........checked bait and sent it back down. A few minutes later I had a few more bumps then the clicker on my reel started screaming at me, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest lol. I struck...............again nothing there, this happened to us a few times as the Tope were being funny picking the bait up running then dropping it. Then all hell broke loose behind me I heard Graham shout something on the VHF so I looked over my shoulder to find Craig had a Tope on and it was going nuts beside his yak. Happy days I thought at least the fish where there, soon after that Craig had another tope landed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I up anchored and changed location, I also put fresh baits on and sent them down.....
    
As soon as the bait hit the bottom I had a small, and I mean SMALL nibble on the rod. I lifted it and there was a second bump just before the excitement of a good solid run, we had hook up and what a run it was, after a cracking scrap I had the Tope at the side of the kayak, for a second I though about about throwing my rod at it and paddling for my life lol.
I grabbed the wire trace started lifting the fish onto my knee when the bloody thing went stone mental and jumped right across my lap landing it the water at the other side of my kayak and swam away.............I was so gutted I never noticed that the trace cut into my finger for some time afterwards as my other rods reel took off screaming that very second. This was a much better fish as it turned my kayak 180 degrees and towed me back up tide past my anchor buoy( quite a strange feeling) but shows you the power of these fish is overwhelming.

 First Tope FIRMLY landed on my knee this time :)


Unhooked quickly and returned to the water my mission was complete, the 230 mile and four hour round trip was all worth it. I also said third time lucky and it happened, the new Jackson kayak gave me a lot more confidence on the water as well which really helped me in the tricky tides plus not to mention the wind on the way in, but thats a story to tell in the pub some night!!!!!!

Until next time!!!!!
Tight lines.

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Jackson Kayak Fishing Team

Its been an exciting few weeks.........

From joining the Jackson Kayak fishing team, to collecting my new Kraken then getting it wet for its first time. I choose the Kraken from a wide variety of options as I personally felt that it would suit my needs in offshore trips. It is a beast of a kayak at 15.7 feet long and 30 inches wide and weighing in at 36kgs. I originally thought it would have been a struggle to manage it by myself as I regularly venture out on adventures by alone..........my opinion soon changed.

                                           Click here for more info

It all started with a trip down to Dublin to the Jackson kayak dealers I-Canoe once I was informed of the delivery landing on Friday I was straight down the following morning like a child at christmas.
After a nice chat with the owners I went out to load up and leave as I had work to get home to, my father was with me so he gave me a hand on to the roof of the van and off we went.

I had been kayak-less for a few weeks waiting on the new one arriving so as you can imagine I was busting to get out, the weather for the following week was, well very Irish!!!!!!!
There was a boat angling Ireland meet in Carlingford lough on the North east coast the following weekend that was postponed due to poor weather and high winds. I was hoping to attend this meet in the new Yak with a few other kayaking friends, the location would not be my first choice as the lough is very tidal and was not ideal for a first paddle in a new kayak.

Entrance to carlingford lough and the point is where we camped at Greenore

There was talk of heading up anyway for the weekend but as the winds on Saturday where in access of 40mph I went to work instead. That afternoon the weather was to break over night and with a quick couple of phone calls David Smith, Tony Powell and myself were on our way to meet for an overnight stay at a camping site at the location. When we arrived we where greeted by Andy and Paula from http://www.chasingsilverflies.com/ who where there from the night before.


We set up camp and had a great nights crack around the camp fires sharing stories of the ones we lost.

The following morning I dont think any one was mentally our physically fit to venture out on the lough as there was some pretty sore heads :)
After a fine breakfast from our cook David the weather really started to pick up with winds dropping by the minute we started to arrange the kayaks to get them on the water.
 
I must say, I was very anxious about the Kraken as it was the first of its kind to land in Ireland,
Size, weight, length, higher seating position etc. The strong tides and wind was not helping the situation!!!!!


First thing I noticed followed by David was actually how easy it was to car top on your own. We could lift it above our heads with No issues, The two grab handles at each side of the seating position are very well positioned as the kayak is very well balance once picked up.Also a citroen berlingo van is higher than your average car.



Into the water she went, again anxious as every one was intrigued with it and watching closely I really did not want to have a wet mishap!!!!!!!!

                                                                         WOW!!!!!
Shocked would not be the word to describe my first impression with stability, by far the most stable kayak I have paddled and soon to learn also the fastest.
It was unbelievable, once on the water it really comes to life, all my worries left me and I was really enjoying it. That much in fact I headed straight out into the middle of the lough in 20mph winds to test it in the 5/6 Knot tidal flow. Again no issues here what so ever.

                                     David tying of a buoy in mental current
As we where actually out to target Tope but could not get to the marks with the weather ( I no it looks nice in the pics) we decided to try for anything, and we did with several different rigs from http://www.shamrocktackle.com/ and http://www.coxandrawle.com/ and a wide variety of baits but not a nibble between the three of us.

                   Tony couldnt keep his eyes of me..... I mean the Kraken

With very poor fishing it was time to call it a day, so back to dry land we went where the lads had a paddle in the Kraken.
Tony
David

The lay out on the yak is really well though of with yakattack geartracs all over it there is no where you cant mount something with a mount from Ram Mounts.
8 yea you herd that right 8 rod holders, 2 flush mounts, two ram tubes three uprite tubes on the Jkrate and one rod holder positioned, well where you want it on the supplied ram ball with geartrac adapter all supplied with the kayak.
The seat well you would have to try it yourself to see how comfortable it is. Under the seat there is two pockets to put the again supplied plano lure boxes.

Seat with thermarest back support
Jkrate and large Plano tackle box
Lure boxes and water bottle
 Built in light and rod holder on geartrac
Rear hatch(space normally wasted on other kayaks as they dont have access)
Im 6.3 foot and I have loads of room as the seat is adjustable and so are the foot pegs
Hull with large transducer scupper hole


Iv yet to find a fault with this kayak apart from the minor problem that the rudder will solve, and as a lot of you no me if there was something I was not happy about I would be the first to tell yas.

I will do another review in a few months to see if  and problems arise which I dont think will to be honest!!!!

Its the best suited kayak iv paddled to date, all I need to do now is catch some fish on it.




Until my next adventure guys
Tight lines...