Living in Delaware we don’t typically see many Red Drum in our waters. Traveling for the opportunity to target these game fish is exciting. Fortunately its only a 140 mile drive south from my home! It’s only a little over 2 and a half hours to make it to the trip to Cape Charles Virginia. I’m spoiled since I have been driving maximum an hour to the water all my life and now it has become my backyard. This drive is worth it though. This is the story of A Fourteen Hour Fishing Trip.

After Work Fishing

Midway through October 2017 and the days have been still warm. I have been getting out after work here and there for the evening Striped Bass bite close to my work. Some good fish but it’s still like summer. The size of the fish is still 30″ and below. Tuesday Oct 10th during an evening on the water I sent Joe H a text giving him a fishing report. He called soon after informing me that he was planning a trip to fish in Virginia for Sunday. The weather looked good so I decided to ask if it was cool if I met up with him there. The trip was on.

The Plan:

Photo by Joe Hosler

Meet up at 06:30 near the Eastern Shore Wildlife Refuge Boat ramp Sunday. Then go fishing targeting reds. Simple enough!

The Chesapeake Bay can get rough in this area but I loaded my Jackson Kayak Kilroy as i feel it is the best suited for saltwater creek style fishing. The kayak has a Torqeedo Ultralight 403 installed for those days when you need to get back quick or against a river style current ripping tide. It comes in handy!

Sunday Fishing Day!

Out the door by 3:45 am on the road. It’s still raining and foggy. The misting and fog finally became intermittent around 2 hours in.  I can spot the deer peering into my headlights while passing through heavily wooded areas. Warm coffee and maximum concentration. Thinking to myself how much i love my 2016 Ford F150 over my old truck. Waze on the consul broadcasting the distance traveled and my ETA its 6: 30 to start but traffic light s and such made it more like 6:40.

I arrived and everyone was there gearing up. It was just starting to become light. There was an eerie yellowish cloud as the sun hit it from below the horizon. We hit the water and fished a small creek. It was slow fishing only with a few small Speckled Trout.  So we crossed the channel and begun fishing that area. The tide was on its way out. A few more trout early. Paddling through the shallows I went as far back as I could. There were oysters all over in the sod banks. Not sure if these are edible or if they are even legal to harvest. I found one laying on the bottom and picked it up to examine it. They were pretty small and flat but i put it back and went back to fishing.

There was no water only an inch or two. I circled back and figured id throw some casts at a drop off I saw on my way in.

First cast reeling slowly bump bump across the bottom and bang fish on! Great fight on my bull bay rod paired with the Abu Garcia Revo Inshore casting reel. Peeling drag running towards the kayak and back deep again. A great fight to land a 23 inch healthy Red Drum!

Released him and caught a few more on that drop until there was inches of water left. The clouds had finally broken away to sunshine. It was nice and warm now as everything begin to dry out. The tide slowed to a crawl so did the bite. Managing a bunch of Speckled trout a few more reds and small Striped Bass. At this point it was 12:30. We realized we were now landlocked. We fished for another half hour on a slow bite until finally dragging the yaks across the sand bar to return to the launch.

I took a detour to go take a few photos of a large chunk of drift wood that had washed up on the sandy part of the island. As an amateur photographer I spot these things and have to get there to grab a few photos. This particular piece of drift wood i spotted from a mile away in the morning on the way across the channel. After getting my shots using the Torqeedo I went back full throttle. 6.5 mph most of the way. A following sea made it a bit strange.

Fortunately the drive home wasn’t so bad. I was worried that id be exhausted as I have been in the past coming back from really long fishing days in the summer heat. Arriving home around 5 PM the concluded the fourteen hour fishing trip.  Will defiantly be doing this trip again in the future.

My second year gathering in Southern Virginia for a low sodium excursion. The 9th Annual Yakattack tournament was set to be a blast! It seemed the time from registering in January and leaving on a Thursday in May time went by in a flash. My fishing partner Ricky bailed on this year so I was riding solo. My 2016 Ford F150 loaded up with the new Jackson Kilroy LT and Torqeedo, freshwater tackle, along with camping gear. It was on. The drive went pretty fast although it took about six and a half hours to cover 285 miles. Stopping by the convention center running into  John Hipsher and Luther Cifers along with his wife and a few others getting ready to set up the venue for Fridays captains meeting.

Off to the state park camp ground. Although there is a field donated for free camping I was fortunate to be invited by a friend of mine Noriel. Hs a fellow Jackson Kayak Owner with his Big Tuna. Although he purchases a new Wildy Radar with the pedal drive were still cool! Camping in the state park has its benefits. Showers and running water! The whole Central Jersey Kayak Bass Fishing  crew was there. It was great to see them all again! Set up my tent and enjoyed the campfire for a bit then crashed out.

The Jersey crew and I decided to fish Sandy River Reservoir which is about a 20 minute drive from camp. The crew went out to get breakfast and I hit up the Fas Mart for good coffee and a dirty southern fried egg biscuit sandwich. It was good! Headed to the public launch dropping down the Jackson Kayak Kilroy LT Realtree Camo from the Malone saddles. Geared up with the Torqeedo and the Yakattack Command Stand.  The day was heating up fast along with hard fishing and no fish for me.  Good thing for the MTI Neptune inflatable PFD it felt like a cooler day than most at 85 degrees.

Friday:

We pre-fished hard but no one really had any luck. For me this is a different world of fishing. As a kid it seemed easy although most of my tackle is from back then. A hundred then a thousand casts on all the things i had and not even a nibble. It was nice though just to  practice standing in the Kilroy LT and cruising around with the Torqeedo setup. We packed it in around 12:30 to get back to camp and then to hit up the captains meeting.

The national anthem was beautifully sung by Luther Cifers daughters following a speech by Ollie Hughes a wounded veteran whom benefited from HOW.  He spoke about how Heroes on the Water helped him and his family leading to being grateful as a Veteran to the charity. A short version of the tournament rules were reviewed followed by a prayer and dinner! As always the food was excellent. On the menu was Ribeye, Chicken, Seafood Chowder, Country Baked Beans, Slaw, and a really good Bow Tie cold Mac Salad! Afterbeing completely stuffed I helped clean up before heading back to camp. We enjoyed a bit of a camp fire before crashing out anticipating a long day to follow.

Saturday:

The AM came quick although it was a hot sweaty night in the tent. The Crew and I embarked on a small pond that we figured may be greener pastures from the previous day. Upon arrival a large sign stating permits were need to access the pond created confusion. I decided to fish Briary Creek as i did well the year prior and well the Kilroy is immune to standing timber. After launching it seemed to be a repeat of the day before. Although there was some small fly hatching that I honestly couldn’t see fly away but it caused small ripples in the water like it was raining. Little white tubes or casks remained. A guy with a fly rod was catching small bass left and right.  Guess I had the wrong baits.  Brian came up to me and hooked me up with some swinging hammers which I actually had a hit on but failed to set the hook on the fish. At this point I decided to paddle around and explore the lake. An afterthought I should have been taking photos on the water. Two of the guys were caught on tree stumps through theyre scupper holes. The Kilroy LT had an advantage with no scuppers no way to get hung up on the timber.

After fishing we enjoyed lunch at a local BBQ joint the Pig Fish. I had the brisket sandwich which was as expected amazing southern BBQ! We ended up back at camp and playing basshole a corn hole game with a bass on it! I invented a new backspin toss that killed it! Noone wanted to play anymore and it was time anyway to head down to the convention hall for fish entering which we didnt really have anything and hanging out till dinner and the raffle.

[wds id=”13″]

It was great meeting in person many from the YakAttack team to put a live face to our facebook profiles. John got us all together for a group photo which was very orange haha.

The raffles were held along with dinner and prizes! The couple who donated the field for free caming every year cleaned up at the raffle including winning two kayaks and just abut all of the necessity’s that go with them. It was all orange tickets! I did pretty well ont he raffle too walking away with 4 prizes out of $40 in tickets.

Great Work!

In all we raised over $22,000 for Heroes on the Water and Project Healing Waters two great charity organizations for wounded US veterans. Once we cleaned up most at the conference center it was almost midnight. Still many of us headed over to the field for a good ole bon fire!.

YakAttack LeverLoc install on Jackson Kayak Kraken (Permanent Install)

The Jackson Kayak Kraken being 15′-6″ long requires the use of pad eyes to guide the long anchor trolley. YakAttack has created a kit along with a locking feature so there is no need for clam cleats anymore. Low profile and a top of the line anchor trolley rigging solution.

The YakAttack Leverloc install on Jackson Kayak Kraken is pretty simple given the amount of access to the inside of the hull. In this article I will cover the YakAttack Leverlock HD kit & system.  The kit includes additional backing plates to make the pulley anchor points more rigid.

In the kit you will find the following:

YakAttack LeverLoc HD Kit

1. Anchor Trolley Line
2. (4) Pad Hooks
3. (2) Harken Pulleys
4. LeverLoc and Housing
5. Trolley Ring
6. (3) backing plates with rigging bullet capability
7. Mounting Hardware

Tools Needed:

1. Drill
2. Screwdriver
3. Lighter
4. Center Punch

First check that the kit contains all parts you will need.

The included instructions are well written in a step by step fashion to guide you through the installation that best fits the application.

In this install we will be drilling only 2 holes at the pulley locations as with the Jackson Kayak Kraken there is ample inner hull access to these areas. On the (2) three hole backer blocks look for the word pulley. these are the 2 holes we will be fastening to.

The LeverLoc may be installed on either side of your kayak and is purely your discretion. Typically fishing with conventional rods and reels my preference is to install the anchor trolley on the left side of my kayak. Due to being right handed I tend to fish from the left side of the kayak. This allows me to control my fishing rod better and land my fish easier. Also being right handed the control of the line and LeverLoc is overall easier.

1. Pulley Install:

Choose a location 12″ back from the bow above the waterline. Using a center punch mark the first hole and drill. Now mount the pulley using the black 1″ 10-32 bolt in the first hole drilled. Tighten into the backing plate but do not tighten completely. Now level the pulley and mark the second hole location in the center of the pulley mouthing point. Pivot the pulley and backing pate out of the way and drill the second hole. Fasten the second bolt to the backing plate and tighten. Repeat the same steps for the rear pulley.

2. LeverLoc & Clamp Base Install:

Now for the lever lock. The Kraken does not have a way to access the inner area of the kayak for this location. Select the location within reach from your seat but not where your paddle sweep will allow your hand or the paddle to hit. The screws provided will thread into the plastic without worries of them working out or leaking.

3. Trolley Line:

Tie an overhand knot in the end of the paracord after running it through one side of the ring. Now run the paracord through the bottom of the bow pulley then the top of the stern. Make sure you run it from the stern up through the pulley then through the Clamp Base  then down through the front pulley. Tie off the ends to the trolley ring. Make sure there is no slack in the line.

4. Pad hook Install:

For locations where the paracord line rides up the gunnel you will install the pad hooks. The top line will run through and the bottom will clip in the bottom hook. Evenly spacing 2 at the stern to the center and 2 from the bow to the center seems to be the best placement.

5. Tie off
Tie the tag end of the trolley line to the ring using half hitches. Cut the remaining end but leave about 3 inches for future adjustment.

Disclaimer:

Installing hardware may cause damage and/or void manufacturer warranties.  ThePlasticHull.net its authors or any other source of information on this website is in no way responsible for your actions nor any type issues or damage that may occur.  The information provided on this website is a free reference guide only. The authors of all information, sponsors and the owners of the website that host this information are not liable for any problems or issues that arise from the use of this information. Users of this information hereby acknowledge that all use of this information is done by their own free will, at their own sole risk, understanding that destruction of property, injury, or death could occur.