28 Sunday Feb 2016
Posted in kayak fishing, Uncategorized
Tags
kayak fishing, kayak fishing in Adelaide, kayak fishing in South Australia, kayak fishing in South Australia and the UK, kayaking
I’m just thinking perhaps there’s a work-around solution to my not being able to post videos here: I …
24 Wednesday Feb 2016
Posted in Uncategorized
G’day everyone… it’s been a week or two since I tried my first experiments with the ‘Slither’… and I must say it was not entirely an unmitigated success. Fortunately, however, neither was it a total and unmitigated disaster, so I still live to tell the tale! đ
Just waiting to attach the motor, then I’ll be ready “To boldly to where no man has gone before!” Scotty! Prime and arm the photon torpedoes; there’s a Klingon off the starboard bow! đ
Sadly, though, Peter didn’t actually manage to get any movies, or even any still pictures of the experiment, and although I did take a few of the kayak whilst setting up, I forgot to take one with the actual motor on it… (So much to remember whilst putting a ‘yak in the water! Just slipped my mind… and I think by that time I’d given Peter the camera anyway…)
This is what the front end of the kayak looks like… almost ready to go, just have to put the motor on… oh, and my PFD (the purple thing!) too!
Kayak stern, showing kayak trolley, Powercharcher 2, tackle-box and home-made transom.
The problem with the motor was the combined weight of the motor and the battery and battery-box: Although the ‘yak is rated to 160 kgs, with my 85 kg and the motor’s 17.5 kg and the battery another 17.5 kg, (battery box is a ‘Powerpack 2’ and weighs another 2.5 kg) and then fishing gear and the anchor on top of that, I was getting about as close to the limit as I’d like to take it… (around the 130 kg mark, I’d estimate) even WITH the outriggers attached for extra buoyancy and stability.
When I started out, it wasn’t so bad; I don’t think the rear of the ‘yak was sinking, although all the extra weight was on the back… however, it was such a stretch to reach the tiller that it was getting painful for my arm, so I made the ‘clever’ mistake of thinking that perhaps I could sit up on the battery box… and it was just after I’d made this change in position that I noticed that, in spite of the outriggers, the rear of the kayak was actually sinking… It amused a few punters on the bank who I noticed took amusing vids to share on FB, or YT, I suppose… Pity Peter didn’t bother to take any pics; it would have helped me analyze what went wrong… and I’m sure would have amused my readers! Anyway, here’s a couple of pics Peter DID remember to take:
Drifting away… catching nothing, but I don’t care! đ
Although one of the plastic and Velcro straps I’d rigged up to keep the outriggers in place had snapped, the outrigger itself hadn’t actually come adrift… but I was taking a lot of water on board as the stern started to sink, so I returned immediately to the shore, where we discovered I’d also left the ‘drain plug’ undone! We removed the outriggers and the motor, and put the ‘yak in the water again for a bit of fishing… Peter at least managed to remember to get a few pics of this, anyway, though I didn’t catch any fish.
It’s a friendly sport, Kayak fishing… Here I’m getting a lot of advice on side-mounted – as opposed to rear-mounted – motors for kayaks… Hmmm… the advice seems sound, but I think a ’tiller extension’ could save me a lot of work… and not waste all the work I’ve done to date in making the transom… We’ll see… on Monday! đ
In the next edition I plan to include my first experiments with a Go-Pro, including a ‘bow-mount’ which is basically just a strip of Velcro! But before I can post videos I need to pay for the ‘Premium’ version of WordPress… so for this edition, too, I’m afraid we’ll just have to make do with a few still photos.
All good things must come to an end… The sun’s going down and Peter wants to get home to his bed!
The weight problem I solved, by swapping that 17.5 kg AGM battery for a 7.5 kg Lithium battery… (Thanks very much to the guys at ‘Independent Battery Distributors’ on Research Road, for a deal on this battery, which normally, so they tell me, costs about $1400 – $1500 dollars, but which they ‘let me have’ for $1,000 ‘because we don’t sell them very often’… Although this made me wonder about its shelf-life, we shall see how it performs; it’s a 90 Amp-hour, deep cycle battery so it should be plenty for my needs… I think I could probably get across to Kangaroo Island from Cape Jervis if I had the wind behind me! đ And now I have a battery which costs twice as much as the kayak! Not to worry; as long as it works, I guess I’ll be happy… but that’s ‘farewell’ to the very last of the insurance money from my accident…
I’ve also upgraded the straps on the outriggers to leather with Velcro, so they’re not likely to snap any more… (touch wood!) Finally, I was lucky enough to find a ’tiller-extension’ for the motor, so with these three upgrades I hope to have solved the problem… I’ve asked Peter to come along and give me a hand to get the kayak in the water next Monday, and I’ll take camera and Go-Pro along with me; this time I’m determined to get some footage of what I have good reason to hope will be a more successful experiment!
More fun and games in the next edition of ‘Kayak Fishing in South Australia and the UK’
(Btw, if our UK contributors – or indeed any other contributors have anything they’d like to contribute, please attach it to an email and post to: theseustoo@dodo.com.au )
See you all then!
(Bluesman)
05 Friday Feb 2016
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
astyages, kayak fishing, kayak fishing in SA and UK, kayak fishing in South Australia, kayak fishing in the UK, kayak fishing in the UK and South Australia, kayaks, theseustoo
Kayak Fishing at West Lakes 1/2/16
Whoo-hoo! I just got my ‘kayak exemption’ from a postie, magically metamorphosed into a belated and entirely unwitting Santa Claus… NOW I can finally put my kayak in the water with the motor on it… and I can finally find out if it works!
34 lb Electric motor on my Dace Pro-Angler
I’m really just a beginner kayak-fisherman, but have learned much already and am learning more each day… which brings me to the subject of this blog: This blog is about the sharing of kayak fishing information, tips and techniques, not to mention the exchange of fisherman’s tales and boasting about the huge fish we caught and the bigger ones that got away, between kayak fishermen from as far afield as Adelaide, South Australia, where I live, to County Durham in the northeast of England, from whence I hope to receive a few contributions from my brother, Morgyn… and maybe at least one nephew who I know is into kayaking too…
Getting the kayak ready
Any other kayak fishermen/women who would like to contribute to this blog are more than welcome to do so and I’ll be happy to welcome your contributions as soon as I discover the correct protocols… In the meantime, I do hope you’ll feel free to add comments and/or ask questions… (I’m sure I’ll figure out how to answer them soon!)
For my first article, this weekend, I’ll have to make do with a few photos from my latest fishing trip to West Lakes, with my mate, Peter, who was ‘official photographer’ and who took most of the photos of the ‘expedition’…
Pedro the Fisherman!
It was my most successful fishing expedition to date, to this (all too) popular fishing spot… (from a kayak anyway…) Although all the bream I caught were undersized, one or two of the five I caught were almost legal sized… and I did get one monster bite from something BIG! (Which, unfortunately, got away! ‘Struth!)
Almost legal!
Next outing I have planned is for next Tuesday… and now that I have my ‘exemption’ I can put it in the water with the 34 lb Watersnake ‘Slither’ motor I’ve been just itching to try ever since I built a little transom to hold it…
One of the benefits of being single is I get to keep my kayak on a sofa in my lounge! Cool! đ
I’ll give a complete video and audio rundown of my very recently acquired kayak (just before Christmas) and all the ‘accessorizing’ I’ve done on it since then in my next article – which will hopefully also have a video-log of my first outing with the motor too (and with the outriggers too! Pontoons to help the kayak cope with the extra weight of the motor and battery, etc) – as well as an outline of what remains to be done to create my perfect, fully-customized fishing kayak… all in next week’s exciting edition of “Kayak Fishing South Australia and UK”.
See you all then!
Bluesman đ
Kayak Fishing in South Australia and the UK 