Man-Powered Fishing Machine

Me and Shawn have always loved fishing. Some of my fondest memories of when we first started dating are fishing on the ponds on our property or walking down the road to Piney Woods lake. Good ol’ country living. Since moving to the Florida coast where the fishing is spectacular, we are totally addicted. Since Shawn’s big 3-0 birthday wasn’t celebrated with a bang because we live out-of-state away from many friends and family, and we had just gotten back from spending the holidays in Texas, Shawn’s parents came up with an awesome idea for a birthday present: book a guided fishing tour. Since the fishing season doesn’t get hot until March, we took our time looking for the right tour and spent just about every weekend exploring every possible area you can fish from shore. We constantly absorbed information walking the areas, looking at maps, talking with seasoned anglers, and watching Youtube videos (our favorite YouTube fishing channel is Zoffinger).  We have been fishing here in the Sarasota area, the nearby keys, and nature preserves since January, and we began to notice more and more how agonizing it was to come across the limits of shore fishing time and again… if only we had a small boat or kayak, we could get to that area, we could get to where we see the fish feeding…

So, with an unexpected work bonus and Shawn’s parents gift, we purchased an angler’s kayak from a wonderful store in Saint Petersburg, called West Coast Kayaks and Paddle Boards.

 

 

 

 

I liked the name since we moved from the west coast :), and we also liked the price and customer service. We had done a couple weeks worth of research looking at Craigslist ads, reading about different kayaks, and visiting different stores. We purchased our Kayak Friday afternoon, and immediately went to Home Depot and Walmart to purchase things we knew we’d need to get started on customizing our kayak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We worked til about midnight.  We purchased these two Coleman LED lanterns from Walmart, instead of buying more expensive boat lights, to comply with marine vessel regulations if we’re to be out late. I got 2 permanent markers and colored the one you see here for the bough, port and starboard. The other is our stern light.

 

 

 

 

I made sure it had the desired effect. Yep. Bright red and green to be seen in the dark. Don’t want to get a ticket. Next was figuring out how to rig these to the yak.

 

 

 

 

 Shawn drilled and riveted all night to put additional cleats, padeyes, and hooks.

 

 

 We bought this bright orange pool noodle from Walmart to fit as an anchor float instead of purchasing one. We’ll use the rest of it to make smaller floats to hook up to loose items we have to keep out for quick easy access, like our fish gripper and fish bat.

Instead of purchasing an anchor, we purchased a 10 lb weight plate from Walmart, attached nylon rope to it, and attached our float to the end. Now, if the big fish bites, we can set loose the anchor and let the monster take us for a ride instead of breaking our reel, and paddle back to where the anchor is.

                                                             Shawn pumping air into the wheels of our kayak cart. Carrying our kayak to the water once it’s rigged up and has all our equipment just isn’t an option.

 

The next morning we got up early and headed back to Home Depot and Walmart again with an inventory list of more things necessary to finish our projects, and continued working until midnight, again, drilling, sawing PVC, tying bungee and rope…

 

Shawn almost lost an eye while taking apart a riveter because the spring coil shot out unexpectedly.

 

 

 

 

Getting there!              The kitties sat next to the door for hours wondering if we’d forgotten them.

 

       Finally, we’ve got just about everything we want done and added on. Enough for us to take her out and do some serious fishing.

Sunday morning, we got up at about 7ish, had our coffee, loaded the kayak, and drove to Ted Sperling Park on Lido Key.   From front to back, our tackle box is strapped to the bough. A PVC pipe is fitted to the back of the tackle box that our port/starboard light is fixed to. A scotty rod holder is mounted in front of the tackle box. High back seats are strapped down with mesh zip pockets in the back to hold items such as water-tight phone case, bait net, etc. Our life vests just rest against the backs for extra cushion and easy access. We bought from Walmart a cheap plastic container that fits into another to hold our bait. One we drilled holes into so when we have live bait, we take it out of the other container and tie it to the side on a trolley rope while in the water to aerate. We have a trolley rope on each side, one for the bait container to be passed back and forth to which of us is fishing with live bait. The other trolley has our anchor attached so that we can change which direction we want to face while anchored. In the middle is where we keep our anchor, underneath our ice chest for fish which is strapped down if we want to bring it. If we don’t bring it, we simply put our fish on a line attached to the side and pull them along. Behind the back seat we have a stand made out of PVC fitted for our lunch box to be strapped down. We have 2 PVC holders fitted to the back of the lunch box, one for our fish net, the other for a PVC rod that we can hook our stern light to. Underneath the lunch box is where our cast-net is stored. Our kayak cart folds down and fits between the seat and lunch box. We have 2 trolling rod holders in the back, 2 scotty rod holders on the sides in the middle, and one scotty rod holder in the front. We bought at Walmart a bright LED flashlight/lamp to use at night and want to add a strap to the top of the tackle box so we can use it for navigation while paddling at night. In the future, we also want to add pontoons for extra stability. All in all, we figure we saved at minimum, 5-600 customizing and outfitting our yak ourselves. The nice angler’s kayaks we were looking at, that were outfitted with some of what we’d want started at around 1500, for a single. For tandem, 2000 plus… yikes!
   She is very stable.       Lunch break.   Lots of people out that day. Our yak got lots of compliments. 🙂 I overheard people talking about how expensive our kayak cost.     This is where Shawn caught his first snook the other night. It was 2 feet long and a beauty.    After lunch, Shawn threw in the cast net a few times to catch some bait fish. So far, had only caught a pin and a ballyhoo. The feeding period was starting up so it was time to get back out.     We anchored where the water was boiling from bait fish and where we kept seeing lots of mullet leaping. We learned from a guy that we watch on Youtube that mullet are a good sign for redfish because they churn up what they like to eat. Bam! A beautiful 25 inch red caught on white baitfish. It was really pulling the drag. Our 10 pound anchor worked well. Several hours went by fast and after getting used to the feel of our kayak and paddling in sync, it was time to pack up and head home. Can’t wait to get back out there!

This red made some nice big filets for sandwiches and salad. As always, ‘we thank you for your sacrifice.’

Life is good. 🙂