Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge - View Single Post

YellowYaket · 08-08-2021, 08:31 PM

I was fishing about a mile out of Dana Point harbor with my wife in my Oasis tandem kayak. I had purchased a kayak scoop of bait before heading out. At one point, I dropped a bait and it went under my seat. Rather than just leaving it there, I decided it would be a good idea to stand up, turn around, lift up the seat and rescue the bait. As I should have expected, the act of turning around momentarily placed all of my weight on one side of the yak, which was more than sufficient to quickly roll the kayak, dumping my wife and all of our gear into the drink. Fortunately, my wife and I were wearing PFDs and all of our gear was either leashed or floated. I was able to flip the yak back over quickly enough and I could get back onboard, but my wife wasn't able to get back on. I flagged down a passing power boat and it just so happened to be a crew of retired guys that were part of the volunteer Coast Guard Auxiliary (or something like that) out doing training exercises. They said they would give my wife a ride back to the harbor while I sorted out the tangled mess of leashed gear and started peddling back in. They wouldn't leave me out there alone though and eventually convinced me to just climb onboard with them and they towed in my yak too. The only thing I lost was a tank full of bait (I didn't have the lid latched so the bait all swam for freedom when the yak was momentarily upside down). Now that my wife knows that she can't self-rescue, I won't take her outside of the harbor (she has tried self-rescuing in a controlled environment several times after this event all unsuccessfully). In looking back on this event, I realize it could have ended up a lot worse. Glad the only thing I lost was my pride and a scoop of bait. One other note, even though my kayak is in like-new condition, it still managed to collect several gallons of water in the hull in the very short time (maybe 30 seconds) that it was upside down ... which is a good reason to carry a bilge pump. One final note, my fishfinder/GPS was powered on when I flipped and it was still working when I flipped the yak back over. I immediately turned off the unit and left it off. It still works fine to this day so it must not have ingested any water.

08-08-2021, 08:31 PM	#20
YellowYaket Member Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 43	I was fishing about a mile out of Dana Point harbor with my wife in my Oasis tandem kayak. I had purchased a kayak scoop of bait before heading out. At one point, I dropped a bait and it went under my seat. Rather than just leaving it there, I decided it would be a good idea to stand up, turn around, lift up the seat and rescue the bait. As I should have expected, the act of turning around momentarily placed all of my weight on one side of the yak, which was more than sufficient to quickly roll the kayak, dumping my wife and all of our gear into the drink. Fortunately, my wife and I were wearing PFDs and all of our gear was either leashed or floated. I was able to flip the yak back over quickly enough and I could get back onboard, but my wife wasn't able to get back on. I flagged down a passing power boat and it just so happened to be a crew of retired guys that were part of the volunteer Coast Guard Auxiliary (or something like that) out doing training exercises. They said they would give my wife a ride back to the harbor while I sorted out the tangled mess of leashed gear and started peddling back in. They wouldn't leave me out there alone though and eventually convinced me to just climb onboard with them and they towed in my yak too. The only thing I lost was a tank full of bait (I didn't have the lid latched so the bait all swam for freedom when the yak was momentarily upside down). Now that my wife knows that she can't self-rescue, I won't take her outside of the harbor (she has tried self-rescuing in a controlled environment several times after this event all unsuccessfully). In looking back on this event, I realize it could have ended up a lot worse. Glad the only thing I lost was my pride and a scoop of bait. One other note, even though my kayak is in like-new condition, it still managed to collect several gallons of water in the hull in the very short time (maybe 30 seconds) that it was upside down ... which is a good reason to carry a bilge pump. One final note, my fishfinder/GPS was powered on when I flipped and it was still working when I flipped the yak back over. I immediately turned off the unit and left it off. It still works fine to this day so it must not have ingested any water.